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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/colorado-farming-rye-resurgence-project/>
"Sarah Jones never thought she’d be a farmer. She grew up in San Diego and met
her husband, Michael, who comes from four generations of farmers, in college in
Seattle. But when — after living and working in a couple different cities –
they moved to south-central Colorado’s San Luis Valley, where Michael grew up,
Jones knew it was where she was supposed to be.
Jones Farm Organics is a fifth-generation family farm that grows potatoes — the
San Luis Valley is the second largest potato-growing region in the United
States. But when Sarah and Michael Jones moved back in 2017, they started
expanding to grains to diversify their business and experiment with rotational
winter crops that they can sell. First, they tried classic wheat varieties like
Turkey Red and Red Fife, but those didn’t work well for their farm.
Then, Jones tried rye. “The funny thing with rye was that my father-in-law had
been planting rye since the ’80s as a cover crop,” she said.
As it turned out, rye was the answer.
Rye uses significantly less water than other common rotational winter crops
like alfalfa and barley, which require 24 to 26 inches of water and 18 to 20
inches of water per acre, respectively. In contrast, rye uses only 10 to 12
inches of water per acre. That’s a huge water savings when multiplied across a
standard 120-acre field.
Jones wondered how that effect could be extended across the valley. “Could we
convert or convince farmers to make some changes to grow more rye and less of
these other crops?” she said.
In the end, neighbors were excited to join. Jones and co-founder Heather Dutton
launched the Rye Resurgence Project, an effort to get more farmers growing rye
— and thus saving water — in 2023."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
