YUMA, Ariz. — While acreage of one or the other may vary from year to year depending on markets, cotton, wheat, melons and alfalfa remain the old standbys in the spring and summer months for Yuma County growers.
It all comes down to supply, demand and natural disasters around the world.
"They revolve around global markets," said Kurt Nolte, executive director of the Yuma County Cooperative Extension. "It's not small time farming anymore."
Take cotton.
Last year, cotton prices flirted with highs not seen in over a decade.
The 15-year high followed a chain of events among major Asian and Middle Eastern cotton producing countries, including floods, a significant freeze in China and severe insect pressure.
Along with the decline in world supply, a growing middle class in developing countries is driving up demand for cotton products.
All this meant a windfall for Yuma-area farmers in 2011 as the price for the crop soared to $2 a pound.
Cotton again looked good to farmers who had cut back on production when the crop was bringing less than 50 cents a pound.
While prices aren't quite as good this year, they're still better than in many years, Nolte said.
And so there is more cotton in the ground again this year — about 20,000 acres, Nolte estimated. That's an increase of more than 3,000 acres from two years ago, but substantially less than the 30,000 acres in the ground 20 years ago.
As for the price, "it changes like oil every day," Nolte observed, going from $1 a pound in April to the current 72 cents. That's still a profit-margin for farmers.
Another factor that could impact cotton this year is the drought in Texas, a major cotton-producing state in the U.S.
Cotton in Yuma is planted in early March and harvested by September so farmers can clear the land for the upcoming fall vegetable season.
It does take a lot of water, Nolte said, but it's usually grown on heavy clay soil that holds the water. For the six-month growing season, it takes about 3 acre-feet of water.
In contrast, it takes about 6 acre-feet of water to grow alfalfa. But that's for an entire year when farmers can get up to 11 cuttings.
Alfalfa is a crop that is fairly constant, Nolte said. However, he's seeing more former citrus land being planted for alfalfa with the looming threat of a fatal citrus disease.
As for dollars, alfalfa is the highest-grossing crop for Yuma-area farmers after winter vegetables. Although at $35 million, it's a distant also-ran to head lettuce, valued at $450 million or even romaine at $230 million.
However, Nolte is encouraged at the continuing good prices alfalfa hay has been fetching in the last several months, perhaps a sign the economy is starting to recover as dairies and horse owners buy more hay.
Durum wheat is another major spring and summer crop for local growers, noted for producing a premium crop prized by pasta makers overseas.
The crop is planted in December or January for harvest in June.
With a relatively good price and drought impacting production in the upper Midwest, local acreage for durum wheat is up this year, Nolte said. He estimated it at about 35,000 acres.
Last year's crop value for durum wheat was $19 million.
Melons, usually another strong spring crop, was down this year as consumers remain gun shy about the fruit after a catastrophic outbreak of listeria in cantaloupes grown in Colorado in 2011, Nolte said.
Normally, local farmers plant about 4,000 acres of spring cantaloupes, 2,000 acres of watermelon and 1,500 acres honey dews for a "roughly $50 million average value per year," Nolte said.
He's not sure yet of the impact of the listeria outbreak on this year's crop.
"This is another example of the ripple effect of food safety incidents on a crop, even 2,000 miles away," he said.
Black eyed peas and Sudan grass are a couple of other crops also grown here in the summer that while minor are still an important part of Yuma's agriculture industry.
As for anything new on the horizon, Nolte said researchers at the University of Arizona Yuma Experiment Center are evaluating a couple of crops for biofuel production.
But as for food and fiber crops, "it's pretty much the old standbys."
Information from: The Sun, http://www.yumasun.com