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had modest losses while dryland agriculture, which depends on natural precipitation, <br />incurred severe damage. About 4 million (12 %) of the state's 31 million acres in <br />agriculture are irrigated. Irrigation is used primarily for corn, vegetables, hay, and, in <br />western Colorado, orchards. Higher prices, livestock sales and various insurance <br />programs apparently mitigated the losses and net agricultural income for the first six <br />months of the year was actually higher than in 2001. Data are not yet available for the <br />remainder of the year. <br />2. Agricultural Costs of the Drought <br />Raising cattle for meat, Colorado's number one agricultural sector, by far, depends on <br />having adequate pasture and finishing feed sources (corn, hay, alfalfa, etc.). While <br />finishing feed sources are generally produced from irrigated agriculture, pasture grass <br />depends on moisture in the soil from snow and rain during the year. Unlike urban grass, <br />irrigation of cattle pastures is generally not economically feasible. With the drought, <br />ranchers ran short of pasture grass and finishing feed and were forced to sell off some of <br />their herds. Estimates are that the herds in Colorado declined by 50 %. Fortunately, there <br />was good pasture in states like Missouri, so that ranchers were able to sell the young <br />cattle to ranchers in those states without severely depressing prices. As a result, livestock <br />income this year will actually increase due to the increased sales. When and if ranchers <br />do rebuild their herds, they will incur additional costs, and next year there will be a loss, <br />as there won't be cattle available to sell. The Colorado Farm Bureau has estimated the <br />direct loss to the livestock sector at $154 million. The multiplier effects are discussed <br />below. <br />The estimated wheat crop was only 3 8 million bushels, down from 69 million in 2001 <br />(which was also a dry year), and from an average of 85 million between 1989 and 1997. <br />Wheat was particularly hard hit because most wheat is grown without irrigation. The loss <br />from the drought is between 30 and 45 million bushels with an average price around $4 <br />this year. Estimates of the market value of the loss based on sales have been about $120 <br />million in a crop with a normal year market value of $250 -300 million. Net income lost <br />would be more like $25 million. <br />The corn crop was also substantially damaged. The dry land corn crop was a near total <br />loss from about 20 million bushels. However, recent reports indicate that yields in <br />irrigated cornfields approached normal, although some farmers apparently cut fields early <br />as silage. Thus, total crop yield was down by 30 million bushels, not the 50 million <br />estimate of earlier in the year. At $2.75 per bushel, this is a loss of $82 million. In most <br />recent years, the prices have been nearer $2 per bushel and the typical value of this crop <br />is $300 million. The smaller percentage loss of corn (about 20 %) results from corn being <br />largely an irrigated crop. Again net income lost is a small fraction of sales lost. <br />Vegetables account for about one -third of total crop value in Colorado. They tend to be <br />irrigated and the crop losses appear to be relatively small. Combined value in a normal <br />year appears to be about $500 million and the losses appear to be less than $100 million <br />in sales. Yet, potatoes, the dominant crop in this group, set records in the San Luis <br />Valley and have the ironic problem of being too big to market. <br />14 <br />