Colorado Farmers Save Water With Drought-Resistant Rye

Sarah Jones never imagined she'd help solve a water crisis with an old-fashioned grain her father-in-law had been planting for decades.

Jones Farm Organics sits in Colorado's San Luis Valley, an alpine desert that gets just seven inches of rain per year. When Sarah and her husband Michael took over the fifth-generation potato farm in 2017, they started experimenting with winter crops to diversify their income.

Wheat didn't work. But rye, which Michael's father Rob had been planting as a simple cover crop since the 1980s, turned out to be a game changer.

Rye uses only 10 to 12 inches of water per acre compared to traditional rotational crops like alfalfa, which needs 24 to 26 inches. Barley requires 18 to 20 inches. On a standard 120-acre field, that's a massive water savings.

Sarah wondered if other farmers might want in. She teamed up with Heather Dutton, manager of the San Luis Valley Water Conservation District, to launch the Rye Resurgence Project in 2023.

The timing couldn't be better. This year, the valley's snowpack sits at just 13 percent of average. Without innovation, farms face impossible choices between survival and conservation.

"We have to be that much more innovative to find these solutions where we can use even less water but still support our agriculture community," Dutton said.

The project isn't just about conservation. It's about keeping farms profitable while protecting the land. Rob Jones originally planted rye to prevent soil erosion during Colorado's fierce winter storms, but the crop wasn't generating income.

Now, neighbors are eager to join the movement. Local mills are processing the rye into flour for bakeries, creating new revenue streams while dramatically reducing water consumption across the valley.

The Ripple Effect

The San Luis Valley is the second largest potato-growing region in America. If the Rye Resurgence Project succeeds here, it could become a model for drought-stricken agricultural communities across the Western United States.

Every farmer who switches even a portion of their fields from alfalfa to rye saves enough water to fill dozens of Olympic swimming pools. Multiply that across the valley, and the impact becomes enormous.

The project shows that sometimes the solutions to our biggest challenges have been growing right under our feet, waiting for someone to see their potential in a new way.