Area farmers were encouraged to conserve water and were apprised of government programs and insurance policies supporting water conservation at the annual potato and grain conference here this week.
MONTE VISTA, Colo. — Area farmers were encouraged to conserve water and were apprised of government programs and insurance policies supporting water conservation at the annual potato and grain conference here this week.
The objective of the program, agronomist Richard Sparks told those attending the conference on Wednesday, is for net water savings on the applicant's entire agricultural operation.
Incentives may be paid for up to three years with a $10,000 cumulative limit per eligible participant for every program except for the permanent set-aside program which pays $120 an acre for converting irrigated cropland to grassland vegetation that would require little or no irrigation.
Other programs include:
--A conservation crop rotation which pays $50 an acre for planting small grain cover crops at a reduced seeding rate to raise forage for sandhill cranes in March with no irrigation after May 30.
--A conservation crop rotation which pays $40 an acre for land planted in small grain for cover only with no harvest and no irrigation past May 30.
--An environmental quality incentive program that regularly channels more than 60 percent of San Luis Valley watershed funds into the water quality and quantity issue. The cost-sharing projects eligible include rebowling pumps and renozzling pivots for reduced water use, installation of pipelines to reduce seepage, conversion of existing irrigated acreage to systems for less application loss, irrigation reservoirs and reservoir sealing and irrigation water control structures.
Another avenue open to farmers in drought years where they can't plant their total acreage is crop insurance.
Chris Eddy of Dell's Insurance Agency in Alamosa explained that insurance companies pay farmers a percentage when they aren't able to plant an insured crop with proper equipment by the final planting date designated in the special provisions for the crop in the county or by the end of the late planting period.
The percentages range from 25 percent for potatoes to 60 percent for barley, wheat and oats.
The insured must have been prevented from planting the insured crop due to an insured cause of loss, such as lack of water, that also prevented most producers from planting on acreage with similar characteristics in the surrounding areas, Eddy said.
In the past three years, four insurance companies paid out more than $3 million on such policies, Eddy said.
To see more of The Pueblo Chieftain, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chieftain.com. (c) 2005, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
