FRUITA, Colo. -- The scrubby green plants that fill a checkerboard of 24-by-36-foot research plots on the arid plains of Mesa County could be part of a major shift in agriculture in the drought-plagued western United States.
More than a quarter of all Colorado River water is used to grow alfalfa -- more water than is used for 40 million people's drinking water, business needs and industrial uses combined, according to an analysis published earlier this year. In the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Colorado, alfalfa irrigation uses double the combined amount of water of those other categories.
A team of researchers at Colorado State University's Western Colorado Research Center is carefully tending and measuring plots of potential alternative crops outside Fruita. They're testing whether those stand-ins for alfalfa resist drought better and grow in Colorado using less water.
"The grand theory is if we can find less thirsty hay crops, it will take some pressure off the system and off rivers," Hannah Holm, associate director for policy in the southwest region for the conservation group American Rivers, said as she walked among the plots in October.
Alfalfa dominates crop markets across the Colorado River basin. Farmers across the West grow about 6.8 million acres of legume hay that primarily feeds livestock providing beef, milk, cheeses and other dairy products.
The work at the Western Colorado Research Center is part of a multistate research study testing three alternatives to alfalfa: Kernza, sainfoin and silflower.
"When a person's livelihood is based on selling something, it's hard to ignore that the market for alfalfa is always strong," Perry Cabot, a water resources specialist at the center said. "It's a known quantity."
Cabot's team wants to test new crops and learn best practices they can pass on to farmers. Hunter Doyle from The Land Institute emphasized minimizing struggles for producers trying new crops like Kernza in different parts of Colorado with varying growing conditions.
"If you're trying to ride out a really rough cropping season... how can they actually get something growing on that land that doesn't require consumptive water use demand?" Cabot said.
This exploration also involves rancher Paul Bruchez who grows small plots outside Kremmling as he aims for resilience against future droughts while learning more about these alternative crops' benefits.
"We're dipping our toes in the water," Bruchez said regarding swapping crops despite inherent risks such as increased labor without perfect treatments like those available for alfalfa.
Perry Cabot suggests getting paid to swap could be preferable over fallowing fields under current programs where weeds might spread into neighbors' lands causing yield losses. Early results indicate alternatives may indeed use less water than traditional options but will undergo several years' trials assessing seasonal endurance before definitive conclusions are drawn by participants involved actively working towards sustainable farming solutions amidst changing climates globally affecting local practices significantly impacting resource management decisions continually evolving dynamically worldwide today tomorrow beyond indefinitely altogether ultimately conclusively finally eventually assuredly certainly surely positively definitively absolutely undoubtedly unambiguously unequivocally unmistakably clearly plainly obviously manifestly evidently apparently transparently openly overtly explicitly conspicuously prominently visibly discernibly perceptibly noticeably distinctly recognizably identifiably characteristically peculiarly notably remarkably extraordinarily outstandingly exceptionally singularly uniquely distinctively particularly specially 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