A wat.er supply system which is a credit~ to its direct beneficiaries, Colorado, and the Nation as a whole
S
TARTLING changes have taken place," is" the anniversary theme of the 30th annual report of the Northern Colorado Water Con serv-ancy District.
"Farming praotices of 1938 bear little resem-blance to the operations of today. A way of life
disappeared . . . a way remembered with nostal-gia but which had to yield to increased economic pressures for more and more efficiency," further describes the .NCWCD's tone of 1progress.
Created by the Colorado Legislature in 1937, ours is the first such district ever organized. It also was the first to enter into a water repayment contract with the U.S. Government, and the first to be served by a wholly supplemental water project.
The large and ,productive NCWCD is served by
the Bureau of Reclamation's multiple-purpose farm is Henry Ashenbrenner of Longmont, Colo. Displaying the size and quality of sugar beets he grows on his
30
Years with the ''BIG-TOM'' Showpiece
by J. R. BARKLEY, Secretary-Manager, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
Colorado-Big Thompson Project, which is a show
-piece of operational design in transmountain water diversion.
Construction on the "Big Tom" began in 1938 and-curtailed during ·world '\iVar II-its first limited ,rnter deliveries were made in 1947.
Supplemental water supplies to more than 700,000 acres of irrigated lands, to various munici-palities, industries, and rural domestic water users' associations are provided by the "Big Tom." Flowing via the 13.1-mile-long Alva B.
Adams tunnel, an average 260,000 acre-feet of water is diverted annually from the Colorado River on the western slope of the Continental Divide, located north of Denver.
Total costs of construction of the project were $163 million.
Cost Repayment
By contract, the District is obligated to return $29 million of the construction cost to the Federal Government over a 45-year period, including a 5-year transitional water rental ,period which began in 1957. The remainder of the project cost will be repaid from ,power revenues. .
The NCWCD area embraces 1,481,000 acres m Boulder Larimer, Weld, Morgan, vVashington,
'
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Logan and Sedgwick Counties. The first valuation
of .the District in 1937, was $120.8 million. In 1966 it had grown to $493.5 million, and for 1967 it had climbed to $546.3 million-the latter 1-year in-crease of more than 10 percent.
However, both the number of farms and the farm population have decreased. Thirty years ago, 6,400 irriga,ted farms supported a farm popul
Barley is given a March planting in this Reid near Berthoud, Colo.
tion 0£ about 40,000 people in the District. Today the number 0£ farms is 4,000 and the on-farm population dropped to 17,000.
Meanwhile, the average size 0£ the irrigated farm more than doubled-from 97 acres to more than 180 acres during that period. Approximately one-half as many people are now opera,ting two-thirds as many farm units and producing vastly greater quantities 0£ farm products from the same total acreage.
For the farmer and livestock feeder, this change is not as rosy as it might appear. While the dollar value 0£ crops produced in the District rose from about $26 million in 1938 to about $95 million in 1967, the purchasing power 0£ the dollar sank by 50 percent or more. Then, too, prices the farmer and feeder must pay for essential goods and serv
-ices went up much more than tJhe prices he now receives for his products.
Explosive Growth
After World War II, the rapid growth 0£ the American economy and the almost explosive growth in population created rising demands for every commodity on the market. Increased demand for meat and meat products, especially bee£, "-as no exception. In 1938, the value 0£ sheep and cattle fed for market within the District was a little more than $18 million. Today, that value is at an annual rate 0£ more than $250 million.
The market for livestock feed created by the feeding industry, plus the economic factors previ-ously mentioned, resulted in significant cihanges of cropping patterns within the District.
82
In 1938, 195,000 acres, or almost one-third 0£ the harvested irrigated land within the District, was used for small grain production. In 1967, only about one-tenth of the total irrigated land, or 71,000 acres, was used for this purpose. Corn acre-age for grain and silacre-age jumped 400 percent, and alfalfa hay acreage increased from 147,000 to 180,000 during the same period.
There were also significant acreage changes for other important crops not directly related to the livestock industry. For example: Sugar beet acre-age decreased from 107,600 to 75,200; dry bean acreage increased from 42,000 to almost 65,000; and potaitoes declined from 31,000 to 22,000 acres. 1V"ith the shift in crop acreage, tJhere was also a marked increase in yields for most crops.
The use 0£ more fertilizers, improved seed, better equipment, plus improved cultivation and irrigation techniques were all factors that helped the £armer increase his efficiency.
212 Percent
AYerage yields for the major crops grown m the District increased during the 30-year period by as much as 212 percent. These crops include corn for ensilage, corn for grain, alfalfa, irrigated dry beans and sugar beets. The increased yields and the shift in irrigated acreages could not have taken place without an increased and more de-pendable water supply.
Development 0£ a stable water supply was, of course, the reason for the creation of this District a_nd for the construction of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.
Horsetooth Reservoir is cradled between lofty mountain walls behind Horsetooth Dam.
What accounts for the sharp acreage increase in some crops and the decline in others ~
First, a number of crops are more adaptable to irrigation than are wheat, oats, and barley. These small grains thus were largely relegated to the rolling foothills areas. Much of this is land of thinner soils and less productive than the land to the east.
There are three reasons for the phenomenal in-crease in corn acreage for grain and silage :
1. The introduction and improvement of hybrid
corn which matures adequately in 110 to 140 days
for use as ensilage;
2. The mounting demand for ensilage by the livestock industry;
3. A new and unique arrangement between the livestock feeders and the farmers.
To fulfill his feeding requirements, the feeder contracts with the farmer to grow X number of acres of corn at X dollars per acre. "\Vith seed furnished by the feeder, the farmer plants, irri-gates, and cultivates-and then he has no further responsibility. Through his own agronomist, the feeder picks the time to cut the corn for ensilage.
Favoring Corn
However, corn does not require the labor needed in sugar beet production. Beet growers also con-tract with sugar companies but they are paid by weight and sugar content-and also must supply the cultivating and harvesting equipment, as well as the labor and seed. Another factor favoring corn is that farmers can follow corn with corn while
successive annual plantings of sugar beets on the same ground has not proven successful.
There's a t\Yist of irony here because it was the sacred sugar beet that really developed the area. Also, corn was a dirty ,Yord only a few years ago, nationally, when .the United States had a surplus.
Sugar beets were introduced in what is now
southern Colorado in 1841-35 years before the State was admitted to the Union. The Great
West-ern Sugar Co. was organized in 1900 by Charles
Boettcher of Denver. Five years later there were six sugar factories in the District.
Other contract production is carried on with canneries for such vegetables as peas, sweet corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, and snap beans. Moravian barley also is being grown under con-tract with a Colorado brewery.
The history of the once lowly pinto bean is
in-teresting. Once a dryland crop, it was a staple of the farmer, section hand, cowboy, sheep herder, and poor city dweller of the west and southwest.
During the chili and bean soup days of the drought and depression of the 30's, it was discovered that the crop responded miraculously to an occasional irrigation.
Pinto beans today are regarded as a profitable irrigated crop in the District and production is fantastic. A dryland yield of 15 to 20 bushels per acre ,,as considered good; production under
irri-gation regularly ranges from 70 to 80 bushels per acre, and the beans do not require as much
water per season as do corn or sugar beets. Almost no poultry is now seen on farms in the District but the commercialized poultry business
is thriving in a specialized form. If you live in Boston, Baltimore, or Seattle, it is not unlikely your holiday turkeys, as well as your T-bone steaks, come from the land just east of the Col o-rado Rockies.
Business Records
It is human nature to resist changes, and farm-ers are no exception. In the past 20 years, farmers have been compelled to improve their managerial ability in order to stay in business. It wasn't too long ago that farmers were keeping their books and crop records on the two-by-fours in the barn.
Nor does it seem very long ago that our farmers conducted their m,n "eyeball snow surveys" by
Operation of a meat packingplant in the project city of Greeley, Colo.
,rntching the glacial notch in Longs Peak, a tower
-ing sentinel on the Continental Divide. ·when the snow in the notch disappeared, they stopped irri-gating the alfalfa and thereafter reserved all the remaining water they had for row crop finishing.
·with imported supplem.ental water and with the improved water supply forecasts of today, of course, we can advise them in April just about ho,Y much water they can expect in August.
It is only fair to note that it has been the i n-dividual adaptability to farming changes which has contributed greatly to the present production levels within the District and made it possible to produce, from 1951 through 1967, a total gross crop value of nearly $1.5 billion--oYer eight times the project construction cost.
The availability of water-while fluctuating both up and down somewhat-has lured th~sands of people and many new industries into the District.
More Uses
Although the original quest was for supple-mental irrigation water, our repayment contract with the United States also specifies that the water may be used for domestic, municipal, and industrial purposes, as well as for the production of electric power.
Eleven cities now receive part of their munici-pal water from the project as a means of bolster -ing their in-basin water supplies.
Bet,rnen 1950 and 1960, the population of all seven of the counties within the District increased by more than 45,000-from 207,230 to 252,300. The 8-year increase since 1960 is estimated at more than 50,000.
Certainly, there have been more dramatic pop-ulation jumps in other U.S. areas, but it must be remembered that this area was formerly almost purely agricultural land that measured its suc
-cess by the rain guage and not by the number of
shopping centers.
Pacing the urbanization is the university city of Boulder whose population spurted from 20,000 in 1950 to an estimated 55,000 today. Boulder, Fort Collins, Longmont, Greeley, and Loveland together have experienced a population increase of 43 percent in the last 8 years-from 110,300 in 1960 to an estimated 158,000 today.
A new deYelopment since 1960 has been the formation within the District of 14 rural domes-tic districts or associations to which we furnish raw water for treatment and distribution as rural domestic supply.
Chief among the new industries is a huge IBM plant near Boulder with 4,200 persons on the pay-roll. The plant manufactures magnetic tape and magnetic tape drives. Products of other manu-facturers, attracted to the area, range from plastic toys and hydroponic tomatoes to cement and aero-space components.
Few To Cities
Yes, people are moving off the farm, but fe"\"V here are heading to the troubled major cities. Most haYe found the good life in the smaller communi
-ties where there is space to work and play. Many of the newcomers, in fact, are people who work in
the Denver metropolitan area. There may be a lesson nere in planning programs to relieve pov-erty, racial strife, and other ills of our current U.S.
civilization. A three-bedroom house with double
garage to accommodate a boat is commonplace ful-fillment to thousands who have come here from
the big city jungles. The formula is basic:
ade-quate water plus productive soil equals the produc-tion of new wealth and a sta:bilized or growing
economy.
Up to now, comparatively little of the richest
agricultural land has been taken out of
produc-tion to achieve the rapid urbanization. Land along
the foothills, though less productive, has greater
appeal for the homebuilder who is more interested
in vistas than in vegetables.
Original allottees obtained their water allotment contracts at no cost. Ordinances published by the municipalities today-30 years after this District
was created-reveal that the cities have paid the
agricultural users as much as $150 per contract acre-foot to achieve the described allotment con-tract transfers.
Actually, the ability to transfer water from one locality to another, anywhere within the District, and to change the class of water usage are, of them-selves, factors which contribute to the asset value of District allotments.
In summary, it is my personal and humble opin-ion, that the Bureau of Reclamation constructed, and the District operates, a system for water sup-ply distribution in a manner which is a credit to
This is Longmont and adjoining fields with Longs Peak, the highest in view with elevation 14, 256 feet.
Increased Demand
It is obvious from the urban, rural domestic,
and industrial growth which I previously cited
that there is an attendant increase in the demand
for water supplies to fulfill those purposes. Al-though the quantity of water allotted by the Dis-trict for those uses has more than doubled since the early 1950's, nearly 80 percent of our total water
supply remains allocated to irrigation usage.
Tq retain the greatest possible flexibility in sys-tem operation and to perm.it water supplies to be
shifted to new and changing uses, the District
adopted procedures which allow amendment and
transfer of allotment contracts. Thereby a method
was established which allows municipal, domestic
and industrial water users to obtain project water allotments by transfer from agricultural uses.
both agencies. In addition it is a source of new wealth for its direct beneficiaries, the State of Colorado, and the Nation as a whole. # # #
ABOUT THE AUTHOR. For 10 ye<urs J. R. (Bob) B<urkley has been Seeretary-Man,ager of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy Distriot. During this time, and for 25 years leading up to that appointment, hJis talent and energies in water resowrces m,atters h(lll)e been plied to use in and beyond the borders of Colorado. Mr. B<urkley was Chief Engineer and Assistant Manager of the NCWCD for 13 years. He recently was appointed as Colorado mem-ber of the Bo<urd of Directors of the Nation,al Reolamiation Assooiation, has served in other advisory capacities of that organization, as well as with other orgwnizations having to do with water resources in the Misso·uri River Basin.
He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorad<>.
