It’s fair to say agriculture producers are rarely happy with the weather. After several years of devastating drought, producers in the state slogged through a tremendously wet and miserable winter, a strangely cool and wet spring, and now a summer filled with record rainfall and punctuated by severe weather.

In my area, northeastern Colorado, many crops are behind, including winter wheat, alfalfa and barley. In the weekly crop progress report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the food and agriculture harvest continued to significantly trail the 5-year average pace with 88% of first cutting and 5% of second cutting harvested. Dry edible bean emergence is nearing the end, with 93% of the crop emerged, behind both the previous year and 5-year average.

In the San Luis Valley, potato emergence, at 97% complete, made substantial progress last week, but continued behind the 5-year average pace of 99%. Planting of the proso millet crop sustained a slower than average pace, with 84% of the acreage planted, behind the 5-year average of 98%.

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Winter wheat harvest began last week, significantly trailing the previous year of 25% and 5-year average of 32%. Statewide, 59% of the winter wheat crop was reported in good to excellent condition, compared with 56% last week, 16% last year and a 5-year average of 44%. Condition ratings in east central Colorado, where the largest portion of the winter wheat crop is produced, were mostly fair to good.

The wheat field visible from my desk is ready to cut, but the ground is saturated and though it’s not muddy, it is soft enough that combines and heavy grain carts and trucks will become stuck, leaving nasty ruts and causing long days for producers. Conversely, the dryland corn field just west of our house is thriving. Corn seed is incredibly expensive and planting dryland corn in this area is a significant gamble, though it’s one that paid off for this particular farmer.

We farm only to produce cow chow, and we chopped triticale for haylage with very high yields for dryland fields. Triticale is a cousin of wheat, and it is chopped, packed and stored in a concrete pit. It ferments and we will feed it as part of our cattle ration this winter. Prior to baling some of the triticale, our hay yard was bare from prior years during which we never stopped feeding cattle because the pastures couldn’t support the grazing due to drought.

Just to the east, there is a field that produced an excellent crop of alfalfa earlier in the spring. Alfalfa is typically cut and baled multiple times through the year, and it is an excellent source of protein in livestock rations. When one of the many hailstorms rolled through the area, the alfalfa was beaten so badly, the producer farming it tore it out and planted corn. Several weeks later, the stand of corn looked promising, like Plan B worked out. Hail destroyed that crop as well. I drove by last week and I couldn’t tell what was planted in the field, but the marks from a grain drill are proof positive that farmers are eternal optimists.

Sugar beets, alfalfa, pastures, corn and wheat further into northeastern Colorado have been destroyed by hail and there have been a significant number of acres destroyed by standing water for weeks on end. One farmer in Logan County had enough standing water in a cattle pasture that there was pontoon boating there over the Fourth of July holiday. The family wasn’t making light of the situation – it has cost them valuable grass, an alfalfa crop, miles of destroyed fence at $10,000 per mile – but the weather is so far outside their control that sometimes a beer and a boat is the last best thing to do.

Though the entire state is designated as drought-free for the first time since 2019, there are certainly areas that could benefit from rainfall. The southwest and northwest portions of the state would happily take some of the rain northeastern Colorado has received, though I imagine they would turn down the hail.

Agriculture is strange because it is an incredibly important industry but its success rests outside of the control of the people with dirt on their boots. Paul Harvey, a legendary radio newsman and agriculture advocate, was correct when he said, “Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains.”

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.