Even with a pandemic, farming jobs continue without interruption

Ican take the hot weather when the temperatures drop below 105 every three or four days. Every day is an adventure in Yuma.

With the stay-at-home lifestyle, I started following Facebook. Lately there have been lots of posts about fruit gnats, mosquitoes and farming operations going on, since many folks are going for rides in the country to get a change of scenery.

I have often written about the difference between living in the city and on county acreage. The fact that 50% of the Yuma County economy comes from the agricultural

Bobbi StevensonMcDermott industry and that 1 in 4 jobs is in agriculture or related support industries make it imperative that the farmlands be protected from development.

If you think about what we have been through since late February, the jobs that have continued without interruption have been farming. Even with many markets for produce drastically reduced, the day-to-day farming operations must continue.

A side note is that

Yuma County is only 7% private land. That means 93% of the acreage is not available for new development of any kind. Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, tribal, military and state lands are the major landowners or managers.

On the subject of field work going on now, wheat is being threshed; numerous varieties of melons are being harvested; alfalfa for hay and seed, cotton, Bermuda grass for hay and seed, Sudan grass for hay and seed are most common.

Since it is June, early produce plantings will start in July, depending on markets. Yuma County farms 365 days out of the year.

In North Gila Valley, a large project is occurring on a parcel of cropland. When folks move to Yuma, they are normally amazed by our pool table flat fields and highly efficient irrigation systems. In the late 1800s, as development moved west, most settlements and farms were along the existing rivers because everyone needed water. In those days, there was not the ability to change the natural topography of the land.

Over time the farmers created equipment that allowed them to level small fields into more manageable and efficient large parcels. As they experimented with the soil, they noted that the various soil types were more productive than others. This led them to try to improve the less productive soils by moving them and replacing them with better soils.

They also designed their fields to try and have a uniform soil texture for irrigation efficiency. They wanted all areas of the fields, when watered, to absorb the water at the same rate, assuring a uniform irrigation of the crop.

From my observation, this is the type of project that is underway just north of the Gila River. This type of soil swap and leveling is very costly and the farmer is the one who foots the bill so he can bring the fields into an efficient and easily manageable farm.

Farmers are the original conservationists along with ranchers who have spent their lives improving and managing the natural resource base through wise use so it remains productive now and into the future.