In Utah, here’s how unconventional crops could save water — and reshape farming

Editor’s note • This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver

Just outside Canyonlands National Park in San Juan County, rancher Matt Redd walked to a spot where two of his pastures meet.

One side is growing alfalfa and other traditional grazing crops with wheel line irrigation. The other is home to a lesser-known grain called Kernza.

“It’s a long stalk with alternating seeds [on] either side of it,” Redd said as he rolled some golden seed heads between his fingers. “I find it quite beautiful, almost elegant.”

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about it, though, is how little water Kernza needs compared to the neighboring pasture. Even though this summer brought Utah record-breaking heat, Redd didn’t water it from July through September.

“It looks good. It looks productive,” he said. “And it’s taken less than half the water we’ve used on our irrigated pasture.”

That means more of his ranch’s water can stay in nearby creeks that flow toward the Colorado River.

Redd grew up here in the shadow of redrock towers on his family’s Dugout Ranch. Today, the operation is part of The Nature Conservancy’s Canyonlands Research Center, where Redd is the project director. The idea is to test how Kernza performs on a large scale in Utah and offer that information to other ranchers and farmers.

“Its potential to be both a grazing forage crop as well as a hay crop that uses less water — and takes less fossil fuels to plant — makes it a really good candidate for agriculture adapting to climate change in the Southwest,” Redd said.

Kernza is a relative of wheat developed by The Land Institute, a Kansas-based agricultural research organization. The plant’s roots reach more than 10 feet below ground, allowing it to stay healthy through drought and go weeks without irrigation. The roots remain for multiple years, improving soil health, preventing erosion and helping the ground absorb more water.

Unlike wheat and other traditional grains, Kernza is perennial, so it does not need to be replanted each year. That means less time and effort for producers, Redd said, as well as less diesel used in farm equipment and less water needed to get each year’s crop established.

It’s not just for animals, either. Kernza is starting to make its way into everything from breakfast cereals to beer — one such lager is even available in Utah.

In a state dotted with thirsty hay fields, Redd’s ranch is just one example of Utah producers experimenting with outside-the-box crops. As the Colorado River becomes increasingly strained and droughts become more extreme, these alternatives might help Utah agriculture diversify and survive in a future with less water.

In the next county over, Loretta Clayson walked down a row at her farm near Kanab. The field used to grow livestock feed. These days, however, it’s bursting with bright orange, red and pink flowers.

“If you run your hands through it, you’ll know why everybody loves it,” she said as she reached toward a clump of purple cinnamon basil blooms. “The smell is incredible.”

Clayson’s family has owned this property, called Journey Farm, for around three decades. It has historically grown irrigated alfalfa and other forage — and still does.

In 2019, however, Clayson decided to convert some of their land to growing cut flowers, which she sells to florists and customers for weddings and decor. A wide array of blossoms now cover 2.5 of the farm’s 33 acres. This fall, she’s converting an additional field from alfalfa to peonies.

It’s been a steep learning curve, she said. Each variety of flower has its own, sometimes temperamental, needs. The blooms are too delicate for a tractor and other farm equipment, so everything is planted and picked by hand.

“Some people have the fantasy that flower farming is skipping through fields of blossoms in your flowy white dress,” she said. “That doesn’t stack up to when you’re out here hand-weeding in 110-degree heat.”

“It’s kind of a labor of love,” Clayson said and she’s happy with the results.

The fields used to be irrigated by wheel lines — sprinkler heads on large pipes held up by giant metal wheels. The flowers still need water, but they now get it from a drip irrigation system — long hoses on the ground with emitters that deliver moisture to the plants’ roots.

Journey Farm’s water comes from the Kanab Irrigation Company and nearby Jackson Flat Reservoir, which pulls from the Colorado River tributary Kanab Creek. In one section of the farm, she’s even installed an irrigation system that recycles water she has already used to rinse harvested flowers.

Besides the water efficiency, Clayson said the flowers bring in more money per acre than hay did. “We’re significantly beyond that,” she said. “I wouldn’t still be doing it if it wasn’t financially rewarding.”

There are plenty of reasons farmers in the West continue to plant alfalfa. It’s relatively drought-tolerant and, like Kernza, it’s a perennial. It can grow in a variety of elevations and soil types. Because it’s a legume, it doesn’t require the nitrogen fertilizer necessary for other cash crops, such as corn. And there’s an established market for farmers to sell it in Utah.

As the arid West looks for ways to conserve water, however, alfalfa has attracted a lot of attention for its water consumption. It accounts for 57.4% of the harvested acres in Utah — a state where roughly three-fourths of all diverted water goes to agriculture.

“Water is the number one resource to determine how much production we can have, and also water is the number one challenge we’re facing right now,” said Victoria Xiong, an assistant professor with Utah State University extension in Kane County.

It’s not easy — or cheap — for producers to make a change, though. Trying new crops is a big risk, especially when farmers depend on the fields for their livelihoods.

“It’s like, ‘If we do not change our production, we run out of water in five years and we’re done.’ Or ‘If I change it and I make a big mistake, then we don’t have Christmas dinner this year,’” Xiong said. “So either one is not a happy ending.”

Family peer pressure can be another hurdle, she said, because farm practices have often been passed down for generations.

Xiong hopes emerging research can give farmers more certainty about just how much water new crops or practices might save. The drip irrigation that Clayson uses for her flowers, for example, can be up to 35% more efficient than wheel lines.

“That is a very, very big thing,” Xiong said. “That’s something we actually have data to back it up.”

Ensuring more water gets to plant roots is also increasingly important as climate change fuels extreme heat and makes rain patterns more unpredictable.

Drip systems are still pretty rare in Kane County, Xiong said, and they require more money and labor to set up compared to traditional irrigation methods. But she’s starting to see more interest in them.

She’s currently working to put more research behind the benefits of growing cut flowers, too. Some of her studies look at specific varieties, such as freesias and dahlias, to see which ones work best in Utah with minimal watering. Other studies examine how farmers can make money selling flowers in this region.

Producers are always looking for ways to adapt and get more efficient, rancher Matt Redd said, and that’s especially true now.

“In general, you won’t find a rancher or farmer who would disagree that our climate is changing and that things are different than they were 20 years ago,” he said, “and that we need to find different ways of managing our operations.”

There are still obstacles, though. Kernza seed costs more and takes longer to establish than traditional grains, Redd said. As with anything new, there’s still that element of risk.

That’s why the real-world data he’s gathering about Kernza could be a key step toward more producers taking the leap.

Redd put in his first 20 acres of Kernza late last year and plans to plant an additional field next spring. He’s doing it with financial help from two programs generating more research about how these crops work in the West. One is a regional effort focused on testing alternative forages and the other is the Utah State University Ag-DRIP program, which looks to make the state’s agriculture more drought resilient.

He believes plants like Kernza — alongside innovations in irrigation technology — will someday play a vital role in making sure Utah farming has a future.

“There’s not one silver bullet that’s going to help us create a solution for the changing world we’re in,” Redd said. “But this is one part of the solution that will allow agriculture to remain sustainable.”

— KSL TV photographer Mark Wetzel contributed to this story. The Nature Conservancy is a sponsor of KUER.