Farming in the Intermountain West

Farming in the West has always presented its share of challenges and opportunities. As the first settlers entered the Intermountain West valleys, they found a treeless land filled with brush and woody plants hearty enough to survive the harsh conditions of frozen winters and hot dry summers. They began cultivating the soil hoping to provide for themselves and their families. Inhospitable as the land seemed, this desert blossomed. The early settlers constructed reservoirs, canals and ditches to capture and use water runoff from winter reserves held in the surrounding mountains for their crops.

The stubborn, parched soil began to bring about crop life that would sustain life. As crucial as those crops were, nearly as important, were the values learned from farming a region so naturally unfriendly to crop production. Values such as resilience created what some call “grit” in the stewards of this land just as hearty as the native plants that thrive despite the climates they face.  These values grew roots in unlikely soils and have endured for generations.  

Advancements in Technology

Today, technological advancements have made tools available to farms, those early farmers couldn’t have scarcely imagined.  Tractors and implements handle hundreds of acres of cultivation each day. Devices in equipment and pant pockets allow for sub-inch accuracy in the field, the ability to start and stop irrigation from nearly anywhere, remote equipment diagnostics and on and on. 

Farming and its practices have changed dramatically in many ways since those early days, yet considering these advancements, the essentials remain unchanged: soil, seed, water, nutrients, pest management, and the ability to harvest and store crops. No matter how advanced the practice of farming has become and the innovations yet ahead, they have little bearing without these essentials. 

The Most Important Piece: Farmers

Critical as these essentials are, what are they without the farmer? The one who prepares the soil, plants the seed, irrigates and harvests. The one who starts early and goes late. The one who cares. The one who values.

These individuals and others like them are the ones who help navigate the unique challenges of farming today. Challenges like public policy, regulatory matters, population growth, social pressures, changing markets and market conditions, and among others: water. 

The ability to navigate and thrive in today’s unfriendly environments is no different from those of the past; it comes from the qualities and values embodied in agriculture. Those qualities planted generations ago continue to give life. The “grit” that pushes through the struggles to adapt to an ever-changing world that at times opposes the hand that feeds it. Now just like then, couple the gritty with the unfriendly and the yield will continue to be plentiful. 

Here to Help

As modern day farmers continue to navigate the challenges of production in the Intermountain West and an ever shifting political and economic climate, IFA is proud to offer assistance in the form of knowledge and products to help farmers continue to thrive.  Your local Agronomy salesman is a great resource to always keep your operation progressing  forward.