On the expansive lands where five large grain bins sit, and a truck driver waits for the grain to fill his semi until he drives it away, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch Enterprise General Manager Simon Martinez pointed to the bins to show where they store the grains the farm produces.

He proudly explained the operation that he’s worked on for the past 30-plus years, especially since they received recognition at this year’s Colorado State Fair in Pueblo by the Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture and the Colorado State Historic Preservation Officer.

The farm accepted the 2023 Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Legacy in Agriculture Award at this year’s Centennial Farms and Ranches celebration.

The award recognized the farm and ranch for their resilience during the adversities they faced – from a drought to the COVID-19 pandemic and other agricultural challenges – while ensuring job security for their employees.

Once they received Tribal leadership approval to accept the award, Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart, Martinez, Farm & Ranch staffer Eric Whyte and his wife headed to the Colorado State Fair to accept the award in person on Aug. 25.

“It’s really neat to accept the award for all the people,” Martinez said.

The farm has grown over the past 32 years. Back in 1991, it had limited roads and zero pivots – which are circular irrigation sprinkler systems – to help irrigate their fields. Now, it’s a different story.

“There were no fields out here,” Martinez said. “When I drove out here 33-plus years ago, there was only land. There were no pivots, no roads and the lateral system (canal) was being put in. So basically, 1991 was the start of what you see now.”

Martinez said the pivots were gradually put up beginning in ‘91.

With 7,700 acres, the farm focuses on non-GMO corn, wheat, alfalfa (over 90% goes into the dairy market) and a herd of 700 cows and calves on their farm, as well as experimenting with drought resistant plants.

The farm mills 16 different granulations in size for about 30 businesses. Its products are distributed to both hyperlocal and international locations.

Duties range from feeding Texas cattle the alfalfa to supplying corn to Hayden Flour Mills in Arizona, along with multiple other businesses spanning from Ontario and Delaware to Raqulitas Tortillas sold at Denver’s Ball Arena and supplying wheat (Bow & Arrow) at the Cortez Milling Co.

Martinez said that throughout all the adversities the farm faced, the positives still outweigh the negatives.

Even with the drought, the farm has been an avenue for employment in Montezuma County.

Because of the farm’s location, water is a huge challenge, even though they do get water from McPhee Reservoir through a 39-mile canal gravity flow system – meaning there’s no pumps to transport the water.

The canal was the outcome from the Colorado Ute Indian Rights Settlement Act of 1988 in order to bring water to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

Although there hasn’t been a large number of extreme drought years that the farm experienced, it still experienced significant water shortages in 2002, 2020 and 2021.

“There’s not been as many drought years, but I don’t think anybody ever expected those (years). They do affect us, when there’s a water shortage we take that hit also,” Martinez said. “Water is a challenge, so we have to adapt. Yeah, adaptation is going to be key for job security in the (agriculture) business.”

Right now, they employ over 30 people between the farm and the ranch. But during the last extreme drought in 2021, they had to lay off half their staff.

During the last drought year, they had to outsource and cut back crops from 7,600 acres to 1,000 acres in order to preserve their water supply. They also realigned their pivots to save water.

The farm also began experimenting with drought resistant plants (Kernza and sainfoin) for cattle feed that could help preserve water in the future, The Journal previously reported.

“I think through the years working here, the past and present employees, the challenges of droughts, the challenges of the market to be able to provide alfalfa, wheat, corn and provide a value added crop that other companies are interested in purchasing made this (award) more rewarding … We have to continue to be as prepared as possible for the survival of the (agriculture) and cattle industries,” Martinez said.