About Arkansas Valley Research Center

Goals and History
For over a century, our primary motivations have centered on identifying regionally marketable crops. Take a moment to learn more about our long productive history.

Center History

This Center was established in 1888 as the Bent Agricultural Experiment Station and is the oldest continuously operated agricultural experiment station, outside of Fort Collins, in Colorado. Subsequently, when the original Bent County was subdivided into several counties the name was changed in 1889 to the Arkansas Valley Agricultural Experiment Station. Later it became the Arkansas Valley Branch Station and the present name has been used since the mid-sixties.

Local agricultural interests obtained 200 acres of state land and supplied it with the necessary water rights to initiate the operation in 1888. In 1901, due to financial considerations, 160 acres and associated water rights were returned to original owners and the Center operated with 40 acres until 1959 when an additional 60 acres were leased from an adjacent farm. In 1984 the Colorado State Legislature appropriated the necessary funds to purchase 57 acres of the leased farm, including buildings and grounds. The sale was completed in 1985 and we continued to lease 7 acres of land. The present operation includes 104 acres of which about 90 acres are tillable.

people observing field irrigation demonstration
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The facilities at the Center include an office-utility building, diagnostic laboratory, greenhouse, two adobe storage buildings, pole barn, pesticide storage and residence. It is situated two miles east of Rocky Ford on Highway 50 at an altitude of 4178′. Average annual precipitation (1901-1997) is 11.69 inches and the average frost free period is 158 days. The nearly level alluvial land has a silky clay loam soil, about 7.8 pH and 1.8% organic matter. Irrigation water is diverted from the Arkansas River through the Rocky Ford Ditch and distributed on the farm using furrow or flood methods.

The Center was established to serve the research needs of the irrigated farming area of southeast Colorado known as the Arkansas Valley, extending from Pueblo County on the west to the Kansas border. It also includes irrigated areas associated with the tributaries to the Arkansas River in El Paso, Huerfano and Las Animas counties. Agricultural production includes livestock and field and vegetable crops. Alfalfa, corn, dry beans, small grains, soybeans, sorghum, onions, melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and peppers are representative of crops grown under irrigation.

An Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory is housed at the Center and administered by the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and serves Southern Colorado.

Leadership

The following individuals have supervised the operation of the Arkansas Valley Research Center at Rocky Ford since the initial date of September 17, 1888.

1888-1892Frank L. Watrous
1892-1895Fred A. Huntley
1895-1897Philo K. Blinn
1897-1898W. Frank Crowley
1898-1903Harvey H. Griffin
1903-1927Philo K. Blinn
1927-1928Justus C. Ward*
1932-1958Herman Fauber
1958-1980Jerre F. Swink
1980-2003Frank Schweissing*
2004-Mike Bartolo

Three of these individuals, P.K. Blinn, Herman Fauber and Jerre Swink, provided the leadership for almost 75 years of the Center’s existence. This had the positive effect of providing stability and continuity of research for this Colorado Experiment Station facility.

*Justus Ward was hired in 1922 as a chemist and Frank Schweissing was hired in 1961 as entomologist. Robert Gardner, an agronomist based in Fort Collins, supervised an on-site employee to maintain Center operations from 1928 to 1932.

Program History

A great deal of time during the first ten to fifteen years was spent testing crops and varieties to determine whether they could be successfully grown and marketed from this area. Over 100 “crop species”, including shade trees and shrubs, and many times that in varieties, were planted at the Center. Special emphasis was given to tree fruits, sugar beets and cantaloupes. The turn of the century saw a number of orchards, mostly apple, established in the area; two beet sugar factories built in 1900 and the Rocky Ford cantaloupe industry recognized throughout the U.S.

plant shoots in dirt
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Research efforts, in the years between 1900 and 1932, were scaled back to accommodate reduced land area and the title of Superintendent was changed to Field Agent, with responsibility for working directly with growers to solve production problems. However, considerable research effort was continued on the Center and directed towards cantaloupe disease, alfalfa forage and seed production, sugar beet production and investigation into sod. In 1922 a soils laboratory was set up and a chemist hired to study the effect of soil nitrates on crop production. It was the contention of some that high soil nitrates were adversely affecting alfalfa seed production and purity of sugar in beet production. This study culminated in 1930. It was during the twenties that efforts to develop a better onion variety began. The cantaloupe industry started to decline and the onion began to take its place as the premier vegetable crop in the area.

Breeding projects, cultural practices and variety tests became the research focus in the years between 1930 and 1945. These included work on onions, tomatoes, sweet corn, soybeans, peas, spring and fall grains, hybrid corn and sorghum, small fruits and, as always, alfalfa. It was during this time the research effort began to seriously emphasize the management of pest problems in the various crops in the Valley. Bindweed had become a major pest and significant effort was directed towards this problem.

Due to increased crop losses caused by pests and increased labor costs, particularly related to weed control, the major part of the research effort between 1945 and the early 1980’s was directed towards managing the pest problems in crop production. In the late 1940’s a plant pathologist was hired at the University whose primary responsibility was to carry out research on the onion disease problems in the Arkansas Valley. In 1961 an entomologist was hired and assigned to the Center to work on insect problems of the Valley. These positions were instigated and supported by grower groups in the area.

The research outlined above continues to some extent in the present but emphasis during the last ten years has turned to production efficiency and environmental protection as evidenced by projects on tillage practices and fertilizer, irrigation and pest management. The 1991 addition of a vegetable crop scientist to the staff has enhanced this research.

Our Staff

We are a small group of scientists and research associates who collaborate with our advisory council of growers and ranchers in eight regional counties.

Program Contributions

Scientists working at this Research Center have provided solutions to agricultural problems specific to the Arkansas Valley and have contributed to solutions for area-wide or multi-state problems. Research has developed information on the adaptation of crops and varieties to the soil and climate of the Valley, introduced new superior varieties, improved cultural practices and set guidelines for the management of pests, soil fertility and water.

Some of the contributions to the agricultural industry of the Arkansas Valley include:

  • Development of the first rust resistant cantaloupe, which, in fact saved the cantaloupe industry of the Valley at the turn of the Century.
  • Introduction and development of semi-Dormant alfalfa varieties which resulted in substantially increased acreage in the Valley because these varieties could take full advantage of the growing season here when compared to the highly dormant northern varieties and yet survive our winters when compared to the non-hardy southern varieties.
  • Determining the content of Valley soils and the effect on crop production, particularly alfalfa seed and beet sugar purity.
  • Breeding and release of the sweet Spanish onion variety, Colorado 6, in 1936, which after sixty years, is still a significant factor in the onion producing areas of the Valley.
  • Setting guidelines for fertilizer recommendations and application practices for alfalfa, corn, sugar beets and onions.
  • Developing management practices for foliage and root diseases and storage decay in onions.
  • Seeding rates and raw spacing determinations for corn, sorghum and onions which improved production efficiency and yields.
  • Weed management practices for alfalfa, corn, sorghum, onions and melons along with soil incorporation methods for use with herbicides in this semi-arid region when it was discovered practices for applying these herbicides in high rainfall regions were not successful here.
  • Guidelines for the management of alfalfa weevil on alfalfa, Banks grass mite on corn, greenbug on sorghum and thrips on onions.
  • Frequent early season irrigations result in a shallow corn root system. Withholding water, after filling the profile, will force root growth through the whole profile. This has resulted in a 25 bushel yield increase when water shortages occur late in the season.
  • Conservation tillage techniques for corn resulted in corn yields remaining stable after six continuous years while reducing labor and energy costs. Alfalfa ground prepared for corn planting with reduced tillage (disc) or moldboard plow resulted in comparable corn yields. Reduced tillage results in greater return to the producer due to lower costs.
  • The use of transplants, plastic mulch, drip irrigation and combinations thereof results in earlier harvest, substantial yield increase, quality enhancement and an aid to weed management for a number of vegetable crops.
  • Variety trials throughout the years have provided growers with timely information on the inherent genetic ability of the numerous commercial varieties to produce under the climatic, soil, pest and water conditions of the Valley. There are almost no commercial breeding and seed production facilities in the area and these trials allow growers to determine which of the many varieties produced in other areas may perform well in the Valley

Publications

TR15-11 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2010 Reports
TR12-05 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2009 Reports
TR10-13 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2008 Reports
TR09-12 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2007 Reports
TR09-10 – The Effect of Corn Yield Nutrient Needs and Economics When Fallowing Land, One, Two or Three Years in the Arkansas Valley of Colorado
TR08-16 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2006 Reports
TB08-02 – The Large Lysimeter at the Arkansas Valley Research Center: Objectives and Accomplishments
TR07-14 – Arkansas Valley Research Center 2004-05 Reports
TR04-07 – 2003 Research Reports
TR03-08 – 2002 Research Reports
TR02-08 – Arkansas Valley Research Center – 2001 Research Reports
TR01-09 – Arkansas Valley Research Center – 2000 Research Reports
TR00-07 – Arkansas Valley Research Center – 1999 Research Reports

Research Summary and Progress

Agricultural Experiment Station Active Research Projects:

  • Scaling Microirrigation Technologies to Address the Global Water Challenge
  • Vegetable Crop Management in the Arkansas Valley

Articles in the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station Annual Reports: