GUNNISON, Utah — It's no secret that Central Utah farmers faced hard times in recent years dealing with severe drought conditions as local reservoirs, like in Gunnison, ran completely dry.
But this year, as most state farmers have avoided flood issues, they say it’s the best year they’ve had in a long time.
A big water year means good things for the farmers, with some family farms at risk of going under during the drought coming back strong
"It’s been a struggle to figure out how to get by every year, but we’ve been able to do it and make things work," said Sanpete County farmer Zach Jensen.
Jensen says his family was one that was at risk of losing everything because of the recent extreme drought conditions.
"We started talking having to start selling some of it, and I’m the eighth-generation here and so the reality of really losing it was really scary. You don’t want to fail your heritage," he shared.
Since the 1880s Jensen’s ancestors have farmed the same fields made up of nearly 4,000 acres in Sanpete and Sevier counties.
"Every acre that we own or rent or lease all has something in it," Jensen explained. "We’ve had ground that’s been fallow for two years that has stuff in it this year again. So yeah, we’re capitalizing on all our acreage this year."
All of this year's water means tall crops and farmers are able to use all of their fields. Jensen says he hasn’t seen it this good in over a decade.
"Really since 2011, it’s been really bad here. We had the one good year in 2019, we was able to fill the reservoir that year, but since then and prior to then it was 2011 when it was our last good wet year," he said.
The farmers are grateful they’ve been able to use all the runoff from the record amount of snowfall this winter.
"We’ve been able to capture most of it with the cool weather," Jensen said. "We were able to capture most of it due to our reservoir being empty for the last two years.
"It’s been, it’s been good!"
Jensen said they hadn't been able to grow much corn in previous years, growing only 500 acres recently. But this year they're already up to 2,000 acres.
Working on some of the heavy equipment they’ll be putting to use all season long and looking across what’s turned into a green beautiful valley, Jensen is grateful for the water and being able to carry on something that started in his family so long ago.
"Now you actually get to see something growing that you planted. Makes it nice. Makes you feel good at the end of the day."
