A Perspective of the Agriculture and Livestock Industry in San Juan County, 1959-1982 Preston G. Nielson
The story is told of a farmer who recently won a lottery with a prize of a million dollars. When interviewed by the media as to how he was going to spend it he replied, "I guess I'll just keep on farming until it is all gone." This illustrates the present state of agriculture in this county and country. Few farms or ranches are making a profit. Most are being run on borrowed money from the equity they have in the land. While the expenses of running a farm or ranch operation continue to rise, the prices received for goods produced are less or the same as years ago. The principal crops raised in southern San Juan County are wheat and beans. They are raised on dry farms with many more acres being used for wheat than beans. There are also several thousand acres of irrigated ground used for raising alfalfa hay. Up to this point there has been much effort and expense put into clearing new land for farming. Most of it has now been cleared and is in production. The government is not selling any more land to farmers. There are no more homesteads to be acquired; therefore, most of the land that could be used for farming in this area is in production. 217
