Agriculture

Agriculture. . , After his 1820 expedition west, Stephen H. Long reported that the region was "a Great American Desert...uninhabitable by those depending on agriculture for their subsistence." The transformation of this area into one of the nation's premier agricultural centers began with the establishment of Greeley in 1870 and Nathan Meeker's belief in irrigation technology as the cornerstone for successful farming in the west. , , Early agriculture was encouraged by the construction of irrigation ditches and canals, and beginning in the 1880s, reservoirs were constructed to store surplus water to extend the agricultural season. Sugar beets, requiring a long growing season and sufficient water, soon surpassed potatoes as the region's main crop. Crop surpluses such as beet tops and pulp were fed to sheep and cattle, and by the 1930s cattleman Warren Monfort and others began experimenting with controlled cattle feeding in feedlots. This revolutionized the cattle industry from pasture land to packing plant, making Greeley the beef capital of Colorado by the 1960s. With its vast network of irrigation systems, Weld County today is one of the nation's leading areas for agricultural production.