The Upper Colorado Region's Native American Program focuses on assisting Tribes in developing and managing water resources in accordance with their desires and Reclamation's stated trust responsibilities.
Helping the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise Farm Effectively
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe receives water from Reclamation's Dolores Project as part of the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement. This water helps irrigate about 7,600 acres of land, with 110 center pivot sprinklers installed by December 2000. The Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch Enterprise (F&RE) manages and operates the farm that uses this water. On a farm of this size, precision farming—a management strategy that prescribes and precisely applies seed, fertilizer, irrigation water, pesticides, and other items needed to produce crops—is crucial. How these production inputs are managed has a significant impacts on production costs, water use, crop yield, and the environment. As precision farming is based on detailed, site specific information rather than the traditional whole-field applications, it requires collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, specialized farming equipment, and extensive record keeping.
Through the Native American Affairs Technical Assistance Program, Reclamation has provided assistance to the F&RE to implement precision farming technology. Reclamation has provided funding to the F&RE to research, test, and evaluate equipment such as geographic positioning systems, automatic sprinkler controls, variable rate applicators, yield monitors, and farm management software, before they purchase the equipment required to outfit the entire farm. Reclamation has also provided funding for training the operators of these high technology farming tools.
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