By Scott McNutt | Coolidge Examiner
Many Pinal County farmers who rely on water from the San Carlos Reservoir are planting less cotton this year because of expected water shortages.
Dennis and Deborah Bagnall of Coolidge own and operate Morning Star Farms, a 3,500-acre farm in the Coolidge and Florence area.
It’s a family business. Dennis has been farming for more than 30 years. Bagnall said his father was an attorney, but he always worked on farms when he was younger.
“I went to UA, came back and went into farming,” Bagnall said. Deborah grew up on a dairy farm.
The Bagnalls’ oldest son, Michael, 22, works full time on the farm and usually drives a tractor. Michael is the tech-savvy one in the family, Deborah said.
They have two other sons, Nicholas, 19, and Wyatt, 14, who also help on the farm. Daughter Melissa Campbell, 24, manages the River Cooperative Gin in Coolidge.
This year, Bagnall plans to plant just 900 acres of cotton because of the water shortage. That’s 26 percent fewer than a year ago.
