[REGIONAL NEWS] Snowfall, rain a ‘savior’ for New Mexico farmers

Irrigation water flows down the Socorro Main Canal in San Acacia, NM, towards the farms in Socorro County on April 24, 2019. This year’s spring runoff is creating more favorable conditions for farmers than last year’s dry conditions.
Robert Browman/Albuquerque Journal

By Scott Turner | Albuquerque Journal

Water is a precious commodity for farmers and wildlife refuge managers in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.

Just ask Socorro County farmer Chris Lopez.

He put thousands of dollars into an alfalfa crop he planted in the fall of 2017, hoping for enough moisture from the winter snowfall up north that feeds the Rio Grande.

The snowfall and rainfall during the winter of 2017-18 didn’t come – at least not in the amount he needed.

He lost the crop. And the Rio Grande that flows by his family’s 700-acre farm between Socorro and San Antonio ran completely dry. That’s not unusual for late summer, or early fall.

But it happened in March.

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