Spring Planting Under Pressure: Moisture, Markets, and Money in Southeast Colorado

Spring ‌planting ‌is ‌already rolling in southeast Colorado, and producers are having to make some big calls while the ground, the markets, and the budget all feel uncertain. Dry weather, higher input costs, and price swings are all feeding into how both dryland and irrigated operations approach planting and financing right now. To get a clearer read on what’s happening across the area, we talked with Lamar Loan Officers Tyler Thrall and Dwight Burns, who offered a view from around the region.

Moisture Challenges Continue to Dominate

As planting moves along, moisture is still the issue that sits at the top of the list. The region is dry, and it’s coming off a rough stretch, a dry late summer in 2025 followed by a winter that never really delivered much precipitation. “I think the biggest challenge for our dryland or irrigated producers in the southeast corner is the lack of moisture,” Thrall says.

For those depending on surface water, the squeeze is even tighter. Thrall points out that irrigated operations tied to canal systems are “facing a historically low snowpack across the state,” a situation that keeps shaping water outlooks and, by extension, planting choices as the season goes on.

With both topsoil and subsoil running short on moisture, a lot of producers are tracking forecasts day by day. A good round of spring rain could still shift the picture, helping crops get up and established, but for now uncertainty is simply part of the calculation while more acres go in.

Rising Costs and Shifting Financing Decisions

Financial pressures are stacking up at the same time. On top of the weather, input costs keep climbing, and that is showing up in operating budgets during planting. Burns says fertilizer and fuel prices have jumped, pushed by recent world events, and that is tightening the financing side of things. “Our financing environment at this moment is probably most impacted by current world events that have sent fertilizer and fuel prices higher,” Burns explains. In some cases, operating lines of credit aren’t stretching as far as producers originally planned.

Borrowing behavior is already shifting. Burns says they’re seeing more producers asking to expand lines to cover the bigger bills. “We have started to see requests to increase lines as a response to these elevated input prices,” he says. As the season progresses and true production costs come into focus, there may be more updates needed to keep plans workable.

Even with those pressures, the region isn’t showing a dramatic move toward one crop or one particular strategy. Thrall says planting decisions look steady overall. “Producers are resilient and typically able to adjust as needed when conditions change.” Spreading risk across different crops still matters, especially when moisture risk, high input costs, and shifting market chances are all in play.

Managing Risk and Preparing for Uncertainty

On the risk-management side, producers are taking a few different routes depending on their situation. Some acres might end up not getting planted at all and could sit fallow until fall wheat season. Other fields are going in now, with the hope the weather turns in time. “The other thing that can happen is that producers will plant with the hope it will rain and things will turn around,” Thrall says. And if a crop can’t get established, insurance becomes a major backstop, helping to reduce losses and, as Thrall puts it, “hopefully cover the input costs.”

In a year like this, financial readiness matters as much as agronomic planning. Burns stresses the value of staying in close contact and keeping records clean and up to date. “We are constantly working to keep our customers in as good of financial position as possible,” he says. Solid balance sheets and realistic projections can make the difference, ensuring there’s enough equity to handle stress as the season unfolds.

Thrall adds that volatility is part of farming in southeast Colorado, and it’s not something anyone can count on avoiding. “Unexpected weather in southeast Colorado is not a matter of ‘if’ it’s going to happen; it will absolutely happen at some point during the growing season.” That’s why, he says, financial plans need to fit the operation, not a template. “Each operation is unique,” Thrall notes, “and we can tailor our various products to meet their financial needs as the season unfolds.”