Roy Pfaltzgraff III, Haxton, Colo., successfully farms where it’s “bone dry.” But with a combination of persistence and a willingness to try new things, the family operation is thriving despite the lack of moisture. 

That willingness to try something outside the box was a trait Roy inherited from his father, Roy Jr. When Roy Jr. took over the farm in 1977, he didn’t hesitate to try new things, starting with sunflowers. But it was a struggle for Roy Jr. to convince his father-in-law to plant the cash crop.

Pfaltzgraff’s grandfather purchased the farm in late 1949, raising wheat and a bit of hay. 

“We’re guessing our ground got broken in the late 1800s to maybe the early 1900s,” he says. “There was a lot of saved up carbon and organic matter in the soil that they farmed.”

Losing Moisture

After years of growing sunflowers with conventional tillage, Roy Jr. switched to no-till in 1984 to help retain moisture and mitigate wind erosion. He also began soil testing the same year. 

Roy Jr. stopped growing sunflowers in 2006, when he started listening to those that said that sunflowers are…