An Arizona Farmer on How to Grow Alfalfa in the Middle of the Desert

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:15)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:16)

Tracy, do you remember the episode we did with Chase Emerson?

Tracy Alloway (0:20)

I do, about land development in Arizona.

Joe Weisenthal (0:23)

Right, so that was, we were talking to a land broker, someone who helped facilitate the sale of sort of unused or agricultural land to homeowners, or to sort of home builders. But there's been a lot of talk, and we touched on it a bit in that episode, about the sustainability of water usage in Arizona.

Tracy Alloway (0:41)

Yes, in fact, there was a pretty big headline that came out quite recently, saying that Arizona was going to halt new home approvals in parts of Phoenix because of concerns over water availability.

Joe Weisenthal (0:55)

Right, and so there's this question about like, okay, Arizona is like this boom state, right? Tons of population growth, tons of land people moving there, it's been booming for years.

It's booming from an industrial standpoint too. There's all these new semiconductor fabs.

Tracy Alloway (1:09)

Semiconductors, yeah.

Joe Weisenthal (1:11)

Arizona touches everything for us.

Tracy Alloway (1:12)

It does, and also Arizona water seems to touch everything. And I mean, this came up in the Chase Emerson episode, but I remember I asked someone from the Biden administration about it as well, but why are we building these big factories, semiconductor factories that use a lot of water in the desert? Why are we developing lots of land in the desert?

Why are we farming a bunch of water-intensive stuff in the desert?

Joe Weisenthal (1:40)

Yeah, right. This is how it goes in people's head. They're booming in Arizona. There's water scarcity.

And then they discover that Arizona, despite being the desert, 75% of the water used in Arizona is agriculture. And they go, what? That's crazy. Why are we growing food or growing grains or crops in the desert? And then people say, oh, well, that's the problem. We just need to stop growing in the desert.

And the conversation ends there. But obviously all of these things are like way more complicated than like the five seconds it takes you to reach that conclusion.

Tracy Alloway (2:12)

I'm very curious how this became a thing. Like how did agriculture become a big part of the Arizona economy? And why in particular does it seem like we are farming water intensive crops in an area where water nowadays seems to be a concern? And maybe that's the key. It didn't used to be as much of a concern and now it is, but I am very interested in hearing this side of the story.

Joe Weisenthal (2:36)

I think they've always sort of wondered like, what's the deal with agriculture in the middle of the desert?

Anyway, we literally have the perfect guest, because as you mentioned, it's been going on for a long time. We have the perfect guest.

We're going to be speaking with Trevor Bales. He is a sixth generation farmer in Arizona. He runs Bales Hay Farm & Ranch, which grows alfalfa. He's based in Buckeye, Arizona, in the southwest part of the state. And we're going to talk all about the history, the operations, the water usage, all of these things about growing alfalfa in the desert. So Trevor, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Trevor Bales (3:11)

Hi guys, great to be here.

Joe Weisenthal (3:12)

Can I ask you a really obnoxious question?

Trevor Bales (3:15)

Yeah.

Joe Weisenthal (3:15)

Just to start. Bales, like some people are going to like this. Your guest is made up.

Tracy Alloway (3:19)

The nominative determinism.

Joe Weisenthal (3:21)

The alfalfa farmer in Arizona's last name is Bales. Like you might, you cannot be real.

Trevor Bales (3:26)

No, we did not change her name. It's been Bales.

Before it was Bales of alfalfa, it was Bales of cotton. So still a Bale.

Joe Weisenthal (3:34)

That is a very incredible. So sixth generation farmer in Arizona. Talk to us about like the beginning of your family's history, I guess, as a farming family in Arizona.

Trevor Bales (3:45)

My family that homestead in Arizona, their last name was actually Belote, B-E-L-O-A-T, the Belote family.

And they came out here as cattle ranchers. And the cattle ranching turned into farming and cattle.

And then it turned into a feedlot in farming. The farm supplied the feedlot.

And then it transitioned into only farming. Now that's over a span of 120 plus years, but that's in a nutshell. So they came over here. Oh man, my great, great, great, great grandpa, I think he had 14 kids or something. So we currently farm a thousand acres, which if you think about it, we're very lucky to have that many acres when it's been split so many different times between children and family. We're lucky to have that. But they came in the 1820s, but they homestead in 1891 So before Arizona was even a state, my great, great, great grandpa was integral in building the canal district that we currently use for irrigating our crops. So we have an extremely long history. One of our cattle brands is actually in the top, one of the first, I think it's like a 450th or 440-something cattle brand. So we've been here a very long time, have a deep history in the state. And then along the way, my great grandpa Wallace Bales married Alberta Belote.