Plague of locusts devastate crop

This is the time that local farmers begin to harvest green chile peppers, including Genesis Gardens Homestead, which attained the coveted New Mexico Certified Chile endorsement about three years ago.

But that won't happen this summer and fall at Genesis Gardens for the first time in 30 years because of a literal plague of locusts.

Grasshoppers descended on the north Tucumcari farm in late June and devoured nearly all of the crops that owners Darrell and Sally Baker were tending, including varieties of green chiles they spent years developing for the eastern New Mexico soils and climate.

Genesis Gardens usually offers about 500 bushels of its green chiles each season. The insects this year reduced that number to zero.

Sally Baker showed where chiles had been planted. While walking down a path to the plot, dozens of grasshoppers popped like popcorn from desiccated vegetation.

Baker showed dead stems sticking from the soil - all that remained of the chile plants. In addition to eating their other crops, she said the grasshoppers devoured the all the leaves from a mulberry tree near their home, plus the leaves from a 60-year-old willow.

Genesis Gardens has a flock of chickens that roam the premises. Baker said the birds ate some of the grasshoppers, but eventually stopped.

"The chickens are full," she said.

At a fencerow, a buffalo gourd vine, known for its resistance to insects, had succumbed to the grasshoppers.

She said the only crop that emerged unscathed this year was garlic because it was harvested in early June before the grasshoppers arrived.

Baker said last year's harvest also was down due to hail damage and grasshoppers. But this year is much worse.

"It's nothing this year. There's nothing out there except grasshoppers. They're on bare ground, and they're just crawling over the top of each other. It's insane," she said.

Baker said the worst previous grasshopper plague she recalled was in 1985, back when they farmed 160 acres.

"We had an alfalfa crop," she said. "When Darrell baled, there were grasshoppers in the alfalfa. When we'd go back to pick the bales up, a lot of them just fell apart because they'd already eaten out of the bales."

Jonna Stanger, manager of the Tucumcari Farmers Market, said she received other reports of grasshoppers decimating vendors in the Tucumcari region.

"Everybody that's around the Tucumcari area, we've got a couple backyard producers that are still putting stuff out, but it's it's been a battle," she said.

Stanger said other producers in Logan and San Jon aren't as affected by the insects.

Baker said she believed the plague was seasonal and was hopeful her farm's harvest would be better next year. Genesis Gardens does not use pesticides to combat insects.

Jason Lamb, agriculture agent at the Tucumcari extension office, acknowledged local grasshopper populations were "through the roof" and receives at least two calls per week about them.

But he doubted pesticides would be very effective even if the Bakers had used them.

"The biggest problem with grasshoppers is they are so mobile," he said. "If you apply a pesticide to control them, they'll jump in, then they'll jump out. You can't really get a good spray on them to control them."

Lamb said grasshopper populations tend to peak in five-year cycles, then settle down. But that doesn't mean next year will be better.

"Some years it's good, some years it's bad," he said. "It really depends on if the conditions are right for hatch-out (of grasshopper eggs) to occur."

Stanger wondered whether those who do spray for grasshoppers are pushing them into gardens that don't use pesticides.

"Everybody here locally that is trying to have the healthy soil and not use chemicals, they're the ones getting hit with all the grasshoppers," she said.

Baker said their farm had cucumber plants hanging in there during the infestation. But wild turkeys pecked holes in the cucumbers, allowing the grasshoppers to get through the tough skin and eat them.

Darrell Baker said Genesis Gardens does not carry crop insurance. He such such policies are designed for large-scale producers, not small farmers such as theirs.

Sally Baker said the grasshoppers likely will force some changes to the farm's operations. She said she and Darrell are building hoop houses and greenhouses to grow some of their plants and shield them from insects.

"We're not quitting," she said. "We've got time still to do some experimentation so we can see what works."

Though crop failures abound at Genesis Gardens, it still is selling produce at the local farmers market. She said Darrell travels to Clovis and Moriarty to pick up food there so it can be sold in Tucumcari.

"It's our desire to help feed the people of Quay County," she said.

Though this is a trying year, Baker indicated their Christian faith will carry them through.

"All I can tell you is our attitude, and it's just trust in the Lord your God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, because we don't understand any of this," she said.