From 9News.com (Dave Delozier):
Thousands of acres of corn that are supposed to be “knee high by the Fourth of July” will most likely be dead by then. “You know there are man hours in there, and there is care that’s been applied to the field, just like fertilizer has and it is difficult to watch it burn up,” says David Eckhardt, a fourth generation Weld County farmer.
Eckhardt planted approximately 1,500 acres of corn this spring. About two weeks ago, farmers in Weld County stopped receiving surface irrigation water from rivers because of the drought conditions. Eckhardt was forced to make the decision to use the limited water he has on some of his fields while letting the corn in others wither and die. He is walking away from approximately one-third of his crop. Nearly 500 acres of corn now sit baking in the sun…
In a statement released to 9News, a spokesperson for Governor Hickenlooper said, “The Governor has explored every angle of allowing wells to pump more than their legally allocated amounts, and the Attorney General has twice said that’s not possible.”