Where Ranchers Put Their Equipment During a Dry Year in the Uncompahgre Valley

If you have ranched or farmed anywhere in the Uncompahgre Valley for more than a season or two, you already know the water tells you what kind of year it is going to be before anything else does. The Gunnison Tunnel, finished back in 1909, is the reason this valley became one of the more productive agricultural pockets in western Colorado in the first place, carrying water from the Gunnison River to ground that would otherwise be dry basin. Farming and ranching still contribute tens of millions of dollars to the local economy every year, according to the City of Montrose, and that has held true through good water years and rough ones alike.

2026 has landed on the rough side. Reporting from The Water Desk this August found valley growers leaving fields fallow earlier than usual this season, with some culling herds, switching to lower water crops, or leaning on crop insurance to make it through. Montrose Business Times covered the same ground back in July, tying this year's drought to the longer running conversation around water rights succession that has been building in the valley for a while now. Neither of those stories is about one struggling operation. They are describing a valley wide adjustment, and adjustments like that change what people actually need to do with equipment that suddenly has a lot less work in front of it.

At a Glance

• Storelocal Montrose is at 1141 Sequoia Way, just off U.S. Highway 50, with drive up access to every unit.
• Units run from 5 by 10 feet up to 10 by 30 feet, including double door options that fit trailers and bigger equipment.
• KISS Smart Lock technology means you can get into your own unit any hour of the day, not just during office hours.
• Rentals are month to month, so you are not locked into a year for what might be a one season need.
• Climate controlled units are available if you have anything that is genuinely sensitive to heat, cold, or humidity.

What Happens to Equipment That Suddenly Has Less to Do

If part of a hayfield is not getting cut this year, the baler and rake that would normally be out every week all summer just sit. If a herd has been culled, you do not need every piece of feeding and handling equipment sitting around the property anymore either. Neither of those things shows up in a drought headline, but they are the actual, physical result of one, and they show up in your yard whether anyone is writing about it or not.

If you are leasing ground, or you never had a ton of covered barn space to begin with, that leftover equipment usually ends up outside. And weather does more damage to equipment sitting idle than regular use ever does. A baler left under a tarp through a Colorado winter is going to show it come spring in ways the same baler kept dry would not.

What We Actually Hear About From Ranch and Farm Customers

Not everything on an operation benefits from being stored somewhere else, so it is worth being specific about what does.

ATVs and Utility Vehicles

Used for fence checks and moving cattle, these hold up a lot better in indoor vehicle storage between uses than left out in the weather, especially through the freeze and thaw cycles that are hard on batteries and seals here.

Hand Tools, Post Drivers, and Portable Pumps

These take up more room than their size would suggest and do not need to sit outside when they are not part of an active job.

Fencing Panels and Tack

Especially if you are running fewer head than usual this year, these are easy to bring into one secure spot instead of scattered across whatever corners of the property have room.

Portable Irrigation Pipe and Sprinklers

For ground that is not being watered this season, this comes up a lot this particular year. If a section is fallow, the equipment tied to watering it does not need to sit out there collecting weather along with the field.

Trailers

Trailers that see heavy use during calving or shipping season and then sit idle the rest of the year are a natural fit for a unit with double door access, since loading and unloading works the same way a barn bay does.

Why Drive Up Access Matters More for Farm Equipment Than It Does for Boxes

Any storage setup that makes you carry something through a building, up a ramp, or around a corner adds friction every single time you use it. Drive up storage here skips that step entirely. You back the truck right up to the door, same as you would at a barn, and load straight off the tailgate.

That matters more for farm equipment than it does for household boxes, because what you are moving is heavier, more awkward, and usually loaded and unloaded by one person working alone. A stack of fence panels or a portable pump is a completely different job through a doorway than it is off a drive up threshold at truck bed height.

Why Month to Month Makes More Sense Than a Lease for This Kind of Year

Water allocations shift from year to year, and herd sizes shift right along with them. Signing a twelve month storage lease during a dry year is a bet that next year looks the same, and that is not a bet most operations want to make on a storage contract when the whole point of the situation is that nothing is certain right now.

Storelocal Montrose rents month to month, so the commitment actually matches what is happening rather than a calendar you picked back in the spring. If water comes back and the herd rebuilds, the equipment goes back into daily use and you are not stuck breaking a lease to make that happen. If the dry stretch continues, you keep the unit for exactly as long as you need it. No guessing required either way.

Twenty Four Hour Access for a Schedule That Does Not Run Nine to Five

Ranch schedules do not run banker's hours, and equipment needs do not either. KISS Smart Lock technology at this location means you get into your own unit whenever you need to, not whenever an office happens to be open.

An irrigation check before sunrise, a trailer that needs to go back in after dark following a long day moving cattle, a piece of equipment that suddenly has to come out because conditions changed faster than expected: none of that waits politely for business hours. Access any time of day or night means your storage plan is not the thing slowing you down.

When Climate Control Actually Makes a Difference Here

Not every piece of farm equipment needs climate control, and it would not be honest to say otherwise.

When a Standard Unit Is Enough

A steel trailer or a stack of fence panels does perfectly fine in a standard unit with no temperature control at all.

When Climate Controlled Space Earns Its Keep

Climate controlled space, kept between 50 and 80 degrees with humidity managed in the 30 to 50 percent range, actually earns its keep for things genuinely sensitive to swings in heat, cold, or moisture: electronics on newer equipment, feed supplements or treatments with their own storage requirements, or paperwork and records you cannot afford to have warp or mildew. It is worth having available for those specific items. It is not something every trailer or tool needs.

Location Matters When You Are Working More Than One Piece of Ground

Storelocal Montrose sits close to U.S. Highway 50, which puts it within easy reach of Montrose itself and the surrounding agricultural areas including Olathe and Delta. If your operation has ground in more than one spot, or you are hauling equipment between a home base and leased or family land elsewhere in the valley, having secure storage along a route you are probably already driving beats a facility that requires a special trip out of your way.

Figuring Out What Size Actually Fits What You Are Storing

A common question once you start thinking about this seriously is simply how much space you need. A single ATV and some hand tools is a very different footprint than a trailer plus a season's worth of fencing and tack. The unit sizes at Storelocal Montrose run from 5 by 10 feet up through 10 by 30 feet with double door options, so it is worth thinking in terms of what you actually need to fit rather than guessing from a dimension chart, which tends to work a lot better coming from a barn than it does starting from square footage alone.

A Practical Way to Handle a Year Nobody Planned For

Nobody in the Uncompahgre Valley controls the snowpack, and nobody controls how water allocations play out next season either. What you can control is whether idle equipment sits out exposed to weather and eating up space, or goes somewhere secure and dry until you actually need it again. If this year has meant a smaller herd, an idle baler, or just more gear than the barn has room for, a unit nearby on a month to month term is a straightforward way to handle it without betting on how long the dry stretch lasts.

Reach out to Storelocal Montrose to talk through what size and term actually fits your operation. We are at 1141 Sequoia Way, just off Highway 50, with drive up units and keyless access ready whenever you need them.