A Salute to Agriculture The Heartbeat of the Plains
Published by
October 28, 2016
We aT The CiTy of forT Morgan
Salute our loCal
agriCulTural Businesses!
The CiTy of ChoiCe for ourselves and fuTure generaTions! BeauTiful, Clean, safe
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
A note from the publisher … By Julie Tonsing
Publisher, Journal-Advocate, Fort Morgan Times and South Platte Sentinel
“A Salute to Agriculture — the Heartbeat of the Plains.” Work on a farm and ranch is somewhat different with the seasons. Fall is one of my favorite times, but so is spring. In the fall, you reap the rewards of your long hours of toil. The corn is getting picked, some already put up as silage, or high moisture; some needing to dry out more. The sugar beets are being hauled to the factory, and the cattle continue to get tended to. You pray that the commodity prices will be high enough to make the loan payment, and that the yields will be large enough despite that shattering hail storm back in the summer. You know the crop is not going to be as good as it could have been because of the usual lack of moisture — if only we could have gotten one more soaker, we think. This year, life is a bit tougher on the farm. Commodity prices are terrible and livestock prices not in the least favorable. It is unusual that so many of the prices are so low all at one time. The expenses sure haven’t plunged downward to where they would at least offset the ridiculously low price received for the grains. The supply is there at unprecedented highs as farmers learn more and better ways to produce these crops. The price is just absolutely not. We are concerned that those farm-
ers and ranchers just cannot withstand another year of way too low income and way too high expenses. We are concerned that there will be increased numJulie bers of farm sales as Tonsing they just throw up their hands and say “enough.” We are concerned for the rural farm family. I have never met a stronger, more resilient group of folks, but life is tough right now. Never has there been a more important time to bind together, to reach down deep inside and pull each other up by the bootstraps and display that American pride that has sustained farmers and ranchers for so many centuries. Our most sincere support is with each of you. There is no doubt that things will turn around. They always do. Farmers and ranchers everywhere have faced much adversity before and emerged stronger than before. Our farm youth are more knowledgeable than ever before. They are learning to do things their forefathers never dreamed of. We are in good hands when we think about those 4-H and FFA members who are emerging as tomorrow’s leaders. As a whole, farmers and ranchers will bounce back again as that’s certainly not to say that everything about farming is doom and gloom. Far from it. There is nothing more rewarding than getting that crop successfully
harvested and you are full of anticipation for that intoxicating smell of newly worked soil next spring. The same goes for ranching. The sight of a newborn calf is the sign of promise — that all is right with the world. You tend to forget those sub-zero days and nights spent checking cows and pulling a calf if needed. You tend to forget, or at least suppress, the low prices of cattle and the high price of feed. You do all of that and much more because there is no more noble and satisfying vocation than that of farming and ranching. We salute all of you in the field of agriculture and thank you for your hard work to provide us with many of the things we have come to love and take for granted. It is our wish, as you read the many stories on these pages of your friends and neighbors — the ag producers, the organizations that help support them, and a look at our future, the youth who are making a difference in their vocation — that you gain a better insight into ag. Be sure to visit the many, many advertisers that helped make this publication possible. Thank them for their support and show them yours. We hope you will join with us in our sixth Salute to Agriculture — the Heartbeat of the Plains!
Our staff Publisher Julie K. Tonsing Multi-Media Advertising Consultants Andrew Ohlson Mary Ginther Sarah Matthews Vicki Cline Project Editors Sara Waite Robert Leininger Editorial Staff Writers Callie Jones Jeff Rice Forrest Hershberger Brennen Rupp Jenni Grubbs Stephanie Alderton Brandon Boles Contributors Katie Collins Sandy Schneider-Engle Ron Meyers Support Staff Kasha Sheets Kaeoni Sonnenberg Josephina Monsivais Duane Miles Project Design Kent Shorrock
Julie K. Tonsing is publisher of the Fort Morgan Times, Sterling Journal-Advocate and South Platte Sentinel.
Contents Grant funds visit from Moroccan agriculturalists .................................. 4 A-maze-in’ Morgan County ..................................................................6 Destination: Farm Country .................................................................8 Gill keeps busy as state FFA president ............................................. 12 Wickham Tractor Company charts off-road course ............................. 14 Soil tests may validate product claims ............................................. 16 How beets become sugar ............................................................... 18 Agri-businessman loves to fly .......................................................... 20 A four-footed legacy ........................................................................ 23 Planting seeds for the future ........................................................... 24 No easy fix .................................................................................... 26 Lengthy and costly process to put land in trust .................................. 28 Eager to lend a helping hand ........................................................... 31 Hogging the spotlight ..................................................................... 32 Fundraising with food ..................................................................... 33
CPMC encourages attention on ag safety measures ...................... 34 Economic and environmental potential of High Plains cover crops ... 35 NJC Aggies have 48-year tradition of service ................................. 36 Bass celebrates 50 years with Cowpokes N’ Cactus 4-H Club ........ 39 A Farm Bureau family .................................................................. 42 No-till conference returns ............................................................ 44 Tasty research ........................................................................... 49 Longmire author hands out humor, insights at Brush book signing .................................................... 52 A product of her environment ...................................................... 54 Sun power goes to the field ......................................................... 56 Sterling Livestock Commission a family tradition ........................... 58 A bumper crop of empathy .......................................................... 62 BIG Conference introduces students to FFA .................................. 64 Greenhands excited to join FFA .................................................... 65
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Forrest Hershberger / Sterling Journal-Advocate
CSU Extension personnel pictured with Moroccan agriculturalists touring Colorado are (left to right) Brent Young, Dennis Kaan, Brian Talamantes, Kaci Atkinson, and Donald Schoderbek.
Grant funds visit from Moroccan agriculturalists Program offers overview on U.S. grain, animal industry
By Forrest Hershberger hershbergerf@journal-advocate.com
Several agriculturalists from Morocco visited northeast Colorado recently as part of a tour focusing on tillage and crop management. “They were here for two weeks,” said Golden Plains Area Director Dennis Kaan. The group toured northeast Colorado in the second week of their excursion. The tour included stops at the USDA/NRS office near Akron, where officials talked with them about research and tillage. The group also toured one of the irrigation plots. Part of the northeast Colorado intrigue, according to
Kaan, is the similar climate. Morocco has a diverse climate, varying with the geography from the coastline to mountain peaks more than 13,000 feet high. “That, I think, generated the conservation tillage practices interest,” he said. Northeast Colorado was chosen as one of the visits because the author of the grant, who lives in southeast Colorado, wanted a variety of experiences for the group. “He wanted them to experience more geography than southeast Colorado,” he said. The group also visited the Dave and Dan Anderson wheat and corn farm near Haxtun. The primary dis-
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cussion there was wheat production, Kaan said. The Morocco group also toured the USDA agriculture marketing service in Greeley, Ardent Mills in Commerce City, Nation Agricultural Statistics Services in Denver and the Department of Agriculture in Broomfield. Kaan called the tour a “very robust experience.” “They were very interested in the things we’re doing as far as tillage and crop rotation,” he said. The program is through the Cochran Fellowship Program. The Cochran Fellowship Program provides short-term training opportunities for agricultural providers from middle income countries, and
emerging markets and democracies, according to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service website. Cochran fellows usually come to the U.S. for two- to three-week stays. They work with U.S. universities, government agencies and private companies. Kaan said one or two groups tour eastern Colorado each year. The goal of the Cochran Fellowship Program is to provide an overview of the grain and animal industry, he said. The Cochran Program started in 1984 and has trained more than 16,300 fellows from more than 120 countries. The program is named in honor of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
Agriculture is the foundation upon which all human civilization is built. Production Agriculture is the cornerstone of that foundation.
S
uccess in any career in agriculture is dependent on an understanding of the principles of production agriculture. Other institutions have chosen to downplay the importance of practices in production, however Northeastern is committed to improving the industry of agriculture by providing superior education that starts with an understanding of how food is produced. The world needs more food, Northeastern is dedicated to developing the next generation of professionals that will grow that food.
“Contact us to find out how we can help grow your career opportunities.” --Mike Anderson, Agriculture Department Chairman mike.anderson@njc.edu (970) 521-6635
Joe Herricks of Fort Collins was selected the top Production Agriculture student at Northeastern for the 2015-2016 academic year. Ag Instructor, Larry Pollart, presented the award.
Leaders in Production Agriculture since 1941. www.njc.edu
1-800-626-4637 (970) 521-6600
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
A sign outside the Pope Farms maze shows an aerial view of its 2016 design. The maze looks different, and has a different theme, every year.
A-maze-in’ Morgan County
Pope Farms celebrates years of tourism, looks to future growth By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
In October most corn farmers are wrapping up their growing season, but for the Pope family, it’s just the beginning of a new season. Pope Farms, located near Wiggins, not only grows corn commercially but also holds a corn maze and pumpkin patch every autumn. The giant maze, located right next
to Exit 66B on I-76, draws hundreds of guests every year from all over Colorado and the neighboring states. This year the maze had a Peanuts theme to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”, but it also marks a time of change for Pope Farms itself. The Pope family has had a pumpkin patch on their farm near Morgan County Roads 3 and T for about 20 years. Seven years ago, Derek and Cynthia Pope decided to move the patch to a field they were leasing near the interstate so that they could add a corn maze. “Every year we try to grow it and See MAZE, 7
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Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Painted hay bales greet guests as they enter the 2016 corn maze at Pope Farms. Pope was one of 90 farms in the U.S. to receive permission from the Peanuts franchise to use characters and designs referencing the Peanuts movie "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" for its 50th anniversary.
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MAZE from page 7
add new activities and things for people to do,” Cynthia said. This year the attraction included a corn box, a train for kids, all-ages activities like pumpkin painting, the usual farmer’s market with products like jams and fresh fruit and, for the first time, a giant slide. There is always a family-friendly corn maze during the day and a haunted one at night, but the design is always different. Shannon Pope said they were especially excited about this year’s design. Pope was one of 90 farms in the U.S. that got permission from the Peanuts franchise to use one of their approved 50th anniversary corn maze maps. “We’re really excited we get to use their images, because they don’t give it to just anyone,” Shannon said. They made the most of the privilege. Peanuts characters were displayed all over the maze and pumpkin patch, and one weekend they had a special showing of “Great
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
A girl goes down the giant slide at Pope Farms.
Pumpkin” on a big screen at the farm. Guests also got a chance to fill out a bingo card of Peanuts-related landmarks hidden throughout the maze. During the rest of the year, the 28601 Hwy 34 • PO Box 506 Brush, Co 80723 Phone 970-842-5115 / 970-380-3798 Fax: 970-842-5088
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www.livestockexchange.org • e-mail: livestockexchange@hotmail.com
Cattlemen taking care of cattlemen ~ Supporting the community that supports you. November 2016
December 2016
THU, Nov 3
WEIGH COWS/BULLS
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Popes grow chiles, watermelon, squash, canteloupe and pickles to sell at farmer’s markets. They’re best known for their autumn attractions, though, and not just in Morgan County. Renee Warden, a family
friend who has worked at the maze for several years, said she often sees people from the Front Range or even Wyoming and Nebraska. This year, she said, Wyoming had a poor pumpkin crop, so more people were coming from there to pick up pumpkins. Because the maze is so close to a major highway, traveling families often stop by after seeing the signs. “It’s always a lot of fun,” Warden said. “Kids like it.” Next year, though, the maze won’t just have a new design. It’ll be in a brand new place. Right now the Popes are renting their field, and Cynthia said they want to move to a place where they can build permanent structures and possibly even hold year-round activities. She’s hoping the new location will be on Derek’s family farm north of town, but nothing is set in stone yet. Pope Farms is typically open Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the month of October.
Plains Realty is a Proud Supporter of our Agricultural Community.
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Thursday (every) at 9:00 a.m. • Friday (Spring and Fall) 10:30 a.m. Saturday (3rd Sat. of every month) Hay Sales at 10:00 a.m. As we continue to make improvements, the newest renovation has been to the vet barn facility! Please stop by and take a look! Watch for next sale schedule coming in July. We Are Cattlemen Taking Care of Cattlemen. www.facebook.com/LivestockExchangeBrushColorado
(970) 867-3250
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 7
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Young guests ride the train at Pope Farms in Wiggins, one of Morgan County’s top agritourism attractions.
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Destination: Farm country Morgan County seeks to grow agritourism industry
By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
To longtime residents, Morgan County may not seem like an ideal place for a vacation, but some city dwellers disagree. At the beginning of October, the Morgan County Tourism Board became a member of the Colorado Agritourism Association. The CAA is an organization made up of producers who work to encourage tourism in rural areas, especially farms. “Agritourism” is a broad term that can include everything from corn mazes and “pick-yourown” farms to heritage museums and music festivals, and Kristine Rodine, the county’s tourism marketing manager, believes Morgan County has plenty of it to offer. At the autumn Progressive 15 conference on Oct. 13, CAA director Greg Williams talked about the growing agritourism trend among Colorado farmers. He defined it as
Find out more
For more information about agritourism in Colorado, go to www.coloradoagritourismassociation.org. To learn more about agritourism in Morgan County, contact Kristine Rodine in her office at 231 Ensign St., Fort Morgan, or by phone at 970542-3508.
any venue operated by farmers, ranchers or other rural producers that is open to the public for the purpose of “pleasure as well as recreation, information, education or other agriculture-oriented experiences,” which may or may not cost money. The CAA tries to educate farmers about how to offer such services successfully, as well as spreading the word about those who are already doing it. Gary May, who has been operating an agritour-
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ism business in Byers since 2005, said that in order to be successful, he needed help from his community. “Each one of you, when you go somewhere, you don’t go to see a one-trick pony,” he said. “You’d like to have a number of things to do with your family or your friends or whatever it is.” He said he prefers the term “rural tourism” to agritourism, because he believes everyone in a rural community, not just the farmers, should be working together to attract outof-town people to the area. He pointed out that when visitors come to see rural attractions or events, they’re also helping nearby restaurants, hotels and shops, so those industries have a stake in advertising such attractions. As the head of Morgan County’s tourism department, Rodine agrees. She already helps to advertise big events like the Bobstock
music festival, as well as important local attractions like the Fort Morgan Museum, but she hopes to get more businesses involved in agritourism this coming year, including some of the county’s large dairies and farms. “City folk have no idea what it’s like to be out on the prairie and around livestock,” she said. “So people will pay to come and milk cows.” Chris and Mary Kraft, who own one of the largest dairies in the county, do host educational tours sometimes, but for the most part, it’s the smaller Morgan County farmers who are taking the lead in agritourism. Pope Farms is one of the most prominent examples, with the popular corn maze and pumpkin patch they host every fall. Derek Pope started the maze seven years ago as a supplement to the farm’s regular income. See AGRITOURISM, 10
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 9
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Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Some of the advertisements the Morgan County Tourism Board has put in various travel magazines. The head of the board, Kristine Rodine, hopes to emphasize agritourism even more next year.
AGRITOURISM from page 9 “The younger generation of farming doesn’t look as lucrative, so in order for him to make it farming, he thought he should also add agritourism,” Pope’s wife, Cynthia, said. Many farmers across the state are turning to the industry for similar reasons. With the price of corn, sugar beets and other major crops declining, an educational tour or “pick-your-own” service can be a valuable boost to a farm’s income, often at little cost to the farmer. But agritourism comes with its own set of difficulties and risks. For working farmers, they take time
and resources away from the business of actually running the farm. Farmers who open their land to the public, even for a limited time, also run the risk of getting sued if anyone gets hurt, or of having their own equipment damaged. Offering an agritourism service can open farmers up to more government regulations and insurance costs. John and Kathy Wagner, who operate Sand Cherry Farms in Fort Morgan, have considered offering a pick-your-own raspberry patch or orchard, but the cost and uncertainty involved makes them hesitate.
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“I’m not dismissing it, but I’d need to really check it out thoroughly,” Kathy Wagner said. “How much more would it jack up our insurance? That could be a deterrent.” Rodine hopes that, by joining the CAA, her department can help mitigate those problems. Colorado House Bill 1280, which was passed in May, limits farmers’ liability in all agritourism-related activities, provided they notify guests beforehand of any risks involved. Normally the state-required notification signs cost about $100 per set of two, but the CAA provides them to members
for free. Among other things, the CAA also provides a program called CHAMP, which pairs up farmers interested in agritourism with mentors who have been doing it successfully for years. “Our department wanted to make sure that we knew everything we possibly could to help, and help promote, agritourism within our county,” Rodine said. “Joining the Colorado Agritourism Association, that was a major first step for us.” Rodine hopes eventually to put Morgan County “on the forefront” of agritourism in Colorado.
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Gill keeps busy as state FFA president Merino student values what he’s learned through organization
By Callie Jones cjones@journal-advocate.com
Four and a half months into the job and Gus Gill has already found serving as Colorado State FFA president to be a very rewarding experience. Gill, who is from the Merino FFA chapter, thought about serving as a state officer throughout out his high school career, but it was when he became president for District 16, which encompasses several local FFA chapters including Merino, that he came to realize the true potential he had in FFA. “I really started to see what a cool organization it was and how servant oriented it was,” he said. “That’s kind of what got me my first push into really being determined that I wanted to run for a state officer position. Since then, I’ve just continued to figure out that there’s a lot of cool opportunities, not just in the contests in FFA, but the different service opportunities and just learning how to be cohesive on a team. I really value everything I’ve learned through FFA.” Gill was elected to serve on the state officer team for 2016-17 at the 2016 Colorado FFA State Convention, held in Sterling, in June. For him, it’s been a very humbling experience following in the footsteps of Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Don Brown, Merino alum Andy Bartlett and Nick Vollmer, and Dr. James Pritchett, executive associate dean for the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. “It just has been such an awesome experience, because here in Colorado we have just under 6,300 members and so I get to be the face of that with my other nine teammates and that’s been such a
Journal-Advocate file photo
Gus Gill, of the Merino FFA chapter, smiles after putting on his new blue and gold jacket as the newly elected 2016-17 president of the Colorado FFA during the 88th Annual Colorado FFA State Convention, in June.
cool experience to kind of serve in that high leadership position,” Gill said. He is quick to point out that while the state officer team may be the face of FFA for Colorado, it’s really those 6,300 members who are the true meaning of FFA and who are really going to make the true impact within agriculture. “Having that massive number, there’s just so much potential within that and I’m really looking forward to seeing what those numbers can accomplish,” Gill said. During his time as state officer he has attended various leadership trainings, including a national leadership conference, held in Nebraska, for state officers from Colorado
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and five other states, which he found to be a neat experience. “We got to learn all about our team dynamics and also learned about other teams and how FFA operates in other states and just kind of see both the diversity, as well as the unity of FFA throughout the entire nation,” Gill said. After completing that training, Colorado’s state officer team when through their own individual team training, known as blast off training, where they determined what each officer’s strengths and weaknesses are and how they can fill in for other team members’ weaknesses. Additionally, in August, Gill and the state vice president, Ryan Lat-
ta, of Cedaredge, attended the FFA State Presidents’ Conference, in Washington D.C., where state officers talked about some different legislation that was to be discussed at the National FFA Convention, Oct. 19-22, in Indianapolis. Gill was put on a committee that is looking at revising FFA’s standards for some of the things taught in agriculture education classrooms and through Career Development Events (CDEs). They are looking at what kinds of categories aren’t being met and trying to find a balance between what’s taught in the classroom and what’s taught through CDEs. Also during the president’s conSee FFA, 13
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FFA from page 12
ference, while the legislature was out on August recess, Gill and Latta did get to meet with staff from some of the legislators’ offices to discuss legislation on the national level that’s affecting agricultural education. “That was a really cool opportunity,” Gill said. He and the other state officers also attended the Colorado State Fair in August and in September they visited FFA members around the state at different BIG (Being Involved as a Greenhand) District Conferences. “We’re really excited, because we had all these leadership trainings and stuff that directly related to FFA during the summer and now we’re actually getting some member interaction time and so we’re really looking forward to starting our chapter visits throughout the year and just all the opportunities available with our members,” Gill said. He has learned a lot about himself during his time so far as state officer, what his strengths and weakness are and the importance of being able to rely on his teammates to take care of different responsibilities. “That’s been the most beneficial thing I’ve learned, is just how it takes all kinds of people to make a team work and it’s not one person’s responsibility to do everything, but everyone’s responsibility to accomplish a single task,” Gill said.
Journal-Advocate file photo
Gus Gill gives directions to students for an activity during the BIG (Being Involved as a Greenhand) District FFA Conference, held at Northeastern Junior College, in September. Leading district conferences is just one of his responsibilities as Colorado FFA state president.
The experience has also reiterated to him how extremely important ag advisers are. “My ag adviser, Todd Everhart, did a lot in my life and continues to do a lot in my life to make sure that I’m always reaching my full poten-
tial and I know that there’s a lot of students who feel that same way about their ag adviser,” Gill said. “It’s just really important that we have those ag teachers; throughout the state there’s a lot of times that you here about shortages
within not just agricultural education, but education as a whole. We really appreciate the work that our ag teachers put in; it definitely is something very inspirational.” He himself plans to be a high school ag teacher in the future. Gill just finished his first year at CSU last school year, where he is majoring in agricultural education and soil and crop sciences. Once he graduates from college he wants to get involved in the ag industry; he’s not sure in what way yet, but he sees some real benefits to getting experience with an ag business before he starts teaching, so that he can share experiences with his students. “Within the agricultural industry there’s so much to get involved in, which is why I think FFA is so cool, because it really teaches you what all opportunities are available,” Gill said, referencing organizations like Colorado Farm Bureau and Western Dairy Association. “I really have learned a lot about different organizations, prior to FFA and especially now in this position, I get to meet with a lot of our leaders and sponsors within the agriculture industry and there’s just so many cool opportunities with so many businesses in agriculture that I’m not entirely sure what I want to do within that. But, I know there’s just an abundance of opportunities and wherever I go I’ve been learning some tremendous things and how to truly be an ambassador for the agriculture industry.”
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 13
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Brandon Boles / Fort Morgan Times
Brad (left) and Jason (right) Wickham are the owners of Wickham Tractor Company that has locations in Fort Morgan and Sterling.
Wickham Tractor Company charts off-road course
4th-generation owners bring diversity to business By Brandon Boles
sports@fortmorgantimes.com
Wickham Tractor Company has been in Fort Morgan since 1960. The Wickham family has seen three generations of owners operate the company in Morgan County. In 2013, the fourth generation of the Wickham family took over the business. Today, brothers Brad and Jason are in charge.
“The business started with our great-grandfather, and then his two sons, Homer and Don, were next after him,” Brad Wickham said. “Homer, who is our grandfather, then sold the business to our dad, Howard. And then we bought the business on Dec. 31 of 2013.” The company has seen many shifts over the years, from having a business in Brush to opening a second location in Sterling in 1998. One new shift in business has taken place in the last few years as Wickham Tractor Company has now begun to sell ATV’s and offroad vehicles to go with their standard business of farm equipment,
14 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
lifestyle and construction equipment, and a feed dealership that works mostly with dairy and cattle producers. “Our tagline is farm-feed-fun,” Jason Wickham said. Polaris Industries is the brand that Wickham Tractor Company sells for their off-terrain vehicles. The company added the new merchandise to the store shortly after Brad and Jason took over the business. The new line of vehicles to sell has helped the company over the past few years as the numbers in selling farm equipment have been down for the past couple of years.
“We’ve had the luxury of riding the downward trend,” Brad joked. “With the diversification of Polaris and the steady business with our feed equipment, that has maintained until we get out of this trend on the farm side.” As economics tend to work in northeast Colorado, business is up when the farmers do well and can be down if they do not produce or sell as many crops as they would like. The brothers know first hand their business is tied in with the farmers in eastern Colorado. “The commodity prices and the strength of the dollar are the two See WICKHAM, 15
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WICKHAM from page 14
biggest things for that trend right now,” Jason Wickham said. “Commodity prices are down substantially. We are a direct result of that.” It’s the unknown trends in the farming industry that has helped the company shape an image of diversifying its brand to reach a variety of customers for different needs, according to Brad. “It has opened the doors to new clientele,” Brad Wickham said. “We can service a wide array of people. A lot of times when ag is down, construction is up.” “Now is a perfect example of that because you are seeing a number of people moving out of the Front Range area, so more houses are going up,” Jason Wickham added. The diversity also allows the company to have new business come during the winter and other slow portions of the season, according to the brothers. The brothers have already worked to make a mark with the
opportunities,” Jason Wickham added. Even though the two have helped spark new business within the company, many of the principles that the older generations in the family implemented remain intact. Both spoke about providing quality customer service and being able to meet with clients in person to work with them directly for their needs. “We are here and we’re not in some remote location that Brad or I can’t hop in the car and go Sterling to meet with a customer or vice versa,” Jason Wickham said. “You can’t usually meet or talk to the owners in a major farm equipment corporation.” Brandon Boles / Fort Morgan Times “The other thing I would say is Four-wheelers and other ATV’s are some of the new machines Wickham the quality of the team we have,” Tractor Company is beginning to sell. Brad Wickham added. “When we are smaller like we are with two family’s company in their short “The diversity makes us unique locations, there is a lot more ability time taking over and continue to and sustainable,” Brad Wickham to adapt and change our ways. We have an eye on the horizon for the said. are accessible to all employees all future of the company. “We’re always looking for good the time.”
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Soil tests may validate product claims
Extension agent runs field trials on enzyme product By Jeff Rice
jrice@journal-advocate.com
Wilma Trujillo positions a hollow tube on a hydraulic apparatus mounted to the front of her pickup truck. “I’m looking for microbials in the soil,” she says, and pulls a lever sending the long tube down into the earth. The truck rises slightly and the hydraulics groan in protest. “The soil is really dry,” Trujillo explains, and reverses the tube, pulling up a plug of soil. She measures the depth she needs and carefully worries a sample of the soil into a pre-marked bag. Then she moves the truck and starts the process over again, ultimately pulling a dozen or more thin columns of soil from Chris Fritzler’s sugar beet field. Trujillo, the field agronomist for the Colorado State University County Extension Office in Sterling, is involved in the painstaking process of analyzing a commercial product that a chemical company says will improve sugar beet yield and sugar content. A successful sugar beet farmer needs both high yield — that’s the number of tons of beets per acre — and sugar content, or the percentage of a beet that renders into purified sugar. Typically, sugar beets are about 20 percent sugar. In this case the product is called AgZyme™ and it’s put out by a company called Ag Concepts Corp. of Eagle, Idaho. On its website Ag Concepts says AgZyme “activates the microbial potential (of soil) to help get nutrients into the plant.” Microbials are present by the mil-
Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate
See ENZYME, 17 CSU agronomist Wilma Trujillo sends a coring tube into the earth in a sugar beet farm near Sterling. 16 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
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ENZYME from page 16
lions in good crop soil and they help break down organic material in the soil to get nitrogen into the plant. If a chemical compound can boost the activity of the microbials, it can increase the rate at which nitrogen gets into the plant, increase the size and health of the plant and increase the amount of sugar the plant will manufacture and store in its bulbous root. Ag Concepts has already had university extension agents test AgZyme in Illinois, Idaho, and Washington, and has asked Trujillo to test the additive under eastern Colorado’s growing conditions. “We get calls from producers asking our opinion on X or Y product, and we just don’t know,” Trujillo said. “To answer those questions for producers, I want to know if it benefits the producer or not. We have a moral responsibility to find out, to test the product to find out the answers.” Hence, Trujillo’s search for microbials in Chris Fritzler’s beet
field. She has several plots in Fritzler’s field she is testing, and several in another field near Brush. She ran a series of tests in April before the beets were planted, and will compare her soil tests from harvest time with those earlier results. In addition, the AgZyme was applied in different concentrations in different plots, to give the test more variables to examine. And soil tests are just part of the research Trujillo is doing; she will also look at tonnage and sugar content and compare that to her microbial data But one season of testing probably won’t yield results she can publish. “I would say it’s going to take two years at least before I can say anything for sure,” she said. “And then I won’t say whether it’s good or bad, but I will just write up the results of what I find and then publish them through the university.” The results will be made available, without judgement, by CSU to anyone who wants to see them, but
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CSU agronomist Wilma Trujillo pushes a soil sample into a labeled plastic bag.
they will be copyrighted. The two years of testing is a minimum, Trujillo said. “Things change from one year to the next,” she said. “A wet, cool year is different from a dry, warm year,
even if you take irrigation into account. So the more years I can get to test, the better my results will be.” If Trujillo finds what Ag Concepts thinks she will find, she should see yield increasing by about a half-ton per acre and sugar content increasing by about 0.7 percent. That doesn’t sound like much, but when multiplied over several hundred acres of sugar beets, it can mean several percentage points of improvement. But is that a sufficient return on the investment of adding AgZyme? “That’s a very good question,” Trujillo said. “The other part of all of this is the economics. Is it economical to use this product on your field? I can’t answer that question for the producer, but I can give them my information and they can make that decision themselves.” And so, next spring, Trujillo will drive her pickup out into the test fields again and pull plugs of soil out of the earth, and start another year of testing. It’s what Extension agents do.
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Photo by Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
Rows of trucks with full loads of sugar beets waiting for them to be added to the piles will be a common sight in Fort Morgan now that Western Sugar Cooperative has expanded the sugar factory's capacity.
How beets become sugar
Multi-step process has sweet result
By Jenni Grubbs
jgrubbs@fmtimes.com
When there’s a sweet but somewhat funky smell in the air coupled with white or gray plumes bursting into the sky above the Western Sugar Cooperative factory in Fort Morgan, it’s a pretty safe bet that sugar beets are being processed. A great many Fort Morgan and Morgan County residents or their relatives have worked at the plant, but how many of them really know the process for turning the tubers to sugar and by-products? According to the crash course Western Sugar previously gave to the Fort Morgan Times, the sugarmaking process is a complicated one. But it’s a process that Western Sugar has been perfecting for more
than 100 years. It all starts with the beets getting brought to the factory by the rehauler. Once the beets have been dropped from the rehaul trucks into the wet hopper, they get drug up through machinery that lifts them and separates out the rocks and other trash. They then get washed and lifted up to the slicers. From there, beets get cut into what Fort Morgan plant workers call cossettes, which are slices that kind of look like cooked noodles. Those slices then are moved in a rush of water along belts into the diffuser, which is full of hot water, and where the cossettes soak. Doing that diffuses the sugar out of cells in the beets. The sugary juice thus gets separated from the pulp, but both of those resulting products have many
18 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
See BEETS, 19
There are lots of steps between raw sugar beets and finished beet sugar. This is one of the early ones, when beets are run through a piler and the process of removing dirt and debris begins before the tubers are added to the large piles for processing.
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BEETS from page 18 more steps to take at the factory. The pulp gets pressed and then ends up becoming cattle feed. It typically is about 76 percent moisture, making it a desirable silage product. The juice that’s pressed out of the wet pulp goes back to the diffuser and gets recycled. In fact, there are 15 steps used to purify the raw sugar beet juice. It then goes through carbonation and milk of lime treatments to control pH. Both the milk of lime and carbon dioxide are created by burning limestone in a kiln. Next comes a clarifier, where calcium carbonate, formed from the lime and carbon dioxide, settles. What’s left is a clear juice, which is sent to heaters and carbonation and filtration stages. After that, the juice gets mixed with sulphur dioxide, which helps remove color and further control pH and turn it into thin juice. That then gets sent to the evaporator supply tank, where it is heated until
The lab at Western Sugar Cooperative in Fort Morgan is a hopping place during the campaign. The sugar factory tests random samples of beets throughout production. Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times file photo
it becomes thick juice. The goal is to get it down to at least 55 percent concentration, according to Western Sugar. Next, it goes through crystallization and separation of high and low raw sugars and then gets heated
and concentrated further. There are three stages of boiling, which produce white, intermediate and raw types of sugar. The third stage of crystallization is what produces white sugar. Granulated sugar is 99.9 percent sugar,
according to Western Sugar. Other parts of this process lead to the creation of beet molasses, industrial granulates (aka powdered sugar), pressed pulp for cattle feed and precipitated calcium carbonate for soil supplementation.
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Jeff Rice/ Sterling Journal-Advocate
An AT-402 from Aero Applicators treats corn with insecticide earlier this year east of Sterling. Aero Applicators pilots fly nearly 1,000 sorties a year applying crop production products in the area.
By Jeff Rice
Agri-businessman loves to fly
jrice@journal-advocate.com
It’s not surprising that Darrell Mertens loves to fly. After all, he is a pilot, and pilots go through the rigors of flight training for only one reason: It is, as John Gillespie Magee so aptly put it, to slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings. Of course, flying in and of itself is an expensive pastime so anyone who wants to do a lot of it has to have something that pays the
Spray plane operator also leader in safety and local aviation
freight, and in Mertens’ case that something is Aero Applicators, the company he has owned since 1983. They were once called crop dusters because the very earliest ones actually spread powdered pesticides and top dressings over crops. They were a daring, swag-
20 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
gering bunch, bringing their airplanes in below tree-top level to skim the crops and spread a thin layer of protection against pests, primarily of the insect kind. The swagger and daring have been replaced with business acumen and meticulous safety rules, and when Mertens talks about his
business it isn’t the love of flight that gets mentioned, it’s the business decisions. “If there’s something wrong with a crop and the economic threshold has been reached, the growers will contact us,” Mertens said. “Economic threshold” means the farmer stands to lose more by doing nothing than he will spend on paying for Aero Applicators’ services. And farmers reach that See AERIAL, 21
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AERIAL from page 20
threshold between 900 and 1,000 times a year. Aero Applicators makes flights almost every day from March through October, and for two weeks in the spring Mertens’ son, Patrick, takes one of the sprayers back to Illinois to serve clients there. The company is diversified, too; it has a 3320 Case IH Patriot ground sprayer for clients who can’t be reached by air because of proximity to people or aerial obstructions. Besides applying crop production products, the company also can do seeding of cover crops to reduce wind and water erosion of soil. Crop spraying and aviation in general have changed radically since Benson Aviation opened at Sterling Municipal Airport in the 1960s. The company moved to County Road 27 three miles west of the airport in 1978. Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate Darrell Mertens learned to fly Barb Gentry of Sterling gives a thumbs-up as Darrell Mertens prepares to take her up for a Miracle Letter ride. after he graduated from Merino Gentry’s family had contributed $200 to the Santas of Sterling’s Miracle Letter Program, which Mertens supports See AERIAL, 22
with rides in the company’s 1963 Ag Cat biplane.
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High School in 1973. He went on to Colorado State University, graduating in 1977, and farmed with his family near Merino. But in 1983, with Benson Aviation on the market and the pleasures of flight beckoning, Mertens bought the company and still runs it from the C.R. 27 location. The boss didn’t fly a spray plane himself, however; leaving that to the specially-trained pilots who have mastered the unique talents needed for low-level, low-speed flying. Aero Applicators still owns one of the Grumman Ag Cat biplanes it bought from Benson, but the aircraft has been lovingly restored and is used now to give rides to anyone who will contribute $200 to the Santas of Sterling’s Miracle Letter Program. And to the occasional reporter who wanders in. The heavy lifting these days, however, is done by two speciallybuilt Air Tractor AT-402 turboprop airplanes and the larger AT-602. The red and white 602, which resembles a World War II fighter plane, is actually owned by Aero Applicators’ subsidiary, Aero S.E.A.T., which is devoted to aerial support of wildfire fighting. The products that Mertens’ crew applies these days are in liquid form and in much lower concentrations than in the past. Still, Mertens says, there are those who are leery of the practice because of agenda-driven environmentalism of the 1960s and 1970s. When talk turns to public perceptions, two words leap from Mertens’ lips: “Silent Spring.” That’s the title of Rachel Carson’s now largely debunked book about the ill effects of widespread use of DDT. Through the 1970s and beyond Carson’s book was hailed as a bellwether of the environmental movement, but a 2002 article in Reason magazine by researcher Ronald Bailey documented that there is little evidence showing DDT posed any significant environmental harm. But crop spraying still labors under the stigma of Carson’s bad science. “That’s why I’m not sure I buy
into the idea that we humans are causing all of this environmental change,” Mertens said. “Yeah, the climate is changing, but I think it’s arrogant to think that most of it is caused by human activity.”
He quickly changes the subject, however, and the conversation returns to flight and aviation in general. He is a vocal supporter of Sterling’s municipal airport, Crossen Field, and of the efforts of local officials to promote it. “This airport could be one heck of an asset to Sterling,” he said. “There are only two ways into Sterling, by road and by air. There’s no passenger rail service here. This airport could be a major link to the Front Range.”
He is also a leader in the promotion of general aviation safety. When local pilots and remote-controlled model enthusiasts wanted to address the growing concerns about amateur drones, Mertens organized a meeting with an official of the Federal Aviation Administration and held the meeting — and a hamburger fry — in his hangar.
“There’s going to be more and more (unmanned aviation) in the future,” Mertens said at that meeting. “Farmers use it to check their crops and their herds. It can be a very useful tool in agriculture, but we have to keep everybody safe.”
The conversation about flight is interrupted by the arrival of another Miracle Letter contributor, there for her airplane ride. Mertens has already pre-flighted the Ag Cat — he’s already flown it once that morning — and helps his passenger get buckled into the front seat. He straps himself in, fires up the engine, and performs the necessary checks. Soon the biplane goes lumbering down to the north end of the gravel runway and the engine can be heard howling in the distance. Then Mertens releases the brakes, the tail comes up, and the airplane seems to float away from the ground, once again to dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
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A four-footed legacy
The Chapin family dairy has a long history in Morgan County By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
Since the Chapin family farm was founded in 1938, it has become a home to four generations, three Foys and thousands of dairy cows. The farm was founded by Myrtle and Foy Chapin, who used it for a variety of things, including raising cattle and chickens and making pickles. But when their son Don Chapin and his wife, Gertie, took over the farm, they focused more on dairy production. Today the farm is one of the oldest and largest dairies in Morgan County, with about 1,500 cows and 30 full-time employees. Gertie, who still does bookkeeping and other work on the farm, has seen it change many times over the years. “It used to be, when we had 25 cows, that I knew everything about each cow,” she said. “But now... you just push up a number to find all the data.” Gertie’s son Foy runs the farm now, along with his wife, Cindy. He said it’s hard for farmers to stay afloat in the modern dairy business without growing the way the Chapin farm has. Both he and his children fell in love with farming, but they all found it easier to come back to the family dairy than to start their own. “It’s millions of dollars just to start up,” he said. “Your equipment, the stuff you would need to farm, let alone build a new dairy — it’s multi-millions of dollars just to do that. So if you’re a young, beginning farmer, it’s very difficult to start up without good, supporting neighbors or a really nice bank.” Since Foy’s four children all returned to the dairy, though, they’ve been able to expand their operation to another farm in Sny-
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
A calf peeks out of its pen on the Chapin dairy farm.
der, called Riverside Milk. Now the two dairies support six families. Foy’s children, Foy H., Tiffany, Cole and Cami, along with their spouses and a few young children, all live on or near one of the farms. And those aren’t the only families they’re supporting. All the Chapins consider their cows to be part of the family, too.
“We take care of them, and they take care of us,” Foy said. All the cows on the Chapin farm are code-named NIPAHC Holsteins, and produce milk that goes to Leprino Foods and other dairy companies. “Taking care of them” involves feeding them a complex feed blended together from corn, cottonseed and even leftover scraps
from bakeries, among other ingredients. The cows take a “vacation,” as Gertie calls it, when they’re close to giving birth, which includes a pedicure to keep their feet healthy. Calves are raised in their own section of the dairy, in small kennels where members of the family enjoy See DAIRY, 25
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Planting seeds for the future
The Wagners seek to preserve their farm’s legacy — and the nature around it By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
Kathy Wagner hasn’t been a farmer all her life, but she has always wanted to be one. The Morgan County native grew up on what is now known as Sand Cherry Farms in Fort Morgan. Her parents and grandparents were Germans from Russia, among the many “Volga Deutsch” who came to the Fort Morgan area in the early 20th century. Although she left the farm as an adult and spent many years in the mountains raising a family with her husband, John, it eventually became impossible for her to stay away. “My heart was always here, and I wanted to come back,” she said. “I liked the farming life.” During her time away from the farm, she held several exciting jobs, such as being a deputy sheriff in Jackson County and a pack horse trail guide. She regularly helped load search and rescue helicopters, and helped re-introduce moose to the mountains near Walden. John was a forest ranger and a firefighter, and Kathy often helped him with those jobs, too. But when her children grew up and her parents were no longer able to run the farm, she and John were eager to return. Of course, the farm she took over was different from the one she grew up on. It has grown smaller over the years, and the rest of the family had moved on from farming. The Wagners had to re-imagine the farm in a new way. Now, most of their income comes from selling feed and renting out the farm’s cornfields. But John and Kathy’s passion is in the smaller crops. They grow a wide variety of chiles, tomatoes, onions, squash, grapes and raspberries, among other things, and sell them at farmers’ markets throughout the summer,
Photos by Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Kathy Wagner peels tomatoes for one of her homemade sauces in the kitchen on Sand Cherry Farms.
including the annual Brush People’s Market. They also keep about 40 beehives, conduct environmental surveys for oil and gas companies and sell homemade items at craft fairs in the winter. Kathy makes about 500 jars of jam per year, and the couple have found some niche markets for their more unusual crops, like scorpion peppers, “Mr. Stripey” tomatoes and yellow raspberries. “There are a lot of little things that
24 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
all come together,” John said. One thing all the Wagners’ projects have in common is a consideration for nature. They encourage the growth of milkweed in their pastures in order to attract butterflies See WAGNER, 25 The Wagners' three ducks roam the vegetable gardens on Sand Cherry Farms.
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DAIRY from page 23
WAGNER from page 24
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Trapper the mule, one of the Wagners' three equine pets — or "friends," as they prefer to call them.
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Four generations of the Chapin family on their dairy farm in Weldona.
visiting them every day. Several of the Chapins agreed on their favorite part about running a dairy: “the babies.” Watching calves grow up is part of what makes all the work worthwhile. “You have to do something with them every day,” Audra said. “Even Christmas, even Thanksgiving.” In their ongoing effort to take better care of their cows and produce better milk, the Chapins have
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become innovators in their field. Foy said they were the first dairy in the world to build a milking barn with a basement, which is now standard procedure in the U.S. They pride themselves on efficiently recycling water in all their operations and using “green” technology. They hope to pass on that legacy, not only to their own kids, but to a whole new generation of farmers.
and other pollinators to their land. While they carefully cultivate crops like the chiles (in a special greenhouse environment), some of their crops are unplanned, like a peach tree that sprouted from peach pits in a compost bin. Kathy doesn’t believe in cutting down or throwing away “volunteer” crops like this, since her philosophy is to “find a use for everything.” Sand Cherry Farms is also home to three ducks, two mules and a horse, which are all treated like members of the family. Although the Wagners’ children sometimes help with the farm, particularly their mechanics-savvy son Chet, they don't have grandchildren
and no one is set up to inherit the operation after they retire. But they hope to preserve the plants and wildlife that thrive there now. “I would like this piece of ground to stay as a piece of ground,” Kathy said. “When my kids get to advanced age, like we’re getting into now, I would like them to turn it into a conservation piece of ground.” John said the plan is to either turn it over to an organization like the Colorado Nature Conservancy or sell it to another farmer. The important thing, he said, is to make sure the land keeps providing a good home for nature.
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Jeff Rice / Journal-Advocate photo
Geese settle on a large pond on the Alan Gentz property northwest of Sterling. The property offers a combination of wetlands and wildlife refuge at the edge of urban development. The Audobon Society regularly visits the property to record dozens of species of native birds.
By Jeff Rice
jrice@journal-advocate.com
Those who oversee Colorado’s conservation easement program are working to pull it out of the quagmire of controversy that enveloped it a year ago. The program was the subject of two bills before the Colorado legislature to try to stop attempts by the Colorado Department of Revenue from trying to collect millions of dollars the DOR sees as “back taxes.” Only one succeeded, and then only partially, and legislators promise to take another run at it again when the General Assembly convenes in
No easy fix Born of good intentions, conservation program faces complications, controversy
January. Meanwhile, lawsuits and countersuits are being filed across Colorado, some in district courts, some in federal courts, and one of the largest civil actions in the state’s history may well hit Colorado in federal court in 2017. How did something so well-intentioned end up in such a sorry state? And is there any hope of restoring it?
26 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
The answer to the second question is, absolutely, yes. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, and Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, have promised that they and their colleagues will continue to work on conservation easements until they get it right. It is still a good idea, and it is worth making it work for everyone involved. As for the first question, it would take a book to explain all that went
wrong. Most observers agree that the program was a recipe for disaster: a lack of oversight here, a dash of fraud there, a large dollop of governmental overreach, and a pinch of incompetence, all seasoned with bad faith, distrust of government, and fervent belief in the absolutes of property rights. Simmer that on a burner of official neglect for 15 years and the result is a stew that is savory only to lawyers and journalists. One can get so deep in the quagmire that it’s easy to forget what it
See EASEMENTS, 27
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EASEMENTS from page 26 was supposed to be all about — saving open space. The idea is fairly simple: Set aside land, under the protection of a not-for-profit trust, so that ground can never be built on, drilled into, dug up, or otherwise developed. Conservation easements are usually done on property that has some value for agricultural, scenic, historic, environmental, or recreational use, or a combination of those. Most easements are found on property adjacent to or near federally- or state-owned land, but some are isolated patches of ground that provide a slice of rural heaven in an increasingly urbanized world. Getting an accurate count on how much land is in conservation easements can be tricky, and that in itself is something of a problem. Marcia Waters, executive director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate, says the state doesn’t keep track of where the conservation easements are, or how many acres
Calculations for figuring state tax credits on conservation easements.
are conserved. “People have been donating conservation easements for decades,” Waters said. “Prior to the state income tax credit, these were strictly private land transactions
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with no government involvement. There are still conservation easements that are donated in which a state income tax credit is not claimed.” Colorado Open Lands, based in
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Lakewood, does have a catalog of conservation easements, but only dedicated to certified land trusts, and it doesn’t offer a county-bycounty breakdown. COL puts the See EASEMENTS, 28
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EASEMENTS from page 27
acreage at 1,534,957 acres, but that total doesn’t include several easements owned by Logan County and Morgan County because the counties aren’t certified by the Division of Real Estate. According to Waters, before 2011, counties and other government entities didn’t have to be certified. The conservation easement program in its modern form came out of the environmental activism of the 1970s, although the concept first appeared in rough form as early as the 1890s. In Colorado, Boulder County led the way in 1976 with one of the state’s first conservation easements, and by 2012 that county’s program “exceed(ed) the number held by all but the largest local government open space programs and land trust organizations in the country,” according to the county’s Program Policies and Practices document. At first seen as a hedge against unbridled urban growth, conservation easements have been used to protect a variety of natural resources. Along the Roaring Fork River and in the Arkansas Valley, conservation easements keep water tied to the land and out of the hands of those who would “buy and dry” agricultural and scenic land to slake the thirst of urban sprawl along the Front Range. Across the arid prairie of eastern Colorado, strategically placed conservation easements keep farmers on their farms and ranchers on their ranches by channeling what little urban growth there is away from ag land. More importantly, perhaps, they also keep highlysought gravel deposits in the ground, preventing the destruction of cropland in the rush to feed the concrete-based growth of the I-25 corridor. But increasingly, conservation easements have been seen as a tax shelter, and that’s where the trouble begins. To provide an incentive for landowners to forgo profitable development of their land in the name of open space, both the IRS and the State of Colorado offer significant tax breaks. The federal tax See EASEMENT, 30
Lengthy and costly process to put land in trust So, you want to put some land in a conservation easement? Be ready to spend some money and take some time because the process can take months and there are fees almost every step of the way. The process is meant to convey privately owned land from the land owner or “donor” to a non-profit land trust. Most land trusts are 501(c)3 non-profit organizations, although in some cases the state, a county, or even a school district, college, or other public entity can be designated as a land trust. Families have even established their own land trusts and non-profit entities. There are hundreds of land trusts in Colorado, and several of the large ones have detailed how-to guides on their web sites, as does Colorado State University. Almost all have the following steps, more or less in this order.
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Title Commitment
The land trust will want a copy of a current title commitment for the property that contains a legal description of the property, ownership, mineral estate ownership, mortgages and liens. The cost for obtaining a title commitment is often included in the premium charged for the title insurance policy.
based on this policy amount.
Subordination Agreement
The IRS requires that any mortgage or lien interests be subordinated to the conservation easement. If the lender or lienholder cannot or will not subordinate, the easement won’t be a qualified conservation contribution under the Internal RevTitle Insurance Policy enue Code. Of course, if the land is Although the title commitment owned free and clear, this step can identifies any known exceptions to be skipped. title, it does not insure the title. The purpose of purchasing a title insur- Survey If there is a question regarding the ance policy is to protect the land trust from any loss sustained legal boundaries of the property, a because of defects in the title other survey may be necessary. Most land than those specifically excluded in trusts will want one, unless one has the policy. The amount of the policy been done within the past few years. equals the appraised value of the conservation easement, and the title Mineral Rights If the donor does not own 100 percompany will charge a premium See PROCESS, 29
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PROCESS from page 28
cent of the mineral rights on or under the property, IRS Code requires that a letter be prepared by a geologist to determine that the probability of extraction of minerals from the property by surface mining is “so remote as to be negligible” (language in quotations is from the Code). If the report does not reach this determination, then the project will not be a qualified conservation contribution.
conservation easement and draft the deed that conveys the conservation easement from the donor to the land trust. This is where decisions are made about what can and cannot be done on the donated land, and both parties need to arrive at a clear vision of the future of the donated land. If the donor’s lawyer doesn’t conduct the negotiation, then the donor should have the deed reviewed by their own attorney. Understanding Appraisal exactly what the conservation easeIf the land donor intends to take ment says and that it says what the advantage of the tax deductions and donor wants it to say and mean is the credits allowed by the IRS and the donor’s most important task. state, there must be an appraisal by a qualified appraiser to document the Present Conditions value of the gift. The IRS and Colora- Report do Department of Revenue have speA Present Conditions Report (also cific requirements that define a “qual- known as a “Baseline Report”) is an ified appraiser” and what constitutes IRS requirement which must be prea “qualified appraisal.” pared to document the resources on and conditions of the property at the Deed of Conservation time the conservation easement is Easement conveyed. The baseline report will The land trust and the land donor need to be prepared by a qualified need to negotiate the terms of the preparer and approved as accurate
by the donor.
Environmental Assessment
In a few cases, it may be necessary to complete an environmental assessment of the property to determine the probability that the property has been contaminated with toxic waste or hazardous materials. This report is required in connection with limiting certain liabilities, and must be prepared by a qualified consultant.
IRS Tax Form 8283
other documentation to determine if it meets State requirements for a tax credit.
Legal Advice
Do we really have to say it? Make sure that every step of the process is reviewed by an attorney who has your best interest in mind. It’s best to have the lawyer walk through the process with you, but at the very least have everything reviewed before signing anything.
Landowner Professional Fees
This form must be submitted with Besides legal, surveying, and the donor’s federal tax return, and appraisal fees, there probably will be donors are strongly advised to get other expenditures required. Landassistance from a tax professional. owners may want financial, tax, estate planning, real estate, and accounting Obtaining and Selling advice and services related to the the Tax Credit conveyance of a conservation easeIn order to claim a Colorado Tax ment. Credit for a conservation easement donation, a donor must obtain a tax Other Costs Closing fees, courier fees and other credit certificate from the State. The miscellaneous costs related to the application for the tax certificate is made to the Colorado Division of project sometimes occur. Real Estate, which reviews the conSource: Colorado Open Lands, servation easement, appraisal and Lakewood, CO
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EASEMENTS from page 29 deductions have had few problems, but the state tax credits have all but invited fraud. The arithmetic is fairly simple: The value of the land if it were available for development minus the value of the land with no possibility of development, divided in half, equals the conservation easement value, sometimes expressed as the “easement burden.” The federal tax deduction is a percentage of that value, but Colorado allows a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for the easement value, and if the land donor can’t use all of the tax credit in the year the donation is made, he or she has up to 20 years to use it. Alternatively, the tax credit can be sold, at a discount, to other taxpayers to use against their Colorado income tax bills. There are limits on how much of a tax credit a land donor can take, but those limits have grown steadily. The limit on tax credits was around $100,000 for tax years 2000 through 2002. In 2003 the limit climbed to $260,000 and in 2007 it rose to $375,000, and in 2011 it shot up to $1.5 million. To anyone who is land rich and cash poor — and this includes a lot of farmers and ranchers — the arrangement is an attractive one. The problem is figuring out just what kind of development a conservation easement would prevent. That’s not easy. Most of us think we know what “development” means: Houses, streets, shopping centers — building stuff where there was once just open space. Development can mean draining wetlands for parking lots and big box stores or tearing up cropland for tract homes. But there can be other kinds of development: diverting river water away from its natural flow and into existing cities, or punching holes in a wilderness to extract fossil fuels, or stripping away grasslands to dig up coal, minerals, or even sand and gravel deposits. Conservation easements might even be used to prevent the construction of wind and solar farms. Fortunately, the state’s conservation easement statutes allow easement holders to specify what kind
Courtesy photo
Map showing locations of conservation easements in Colorado. The map only reflects those held by certified land trusts.
of uses they want for the land being put into the easement. Farmland can still be farmed, but oil or gas exploration might be prohibited. A public park might be landscaped, but structures might have to blend in with the natural environment. There could be any number of conditions put on the easement. Deciding what is and isn’t reasonable development is the hardest part of the equation. Out on the open prairie, there isn’t much potential for development. Along the river valleys, where Mother Nature has strewn vast deposits of gravel over the millennia, conservation easements can be used to stop or prevent gravel mining under cropland, but those deposits are so widespread and numerous it’s hard to say that an easement would “burden” the land very much. And around Colorado’s small cities and rural towns, where housing and commercial develop-
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ment once gobbled up cropland, the housing bust of 2008 has never turned into a recovery. That’s not to say the program can’t still be a boon to rural Colorado. More than 1.5 million acres of land is now in permanent conservation easement; water that would have been taken out of the Roaring Fork, Yampa, and Arkansas rivers still flows in those streambeds; hiking trails, camping sites, and recreational open space is available to future generations that otherwise wouldn’t have been. Everything from beautifully landscaped parks to raw open land has been saved, and many more acres still can be. But first, state officials have to figure out just exactly what a conservation easement is worth, and how to equitably and collaboratively work to establish as many easements with as little cost to the state as possible. One would think that would have been done in the begin-
ning, but it hasn’t, and therein lie the program’s current troubles. Much of the heavy lifting of that job will have to come from the Conservation Easement Oversight Commission. Created in 2008, the CEOC is tasked with assessing the real conservation value of a proposed patch of ground. That doesn’t mean the dollar value — that’s the job of appraisers trained and licensed by the Real Estate Division of the Department of Regulatory Agencies — but rather whether putting an easement on a piece of land adds materially to the quality of life in Colorado. Rolling, verdant hillsides at the foot of the Rockies are a shoo-in for easements, but what about a weedy vacant lot in Commerce City? Or the vast sandy plains of southern Washington County? Those are harder questions to answer, and it will be up to the CEOC to grapple with them.
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Eager to lend a helping hand
High school student spends plenty of time on family farm
By Brennen Rupp
Journal-Advocate sports writer
Those who have had the privilege of growing up on a farm know the hard work and dedication that goes along with it. Some sons and daughters may dislike having to lend a helping hand at every turn. That’s not the case for Remington Canfield. Instead of focusing on the negative of having to do manual labor during his free time, Canfield focuses on the positives. “I just enjoy being around my family,” Canfield said. “You get to be with your family every day. I enjoy working with them and spending time with them. It’s good family bonding time.” Canfield is home schooled and is classified as a junior at Merino High School, where he plays football and is on the wrestling team. Canfield and his family live in Sterling, where they have farms they tend to. “My family has multiple farms,” Canfield said. “I help out with that. We have cows and we spend
most of our time in the field.” The responsibilities for Canfield change day to day. Canfield said there is no chore that he doesn’t enjoy doing. “I help with weaning calfs. I’m out in the field helping there,” he said. “I enjoy helping out with whatever needs to be done. There isn’t anything that I dislike doing. I always enjoy helping out and being out there. Somebody has to get the job done, and I’m happy to help out.” During the summer the majority of Canfield’s time is spent helping out on the farm. When the Logan County Fair rolls around in August, he can be seen inside the Logan County Fair grandstands helping out with the rodeo and other events. “I help shag bulls at the rodeo,” Canfield said. “I’m very much involved with the rodeo. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s something I’ve always been around. I really enjoy helping out with those events.” Canfield doesn’t know
Remington Canfield / Courtesy Photo
Remington Canfield and Josh Sonnenberg riding their horses in Canfield’s family field.
exactly what the future agriculture. holds for him, but he has a “After I finish high school plan that includes college as I plan on going to go to well as a continuing role in school for welding,” he said.
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Hogging the spotlight Crowds turn up for swine judging during 2016 Morgan County Fair
By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
The 2016 Morgan County Fair included lots of activities for 4-H students, but some of the biggest stars were the pigs. Starting at 4 p.m. on Aug. 1, the Multi-Purpose Building at the fairgrounds began to fill up with spectators and contestants in the market swine judging. Students of all ages entered their pigs in showmanship, lightweight market and heavyweight market contests. In addition to a ribbon, the winners got bags of prizes sponsored by local companies like High Plains Cattle. “It’s the most aggressive part of the day,” Morgan County Commissioner Jim Zwetzig, a member of the Fair Board, said of the swine judging. The atmosphere was certainly more competitive than it was in earlier judging events at the fair, with dozens of participants in each category and a packed house throughout the contest. All the students who participated in the swine judging had put many months of hard work into their pigs, but some of the winners were still a surprise. Wyatt Halley, a 15-year-old member of the Cowpokes ‘n’ Cactuses 4-H club, managed to win the grand champion award in the lightweight market swine competition, even though both he and his pig were suffering from hurt limbs. Wyatt had dislocated his shoulder earlier in the summer and had surgery on it two weeks before the fair, which limited his options as to what events he could participate in. Then the pig he chose to show in the lightweight competition began to have trouble walking. “In the jackpot season she didn’t do very well, because her back legs wouldn’t work with her body, and today, she’s walking perfectly normal,” he said. “It’s like a miracle happened.” He went on to place sixth in his division of the Berkshire Market
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
Wyatt Halley, 15, with the pig he entered in the lightweight market swine competition at the Morgan County Fair. Despite the pig's struggles with a bad hind leg, it won the grand champion award.
Hog Show at the Colorado State Fair. Wyatt has been showing pigs at jackpot shows and county fairs since he was 2 years old. He also raises lambs and rabbits. After high school he hopes to continue working with animals. Jason Lackey, of Haskell, Texas, judged the county fair contest, choosing the top five students in
32 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
each class and picking an overall grand champion and reserve champion to go on to the Colorado State Fair. He encourage the runner-ups to watch and learn from the winners in later events. “Once your event is done, come back and sit in the bleachers and just observe what the other kids are doing,” he said. Judging by how crowded the
room became later in the afternoon, many people heeded his advice. Of course, it may also have had something to do with the pork burgers being sold inside the building by members of the Brush Lions Club. They faced a steady stream of customers throughout the afternoon, and collected the proceeds to fund various Lions Club events and activities.
Fundraising with food Fort Morgan High School FFA District Representative Kelsi Schrum spreads cinnamon over the dough she rolled out as part of making cinnamon rolls to sell at Brush Oktoberfest as a fundraiser for the FFA chapter. Watching in the background in the FMHS kitchen are FFA Advisor Danica Farnik, left, and FFA President McKenna VonFeldt. They all started out making many trays of cabbage pockets but wound up with extra dough, so they switched to cinnamon rolls, Farnik said. Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
CPMC encourages attention on ag safety measures Data shows agriculture is one of most dangerous occupations in United States
By Sandy Schneider-Engle Colorado Plains Medical Center
Agriculture plays a vital role in Morgan County’s economy. In fact, nearly 7 percent of the area’s workforce is considered agricultural based. For Morgan County and other rural communities, the predominance of the agriculture industry is an important reminder that special attention and focus are needed on safety since agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that in 2013, farming accounted for 500 fatalities or 23.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. Additionally, farmers and their families can ill afford the pain and inconvenience of workplace injuries and death. Farmers typically lose four days for every injury they suffer. Yet, the daily duties of feeding and caring for livestock, and planting, tending, and harvesting crops continue. Like any business, ag can be financially set back by safety violations, illnesses and deaths. “These numbers represent the people who work hard to produce the world’s food,” said Glen Hetzel, 2007-08 president of the National Institute for Farm Safety. “The story behind the numbers serves as an important reminder of the continuing need to spread the agricultural safety education and awareness message.” Morgan County has experienced its share of farm-related accidents according to Cassie Greene, Colorado Plains Medical Center’s trauma coordinator. “We encounter everything from motor vehicle accidents involving tractors or farm machinery to individuals falling off horses,” Greene said. “Because we are a state designated Level III Trauma Center, we
Fort Morgan Times file photo
Farming can be a dangerous job, but accidents can be avoided if safety precautions are taken when using farm equipment, working with animals or driving on rural roads.
are often the recipient of any serious injury. We set high standards and provide additional staff education to address this type of accident severity. Therefore, we are often able to treat and care for the patient at our facility.” Some agricultural accidents need higher levels of care or treatment, though, she said. “We once had a rancher who was seriously injured due to an unpredictable livestock interaction. His internal injuries necessitated the need to be transferred to another higher level trauma facility,” noted Greene. The number of agricultural
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deaths and injuries has fallen gradually, stated Hetzel. Safer equipment and the continued emphasis on safety awareness make a difference. All community members can collaborate in the promotion of safety on farms and ranches. The No. 1 practice anyone can adopt to help prevent agricultural accidents during this busy harvest season is to make safe driving on rural roads a priority noted Greene. “If traveling on rural roads, keep an eye out for slow moving farm equipment ahead. The gap between you and a slower moving vehicle can close quickly and lead to disaster, especially when distracted,”
added Greene. Distracted driving is the leading cause of all traffic crashes. In fact, drivers who use a cell phone are four times more likely to be in a crash than other drivers who aren’t using a device. For other ag safety tips, visit the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety’s website at: www.necasag.org. Information about Colorado Plains Medical Center can be found at www.ColoradoPlainsMedicalCenter.com. Sandy Schneider-Engle is the director of community relations and marketing at Colorado Plains Medical Center in Fort Morgan.
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Economic and environmental potential of High Plains cover crops
On-farm research can improve farming practices
By Ron Meyer
Golden Plains Area Extension
Sparse or erratic rainfall leaves farmers looking for anything they can do to increase yield while decreasing things that cost money — such as irrigation. High Plains crop producers have a keen interest in both crop rotation and management strategies that influence their economic viability and the future of their agricultural enterprises. Colorado State University crop and soil scientist Meagan Scipanski is interested in how diversifying crop rotations and using cover crops can maintain yields, keep soils productive, reduce environmental impacts and address retention of both soil carbon and water. She recently secured funding for a collaborative grant for sites in northeastern Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. Extension personnel on the Golden Plains will be assisting in local areas by providing a solid producer base for onsite research. “One of the costs to tillage is we release both carbon and water into the atmosphere and that’s unpro-
ductive and part of the greenhouse gas complex,” said Ron Meyer, Extension agronomist in the Golden Plains area of eastern Colorado. His collaboration with Schipanski will guide conversations with cooperators who have an interest in hosting this research on their farms of between 20 and 40 acres. Crop scientists at Colby, Kansas, and several sites in Nebraska are also recruiting volunteer cooperators to expand on-farm testing to sites throughout the region. “Meagan’s interest in cropping systems, cover crops, no-till and integrating livestock into this whole system is just a natural fit for High Plains Agriculture,” said Meyer, who, for the past five years has conducted research comparing nearly 30 different plant species for cover potential and forage production with various production techniques.
our recommendations for new crop rotation practices.” Beginning in February the team will bring cooperators together with researchers to discuss timeline and strategies. “Anytime you get 10 or more farms and farmers together, the dynamics change,” Meyer notes. “Some farms may have no livestock, some farms may be heavily livestock-oriented. We have to have a way to coordinate that so the research and the information coming out of this project make sense.” Where the research protocol identifies a need for livestock on the site at a certain period of time, for example, the cooperators will agree to bring the livestock in for a set number of days and then take them off. The research team will weigh them in and weigh them out with a focus on a data-rich project.
Including livestock in the mix
Cropping research long-standing
The new research project will incorporate Meyer’s original cooperators, but including livestock into the mix means more land is needed. “On-farm research is an essential component of this study, Schipanski says. “We would like to utilize a wide spectrum of farmers from across the region to help validate
Colorado State University research in the Golden Plains Area cropping systems has been in place since the early 1990s, with projects conducted by CSU soil and crop scientist Gary Peterson. His findings moved the farming community to two dryland crops in three years. Farmers now plant wheat, then into
that wheat stubble the next year, they plant a spring-seeded crop such as corn, milo, millet or sunflowers, followed by a fallow season. Reduced tillage strategies were a part of this transformation. “Dr. Peterson had to get through a couple of years of research and get results before farmers began to take notice,” Meyer notes. “One of the early results was, dryland corn yields almost 70 bushels an acre some years. Farmers began to ask, ‘Can you make some money with this practice?’ And the answer was, ‘yes, most years you can make some money,’” Meyer said. “Employing reduced-till strategies is better for the environment and increases yields, so it was a win-win situation for everybody.” Meyer says adoption of these new techniques took a while. “It was probably a whole seven years before producers really started to adopt the conversions and it was the innovators that did those conversions first.” As neighbors and the community saw the new method working, the whole countryside began to adopt the new practice. “We’ll see what the research results show us with this new project. Maybe there will be another change for production agriculture out here,” Meyer said.
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate
The 2016-17 members of the Northeastern Junior College Aggies Club pose for a picture. With over 40 members the club is one of the largest on campus.
NJC Aggies have 48-year tradition of service
Group likes to bring good to others
By Callie Jones
cjones@journal-advocate.com
They’re known as the “yes” club on campus, because they’re always willing to lend a hand to help others. Northeastern Junior College’s Aggies Club has had a proud tradition of community service for almost 50 years now.
Formed in 1968, it’s the oldest club on campus, as well as the largest, with well over 40 members. “I would say we are a group that really likes to get together and bring a lot of good to a lot of people, including ourselves, when possible,” said Larry Pollart, who serves as co-adviser of the club, along with Kelly Huenink, both of whom are NJC Aggies alumni themselves. “We are blessed to have a bunch of really good kids that have a little bit of work ethic in them and some ag
36 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
values. It renews our faith in the future.” Leading the club this year are sophomores Logan Henry (Joes), president, and McCall Etl (Fleming), vice president. Both joined the group as freshman, Henry decided to continue in the club this year’s because he enjoys its interactive environment, something he credits Pollart and Huenink, with creating. “They want to make sure everyone’s involved and having a good time,” he said.
When Etl joined the club she was looking for a place to belong. “I didn’t really have a thing when I started (at NJC); I kind of didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere and then I joined Aggies and we did the highway clean-up; that was probably the most fun thing I did all year last year,” she said. The club holds monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of the month; each one includes a meal, often prepared by Pollart. After the students See AGGIES, 37
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
AGGIES from page 36 finish eating, there are fun activities and discussions about upcoming activities and events the club is working on. There are also speakers. At a recent meeting the club heard from Aggies alum Chance Kanode, who is now the ag teacher at Briggsdale High School. He spoke to the students about Farm Bureau, a lobbying organization for agriculture, encouraging them to get involved in its collegiate program. Kanode shared his experience competing at the state discussion meet while in college. At those meets, students are asked to analyze a current agricultural problem and decide on a solution that best meets the needs of the group or program. The discussion occurs in a committee meeting format. At the end, the top two teams make it on to the national competition. Some of the topics to be discussed at this year’s state meet include: “American agriculture depends on a foreign-born labor
are driving the management of natural resources?” Kanode also shared some of his favorite memories from Aggies, including the annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry, held in October. The event, which serves as the club’s biggest fundraiser, helps promote diversity on campus, but it also brings students together with community members who come out to enjoy the meal, along with fun activities including a kiss a pig contest and chicken poop bingo. Approximately 250 people attended this year’s oyster fry. “You get all these kids across campus, like the other side of campus, that have no ag experience; Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate you bring them out to north campus NJC Aggies members serve up food at the club's recent Rocky Mountain and they get to try Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry. The event, which is the club's largest fundraiser, helps promote Oysters for the first time. The look diversity on campus and brings together students and community on their face when they find out members. what it is and they don’t know, is priceless,” Kanode said. He also enjoyed the club’s trickforce. How would you draft a nation- can we ensure that farmers and al immigration policy?” And, “How ranchers, not government agencies, or-treat for canned goods event, See AGGIES, 38
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
HAVE YOUR CROPS BEEN
MISSING OUT ON THE WATER THEY NEED?
AGGIES from page 37 which will be held again on Halloween this year. “If you want to do a really fun community service project, trick or treat for canned goods is a blast, because you dress up, you walk around to houses and you tell then we’re here to pick up cans. This community expects you to come around and get them; they actually have cans sitting by their door waiting for you. It’s awesome, because the community loves it and they get to be a part of what you guys are doing,” he told the students. Along with those two activities, the Aggies also do highway cleanup every year on Highway 6, help with the ag fest CSU Extension holds each spring on campus, help with welcome-week activities in the fall and spring, and provide assistance to other groups on campus, especially the Associated Student Government, if they’re hosting an activity. “We’re known as the ‘yes’ club; We’re always saying yes to helping them out and cleaning up,” Henry said. “It just feels good to be able to provide the services to help the oth-
er clubs as well.” For both him and Etl, one of the things they’ve enjoyed most about being part of this group is meeting new people with the same interests. “Even like this year, there’s a lot of kids that I don’t know in the ag department and the Aggies is primarily ag kids, so it’s really nice to meet more ag kids and get to talk about similar interests,” Etl said. But, Henry is quick to point out that you don’t have to be an ag student to join. “We’ve been trying to pull kids from the other side of campus — you want a free meal, fun activities, you can learn about agriculture. We’ll be glad to have anybody.” They have also enjoyed the ag advocacy things the club does, which they agreed will be very beneficial to them in their future careers as high school ag teachers. “That really is like a jump start for our ag ed majors, because then we actually, we’re really thinking about what we need to say to the public, how to correctly and accurately tell our story of American agriculture,” Henry said.
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38 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate
Kelly Huenink, one of the co-advisers of the NJC Aggies Club, holds up her Aggies jacket from when she was a student in the club in the 1980s. Formed in 1968, the Aggies is the oldest club on the NJC campus.
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Bass celebrates 50 years with Cowpokes N’ Cactus 4-H Club
By Katie Collins
Brush News-Tribune
With 6.5 million current members and 45 million more alumni throughout the nation, 4-H has become America’s largest out-ofschool education program for boys and girls. In Brush, one particular club will also herald in their 50-year anniversary as the Cowpokes ‘N Cactus Club honors their beginnings in 1966, when long-time leader and mentor Bruce Bass, first caught the bug to start up his own offshoot. At just 18 years young, and freshly graduated with the Brush High School Class of 1966, Bass began wondering where he would focus his home-grown love for all things ag, after being raised on the very family farm where he still resides to this day, outside of Brush. Located near his family’s original homestead, the area set the scene for his own life’s pursuit of caring for and showing animals. “I had started with the Gary AgN-Ec Club when I was 13,” he reminisced as he sat within the walls of his Old Tyme Country Store business located in downtown Brush last week. “And when I graduated, I felt like there was going to be a void if I weren’t still involved, so I approached our County Agent,
Courtesy photo by Mary Endsley
Bruce Bass
Chester Fithian then, and he simply said I should start up my own. So I did.” With a group of recruits that began with his own nieces and nephews, and soon grew to include many neighbor kids, the 1966 upstart’s first order of business was to come up with a name. “Some kids threw out the term ‘cowboy,’ but others thought it should show the area we lived in, the sandhills,” he said. “The kids
thought of just what sort of thing would bring the sandhills to mind first, and came up with ‘cactus.’” The combination soon became the Cowpokes ‘N Cactus crew and the family bond they would form, beginning with the very first members to those currently enrolled, would span through a half-decade, watching as the 4-H program itself evolved from animal showings and care, dress-making and agricultural skills for rural youth, into a multifaceted worldwide program that welcomes kids from both the country and urban settings, from cityfolk to country-folk, and now hosts arenas of learning that range from champion animal showings and care, to fashion, photography, baking, gardening, art and even rocketry and robotics abilities. Growing confidence, creativity, curiosity, courage, character and so much more, has always been a driving force for all of Morgan County’s 16 hard-working clubs, and the Cowpokes ‘N Cactus kids exemplified that from the get-go. “I learned so many life-lessons through my sheep projects,” wrote alumni Claire Dixon. “Responsibility, financial management, problem solving, decision making, entrepreneurship, record keeping, animal health, nutrition and wellness,
cleanliness and many more,” she describes. “He always encouraged me to work harder and strive to do better.” Connecting youth with caring adults has been a consistent cornerstone of the program and Bass’ willingness to share personal experiences and offer opportunities to explore, make mistakes and learn, was something all of the Cowpokes ‘N Cactus alumni and members fondly recall. “Bruce is known as many things around this community,” wrote alum Lindsey Endsley. “He’s a community leader, business owner, realtor, rancher and most importantly to me,” she added, “my grandpa. He’s helped to give me every amazing chance life has to give... and to achieve all the goals I set for myself.” “Leaders often face busy and stressful schedules,” penned Lindsey in an article she wrote. “As a leader, he rose above and beyond to give his members the best possible experience. As a small town 18year-old boy, he amazed many by his will to ignite an interest in others to share the passion he had.” With the club’s hard work and efforts put into each Brush Fourth of July parade floats that were so See BASS, 40
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BASS from page 39
memorable that Bass himself can recall vividly the details of each float — from the first 1967 ‘Brush or Bust’ wagon set on a pickup that happened to have enough give on the bumper to give the illusion of the horses created with paper and chicken-wire behind as galloping, to the 1968 “Population is Progress” themed Old-Woman in the Shoe float, to the 1969 9-foot tall Statue of Liberty, the 50-year-long and going strong leader still recounts some great stories of the times, and so do his generations of members. “We have always appreciated Bruce’s willingness to take on the horse projects as a 4-H leader,” wrote the Ruggles’ gals now known as Mae Ruggles, Jaylene Evans and Andrea Strand. “We especially recall the elaborate floats his mother would help with for the Fourth of July parades and thank him for all the families he has helped to learn the valuable experience of 4-H”. “It felt like family,” recalls Dave Strand. “Bruce was very passionate about his leadership and he never let up on me being perfect at whatever I attempted — and whatever animal I would show. I won many awards for my showmanship and I feel I use so many of these skills still today,” said Janet Krohn. Daughter Mary Endsley, now a 25-year 4-H leader herself, noted, “Dad always made 4-H a fun learning experience and he made sure we were taught the responsibilities that went along. There are a lot of good memories and even a few bad ones, but every memory had us learn something. His dedication to 4-H is what keeps me going as a leader today.” From his time spent as an active member of the 4-H Board, on the CSU advisory committee and the lessons and love for hard work he’s passed on to so many generations, Bass has touched many Brush lives. In 2002 his efforts had him honored as Outstanding Volunteer of the year at the state level, and he doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. “He made sure his club was a family and he’s maintained its high standard for the past 50 years,” wrote Lindsey Endsley, “and he
Courtesy photo by Mary Endsley
Family, friends and helping the youth of tomorrow pick up a passion for ag, animals and all things 4-H, is what America's largest youth-centered club is all about, and for the Cowpokes 'N Cactus Club out of Brush, who celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, the tradition continues and is strong.
plans to keep it that way.” With so many memories for area kids, from the opportunities to travel to neighboring fairs, talent nights and hilarious skits, to the Cowpokes ‘N Cactus club’s infamy on the softball diamond so many years ago — from picnics to meetings, rodeos to the Colorado State Fair trips that proved his own family’s sole vacation most years — Bass’ very dedication to community highlights the impact that National 4-H
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Week aims to honor. “4-H is as much of a family activity as it is an individual one,” stressed Bass as he sat to tell his stories. “You have to have parents and families involved and they are just as important as the kids themselves,” Bass said. “And the kids themselves become a family of sorts. It doesn’t just stop at the meetings, or even in going home to raise an animal for a project,” he continued. “It is really, especially in our family, a
life’s passion. It requires a lot of behind the scenes work and the kids themselves don’t get enough kudos for all they dedicate, year round.” “And you can’t believe how much it has blossomed,” he stated, as he remembered back to his own club’s humble beginnings. “It has grown to take in so many more kids who normally might not have thought it was for them. It reaches out to everyone.”
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
A Farm Bureau family
Korrey-Frank family lends voice to ag organization
By Sara Waite
swaite@journal-advocate.com
Crystal Frank says when she was 18, she would never have guessed the path her life would take. As someone with a deep interest in politics, she thought perhaps she’d spend her days on Capitol Hill. And she did; she interned with then-Sen. Wayne Allard in 2005 while studying political science at Colorado State University, then later helped Jerry Sonnenberg with his first campaign for the state legislature and served as an intern during his first legislative session. During her college years, Crystal says she saw a need for agriculture to have a voice. A disconnect from farm to table meant people can’t understand where their food comes from, beyond the grocery store. She wrote her senior thesis paper on the Farm Bureau and being a voice for ag advocacy. And after graduating in 2007, she went to work as a state lobbyist for the Colorado Farm Bureau. She called the job opportunity “a huge honor, and definitely a privilege.” She was the youngest certified lobbyist at the Capitol at the time. In 2011, her life took a different course when she married Fleming native Andy Frank and moved back to her family’s farm near Iliff. Andy, a “cow man,” was farming and ranching in the Fleming area, and “he wouldn’t move the cows to Denver,” Crystal said. Crystal was able to continue working with the Farm Bureau in a different capacity, essentially trading jobs with the then-regional manager serving 10 counties in northeast Colorado, a role she has held for the past five years. The family expanded with the arrival of A.J. three years ago, and he accompanied Mom to meetings
Courtesy photo
Crystal and Andy Frank with their children, AJ (front), Julia (left) and Jacob.
around the state. But the addition of twins Julia and Jacob earlier this year has prompted another big lifestyle change, as Crystal has announced she will be stepping down from the CFB at the end of the year to raise her family. She says she has been asked in the past if she would ever consider
42 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
running for office, given her passion for politics. While she doesn’t completely rule it out, she says she enjoys working in the background — and given her busy family life right now, it’s not something she spends much time thinking about. Instead, she plans to join Andy in running the family’s cattle opera-
tion. They are living in what used to be her grandparents’ house, with a larger new home under construction up the road at the small family feedlot. The cattle operation is quite diversified, with North American Limousin Foundation-registered cows, a cow-calf operation raising bulls and replacement heifers and some custom calves. They sell their seed-stock bulls on the first Saturday in March each year, and Crystal anticipates playing more of a role in marketing the event. While it’s not necessarily the life she envisioned as a teen, she says she wouldn’t change anything about it. And perhaps the course of her life’s journey shouldn’t come as a big surprise, given that she grew up in a Farm Bureau family. Her parents, Don and Barb Korrey, were recently honored as 25-year members of the Logan County Farm Bureau. Don says he joined the Farm Bureau after his stint as a Logan County Commissioner in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He said the organization gave him a lot of support during his term, and he became active at the state level when Crystal was a young girl. He is now the president of the Logan County Farm Bureau. Korrey has been farming for 40plus years, since graduating from CSU with a degree in ag economics. He joined his dad in the operation, and now has a partnership with his brother, Jim. They grow irrigated corn and alfalfa, mostly using sprinklers, in addition to the cattle that Andy takes care of. Barb Korrey grew up in the “big city” of Lakewood, but Don says she didn’t have a problem with farming, so that’s what they did. He said she has been a big part of the operation, in addition to her career as a teacher. One of the aspects Don likes about the Farm Bureau is that it is a family organization, and ties the farmer and his wife together. See BUREAU, 43
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BUREAU from page 42 “When the farmer joins, the wife joins and the kids get active,” he said. Korrey described the organization as working very hard to protect private property rights at every level. He said farmers can be left on their own to fight against organizations that want to take over their land or tell them how to run their operations; the Farm Bureau can help not just in those specific cases, but also by advocating for ag-friendly policies and laws, and contributing to the election of conservative, ag-minded legislators. He said that lobbying doesn’t always take the form of a “fight;” the Farm Bureau works with agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and supports farm programs that act like an insurance for producers, like the Farm Service Agency’s ARC and PLC programs in place now. Crystal notes that the Farm Bureau is directed from the bottom up, with the county-level organizations electing their own board and sending delegates to vote on statelevel policies. The national level, consisting of farm bureaus from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, operates much the same way, with state delegates shaping the direction of the American Farm Bureau. The Farm Bureau staff, then, works for the farmers and ranchers, serving as their advocate while the producers do their job of feeding the nation, and much of the world. She said the primary areas they focus on deal with energy, water, land use
Sara Waite / Sterling Journal-Advocate
Don Korrey greets members and guests at the Logan County Farm Bureau annual banquet on Oct. 6.
and animal welfare. In addition, the Farm Bureau and its members strive to educate people about agriculture. Crystal says research has shown that farmers are “a trusted voice,” which is why they are frequently depicted by big companies in promotional materials. The Farm Bureau offers a number of training opportunities for its members to teach them how to advocate not only for agriculture as a whole, but also their own operation, marketing it successfully. They also publish bi-weekly newsletters and reports throughout the year on the ag industry, legislative policy and more. Crystal says the advent of social media has changed the way the Farm Bureau works to get its mes-
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sage out, but it has also presented its own challenges. The Internet allows for the spread of more misinformation and fear, and Farm
Bureau staff tries to address that when they see it to prevent it from spreading further. But, she says, they can’t invest all their energy in that; “you have to pick your battles.” Membership in the Farm Bureau is open to anyone, and Logan County has about 250 members — 120 or so of them producer-members. There are 25,000 members statewide, many in urban areas. All members have access to the benefits offered through the Farm Bureau, including the insurance as well as discounts through various companies for such things as hotel and travel, auto and farm equipment, and home and office goods. In addition to the benefits offered through the state level, county Farm Bureaus can offer their own benefits as well as do their own policy work. To learn more about the Colorado Farm Bureau, visit www.coloradofarmbureau.com.
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No-till conference returns
Farming Evolution event to be held this winter By Stephanie Alderton salderton@fmtimes.com
The next Farming Evolution conference will seek to address the biggest current issues in no-till farming. Scheduled for Feb. 15 and 16, 2017, the conference will be at the Phillips County Event Center in Holyoke. Several experts on no-till farming will be speaking. The conference is directed at both farmers who are already using the no-till method and those who are considering it. Although the no-till conference has been around for several years, this will be its second year under the name Farming Evolution. Julie Elliott, a rangeland management specialist for the National Resources Conservation Service who is helping to organize the event, said she expects it to be bigger than ever. “The movement has really grown,” Elliott said. “It’s got a heartbeat of its own, which I think you’ll see at the conference.” No-till farming doesn’t just mean the lack of tillage. Farmers who choose the method also have to con-
Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times
See CONFERENCE, 45 Farmers browse the vendor booths during a break at the Farming Evolution no-till conference in February of 2016.
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CONFERENCE from page 44 sider practices like crop rotation and using livestock to help improve the soil. A wide variety of presenters will speak on those issues at the event. Elliott is most excited about Odette Menard, a world-recognized expert advisor in soil and water conservation for the Ministry of Agriculture in Quebec, Canada. Rudy Garcia and Clark Harshbarger both work for NCRS, just like Elliott. Harshbarger will give a visual demonstration of how tillage affects soil properties, and Garcia will explain how to use the various soil health tests. The conference always includes at least one experienced no-till farmer as a speaker. This year it’s Jacob Miller, of Culbertson, Nebraska, who will share how his dryland and irrigated no-till systems have evolved over the years. He is 100 percent no-till and recently became both chemical and fertilizer free. Livestock graze all of his cropland acres. He will share economics and other details of the cover crop and cash crop rotation on his farm. Other speakers will include a meteorologist, Don Day, who will examine myths and facts about how the weather in Colorado affects notill farms, and Kyle Kautz, a Merino farmer who just started integrating cover crops to make his farm no-till. Just like last year, conference attendees will get a chance to see soil life under a microscope, but this time the demonstration will be projected on a big screen so that everyone can witness it at once. “It can be hard to see all the details through a microscope, so this is easier,” Elliott said. Crop producers Tim Becker and Steve Tucker will be in charge of that demonstration.
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It’s not easy taking the no-till route as a farmer. Those who do face several challenges, many having to do with the weather, since rain and other elements can easily wash away untilled seeds if the grower doesn’t take the right precautions. But Elliott said one of the most talkedabout issues among no-till farmers right now, and the main one the conference will seek to address, is the subject of cover crops. “The biggest question is, ‘Is it practical to do cover crops, especially in Colorado?’” she said. “That’s why I’m so excited to hear from Mr. Miller, because the Nebraska climate is closer to Colorado, so he can provide some insight into that.” The registration website, www.farmingevolution2017.eventbrite.com, is up and running. A complete agenda, including presentation titles, will be posted soon. The conference will also include a Herbicide Resistance Workshop on Thursday afternoon, and a Great Plains Herbicide Resistance Listening Session on Friday, for those who want to participate.
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Basin study crucial to protecting ag water Project is first step in implementing Colorado Water Plan
By Jeff Rice
ricej@journal-advocate.com
Sometime in November, one of the most exhaustive studies of the South Platte basin will begin, with the purpose of finding viable water storage sites and alternatives. The study is needed because, by 2050, urban growth in the basin will require at least 340,000 acre feet of new water to flush the toilets, bathe the bodies, and water the lawns and gardens of those living along Colorado’s Northern Front Range. If nothing is done to find and develop new water storage before then, that water will be taken from farms along the fertile South Platte River Valley. It is hoped the study will be instrumental in ending the century-long conflict between urban growth and agricultural production over the need for water from one of the most extensivelydeveloped rivers in the country. The study will look for new methods of storage, possible new locations for off-channel storage, and ways that existing storage can be expanded. None of them will be without controversy. “A water storage project is going to affect someone upstream or downstream,” said Sterling area farmer and rancher Gene Manuello, “and you have to work those things out.” The South Platte study came out of the Colorado Water Plan, delivered to Governor John Hickenlooper during a ceremony in Denver in November last year. The purpose of the plan was to get the three main interests — urban/commercial users, agriculture, and environmental/recreation interests — to work together and find common solutions to the chronic problem of water shortage. According to those in northeast Colorado who have read the plan, it
Courtesy photo / Northern Colorado Water
Chimney Hollow Reservoir would fill this area adjacent to Carter Lake above Loveland.
accomplished that goal. Joe Frank, general manager of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, said at the time he’s happy with the emphasis the plan places on off-channel water storage. “The only way to capture all of the water that we’re losing is to dam the river, and that’s just not going to happen,” Frank said. “But water
46 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
storage doesn’t have to be above ground, either. Underground storage, recharge and augmentation are also important.” Don Ament, former Colorado Agriculture Commissioner who has represented Colorado in water negotiations with Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Department of the Interior in developing a recovery plan for the South Platte River, said
he likes the plan because it dovetails with his group’s work. “This is a big piece of the puzzle for what my group is doing,” Ament said at the time. “There is a lot of excitement (in the water community) about this, and I think it provides some good momentum to carry forward with developing our water resources. This is a real good See WATER, 47
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WATER from page 47
thing.” It didn’t take long for the plan to translate into action. In the legislative session that began just a couple of months after the water plan was unveiled, the Colorado General Assembly passed, and Gov. Hickenlooper signed, House Bill 16-1256 calling for the water storage survey of the South Platte Basin. The study was considered so important that on Oct. 27, a special session of “roundtables” — study groups from the Denver Metro area and the agricultural areas of the South Platte — convened in Loveland to go over the scope of work for the plan. None of the five water storage projects now under way or in planning stages will be included. Those projects are: • The NISP/Glade project — The Northern Integrated Supply Project is a proposed water storage and distribution project that will supply 15 Northern Front Range water partCourtesy photo / City of Fort Collins ners with 40,000 acre-feet of new, The 100-year-old dam at Halligan Reservoir could be raised to provide additional water storage. See WATER, 48
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reliable water supplies. Although badly misunderstood by urban dwellers and environmental/recreational enthusiasts in Larimer County, the project actually will improve conditions along the Poudre River and save agricultural water downstream. • Chimney Hollow Reservoir — A 360-foot high dam that will hold 90,000 acre feet to help supply the thirsty Thompson Valley urban area. The water will come from the Windy Gap Project, a diversion dam and pumping station completed in 1985 to provide extra irrigation and municipal water out of the Colorado River. The water originally was stored in Grand Lake, but when that is full, the water cannot be stored. Chimney Hollow, also known as the Windy Gap Firming Project, solves that problem. • Halligan/Seaman reservoir enlargements — Halligan Reservoir near Fort Collins is about 100 years old. Its capacity is about 6,400 acre feet of water and the City of Fort Collins wants to add 8,125 acre feet to the reservoir by raising its dam about 25 feet. Greeley originally had wanted to expand Seaman Reservoir, but has since decided against it for the time being. Still expansion of both reservoirs is considered crucial to protecting downstream agricultural water rights. • Gross Reservoir enlargement — Gross Reservoir is one of 11 reservoirs supplying water to the city of Denver and surrounding urban areas. It is on the city’s Moffat System, which diverts water from the Western Slope to the metro area. Denver Water has proposed raising the dam height by 131 feet, which will allow the capacity of the reservoir to increase by 77,000 acre feet. • Chatfield Reallocation Plan — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that Chatfield Reservoir, built primarily for flood control after the 1965 South Platte River flood, can accommodate an additional 20,600 acre feet of water storage for water supply without compromising its flood control function. This additional storage space will be used by municipal and agricultural water providers to help meet the diverse needs of the state. No actual construction is required, but the
legal, environmental, and engineering concerns of allowing the reservoir to hold more water all have to be satisfied. All five of these projects are vital to protecting agricultural water in the lower reaches of the South Platte, but even all five of them together won’t meet the needs anticipated by 2050. Thus, the study that is about to take place. As illustrated by the five projects already under way, new water projects will fall into three categories: Off-channel reservoirs like the Prewitt and North Sterling reservoirs in Logan and Washington counties and Jackson Reservoir in Morgan County would divert water from the South Platte River into storage areas away from the river. The reservoirs could be filled only when there was an over-abundance of water in the river during certain seasons. Augmentation or “return flow” projects would divert excess water away from the river and allow it to seep into the ground to return to the river through the river’s own aquifer. This would require timing the return flow so it appears in the river where it’s needed and when it’s needed. It’s an inexact science at best. Conservation methods would simply use less water than is now being used for urban and agricultural needs. This could include incentives for xeriscaping, finding and growing crops that demand less water, and simply living differently in our naturally arid climate. Whatever the study reveals, it will be the blueprint for water management in the South Platte River basin. And it will require cooperation among all interests in the basin. Brad Stromberger, an Iliff producer and member of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District’s board of directors, said it best when asked about the Colorado Water Plan and subsequent study: “The amazing thing is that people who might’ve never talked to each other before, and certainly never talked to this extent, actually (have) sat down and worked out a plan they all can agree on. I just don’t think you can put a value on that.”
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Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
Two men chew the bite of lamb they just ate as part of the Texas Tech University research study lamb tasting hosted by the Brush FFA Chapter Oct. 19 at the Morgan County Fairgrounds. Groups of 20 people signed up for three tasting sessions with seven different samples for each to try and rate on tenderness, juiciness, taste and overall quality. Behind them, tables are set up for the third and final group of tasters.
Tasty research
Brush FFA Chapter hosts lamb tasting for Texas Tech study
By Jenni Grubbs
jgrubbs@fmtimes.com
The plates of grilled lamb coming out of the kitchen at the Mark Arndt Event Center Oct. 19 were for more than just a Brush FFA fundraiser. In fact, they were more than a year in the making because those plates of samples of lamb were part of an international research study
being conducted by Texas Tech University. The Brush High School FFA Chapter partnered with both Colorado State University and Texas Tech on a lamb tasting event held at the Morgan County Fairgrounds for that study. More than 70 people signed up to be tasters at the three panels, but only the first 20 to sign in for each one got to eat — and rate — the samples of grilled lamb. The participants also received $25 each for their time and thoughts, but most chose to donate
all or most of that money back to Brush FFA. After all, the event was originally pitched to them as a fundraiser for the chapter. Brush FFA Vice President Jenner Dunn said people donated “about 95 percent” of the study payout back to the FFA chapter, which was “about what we expected.” Marlin Eisenach, a Morgan County CSU Extension agent, helped set up the event after getting contacted by CSU about the Texas Tech research crew looking for a host site for a tasting for the project, and he called it “very successful.”
“We had three sessions, and they were full,” Eisenach noted. “It was a good money-maker for Brush FFA Chapter.” And having enough people willing to come to Brush at specific times and spend an hour sampling lamb with no seasoning or sauce was a big part of the challenge for an event like this, according to Clay Carlson from CSU. “It’s challenging as far as getting the right number of people in each time slot to commit,” Carlson said. “Once that’s taken care of, it’s easy. See LAMB, 50
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LAMB from page 49
It went very well.” The lamb the tasters were sampling traveled a great distance before getting grilled and served, according to Andrea Garmyn, a research associate professor at Texas Tech’s Animal and Food Sciences Department. “We’re replicating it here and in New Zealand, which is where all the lamb came from,” she said. The goal is to gather feedback on tenderness, juiciness and taste from people in different parts of the world so that a grading system can be developed for different types or cuts of lamb. The feedback gathered during the research study’s tastings, including the one in Brush, will help with that, Garmyn said. Since the research study will allow for the feedback to be “tied back to the carcasses,” the grading system will be able to take into account the “eating quality” of the lamb as judged by the tasters. See LAMB, 51
Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
Brush FFA partnered with Colorado State University and Texas Tech University to host a lamb tasting event in Brush. The tasting was part of a research study being conducted by Texas Tech, according to Andrea Garmyn, a research assistant professor at Texas Tech (second from left). Morgan County CSU Extension Agent Marlin Eisenach helped set things up, and then Brush FFA members helped the research team from Texas with the tasting, which also served as a fundraiser for the FFA chapter since most tasting participants donated their $25 participation reward to the Brush High School club.
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LAMB from page 50 They each tried seven different samples of lamb, with specific codes on the plates and survey to indicate exactly the animal that was the source of that meat. The lambs and the meat samples were first collected early in 2016 in New Zealand, then the meat was aged and transported by airplane, and the tasting sessions began in mid-September, Garmyn explained. The study likely will wrap up in January 2017. While most of the tastings in the United States took place in Lubbock, Texas, where Texas Tech is based, there were four other geographic areas that hosted tastings, Garmyn said. One of those happened to wind up in Brush, and it was a successful one. “I’m happy with how it went,” Garmyn said. “So far, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. It seems like people like the lamb, so that’s a good sign.” This may not be the only such research tasting to happen in Morgan County, according to Eisenach. Since the lamb tasting went so well, he thinks there may be opportunities in the future for more of them through CSU and other agricultural higher education institutions.
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A lamb taster congratulates Brush FFA Chapter Vice President Jenner Dunn on hosting a successful event after trying samples of lamb as part of a Texas Tech University research study. The people who sampled the lamb were paid $25 each, and the participants then chose to donate "about 95 percent" of that money back to the Brush FFA Chapter, Dunn said. Jenni Grubbs Fort Morgan Times
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Longmire author hands out humor, insights at Brush book signing
Western Mystery penner reveals love for small-town spirit
By Katie Collins
Brush News-Tribune
The rural and rustic setting of Brush may be the last place one would go to get a glimpse of Hollywood-types, but the town set the scene in early September for an intimate sit-down with New York Times best-selling author Craig Johnson, whose award-winning writings and wit provide the basis for the hit television drama Longmire. The Stetson-wearing award-winner, however, is anything but Holly-
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wood. “I feel sorry for Hollywood in a sense,” he said to a crowd of over 150 local fans who gathered, books in hand, within the East Morgan County Library, where billows of laughter echoed throughout the witty and warmhearted book signing and presentation. “I’ve found they just don’t have the advantage there that I’ve got, and that is imagination. That’s where I get to play and work,” he explained with a playful smile. From his experiences in writing, character development and publishing, to his run-ins with Hollywood and even Longmire series teasers, the self-proclaimed cowboy author and penner of mysterious westerns provided advice, satire and details-a-plenty, beginning with, well... the beginning of his own adventure. His story starts just as he finished building a ranch in the sparse countryside of northern Wyoming with wife June, who helped set up a fantastic display of over 15 novels that lined the library shelves in Brush on a gorgeous late-summer afternoon. She would serve as a muse as well, providing a great deal of material and spunk for his tales as the soon-to-be bestseller began delving into a world he created for the now infamous Absaroka County Sheriff and series main character Walt Longmire. “Eventually you run out of excuses not to, and you finally find a story to tell,” he revealed while reminiscing on how he first began delving into the world of writing. “I had been writing on the Longmire series of books for a couple of years when something really strange happened to me. Hollywood got a hold of me. The best way to describe the difference it has made in my life, is through a little story,” he continued, revealing a time when he and June headed to nearby Billings, Montana, to charter a plane as his wife wasn’t exact-
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Katie Collins / Brush News-Tribune
Craig Johnson signs copies of his newest Longmire mystery, “An Obvious Fact,” during an appearance at the East Morgan County Library in Brush.
ly acclimated to the sorts of northern Wyoming planes he described as the ones that require, “the leather helmet and goggles to board.” During a stop on the way to the Red Lodge restaurant, Johnson made his way to the counter to write out his check, when the woman behind noticed his hat. “So, I’m wearing one of those Absaroka County Sheriff‘s ball caps that we sell on the website. It’s the brown one with the Sheriff’s Department emblem on front and in back it reads Durant, Wyoming. “And, if you didn’t know there was no real twenty-fourth county in Wyoming, or if you didn’t know there was no such thing as Absaroka, you’d be fooled too. They look pretty real.”
It was then that the woman inquired of the hat, asking where he got it. “And she said it real aggressive like,” he said with eyes wide open. “I thought, oh no, she thinks I’m a real sheriff and someone’s (probably) dying in a ditch,” he continued much to the delight of the audience. “I’m going to have to go chase somebody down the main street of Red Lodge, or something, I feared.” He looked down, pointed at his hat and said, “It’s not a real county.” “The hell it’s not,” she said. “It’s Walt Longmire’s county.” Feeling like he’d been smacked straight over the head, he looked at her and revealed he was Craig See LONGMIRE, 53
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LONGMIRE from page 52
Johnson. She didn’t seem impressed, and he went on to note he was the guy who had written the books. “What books?” she asked. “At that time a little voice in the back of my head said, ‘you should just go now. Just leave and save whatever shred of self dignity you’ve got left,” he joked. “I told Viking, my publisher, that our motto from now on when we go on tour, ought to be, ‘Yes, there are books,’” he continued as the throngs inside the Brush book haven rolled with laughter. His love for the sights, sense and solitude of rural areas, and of the charm of small-towns, was a highlight for many Brush locals who came to see their beloved book author that Saturday, and he noted with pride his friendship with local libraries, saying he had been to each and every library in Wyoming now for a signing. “You can judge the character of a community by the strength of its library,” he revealed, noting the beauty that the Brush library staff had created inside the city’s historic site, particularly pointing out the allure of the Carnegie remodel. Towards the end of his presentation, Johnson gave readers a taste
of his upcoming book, the newest and 12th novel in the best-selling book series, entitled, “An Obvious Fact.” He revealed to the audience that the true crisis in life for Walt Longmire, the book’s title Sheriff, was that he was a USC English Major. “He should have been a librarian,” Johnson revealed, noting that one of his greatest joys in writing has been including literary subtext. “And I do that because of you all,” he said, “because of the fans and the readers who are really paying attention.” With Walt’s profound past, a great deal of research into not only sheriffing, but also into literature, was needed. Just as he had with the last edition of the series, “The Highwayman,” where he asked himself just how he might re-write the Charles Dickens ghost-story he’d been perusing entitled, “The SignalMan,” in “An Obvious Fact” he drew much inspiration from the classics. In this case, it was from the famous Arthur Conan Doyle novel, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” where Doyle can be quoted as writing that, “there is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
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In the latest novel, which Brush fans were able to purchase with help from an on-site visit from Barnes and Noble that day, Johnson whisks readers to Wyoming’s reputable Devil’s Tower, a wellknown landmark that many in the small town of Hulett know all too well. Holding just 382 brave souls, the real-life town of Hulett proves an unearthly setting for the start of the book, as the town’s sister city, a space known to many as Sturgis, hosts its annual biker rally, with many Sturgis riders set to ride through Hulett to take in Devil’s Tower. From developing characters from some aspects of the folks he knows, aided by spectacularly funny stories of real-life Wyoming sheriffs whom he often sent chapters to to see if they could I.D. the suspect, and even of his own family and friends and pals on the Wind River Reservation, Johnson gave
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great tales within the tales that he created for the series. He spoke of his experiences in helping series creators to choose actors such as Robert Taylor, a.ka. Walt Longmire, whom Johnson noted as the only actor during auditions who humbly removed his hat while informing a woman of the death of her husband. And, much to the delight of one small-town newspaper reporter and editor onthe-scene, Johnson also mentioned his love for the charisma of smalltown newspapers where, he himself states, “You can print and read stories in there that you just can’t find anywhere else.” The upcoming fifth season of Longmire, filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, aired its first episode on Netflix on Sept. 23 and the latest edition of the book series, “An Obvious Fact,” is available on bookshelves and download sites everywhere.
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A product of her environment
Merino native going to school for agricultural business By Brennen Rupp
brupp@journal-advocate.com
Environmental pyschology is a field of study that believes an individual is a product of their environment. It’s a belief that our family, friends and social settings mold us into who we are. If that’s the case, then it’s no surprise that Rachel Mari is going to school at Fort Hayes University in Kansas for agricultural business. Mari grew up on her family’s farm in Merino. Farming and the lifestyle that comes with it is all See MARI, 55 Harvest season was always a busy time for Rachel Mari and her family.
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Rachel Mari / Courtesy Photo
Rachel Mari working in the field on her family farm in Merino.
MARI from page 54 Mari has known since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. “I’m currently attending Fort Hayes University in Kansas,” Mari said. “I chose to attend Fort Hayes because it’s relatively inexpensive and it has a great agricultural business program. I chose agricultural business as my major because it’s what I know. I grew up on a family farm. It’s in my roots.” Those roots are what led Mari to the decision to go to school for agricultural business, a field of study that was a logical choice for Mari with her family background. “It was always kind of a thing, that if you did want to come back and farm that I still needed to go to college to get an education, so I could have something to fall back on,” Mari said. “I picked agricultural business because it’s all I really knew. It just made sense to pick that as my major.” As a kid growing up on a farm, there is no better joy than riding around on the tractor with your dad. For Mari that was something she couldn’t wait to do when she was young. As she got older she
was no longer there for the ride along. She started taking on more responsibility and helping her father in the field. “As a kid I always rode around in the tractor with my dad,” Mari said. “As I got older I was allowed to do a lot more. I was able to drive the tractor and help with planting and harvesting.” In high school Mari was a member of the FFA chapter at Merino High School. She was a member of the horse judging team and a member of the agricultural sales team. When Mari is finished with college she is unsure of what her next step will be. She does know that she’s hopeful to find a job back in northeastern Colorado putting her college education to use. “I’m not really sure what I want to do after I graduate,” Mari said. “I’m hoping to come back to northeastern Colorado to do something in the agricultural field. I don’t know if it would be working in the PCA office or go back to farming.”
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Courtesy photo / Golden Solar
A Golden Solar array similar to one that will go in Randy Weis’ corn field.
Sun power goes to the field
jrice@journal-advocate.com
CSU program puts solar arrays in corn fields
Randy Weis will be making corn while the sun shines next year. Weis is part of a program to assess the economic feasibility of solar and wind energy on farms with center pivot sprinklers. According to Cary Weiner, Director of Colorado State University’s Rural Energy Center, the project is called Solar and Wind Assessments for Pivots (SWAP) “SWAP is based on the idea that
corners of fields with center pivot sprinklers could host solar arrays or wind turbines,” Weiner said. “These systems would be tied into the grid to offset electricity used for irrigation pumping.” Weiner said during the past year CSU collected survey information from 30 participants. While results were mixed, he said, solar was found to be significantly more cost-effective than wind for each
By Jeff Rice
56 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
participant, with solar array sizes ranging from 4-450 kilowatts (kW). That’s where Randy Weis comes in. Weis farms his own and his mother’s farms in Phillips County and when he heard about the project he decided it was a good way to find out whether there really was such a thing as “free” energy. “I’m all for using what free energy we get,” Weis said. “We need to
start using some of this energy that we get from Mother nature.” So Weiss signed on and, this month, Golden Solar of Golden will erect 56 solar panels in two 40foot-long arrays, in a corner of a cornfield owned by his mother, Darlene Weis. According to Don Parker, owner of Golden Solar, the panels will produce about 15 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to produce 20 percent of the energy for the pump and electrical drive on a 130-acre center pivot. See SOLAR, 57
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SOLAR from page 56
Parker grew up in Sedgwick and had been in touch with people in the area and at CSU about using solar energy in rural areas. When he found out about Weiner’s project, he contacted Weiner and said he wanted to participate. “This is the first agricultural system we’ve done,” Parker said. “We’ve put up some residential systems in Sedgwick in 2011, but the first one we’ve put on a sprinkler system.” Of course, the solar arrays won’t always provide power when Weis’ sprinklers are running, and the sprinklers won’t always be running when the sun shines. “When (Weis) is not running the well, and in the winter, he’ll be providing power that he’s not using, so we’ll use net metering, and he’ll get paid for producing power that he puts into the grid,” Parker said. That offers some unique challenges to the company that pro-
vides power in rural northeast Colorado and will be taking in Weis’ excess electricity. Mark Farnsworth, executive director for Highline Electric Association, said net metering isn’t just a matter of “running the meter backwards” when a solar array owner is producing excess power. “There are two registers on the meter,” Farnsworth said. “One measures usage, one measures generation. We measure both and then calculate the net usage when we do billing.” He said HEA has been doing net metering since May 2008, and it has required changing some equipment to accommodate those who want to combine alternative energy with traditional power. The system, Farnsworth said, was designed for electricity to be delivered as efficiently as possible from a major power source to the end user.
“We’re still finding out how to marry our existing technology to solar,” Farnsworth said. “To be honest, this would be much more viable if (the solar array) was used to charge batteries that could be used to run the irrigation system.” Until that happens, Farnsworth said, the electrical cooperative’s members still want to work on ways to incorporate “green” technology into the existing system. “As (power demand) grows, we’ll have to change our equipment and our business practices,” he said. “There’s only so much that can go on our lines without pushing back to the generating station.” Of course, the “free energy” won’t be exactly free at first. As with all electrical production, the cost is in the infrastructure, and in this case that means about $50,000 for the pylons, racks, solar panels, and wiring. Parker said he thinks
he can get the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program to kick in 25 percent of the cost, but the remainder is still in the neighborhood of $38,000. That’s not small change, but Weis doesn’t flinch at the cost. He said he installed a new pivot sprinkler in 2015 at a cost of $80,000, and he spends about $12,000 a year on electricity to run it. If a solar array can cut that cost by $2,500 a year, he figures it will pay for itself in about 15 years. Photovoltaic systems like the one Weis is having installed will typically last at least 20 years before their efficiency begins to diminish, and high-quality systems will last up to 30 years. If that happens, Weis truly will get free electricity for the second half of the system’s lifespan. And that’s an amortization anyone can live with.
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 57
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The Sterling Livestock Commission has been a family owned and operated business for nearly 60 years.
Forrest Hershberger / Sterling Journal-Advocate
Sterling Livestock Commission a family tradition Fourth generation working at animal auction
By Forrest Hershberger
hershbergerf@journal-advocate.com
Nearly 60 years ago, Bud Vanberg started what has developed into a family business, now with the fourth generation. Sterling Livestock Commission is a little more than a year away from its 60th anniversary and has the family to prove it. It is an enterprise that sometimes grays the line between family, friends and busi-
ness. “I started working for Bud between my sophomore and junior year (of high school),” said Jim Santomaso. He was hired to do maintenance such as fixing and rebuilding pens, normal projects. Vanberg urged Santomaso to set his sights high and get an education, an aspiration Santomaso wasn’t too sure of.
58 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
“Bud told me he wanted me to go to college. I didn’t want to go,” Santomaso said. He conceded and attended Northeastern Junior College for a semester, spending more time in out-of-class activities than studies. He then decided he wanted to be an auctioneer. Vanberg said he didn’t need schooling for that; he could learn from Vanberg and from Wayne Kruse, who was also on staff
at Sterling Livestock Commission. He spent hours recording himself with a cassette recorder, working with friends and with Vanberg and Kruse. He said becoming an auctioneer requires developing from basic sale events to more animal sales. He said everyone starts from dollar sales, estate sales and moves to livestock.
See LIVESTOCK, 59
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LIVESTOCK from page 58
“It takes a long time to get where you need to be,” he said. His son Jason followed a similar path, taking formal training as well as earning experience. Santomaso said Vanberg started eight to 10 different auctioneers through Sterling Livestock Commission. While Santomaso was working for Vanberg maintaining pens and other hands-on assignments, he was likely crossing paths with his future wife Becky Vanberg. Vanberg grew up in the family business and the family farm. In her sophomore year of high school, roughly the time Santomaso arrived at the business, she decided she didn’t want to work cattle and fashion caught her attention. It didn’t take long for her to return to the family business. “I did pen back for many years. Then they wanted me to learn the bookkeeping,” she said. Journal-Advocate file photo Sterling Livestock Commission Becky and Jim Santomaso look over sale tickets after an auction at Sterling Livestock Commission Co. The See LIVESTOCK, 60 Vanberg and Santomaso family have operated Sterling Livestock Commission Co. for nearly 59 years.
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LIVESTOCK from page 59
has developed the unique designation of nearly 60 years and four generations in the same business. It is truly a family project. The family connection, family value, is also how they see their customers. She said most of the clientele are treated as family. “It has always been a great experience,” she said. While the family has provided consistency, the business has changed. Some of the change is keeping up with technology and communication options it provides. Sterling Livestock Commission now sells livestock through its website and buyers can be there by proxy, by use of a cell phone. Technology, however, also requires a higher level of trust between the buyer, seller and the Sterling Livestock Commission staff. Technology has its limits and a buyer has to be able to trust Santomaso and his Forrest Hershberger / Sterling Journal-Advocate staff are presenting the livestock Pictured from left are three generations of the Santomaso family: Jenny Nelson, Austin Nelson and Becky See LIVESTOCK, 61 Santomaso,
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60 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
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LIVESTOCK from page 60
clearly and honestly. Becky commends Jason and Jim for their hard work in meeting the needs of the buyers and sellers. “It is a crazy world right now,” she said, “and that is why I love this business.” Sterling Livestock Commission is more than a business. It is a family affair as proven with the fourth generation now getting involved. It is a service and relationship that spans personal and professional. “You have to love the business or you’re not going to stay in it. It is tough, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Santomaso said. Jenny Nelson, sister of Jason, left a teaching career to work at Sterling Livestock. Actually, history shows it may be more accurate to say she spent time away from Sterling Livestock teaching. “Even when I was teaching, I was still here, after school,” Nelson Journal-Advocate file photo said. “It is a place to be very proud of. I’m thankful my kids get to be Jason Santomaso, left, scans the audience for bids as his dad, Jim Santomaso, calls the auction at the familyowned business, the Sterling Livestock Commission Co. Jason is stepping in to take over the business in the future. part of it.”
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Jeff Rice / Sterling Journal-Advocate
"The Place" today
A bumper crop of empathy
Garden, trees teach harsh lessons about agriculture
By Jeff Rice
ricej@journal-advocate.com
I remember the first time I felt real empathy for farmers. It was the year all of our seedling trees died and hail took the garden. Not that I would ever compare myself, even unfavorably, to the husbands of the land who feed us. But that was the year I understood about planting things in the ground and having expectations about growing them and just how easily confidence can turn to heartbreak. My wife and I had always dreamed about living in the country. She grew up on a farm, had watched her parents struggle to raise six
kids on it, and she knew that her mother’s job in a bank sometimes provided the only buffer against bankruptcy. She had no romantic notions about raising food for a living. I was a townie. I came from farm folk, and I’d blistered my hands with a beet hoe as a teenager and helped work cattle on occasion, and even learned how to drive a tractor. But at the end of the day I always went back to my salaried office job. Then we bought The Place; threepoint-four acres of raw pasture on which we plunked a factory-built house. We built the rest of it ourselves. And we started planting trees. I had studied about trees and knew drip irrigation was best. We also found out we couldn’t have any kind of irrigation on our well without augmentation water. I had to
62 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
learn what augmentation water was, and in the process we managed to join a well users’ organization. I installed hundreds of feet of drip line and the first spring we were on The Place we planted about two score trees. Every day I hauled the end of a 100-foot hose out to the tree line, hooked it up, and turned the water on for two hours. The wind blew. It didn’t rain. By the end of summer I had about half of the trees left. Encouraged, I ordered more trees the next spring, laid another 100 feet of drip line, and started another tree line. Meanwhile, my wife planted her first vegetable garden in years; tomatoes, corn, squash and pumpkins. I used soaker hoses to irrigate the garden and began rotating my water hoses to keep everything moist. We planted big trees in the inner yard and laid more drip line to them. Eventu-
ally I connected all of the drip lines together in a single network and put a timer on it. It was exhausting, dirty work, digging trenches for the water lines, trimming around the trees, weeding the garden, and fertilizing. But we were building something, we were coaxing life out of the soil. We harvested lots of tomatoes and squash, a little corn, and several pumpkins. “This,” I said, “is farming!” Yes, it was on a small scale, a very small scale. We had a rider mower, a wheelbarrow, some shovels and a roto-tiller, but we were growing stuff. By our third or fourth full summer on The Place we felt as if we were getting ahead of things. Trees still died, but we replaced them a few at a time. We’d whipped the place into shape, by golly. This was what the See EMPATHY, 63
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EMPATHY from page 62
pioneers did; this was how our ancestors had tamed the land. Except for the wind. I learned to pay no attention to it and I stopped walking out to the tree line — after all, I had a timer on the irrigation system so what more was needed? The garden thrived. We were, as my Missouri ancestors would say, in tall cotton. I noticed the first little mound of fresh earth one day while mowing the weeds out away from the house. The next time I mowed there were a couple more mounds. Then the trees started to die, one at a time. I checked the water lines and found where broken lines had dug craters into the soil, exposing the tree roots. The pocket gophers had arrived. By the end of July that year they’d destroyed all but two trees. I read how to fight them, but it was just too much, poking around to find a burrow, pouring poison in, carefully covering the hole again. I took a shovel to the mounds and hoped for the best. Maybe in the spring we’d
try the trees again. At least we still had the garden. Two types of tomatoes, one for salsa, one for sauce; three kinds of squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, corn again, some beans, and we even tried our hand at beets. One evening, after weeding the garden, we just sat and looked at it. We figured we could start harvesting in earnest on Saturday. On Friday it hailed. We weren’t home when it happened; we were in town looking over the damage of an earlier storm. When we got home we knew something was wrong. Flowers in the front yard were beaten down, leaves were stripped from the catalpa trees, and a window on my workshop was broken. We hurried around back to check on the garden. It was gone. It was just gone, as if it had never been. Pumpkins and squash were smashed open. The tomato cages were simply empty. The corn was a
few short stalks sticking up. We salvaged a cucumber and a couple of zucchini but everything else was gone. I remember standing there looking at the mess of green pulp on the ground, and I turned to my wife but I didn’t know what to say. She just turned around and went into the house. It was, of course, just a garden, and nothing we couldn’t easily buy by the basketful at a farmer’s market on any Saturday in Loveland. But that wasn’t the point. We heard about corn fields and sugar beet fields and soybean fields and alfalfa fields shredded in the hailstorms of that week. Some of the hay might come back for one more cutting, and maybe the beets would survive. But others wouldn’t. And it wasn’t just the hail, it was the drought. Pumps in Weld County already were being turned off, and there were farmers who couldn’t get water on their fields, even if the hail didn’t get them. We thought about quitting. It just wasn’t worth the expense and the
bother; trees are not cheap, and after a while the whole process just gets old. But we didn’t quit. The next spring we plowed up the garden and planted again and gambled that it wasn’t possible to get hailed out two years in a row. We have re-planted some of the trees and farmers tell me we’ll be planting trees for as long as we live on The Place. Last year we had a good crop of tomatoes but the beans and corn weren’t worth mentioning; this year we had lots of pickles, squash, and cabbage for sauerkraut but no tomatoes to speak of. Every year is different, and every year we learn something new. The wind still blows, and deer now come to strip the velvet off their antlers and kill a tree or two, and I’ve gotten lots of practice at poking holes in gopher dens and pouring “seasoned” grain in. I won’t have to worry about water next year, but I have to replace one of the drip lines. My wife asks me why we still do it. The answer is sort of simple, really. Because next year is going to be better.
And A nd on the the 8th th day, God looked down wn on his plann anned para aradise and said and aid, "I need a care aretak take a er." So God made a farm ar me r . - Paul Harv arveey
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 63
BIG Conference introduces students to FFA
Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate
FFA members race to build the tallest tower using plastic cups, while other students shoot rubber bands to try to knock the towers down, during a teamwork exercise that was part of a workshop at the District BIG (Being Involved as a Greenhand) Conference, held in Sterling, in September. The conference introduces first-year FFA members to the many opportunities FFA provides.
Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate
Students write down areas in FFA that they want to explore as part of their high school ag education during the FFA District BIG Conference. 64 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate
FFA members link arms as they find someone with their same interests during a "connecting with friends" activity, part of one of the workshops at the District BIG Conference. This activity helped students see that they are all connected somehow.
SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Greenhands excited to join FFA
Various aspects of organization attract new members By Callie Jones cjones@journal-advocate.com
They are the newest members of the blue and gold. For some high school students joining FFA is just a natural progression, as their family has an agriculture background and it’s something they’ve been involved in for years. But for others it’s their first experience with agriculture. The Journal-Advocate recently talked with several “Greenhands,” first-year FFA members, at an FFA District BIG (Being Involved as Greenhand) Conference, held at Northeastern Junior College, to find out about their decision to join the largest student organization in the world and what they’re looking forward to most during their time as an FFA member. For Peetz High School freshman Ethan Ramey there was no question about joining, as FFA has always been a part of his family and the
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Ethan Ramey, Peetz High School
Robert Stratton, Sterling High School
community he lives in. He has been in 4-H throughout his life, showing horses and goats, and has helped with FFA students in the past. As he begins his time in FFA, he is looking forward to “learning the history of agriculture and how everything works,” as well as what job opportunities there are. Robert Stratton, a freshman at Sterling High School, also has an agricultural background. Both his grandfather and uncle have farms, which is what led him to want to join FFA. He has also spent some time in 4-H, competing in robotics for one year.
Dylan Wilcox, Sterling High School
Corry Derr, Caliche High School
Stratton said he’s excited to learn new things, meet new people from different schools and to “get to go do cool stuff.” For Dylan Wilcox, another Sterling High School freshman, this is his first agriculture experience. He decided to join FFA because he thought it would be “kind of fun” to learn about agriculture. As an FFA member, he is most looking forward to being able to “go on a whole bunch of road trips” and see different things. Cory Derr, a freshman at Caliche High School, is also new to agriculture. He was persuaded by a friend
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Cade Conger, Merino High School
to join FFA. It was something he thought would be a good fit for him because he enjoys animals and agriculture-related areas. Cade Conger, a freshman at Merino High School, became involved in FFA because it was something both of his older brothers were a part of. “They had a ton of fun in it, so I wanted to join the club,” he said. Prior to FFA, he was in 4-H for two years, showing goats and chickens, which he found to be a lot of fun. He’s most excited about taking part in some of FFA’s many competition opportunities.
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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • 65
66 • OCTOBER 28, 2016 • SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
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A MESSAGE FROM ALLEN BOELTER, GENERAL MANAGER, CARGILL FORT MORGAN
Agriculture truly is the “Heartbeat of the Plains.” When I start thinking about all the ways in which agriculture plays a part of our everyday lives, it is beyond amazing. I cannot think of even one activity that we do every day that does not have its roots in agriculture. That is how it is for us here at Cargill, too. Our very existence relies on the agriculture producer. Without them, our circle of life would be broken. We work together, hand in hand. They supply the cattle; we supply the venue for that beef to find its way on to your table. Together, we can then help better the lives of our friends and families, as well as our community. Cargill values community, of giving back. We are proud supporters of people and events in our community in order to make things better. Cargill values agriculture and its farm and ranch producers for helping create the quality of life that we all hold so dear. They work so hard to produce those commodities that we have come to rely upon and cherish. On behalf of the 2,100 employees of the Fort Morgan Cargill, Thank You, to these producers and suppliers of cattle. They grow the finest quality beef and have forged a strong working partnership with Cargill that is meaningful and profitable for all.
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