A competitor in the pee-wee showmanship contest leads his animal around ring at the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show on March 15.
COURTESY PHOTO — STERLING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
JEFF RICE — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE Rice works with a Phillips County farmer to fill out an on-farm survey
The Agriculture Department at Northeastern provides unparalleled opportunities in agricultural education, business management, production agriculture, soil science, and animal science. Our nationally acclaimed Rodeo, Ranch Horse Versatility, and Livestock Judging Teams exemplify our commitment to excellence. Through strategic community partnerships, we deliver immersive, hands-on experiences designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the agricultural industry.
COLORADO AGRICULTURE FORUM
Advocates to producers: ‘Tell your story’
By Jeff Rice jerice @prairiemountainmedia.com
Storytelling is the best way to communicate important messages, according to Randy Frazier, and the best one to tell your story is you
Frazier was the keynote speaker at the 2025 Colorado Agriculture Forum in February. The all-day forum featured two main speakers and a number of breakout sessions under the theme “Collaborating from Peak to Plains.”
Michelle Miller, who blogs and does speaking engagements under the sobriquet “The Farm Babe,” echoed Frazier’s theme during a luncheon speech later that day.
Frazier, an Arkansas native who now tours the country delivering motivational speeches and leadership training, told the nearly 200 attendees that there is great power in the telling of stories.
“The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation,” Frazier said. “I’ve already commended you, and you deserve to be commended, because in telling your story with the Colorado crowd and what you’re doing in this organization, this forum, you’re doing a great job.”
Frazier opened his remarks with his own story about the girlfriend who got away with his coveted FFA jacket. The woman now lives near Frazier’s ancestral home and he and his wife drive past that house when visiting his relatives. For years, Frazier said, his wife has jokingly suggested, “Well, you know, I guess if we had a little time, we could run up to the door and get that jacket back.”
It became an inside joke between the two until Frazier decided to “be philosophical” about it. And the next time they drove past the house and his wife suggested running up to the door to get the jacket back, he was ready
“You have to be philosophical,” he told his wife “She got the jacket, but you got me.” And without a moment’s hesitation, she replied, “I know, I think I’m about ready to trade you.”
Frazier said he told the story
because it said much about what kind of person he is. And storytelling, he said, is essential in opening and maintaining markets for Colorado farmers and ranchers He used the example of Colorado’s beef exports to Canada. The Canadians purchase around 13 percent of the beef Colorado produces. But before they bought our beef, Frazier said, they bought our story
“They had to hear you, and not only hear you, but trust you,” he said “Just like that story I told you so that you would understand who I am, what my values are (they) trust you enough and you trust them that they want to continue to buy.”
Frazier referenced Robert Hurley of Fordham University, who said that if trust didn’t exist, it would have to be invented in order to do business He pinned that concept to the idea that one gains trust by telling one’s story, and in
doing so provides leadership for those who come after.
“It’s not about you,” he said. “It’s about who’s going to come, about the generation behind you.”
In the end, Frazier said, our stories will be what is left of us.
“In very few years, when we step off the stage, that house that you spent so much time building and the cars that you had, they’re going to belong to somebody else,” he said. “Your picture is going to be taken off the wall and after a while they’re going to take it out of the frame and just stick it in (an album.) And so what’s going to be left of you a hundred years from now is the stories that you left in people’s hearts about who you were, what you were, what you’re made for, what you stood for You, every day, are going to leave behind the best story of who you are that you possibly can.”
Miller’s approach is to tell producers only they can correct the
misinformation circulating about the nation’s food supply, and that misinformation isn’t accidental. According to Miller, it’s the result of deliberate efforts to get Americans to spend more on their groceries.
Miller, a nationally-recognized advocate for production agriculture, told the nearly 200 in attendance that Americans are being misled by marketing ploys disguised as healthful alternatives.
“Make no mistake, the anti-GMO movement is very profitable,” Miller said. “There are billions of dollars being funneled into the anti-conventional, anti-GMO movement because there’s a lot of money being made off of more expensive food.”
Miller recounted her life’s journey from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Miami, Florida, by way of Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and downtown Chicago. Tending bar on a
SHELBY CLARK — SHELBY K MARKETING Farm Babe Michelle Miller addresses the 33rd annual Colorado Agriculture Forum in Westminster
SHELBY CLARK — SHELBY K MARKETING Randy Frazier relates the story of how he lost his coveted FFA jacket.
Florida beach, she met Doug, a “tall, handsome, corn-fed, Iowa farm boy.” She moved back to Iowa with him and became immersed in the agricultural lifestyle. It was there she realized that everything she thought she knew about food safety — she didn’t know at all
“As I was learning the true story of farming, I realized, my goodness, I am so misinformed,” Miller said. “So many people are misinformed and I decided to start on a quest to educate people about all the myths that I once believed in. People are really well-intentioned and they’re just misinformed because they don’t get to hear from you.”
She used the example of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has recently been appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services. A known conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine advocate, Kennedy epitomizes the misinformation movement about food.
“He may do some things well,
but there’s a lot of things he gets wrong,” Miller said. “That is why it’s up to us as professional agriculturalists to build relationships with politicians and with leaders.”
Miller said the organic, anti-GMO and “natural food” businesses are worth about $350 billion annually. While there certainly is a niche in America’s food supply for those expensive foods, they’re being touted with false claims One common line of attack is that our food is “drenched in pesticides,” when, in fact, produc-
ers are using less pesticide than ever before.
In fact, Miller said, attempts to genetically modify potatoes so they don’t need insecticides has been quashed by the government of Ireland because of political pressure
The “natural foods” movement often uses scare tactics to guide consumers away from perfectly normal foods. To illustrate this, she listed the following ingredients in a food most Americans eat every day: water, fructose, glu-
cose, sucrose, malic acid, dietary fiber, ascorbic acid, quercetin, procyanidins, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. That chemical stew, it turns out is an apple She showed a photo of rusted plumbing that carried large quantities of dihydrogen monoxide and said the chemical shows up in almost everything we eat and drink every day. The chemical expression for dihydrogen monoxide is H2O It’s water
“I just made two very good and healthy things for you sound terrifying,” she said.
Miller told the group, many of whom are ag producers, that their voices need to be heard and their stories told She conceded that it won’t be easy; the anti-ag groups have deep pockets.
“Lobbyists get paid over $140 million a year tied directly to PETA, Mercy for Animals, all of these groups that would love to see you and I go out of business,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we’re just trying to tell the story of where our food comes from. We’re all people who care. Speak up, because there’s no better part of the voice than you.”
The Morgan Community College FarmBox, made from a repurposed refrigerated container,
opened last summer thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education
FarmBox an essential part of ag programs
By Robin Northrup
The Fort Morgan Times
In July 2024, Morgan Community College (MCC) in Fort Morgan launched the FarmBox, a cutting-edge indoor farming system to connect students with modern agricultural technology.
Funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title III STEM grant, the FarmBox is a repurposed refrigerator container equipped with full-spectrum LED lighting, seedling trays, and moveable grow walls that can hold 3,888 plants.
This system can produce as much as 2.5 to 3 acres of crops annually, harvesting 684 plants weekly while using only 3 to 5 gallons of water daily
“The FarmBox uses programmable logic (PLC) to operate lights,
pumps, timers, valves, and other equipment to grow the product,” said George O’Clair, MCC Electromechanical Technology Faculty.
“The Electrical Mechanical Technology (ELMT) students study PLCs to operate those items. The FarmBox will be beneficial to the class to see an operating PLC in action.”
The FarmBox has been used to grow various crops, including leafy greens, herbs, microgreens, tomatoes, and peppers. Recently, flowers have become a highlight, offering students a chance to learn how plants grow in controlled environments. This new focus on flowers shows just how versatile the FarmBox can be.
Since its introduction, the FarmBox has served as a hands-on learn-
a grow tube system.
PHOTO BY MCC
is located outside Poplar Hall at the Fort Morgan campus. It
ROBIN NORTHRUP — FORT MORGAN TIMES
The MCC FarmBox features moveable grow walls that house 3,888plant spots in
ROBIN NORTHRUP — MORGAN COUNTY TIMES
Bill Miller, MCC Precision Agriculture Faculty, gives a tour in June 2024to show how the FarmBox provides a cutting-edge indoor farming system to connect students with modern agricultural technology.
courses like agribusiness, agriculture marketing, and crop production, gaining real-world experience in sustainable farming
ing tool for students. Bill Miller, MCC Precision Agriculture Faculty and Division Chair for Career and Technical Education, explained, “We’ve brought local vegetable crops indoors so students can learn about nontraditional farming methods.”
Students use the FarmBox in
“We’ve seen great progress,” Miller said. “Students are growing multiple crops while learning innovative techniques. We’ve also worked with the community to provide fresh produce, and experimenting with flowers has added another exciting way for students to learn.”
NORTHRUP — FORT MORGAN TIMES
The MCC FarmBox uses vertical hydroponic farming (VHF) methods to maximize growth and minimize energy and water use
FarmBox
FROM PAGE 11
The produce grown in the FarmBox is donated to the food pantry at the college for students, and the remaining is donated to Rising Up in Fort Morgan.
FarmBox merges agriculture with science by using precision agriculture for optimal resource use, employing biotech for enhanced crop traits, and utilizing controlled environments like vertical farming. Data analytics aid in decision-making, promoting sustainability through reduced efforts and enhanced productivity. According to Dr. Steven Sjostedt, MCC Chemistry Faculty, students can study the impact of various nutrients on
different plants
The FarmBox combines scientific innovation with traditional farming to improve efficiency, sustainability, and crop resilience. When the grant funding for the FarmBox winds down, MCC is committed to keeping it as an educational resource.
Miller stressed its importance as a long-term part of the program: “Even after the grant, the FarmBox will remain central to what we do. We’ll keep using the FarmBox to give students real-world farming experience and find ways to work with the community to grow fresh produce and support sustainable farming.”
Lettuce, green and red variety, and other vegetables growing vertically in a FarmBox MCC’s FarmBox has been used to grow a variety of crops, including flowers
PHOTO BY MCC
ROBIN
ROBIN NORTHUP — FORT MORGAN TIMES
MCC faculty George O’Clair, MCC staff Tahais Guerrero-Rocha, a FarmBox Foods trainer, and MCC faculty Bill Miller plant seedlings for the MCC Farmbox
Enumerators work year-round to gather data on U.S. agriculture
By Jeff Rice jerice @prairiemountainmedia.com
Every day across America, people are doing research on the country’s food supply. Journalists, educators, county extension agents, agronomists, financiers, and anybody else whose work involves agriculture — and that’s a lot of people — look up statistics and trends about agriculture in the United States And when they go looking for that information, they reach for the single most reliable, most accurate and most detailed source: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Census of Agriculture
Want to know how many dollars in cash sales Colorado cattle brought in? How about comparing the five-year-trend against, say, Iowa’s or Nebraska’s? What’s the No. 1 cash crop in California? (Surprisingly, it’s almonds. Yes, almonds.)
According to the USDA’s census website, “The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Even small plots of land — whether rural or urban — count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold,
JEFF RICE — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Kathy Rice begins the laborious task of laying out a sample plot in a wheat field near Sterling
JEFF RICE — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE Red and blue stakes indicate areas to
USDA
FROM PAGE 14
during the census year.”
The Census of Agriculture, taken once every five years and it looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures.
“For America’s farmers and ranchers, the Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future, and their opportunity,” the website says.
While the Census is taken only every five years, and participation is compulsory for all U.S. farmers and ranchers. It is taken primarily by mail-in form but if a producer fails to return a form, USDA employees will reach out and try to get the information
Five-year-old data can be outdated, however, so the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistical Service, which gathers the agency’s data, employs an army of enumerators to constantly update and fill in any blanks in the information. The enumerators look for information on chemical use, farm labor, prices paid, prices received,
irrigation and water management, conservation practices, organics, local food marketing and the ownership, tenure and transition of land
Kathy Rice of Sterling is one of those enumerators (EDITOR’S NOTE: Kathy Rice is the spouse of Journal-Advocate reporter Jeff Rice, who wrote this article.) While most of her work is done from her home office over the telephone, summer brings periods of field work that can be fun, rewarding and exhausting.
“My favorite thing is the in-person interviews,” Rice said. “Farmers are some of the friendliest people you’ll ever find. They’re good people. They’re my people.”
Rice grew up on her family’s farm just across the South Platte River from Sterling Her father and uncles raised sugarbeets for a time, then switched to corn, hay and cattle until they retired in the late 1990s. The Scalva farm was a typical vertically-integrated business: a cow herd provided calves, which were grass fed until they would be gathered into the farm’s feedlot, then fattened and sold for processing. Meanwhile, the family
grew and harvested their own corn and hay for feed.
Despite being a farmer’s daughter, however, Rice said she was surprised how little she knew — and how much she has learned — about agriculture in the three years she has been working for NASS.
“I knew Daddy worked hard, he set (irrigation) tubes and checked the cattle and things like that, but I never really knew what he did,” she said “I never got on a tractor. I cooked.”
USDA’s NASS doesn’t just gather broad-based data, however. The information is broken down by counties within each state, and USDA shares information with state agriculture departments and universities Among the credentials enumerators carry in the field is one from the National Association of Departments of Agriculture. That NASDA credential has the USDA logo on it.
Throughout the year there are supplemental surveys, mapping surveys and just plain “eyes on” drives to locate specific pieces of ground for clarity and accuracy. Rice has found herself driving the back roads of Logan, Morgan, Phillips and Sedgwick counties, and
has even checked on fields in Nebraska and in Adams County.
“I love my GPS,” she said. “I’m not that good with maps, and some of the roads marked on the maps aren’t really roads at all. The technology keeps me out of trouble.”
One of the most strenuous parts of Rice’s work is conducting wheat field surveys during the summer. Each year she has four or more wheat fields in which she has to establish survey plots Periodically, she will visit the fields and count the number of stalks, filledout heads and heads that are not quite mature, called “boots.” In fields that are sparsely planted the work is fairly easy, but in the lush carpet of a densely-planted wheat field, it can be a slog getting out to the right spot.
Wheat work always is done early in the morning, normally as soon as there is enough light to see. Tall stakes with orange and bright pink flags are stationed in such a way to help Rice find her survey plots, which are laid out with 8-inch wooden spikes painted red or blue Rice has to stay in contact with the farmers because all of the
USDA » PAGE 16
PERKINS CANAL
State AG renews vow to protect South Platte from Nebraska
By Jeff Rice jerice @prairiemountainmedia.com
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in February renewed his vow to use whatever legal means possible to fight Nebraska’s attempt to condemn Colorado land for the Perkins Canal.
In a recorded message to the fourth annual Voices of Rural Colorado symposium in Denver, Weiser repeated comments he’d made the previous week to Colorado Sun reporter Parker Yamasaki.
“We are in a new chapter, there has been a shift,” Weiser said. “I had hoped it would never come to this, but as it happens, we’re no longer in the hypothetical, ‘what might they do, I hope they don’t do this’ world. We’ve moved into ‘they’re really doing this.’”
The Perkins Canal would divert water from the South Platte River near Ovid, Colo., to a storage site somewhere in Nebraska. The South Platte River Compact, ratified by both states and Congress in 1923, authorizes Nebraska to build the canal, along with the right to use the power of eminent domain to acquire land on which to build it.
During his message to the Voices audience, Weiser hinted, but did not state outright, that he would challenge the constitutionality of one state condemning private property in another state.
Moments earlier Gov. Jared Polis brought up the Perkins project during his remarks to the symposium
“Water is always a priority, and
FROM PAGE 15
wood must be cleared out just before harvest
Rice is one of about 30 enumerators covering all 64 Colorado coun-
JEFF RICE / JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
The Perkins Canal project would take water from the South Platte River near Ovid during winter months, when well owners run water for augmentation.
our office and the attorney general are closely watching Nebraska’s attempts to build Perkins,” Polis said.
“I’ve said before that we’d be happy to talk to somebody, anybody from Nebraska.”
Later, during a panel discussion on Colorado water, North Sterling Irrigation Manager Jim Yahn said
ties. According to Rodger Ott, Regional Director of the USDA’s Mountain Regional Field Office, Colorado enumerators sampled nearly 10,000 ranchers and farmers in 2024 for the various surveys that were conducted.
Not all ag producers are necessarily happy to be surveyed. One
that if the Perkins is built and Nebraska is actually able to get water from it, it could destroy decades of augmentation projects on the lower reaches of the river
Those projects allow farmers to pump from the South Platte aquifer during the irrigation season and replenish the aquifer during the
down side of the job is the occasional encounter with a producer who suspicious at best, and sometimes downright hostile to the federal government. Ott said, overall, there is about a 15 percent refusal rate for the non-required surveys.
The work is important, Ott said, because of the integrity and accu-
winter months by return flows. If the Perkins is built, it would cause curtailment of the augmentation pumping during the winter, meaning those farmers couldn’t irrigate the following season. That augmentation also helps Colorado meet the terms of the 1923 compact.
racy of the information that is gathered
“The importance of the work that NASS does can be summed up in our mission statement,” he said. “The National Agricultural Statistics Service provides timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.”
He doesn’t fly, but Pollart crucial to operating application business
By Jeff Rice jerice @prairiemountainmedia.com
Behind every successful farmer is a phalanx of support people working to provide whatever an agricultural producer needs.
Wes Pollart is one of those people and, while he doesn’t actually farm, he does spend some time in the field.
Pollart is the agronomy manager for Aero Applicators and, while he doesn’t actually fly a spray plane, he does, by his own admission, “just about everything else.” He does
work with the aircraft side of the business on occasion but is mostly responsible for the ground application side of things.
“I order all the fertilizer, chemicals, seed, manage all that stuff,” Pollart said. “And then I do run the ground rig occasionally, but I have other guys that run that for us.”
The ground applicator, with its 120-foot booms, can cover a lot of ground in a short time but is used mostly in areas where aerial spraying isn’t feasible
“That depends on kind of what we’re spraying; if it’s bugs in corn and (the corn is) tasseled, we’ll always fly that on so we’re not driving
over the corn,” Pollart said. “But say we’re spraying a corn field here and there’s sugar beet field here, we need to make sure and not over spray into the sugar beets. We can control our drift better with a ground sprayer as opposed to the airplane.”
Pollart grew up in Colorado, in the Greeley area and along the Front Range, and came to Sterling in 1992 with his family. He graduated from Sterling High School in 1995, attended Northeastern Junior College and then earned a degree in agronomy from Colorado State University
“I’ve always wanted to farm all my life, but my family didn’t have
a farm of their own,” Pollart said.
“So I worked with my dad and different people, helping them farm And I knew that I couldn’t afford to buy my own farm so as I started going to college, I just kind of fell into the agronomy line and working with the plants and working with the farmers and stuff.”
While at NJC, Pollart was offered a position with Randy Buehler at the Logan County Pest Control District. He worked for Buehler for two summers spraying fields before transferring to CSU. There he took advantage of agricultural internships and other opportunities
JEFF RICE — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Wes Pollart turned a youthful desire to farm into a career in agronomy.
Pollart
to expand his knowledge of ag production. After CSU, he signed on with the Flagler Cooperative Association and spent four years there learning the business support side of farming.
Pollart’s path back to Sterling involved some diligent recruiting by Aero Applicators owner Darrel Mertens and the pull of heartstrings.
Mertens first tried to hire Pollart while he was at NJC but, having just taken the job with the pest district, Pollart didn’t want to leave. When Mertens learned Pollart had graduated from CSU, he again contacted him, but Pollart already had taken the job in Flagler
Four years later Mertens called Pollart a third time.
“So, I came and visited with him on Thanksgiving break that year and we had just thought if I had an opportunity to move back towards home and work for an independent, that would good,” Pollart said “And so I did.”
“We” included then-girlfriend Ni-
cole Lown, whom he’d met in Flagler. At first reluctant to leave the Front Range environs where she worked as a nurse, Nicole finally decided that a small rural town might not be so bad after all. She soon found work at Sterling Regional MedCenter and has been there ever since
The couple was married in 2005.
Although Pollart works daily alongside aviators, he has no real desire to fly himself. He said he’d taken up lessons at one time but didn’t have time to follow through
“I started to at one point but I just realized in order to do it, I mean, it takes a lot of time,” he said, “and I realized usually when I do
have time to be able to go flying you probably shouldn’t because it’s either too windy or the bad weather or something.”
What Pollart has done, however, is grow his own side of the business. He and Nicole own one of the giant ground applicators and soon will acquire a second one, which will be leased back to Aero Applicators
“I’ve been turning some work away that I didn’t want to, but I didn’t want to jeopardize our current customers,” he said. “That’s part of why we’re adding a second machine this year is because I felt we had the opportunity to grow the business.”
His passion for agriculture and love of community have compelled him to serve beyond the office He is vice-chairman of the Sterling Rural Fire Protection District and is on the board of directors for the Colorado Crop Advisory Board and the Colorado Agriculture Leadership Program An alumnus of Class 11, Pollart has never missed a Colorado Forum on Agriculture since he graduated from CALP. At CSU he was a member of Farmhouse Fraternity and served on that board for several years afterward.
Pollart said he has no ambitions to seek leadership or elected positions, but would be willing if it became necessary
“Sure, I advocate for ag We’ve got a lot of things that have been, and will be probably coming down the pipeline with regulations,” he said. “I haven’t ever testified (before a legislative committee) but I’ve been there to see that stuff. And I don’t want to, but if needed, I would help with that any way I can. Us people in ag, there aren’t very many of us We’re outnumbered, but we’re who helps feed and clothe the world.”
FILE PHOTO
Wes Pollart, center, with fellow Aero Applicators employees in front of one of their planes.
MORGAN CONSERVATION DISTRICT
Helping landowners preserve natural resources
By Robin Northrup
The Fort Morgan Times
Since 1955, the Morgan Conservation District, located in Fort Morgan, has worked with landowners to conserve soil, water, forests, and wildlife It is one of 76 districts in Colorado and part of nearly 3,000 across the nation to address natural resource conservation.
The district partners with several organizations: the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Extension Office, and the Morgan County government. They tackle issues such as pest and noxious weed management, which are essential for maintaining healthy farmland. Throughout 2024, they hosted a Tree Care and Planting Workshop with American Windbreaks, a locally led workgroup with Centennial Conservation District, Partnered with Bicycle Adventure and Glow CO Studio to host a Morgan County Agri-
RESOURCES » PAGE 21
COURTESY PHOTO
Madeline Morrison is district manager for the Morgan Conservation District.
Pedal and partnered with Mountain West Pest to host a Pesticide Applicator Renewal and Noxious Weed Management workshop at Morgan Community College In the past, they have assisted with seven soil maps for Morgan County Planning and Zoning, assisted the Morgan County Government with the Pest Advisory Board appointments, and began hosting the meetings on a regular basis. They also partnered with Southeast Weld Conservation District to share a District Manager.
The district also supports local farmers in addressing challenges like adopting new technologies and the aging farming population. Through meetings at local and national levels, they listen to landowners’ concerns, share ideas, and help shape policies. By working closely with NRCS, the district provides technical assistance and program support, helping landowners with windbreak planning, tree care, and planting to give land-
owners the tools they need to create effective conservation practices. They provide assistance to landowners through access to the resources and knowledge needed to implement effective conservation practices on their properties.
An annual program is the low-
cost tree seedling sale, held from December through April. The seedlings are used to create windbreaks, protect against soil erosion, improve air quality, and provide habitats for wildlife. District Manager Madeline Morrison said the program’s lasting impact ben-
efits landowners and the local environment. Landowners receive guidance on selecting tree species, planning windbreaks, and proper tree care
The district offers various services, including technical help with irrigation and soil improvement, funding support, and workshops on weed control and estate planning for farmers. It also works with schools on gardening programs to inspire younger generations to appreciate conservation. Events like the annual meeting provide opportunities for the community to connect, learn, and share ideas on conservation topics such as fire management.
The Morgan Conservation District remains committed to expanding conservation programs and promoting sustainable farming practices to preserve Morgan County’s natural resources and agricultural heritage for future generations.
For more information, contact Madeline Morrison, District Manager, Morgan Conservation District, 200 West Railroad Ave., Fort Morgan; call 970-427-3358; or visit www. morganconservationdistrict.com.
COURTESY PHOTO
NORTHEASTERN COLORADO STOCK SHOW
Tharp, McQuate take top spots at show
By Callie Jones cjones
@prairiemountainmedia.com
Callie Tharp and Violet McQuate took the top awards, Grand Champion Market Animal and Grand Champion Breeding Heifer, at the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show on Saturday, March 15.
Hosted by the Sterling FFA chapter and held at the Logan County Fairgrounds, the purpose of the show is to help FFA and 4-H members prepare for upcoming county fairs and other big shows. It also serves as a great fundraiser for the chapter.
Serving as the judge for the day was Chisum Grund, who resides with his wife and son in Western Kansas near his family’s operation Grund Beef Genetics, where the family runs 400 head of registered Balancer, Gelbvieh, Sim-Angus and Red Angus cows. The operation just surpassed its 31st annual production sale.
Grund attended Hutchinson
Community College for two years, competing on the livestock judg-
ing team and then transferred to Kansas State University. He has
judged at many shows across the country, including the Texas Youth Expo, Show Steer Junior Nationals, Nebraska State Fair, several jackpots and other regional and county shows.
The day started with a breeding heifer show featuring eight classes. While it was a close contest, in the end, Callie Thorp was named Grand Champion, Tyla Thomas was Reserve Champion and Cade Kroeker took third place.
While judging, Grund paid close attention to the hip and hind leg structure, the animals’ depth to the rear end and flank, the animals’ boldness of body, the balance of the top line and lower body proportions, foot shape and size and how well the animal cooperated with the exhibitor
“Certainly there is quality all the way through and there were some that were second and third that were in very stout classes well,” he said before selecting his top three placers.
CALLIE JONES — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Violet McQuate leads her steer around the ring after being named Grand Champion Market Steer at the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show on March 15.
CALLIE JONES — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Top placers in the senior showmanship contest at the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show Saturday, March 15, 2025, were Tyla Thomas, Grand Champion; Hayley Walker, Reserve Champion; and Kelsey Amos, third place.
The breeding heifer show was followed by showmanship contests. Again, it was a close competition but taking the top awards
were: Tyla Thomas, senior Grand Champion; Hayley Walker, senior Reserve Champion; Kelsey Amos, third place senior; Jayme Gittlein, intermediate Grand Champion; Cade Kroeker, intermediate Reserve Champion; Trotter Thomas, third place intermediate; Callie
FROM PAGE 22 STOCK » PAGE 24
Intermediate Showmanship Grand Champion Jayme
pays close attention to the judge during the Northeastern Colorado
Show on March 15.
CALLIE JONES — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Tyla Thomas, Reserve Champion Breeding Heifer, leads her animal around the ring during the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show on March 15.
CALLIE JONES — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Gittlein
Stock
Tharp, junior Grand Champion; Lacey Tharp, junior Reserve Champion; and Violet McQuate, third place junior
Grund explained it his top three choices in the senior category came
down to “nit-picky differences These three young ladies just sort their way to the top in terms of keeping calm and collected, but still be intense and utilizing the whole ring to the best of their ability.”
He had high praise for the junior competitors who are just starting out in the showmanship world.
“I certainly don’t enjoy evaluating showmanship when it’s this
competitive because I think these kids could give the seniors a run for their money and it just comes down to personal preference,” Grund said.
After a pee-wee cattle show, the competition wrapped up with the market heifer and steer show, which featured 13 classes.
“A nice group of prospect steers,” Grund said before naming the top three winners.
While judging he paid close attention to the animal’s power, muscle and dimension, hock, rib shape and depth and width. After a close examination of each animal, he named Violet McQuate’s 1,080-pound steer as Grand Champion, Measa Becker’s 865-pound steer as Reserve Champion and Colten Kroeker’s 1,078-pound steer as third place.
FROM PAGE 23
CALLIE JONES — JOURNAL-ADVOCATE
Junior Grand Champion Showman Callie Tharp gets her animal into position at the Northeastern Colorado Stock Show on March 15.
TWO DRIFTERS FARM
Sustainable practices connect people to food
By Robin Northrup
The Fort Morgan Times
Julie Stiewig and her husband Kevin, owners of Two Drifters Farm in Weldona, have created a farm focused on sustainable practices.
They are dedicated to connecting people with the origins of their food by raising bees, cultivating vegetables, growing flowers, and caring for ducks
Bees are central to the farm’s operation. After taking a beekeeping course in Fort Collins, Julie and Kevin now manage 13 hives.
Honey production depends on weather conditions, and the couple makes sure the bees have enough honey for winter before harvesting.
“It’s critical to leave enough honey for the bees’ survival before harvesting. Their health always comes first,” Julie said. Pollinator gardens across the farm provide food for bees, including native species.
Julie said it’s not just about honeybees: “It’s supporting native pollinators, which is equally important.”
Julie explained bee behavior during winter, “The queen is the
center of the hive. The bees form a vibration ball around her to keep her warm. On sunny days, a few might go out for water, but mostly, they rely on the honey stores we prepare for them.”
Hives are positioned to face south for warmth, and they add hay for insulation and to control moisture inside.
The farm grows vegetables, mostly for family use, like tomatoes, peppers, greens, and herbs Any surplus is sold locally. They grow heirloom vegetables, which Julie says sometimes surprise customers with their unusual appearance or taste. People might see an heirloom tomato and think it’s overripe, but it’s actually how that variety grows. Educating people is a big part of what they do.
Flowers are central to the farm and help restore the land, which was once heavily treated with chemicals. Now, wildlife like hummingbirds and monarch butterflies have returned. The flowers, including native prairie blooms, support pollination and bring beauty to the farm
“It’s amazing to see the land coming back to life,” Julie said.
Julie Stiewig and her husband Kevin own the Two
Farm, Forage and Flowers in Weldona The couple manages 13bee hives, cultivates vegetables, grows flowers, and cares for ducks. You can often find them at farmers’ markets throughout the summer FARM » PAGE 27
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JULIE STIEWIG
Drifters
Usefulness of maternal bovine appeasing substances studied
By Scott Stinnett Golden Plains Area Extension
A relatively new product that is beginning to get the attention of some beef producers is maternal bovine appeasing substances (mBAS) The product trade name is FerAppease and it is a topical product being used and studied for its ability to lower stress in beef cattle
From the FerAppease website “the active ingredient of FerAp-
pease is a synthetic analogue of the Maternal Bovine Appeasing Substance (mBAS). mBAS is naturally secreted by the sebaceous gland located on the skin of the mammary gland with the unique function of inducing an appeasing effect on the nursing offspring.”
Texas A&M University has done some studies on the effects of this product, and it has shown cattle, especially younger calves experiencing stress such as weaning and pre-
conditioning, do respond positively to mBAS treatment. They weaned a group of 80 head of calves (40 heifers and 40 steers) with similar breeding, and within 4 days in age. The group treated with mBAS had higher ration intake and gains the first 28 days after weaning
Another study using the same group of animals looking at immune response after vaccinations showed that hair cortisol concentrations were lower in mBAS-
treated calves on day 14, indicating lower stress. Serum concentrations of antibodies against bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus were greater mBAS treated calves versus the control group, an indication of a better immune response.
These two studies lean toward mBAS products being useful during weaning and preconditioning by lowering stress, increasing immune response and improving appetite and gains in the pens.
Farm
FROM PAGE 26
The flowers are also a source of income through local markets.
Two Drifters Farm also raises ducks. Their eggs, which Julie described as “richer and larger than chicken eggs,” are sold locally. If you use duck eggs, you will find they are great for baking, especially in high altitudes and provide a dense texture, compared to chicken eggs.
For Julie and Kevin, farming is more than a livelihood — it’s a way to connect with the environment and the community. Through sustainable practices, Two Drifters Farm brings people closer to their food while helping the land and its ecosystems.
Agrivoltaics offers win-win for agriculture, energy sectors
By Jeff Rice jerice @prairiemountainmedia.com
Bob Lingreen wasn’t intending to make local history; he just wanted a return on 23 acres of otherwise useless land he owns at the west edge of Sterling.
In August 2024, Logan County’s Board of Commissioners approved a permit for Lingreen to have Pivot Energy of Denver build a 4-megawatt solar garden between Sterling Lateral No.1 irrigation ditch and the city limits north of Iris Drive. The project will link with three existing solar gardens at that site and the power will be sold to Xcel Energy
While Lingreen isn’t the first farmer to host solar energy on his land, he’s one of the first in northeast Colorado to combine energy production with food and fiber production. When finished, the solar garden will be home to a small flock of sheep in a symbiotic relationship known as “agrivoltaics.”
It’s a double win for Lingreen; it provides revenue from the solar installation lease and from the grazing. It was the perfect solution to an otherwise unsolvable problem.
“I can’t build on (the property) because it’s in the flood plain,
Dairy cows in Minnesota graze among hardened supports for solar arrays.
can’t get equipment on it to keep the weeds down, and I need some kind of return on it,” he told the commissioners
Solar energy in agriculture has been around in northeast Colorado for some time. In 2018, Randy Weis planted 130 acres of potatoes on ground owned by his mother,
Darlene, southeast of Holyoke and used a 15-kilowatt solar array to run the pump and sprinkler motors on his center pivot system.
Based on preliminary figures from the first year’s bills, Weis and everyone else connected with the project proclaimed the project a success.
Agrivoltaics takes that one step
further and uses the land under the solar arrays to produce food and fiber.
It’s an important development because, by 2050, ground-based solar could need about 0.5% of the land in the contiguous U.S. To put this into perspective, about 5%
USDA This chart indicates state-by-state participation in agrivoltaics
Energy
of land is already in urban areas and roads and another 0.1% in golf courses Agriculture occupies about 43% of the lower forty-eight states surface area.
The technique of farming underneath solar panels was first conceived by Adolf Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow in 1981 when the two academics published the article “On the Coexistence of Solar-Energy Conversion and Plant Cultivation” in the International Journal of Solar Energy.
In Europe and Asia, where the concept was first pioneered, the term agrivoltaics is applied to dedicated dual-use technology, generally a system of mounts or cables to raise the solar array some 16 feet above the ground in order to allow the land to be accessed by farm machinery, or a system where solar paneling is installed on the roofs of greenhouses
rays, including conventional solar arrays not originally intended for dual use As an example, sheep can be grazed among conventional solar panels without any modification. According to a 2020 Christian Science Monitor article, some people describe agrivoltaics to include the installation of solar panels on the roofs of barns or livestock sheds.
Besides the production of renewable energy, the primary benefit of agrivoltaics is that productive farm land doesn’t have to be idled to produce the electricity In fact, as in Bob Lingreen’s case, non-productive land can be re-purposed to support agriculture
By 2019, some authors had begun using the term agrivoltaics more broadly to include any agricultural activity among solar ar-
While all crops need sunlight to grow, too much can cause some to get stressed, especially cool season plants such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower But a symbiotic “cooling” relationship occurs when growing crops or native grasses under solar panels Together, each helps keep the other cool Plants growing under the diffused shade of photovoltaic panels are buffered from the day’s most intense rays Shade reduces air temperature and the amount of
FROM PAGE 28 ENERGY » PAGE 30
Energy
FROM PAGE 29
water evaporating from soils; a win-win for both plants and farm workers on hot summer days. The plants in turn give off water vapor that helps to naturally cool the photovoltaic panels from below, which can increase panel efficiency It is even possible that agrivoltaics could open up farmland in hot, dry climates, limited mostly to grains and other hardy crops, to more crop diversity.
Livestock producers can benefit as well, providing shade for their animals while producing electricity. Sheep already are being grazed under solar arrays, as Lingreen is planning to do near Sterling In some areas of the Midwest, dairy cows graze in the shade of solar panels, and solar infrastructure is being “hardened” to use with beef cattle. The challenge there is that beef cattle are notorious for rubbing up against any stationary item, and that can be disastrous for solar installations.
To determine whether an agrivoltaics project will be successful, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has outlined what it calls “The Five Cs” of agrivoltaics: Climate, Soil, and Environmental Conditions — The ambient conditions of a location must be appropriate for both solar generation and the desired crops or ground cover.
Configurations, Solar Technologies, and Designs — James McCall, an NREL researcher, said the choice of solar technology, the site layout, and other infrastructure can affect everything from how much light reaches the solar panels to whether a tractor, if needed, can drive under the panels. “This infrastructure will be in the ground for the next 25 years, so you need to get it right for your planned use, McCall said “It will determine whether the project succeeds.”
Crop Selection and Cultivation Methods, Seed and Vegetation Designs, and Management Approaches— Agrivoltaic projects should select crops or ground covers that will thrive under panels in their local climate and that are profitable in local markets.
Compatibility and Flexibility — Agrivoltaics should be designed to accommodate the competing needs
of solar owners, solar operators, and farmers or landowners to allow for efficient agricultural activities.
Collaboration and Partnerships — For any project to succeed, communication and understanding between groups is crucial
Installing a solar garden is an expensive proposition, which is why most of the investment of agrivoltaics is going to come from private sector companies like Pivot Energy To encourage that investment, both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Colorado Department of Agriculture are making funding available. USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program will chip in up to $1 million of a $4 million proj-
ect. Producers must show at least 50 percent of gross incoming coming from agricultural operations.
Colorado’s Agrivoltaics Research & Demonstration Grants will award up to $249,000 for projects that serve on-farm energy loads.
Besides REAP, the USDA is offering up to $10 million to help people living in rural towns develop community renewable energy projects that will help them cut their energy costs and contribute to the nationwide effort to reduce pollution that contributes to climate change. These funds will be targeted to help people who live in communities that have been historically underinvested and disin-
vested USDA is making the funds available through the new Rural Energy Pilot Program.
Colorado State University, as would be expected, is conducting extensive research on how to make agrivoltaics a win-win for producers and has a compelling “last word” on the subject.
“A multitude of diverse solutions will be needed to meet the renewable energy goals of the coming decades while protecting agricultural productivity and farm income,” the university’s website says. “Agrivoltaics may provide environmentally and economically sustainable options for producers and landowners as we plan for a sustainable future.”
USDA
Comparative chart of land use in the United States.
JOURNAL-ADVOCATE FILE PHOTO
Randy Weis and his mother Darlene in front of the solar array on their farm
The Caliche FFA chapter celebrated FFA Week by cooking up breakfast for all of the staff at Caliche High School on Feb. 21.
Sterling FFA celebrates FFA Week and finds success at competitions
By Callie Jones cjones
@prairiemountainmedia.com
The Sterling FFA chapter has had a busy few months filled with conferences, competitions, and fun activities and there’s still much more to come this school year, including one of their biggest events of the year.
The chapter’s annual Oyster Fry is set for Thursday, April 10, in the Wally Post Gym. It will include dinner, as well as silent and live auctions and a hired-hand auction. Proceeds from the event will support chapter members when participating in conferences, conventions, competitions and more.
The annual oyster fry is just one fundraiser for the chapter. In November, their fruit and meat sales were back by popular demand.
“This is a new fundraiser for us, certainly just a different way to engage with different members of the community, whether it’s parents or grandparents, anything of that nature. I think it turned out very well,” chapter vice president Alie Sator said.
FFA members also attended the District Leadership Conference at Northeastern Junior College, which Sator and Grace Petersen, who are both district officers, helped to put on. It included workshops put on district and state officers as well as
community members and toured Nichols Tillage Tools and H&M Feedyard.
The month ended with the chapter’s speaking contest, which included creed speaking, prepared public speaking and extemperane-
• Prepared Public Speaking Gold: Alie Sator, Tyla Thomas, Bailey Jackson, Xy Capacite, Annaliese Orin
In December, Sterling FFA members participated in the District Creed Speaking and Quizbowl contests. Maddy Rinaldo and Zoe Spincer placed in the Silver category in Creed Speaking. Quizbowl participants included: Reem Al Tameemi, Bode Baney, Ian Ogle, Maddie Rinaldo, Zoe Spicer and Kirsten Williams.
The next month, a group of students attended the National Western Stock Show for FFA Day, where the chapter was awarded an American Family Insurance Chapter Grant. Also, Tyla Thomas and Grace Petersen attended the Colorado Farm Show Scholarship Reception.
In February, chapter members competed in the District Leadership Development Events Contest. Top placers included:
• Prepared Public Speaking.
• Employment Skills.
Also, Sterling FFA has a large group of seniors this year who applied for their State FFA Degree in February, and that same month, the chapter celebrated FFA Week with different events and dress-up days.
COURTESY PHOTO — STERLING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
Sterling FFA members celebrated Gold and Blue Day to close out FFA Week Feb. 28, 2025.
Sterling
FROM PAGE 32
“We had a lot of fun driving tractors to school and doing stuff like that,” chapter secretary Taryn Sefried said.
Activities included Ride Your Horse or Drive Your Tractor to School Day, an FFA member lunch, a staff breakfast served by FFA members and an FFA member lock-in
Just recently, the chapter hosted its annual Northeastern Colorado Stock Show at the Logan County Fairgrounds. Also in March, the chapter members competed in District Career Development Events.
Upcoming activities include State CDE contests on April 28 and 29, chapter officer interviews on April 30, the chapter banquet on May 7 and the Colorado FFA State Convention June 2-5.
Being involved in FFA has meant a lot to the chapter officers
“As a senior, getting ready to graduate in a couple of months, it puts a lot of things in perspec-
STERLING » PAGE 34
COURTESY PHOTO — STERLING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
Sterling FFA members kicked off FFA Week with Ride Your Horse or Drive Your Tractor to School Day on Feb. 25.
tive, looking back on different certain things and certainly the different opportunities that I’ve gained within FFA. It’s a program that has been so beneficial to me I’ve seen so many different things and learned about so many different things; had I not been involved, I would not have developed upon those skills,” Sator said.
One of her favorite parts has been serving on the chapter officer team for the last few years and getting to work with other great individuals who are “just as passionate about it as you are. It makes for a lot of fun and we’ve all become really close with one another.”
Kali Graber, who is serving as chapter reporter this year, said being in FFA has benefited her in many different ways with the many different opportunities she’s been able to take advantage of the past four years
“All the different experiences that I’ve had and different people that I’ve met have definitely made me a better person,” she said.
Some of her favorite memories are the trips she’s gone on to state and national conventions and the CDE contests, as well as serving on the officer team this year, “It’s been a very fun time working with some of my closest friends doing something that we all love,” she said.
Sefried, who is also a senior, said FFA has been very beneficial for her the last four years and opened many doors It has helped her with
public speaking and given her a chance to meet new people and go on fun trips.
“My favorite part has been being able to serve on the officer team and go to officer retreat and get to bond with my teammates and my teacher,” she said, adding that “Getting doors opened for me has been the most beneficial part because I’ve had a lot of different opportunities through FFA,” she said.
Dakota Fickes, who is serving as chapter treasurer, said FFA has taught him to be a better leader and how to open other people’s eyes to what they are capable of and help them find their path. His favorite memories are all of the CDE trips he’s been on and helping with the chapter’s stock show, “just going on all those and meeting people from different chapters, expanding your horizons,” he said
COURTESY PHOTO — STERLING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
American Family Insurance agent Beau Gordanier presented an American Family Insurance Chapter Grant to the Sterling FFA chapter at the National Western Stock Show.
COURTESY PHOTO — STERLING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
Sterling FFA members enjoyed a pizza lunch as part of its FFA Week celebrations Feb. 27.
The Peetz FFA chapter kept busy during the third quarter of the school year, hosting an Ag in the Classroom day for elementary students and competing at the District Leadership Development Events.
Peetz FFA’s Alexis Gentry and Rylee Raffelson competed at District Leadership Development Eevents in Feb.. Alexis placed in the Silver category in the employment public speaking contest and Raffelson placed in the Silver category in the prepared public speaking category.
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River Station Customers arewhat maketheir businessrun.Theyappreciatethem very much and areverythankful forall of them over the years.
COURTESY PHOTOS — PEETZ FFA CHAPTER FACEBOOK PAGE
Peetz FFA members played bingo with elementary students during an Ag in the Classroom event in February
Merino FFA hosts Elementary Ag Day, competes in district speaking contests
By Callie Jones cjones @prairiemountainmedia.com
The Merino High School FFA chapter has had plenty to keep them busy recently.
Among the highlights, the chapter hosted its annual Elementary Ag Day, where FFA members taught elementary students about seed germination, how ice cream is made and all about livestock.
In February, the chapter celebrated FFA Week, organizing mini-games and activities to get students involved in agriculture education and FFA. As part of the celebration, they also hosted a Teacher Appreciation Breakfast for all Buffalo School District teachers.
Rounding out their recent activities, several Merino FFA members participated in District Speaking Contests, showcasing their public speaking skills in prepared and extemporaneous public speaking, employment skills and parliamentary procedure.
The parliamentary procedure team placed in the Gold category. Team members included Abby Baughman, Brenda Tomas, Ashlyn Gettman, Kaitlyn Miller, Talon Ryles, Caleb Deines and Grant Briggs.
Additionally, Hailey Foos and Rylan Eastin each placed in the bronze category of the prepared public speaking contest, Lindsey Richie placed in the bronze category of the extemperaneous public speaking contest and Kya Piel and Jade Powell placed in the silver and bronze categories of the job interview contest.
COURTESY PHOTOS
Merino High School FFA members are pictured at the district speaking contests
Merino FFA members talk to elementary students about seed germination during the chapter’s annual Elementary Ag Day
A Merino FFA member chats with elementary students as they get an up close look at a donkey and a horse during Elementary Ag Day
The Fleming FFA chapter held its annual oyster fry and auction on Feb. 20, drawing a crowd to the school gym.
COURTESY PHOTOS — FLEMING FFA FACEBOOK PAGE
Fleming FFA’s annual oyster fry drew a crowd to the school gymnasium Feb. 20.
MORGAN COUNTY CATTLEMEN
Banquet celebrates future of agriculture
stock industry.
By Robin Northrup
The Fort Morgan Times
The Morgan County Cattlemen’s Association celebrated its 85th annual banquet on Saturday, Feb. 15 at the Morgan County Fairgrounds in Brush. The event honors the organization’s history and commitment to the local agricultural community, and supporting the next generation of farmers and ranchers.
Association President Ryan Downing welcomed the 300 guests and spoke about the organization’s history, beginning in 1867, saying they are the oldest organization in Colorado. The Cattleman’s Association was formed to combat cattle rustling and horse stealing, pursue prosecution of offenders, locate strays, and do any things to aid and improve the livestock business The group also encouraged the enactment of legislation, lending to the stimulation of the live-
Bylaws for the organization were introduced in 1937, and they referred to themselves as the Cattlemen’s Association of Morgan and Associated Counties. In 1939, the dues were $5; if you had more than 350 cows, you had to pay $10 Brush was referred to as “cowtown” because cattle were shipped to Brush, loaded on the railroad, and then shipped to Chicago and New York.
To this day, the group continues to protect and promote the interests of the livestock industry. Based in Brush, the Morgan County Cattlemen’s Association promotes agriculture, raises funds for scholarships and other initiative,s and educates the public about agriculture and the livestock industry. They continue to support the community by hosting the annual banquet to raise funds for scholarships, participating in agricultural pro-
ROBIN NORTHRUP — MORGAN COUNTY TIMES
The Morgan County Cattlemen’s Association celebrated its 85th annual banquet on Feb. 15at the Morgan County Fairgrounds in Brush.
At the 85th Annual Cattlemen’s Banquet
recipients who attended, despite
continuing their education.
Banquet
FROM PAGE 38
motion activities, and taking thirdgrade students to the Stock Show.
Long-time Morgan County Extension Agent Marlin Eisenach was recognized for his community contributions and work expanding 4-H participation in Morgan County Over thirty years ago, Eisenach worked with the school district to take children to the Denver Metro area for the Stock Show.
The live auction, led by Chuck Miller of AMA in Brush, jokingly began the night by auctioning off a dozen eggs, starting the bid with $200. By the end of the evening, $54,000 was raised from the silent and live auctions.
Several scholarship recipients attended the event, and the association also awarded two heifers to select students, Eli Kalous and Cassius Middlemist, to begin building their herds, a step towards a future in agriculture.
Scholarship recipients included:
• Northeastern Junior College.
• Garrett Kalous — Ag Business.
• Madison Dreier — Ag Business *
• Americo Lorenzini — Precision Ag *
• Ali Gurrero — Business Marketing *.
• Aims Community College
• Kade Babwiewich Auto Repair Tech.
• Fort Hays State University.
• Zoey Sneed — Animal Science.
• Alicia Hilzer- Radiology *
• University of Northern Colorado.
• Kamryn Herrera — Criminology *.
• Colorado State University.
• Jayce Lorenzini — Political Science *.
• Jason Dias — Animal Science.
• West Texas A&M
• Raelynn Carlock Animal Science
• Delany Draegert — Ag Media.
• Jacy Drier — Ag Business.
• Braelynn Rule — Production Ag *.
• San Diego State University.
• Rylee Givens — Nursing *
• Laramie County Community College.
• Ceri Dixon — Ag Production.
• Texas A&M University.
• Kristen Dahl — Ag Economics.
*Mike Glenn Memorial Scholarship
PHOTOS BY ROBIN NORTHRUP — MORGAN COUNTY TIMES
in Brush, several scholar
the snow, received recognition for
Marlin Eisenach, right, was recognized for his community contributions and work expanding 4-H participation in Morgan County.
Monte and Robin White donated a limited edition print with a homemade beetle kill frame for the live auction.
Ranchers in uproar over feds’ high-voltage power corridor
Experts portray area as key, but rural southeast residents worry
By John Aguilar jaguilar@denverpost.com
LAMAR » The land runs deep in southeastern Colorado.
For Bob Bamber, the connection goes back to his great-great-grandfather, who homesteaded north of Pritchett, a tiny Baca County town of barely 100 people not far from the Oklahoma state line.
So the 44-year-old rancher took notice when he found out that a portion of the 10,000 acres of ranchland he and his father own and lease in neighboring Prowers County had been placed in a zone designated by the U.S. Department of Energy as a potential high-voltage electric transmission corridor.
And he got agitated.
“It’s an emotional reaction because of that family connection,” said Bamber, bouncing in his truck along dirt roads that slice through prairie dotted with cedar trees, yucca and prickly pear cactus. “It sounds cliche, but you are part of the land out here.”
RJ
Rancher Bob Bamber leans against his truck near a power substation across the road from his family’s ranch outside Lamar on March 10. Bamber is frustrated by the lack of information from the federal Department of Energy about proposed plans to expand the electric grid from southern New Mexico into southeastern Colorado, near his property.
down to your kids and your grandkids — it seems unfair,” said Emick, who has lived in the same house south of Lamar for 35 years and runs a cow-calf operation on some ‘THE
His worry echoes that of his over-the-fence neighbor. Val Emick fears that a transmission corridor, with towering pylons marching from New Mexico into three rural Colorado counties — Baca, Prowers and Kiowa — could disturb a fragile short-grass prairie landscape
in the state’s far-southeast corner, lowering land values and disrupting ranching and farming operations that span generations.
“You go out seven days a week, and you build it and want to pass it
SANGOSTI — THE DENVER POST
Power
5,000 acres. “And they come in with that threat.”
That threat is eminent domain — the power the government has to condemn and take land for public uses, like the construction of highways and other infrastructure. It must pay fair market value to the property owner for the land.
No determination has been made about the use of eminent domain to accommodate electric transmission lines as part of the Energy Department’s National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors initiative, or NIETC But people in this part of the state have fresh and raw memories of the specter of condemnation that hung over the U.S. Army’s plan to expand its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, northeast of Trinidad, nearly 20 years ago.
After both of Colorado’s U.S. senators expressed opposition to involuntary land sales for the expansion, the idea was scuttled in 2013.
“The biggest concern we have is eminent domain,” Prowers County Commissioner Ron Cook recently told The Denver Post inside the county courthouse in Lamar. “We’ve got third- and fourth-generation farmers and ranchers running these properties, and we sure don’t want them run off their land.”
The concern over the NIETC proposal brought a crowd out to the same courthouse last month. Some in the room, including Cook, said they had only recently learned of the project. They were frustrated by a lack of communication from the federal government.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert joined the meeting via video link and told
the attendees she would push back hard on the corridor designation.
In an email to the Post this month, the Republican congresswoman said she reached out to newly confirmed Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a fellow Coloradan, and got the public input period for the project extended from mid-February to April 15. In a Feb. 10 letter to Wright, Boebert said what was started under the Biden administration should be looked at again, with an option for the agency under President Donald Trump’s new administration to “shut this project down.”
“We can all agree that access to reliable energy is important for the health and prosperity of rural Coloradans, but that doesn’t mean we need to be forced into a one-sizefits-all approach dictated by D.C. bureaucrats who have failed to include community leaders in this process,” she said.
‘Very important corridor’ for grid
The NIETC program, which Congress authorized in 2005, tasks the Department of Energy with identifying areas of the country where transmission is lacking. It’s charged with determining where infrastructure is “urgently needed to advance important national interests, such as increased electric reliability and reduced consumer costs,” according to the program’s website.
Impacts from a compromised electric grid include more frequent and longer power outages and higher prices for energy due to a lack of capacity to move lower-cost electricity from where it is produced to where it is needed, the website says.
So far, no NIETC corridors have
been established in the United States
The Post asked the Department of Energy for comment via multiple phone and email requests but received no response. The department’s latest designation effort began last May with the release of a list of 10 possible transmission corridors, based on a National Transmission Needs Study that was completed in 2023.
That list was winnowed in December to three corridors, including what is known as the Southwestern Grid Connector — which would run up the eastern edge of New Mexico, scrape the western edge of the Oklahoma panhandle and pierce the southeast corner of Colorado.
The other two NIETC corridors being considered are in the Lake Erie portion of Pennsylvania and across parts of the Dakotas and Nebraska
The Department of Energy says the Southwest Grid Connector could be anywhere from three miles to 15 miles wide, though the ultimate transmission line built would cover far less land. The corridor, the government says, is designed to follow existing transmission line rights-of-way for parts of its path.
“It’s a very important corridor,” said Adam Kurland, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund who specializes in federal energy policy. “It’s probably the one that adds the most value to the grid.”
The Southwestern Grid Connector would help link the nation’s eastern and western interconnections, Kurland said, and would provide the ability “to exchange more power and serve a national grid.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the eastern in-
terconnection operates in states east of the Rocky Mountains while the western interconnection covers states west of the Rockies
More data centers, fewer coal plants
Grid Strategies, a consultant for the power sector, said in a December report that demand for electricity nationwide is forecast to rise by nearly 16% by 2029 Among the main drivers, according to the company, are power-hungry data centers and manufacturing facilities.
A study that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden participated in last fall concluded that the U.S. transmission system — consisting of a half-million miles of power lines — will need to at least double in size by 2050 to remain reliable at the lowest cost to ratepayers.
And a 2024 report by the nonprofit North American Electric Corp. determined that about half the continent was at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls over the next five to 10 years. That risk comes as power plants are retired and the pressure for more electricity increases.
In Colorado, coal plants across the state have been shut down in recent years as worries about their climate-warming emissions escalate. All are expected to close by the end of 2030.
“The more transmission we build, the more flexibility and resilience we create,” said Mark Gabriel, the president and CEO of the Brighton-based electric cooperative United Power
For eight years, Gabriel headed the Western Area Power Administration, a federal agency that sells and conveys electricity across
17,000 miles of transmission lines to 15 western and central states.
“As coal goes away, we still need to move electrons,” he said. “How do we meet a growing demand at the same time we’re closing down generator resources?”
The state’s future demands on electric power are ambitious. While campaigning for his first term in office, Gov. Jared Polis said he wanted all of the power on Colorado’s electric grid to come from renewable energy sources by 2040. Rules adopted by Denver and the state aim to eventually make buildings all-electric.
“You want to have a diverse portfolio of generation resources, and that portfolio is helped by more transmission,” Gabriel said. “And we can’t (achieve that) unless we have projects like this, and others, constructed.”
Farmers lament lack of ‘bargaining power’
But it’s how projects are con-
structed that matters to Steve Shelton, a sixth-generation farmer and rancher who lives about 10 miles south of Lamar He grows wheat, corn and sorghum on 20,000 acres
Shelton, 69, was on the other side of the transmission debate about 15 years ago, when he joined neighboring ranchers in exploring deals with a wind farm near Kit Carson to string electric wires across land in the state’s southeast corner.
“We had some farmers who said ‘no,’ and we’d have to find another path or sweeten the pot,” he said of the effort, which eventually fizzled out.
With the shadow of eminent domain in the mix this time, Shelton said, “you have no bargaining power.”
“They would get the development rights or the easement, and the farmer and rancher would have no income off of that,” he said.
The county’s fiscal health would also be impacted by a condemnation action by the government, said Prowers County Commissioner Roger Stagner, who served as mayor of Lamar for a decade Taking land off the tax rolls would not only hit the county’s $41 million
annual budget but would also have a ripple effect on the local economy, he said.
Boebert, in her Feb. 10 letter to the energy secretary, said the contemplated Southwestern Grid Connector would “affect approximately 325,000 acres of private land in Baca, Prowers and Kiowa counties in Colorado.” There are fewer than 20,000 residents combined in the three counties.
“Everything revolves around agriculture. If you’re going to take out that much land, it can affect the entire county,” Stagner said.
Bamber, the Prowers County rancher, says he has no issue with the deployment of energy infrastructure across his property, so long as it’s done with full disclosure and landowner input. In fact, he and Emick, his neighbor, host dozens of wind turbines on their acreage that power the Twin Buttes wind farm.
“We’ve been able to live with the wind farm because they’ve compensated us,” Bamber said. “We’ve made the tradeoff for the money.”
Lease agreements they hammered out with the wind energy company to use their land made
the deal palatable, Emick said.
Broken trust, uncertain future
With the NIETC process already in the third of four phases, Cook is frustrated and befuddled that he and his fellow commissioners didn’t catch wind of the project before late January. That uncertainty has been a driving force behind much of the resistance to it among his constituents.
The Department of Energy describes the third phase of the designation process as the “public and governmental engagement phase.” During this period, the agency will decide the level of environmental review that applies to each NIETC project. It will conduct any required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act
The agency conducted a webinar on the latest developments with the Southwestern Grid Connector in mid-January. And it issued a news release about the latest phase in December. But many in southeast Colorado think the federal government could have done a better job of outreach to local officials and property owners.
