Colorado

Colorado Farmer May Be Forced to Idle 75% of Acres Due to Record-Low Snowpack

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:54:11 GMT

A dry, unseasonably warm January has left much of the West staring at one of the leanest snow years in decades, raising red flags for farmers, ranchers and rural communities that depend on mountain snowpack for water. With some farmers facing water allocations near 0%, they say if nothing changes, they’ll be forced to leave valuable acres fallow — simply because they don’t have the irrigation water to support growing crops this year.

According to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), snow cover across the Western U.S. on Feb. 1 measured just 139,322 square miles — the lowest February 1 extent in the MODIS satellite record, which dates back to 2001.

At the state level, the numbers are just as stark. As of Feb. 1, Oregon, Colorado and Utah have each reported record-low statewide snowpack. NIDIS says widespread SNOTEL monitoring stations in those states date back to the early 1980s, underscoring how unusual this year’s deficit has become.

Major Basins in Trouble From Lack of Snow

Several critical water supply basins are already in severe snow drought, including the Deschutes River Basin, Humboldt River Basin, Yakima River Basin, Rio Grande Basin and the Upper Colorado River Basin. That’s important because these basins feed irrigation systems, municipal water supplies and hydropower infrastructure across the West.

For agriculture, the implications are significant. Snowpack acts as a natural reservoir, storing winter precipitation and releasing it gradually during spring and summer to feed critical irrigation. When that reserve shrinks, so does confidence in irrigation allocations and summer stream flows, with the warning signs already there.

Snow water equivalent values for watersheds in the Western U.S.

(NIDIS)

January is typically a cornerstone month for snow accumulation across the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. Instead, much of the region received 50% or less of normal precipitation. Persistent high-pressure systems brought sunny skies and above-normal temperatures, limiting snow accumulation and even triggering melt in some areas.

On the Ground in Colorado

For Marc Arnusch, a farmer in Keenesburg, Colorado , the snow numbers translate directly into hard planting decisions — ones he’s already forced to face.

“Our issues aren’t so much market-driven. They’re driven by water scarcity,” Arnusch says. “We haven’t had any measurable moisture on our farm since early October. And so we’re really struggling on what it’s going to look like to put a crop out there in the field.”

The drought picture in Colorado is dire. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 73% of the state is faced with dry conditions. More than half of the state is seeing drought.

Arnusch says with drought already in the picture, irrigation will be vital — but that doesn’t look likely. He says his ditch district’s current water allocation sits at 0%.

“It can change. It always has, it always will,” he adds. “But imagine going with a Plan A of your crop plan. You’ve got markets on the other side that are demanding your production. How do you bridge that gap if you can’t produce?”

If conditions don’t improve, Arnusch says he may be forced to prevent plant roughly 75% of his acres this year.

“We will preventative plant, if nothing changes, three-quarters of our farming operation this year because we simply do not have the water. In a worst-case scenario, if our water allocation is zero, what do you grow with that?” he says.

Arnusch operates a 5,000-acre farm, focusing on diversified, high-value and certified seed crops to support local industries. His primary crops include certified seed wheat, certified seed barley, specialty grains for the craft brewing and distilling industry, corn, alfalfa and black-eyed peas.

Arnusch was named 2025 Top Producer of the Year and has built a successful farming career off of his ability to take bold risks while constantly searching for new sources of demand. But he says competition for limited water supplies only adds to the uncertainty this year.

“With the competing interest for water, especially growing crops this close to the Front Range, people tend to come first,” he says.

While his operation has built diversification and vertical integration, along with a network of loyal growers to help fill contracts when local production falls short, he worries about the longer-term impact to not just his farm, but the entire area.

“We had a balance sheet that will help us at least weather this storm, maybe another storm,” Arnusch says. “But I’m getting concerned of what we might erode on our balance sheet maybe two and three years out.”

Shrinking Snow Line and Runoff

Warm conditions have also shifted the snow line in the mountains. Higher elevations are holding snow, but many lower-elevation zones have seen little accumulation or outright melt.

Reduced snow cover at lower elevations can lead to earlier drying of soils and rangeland, increasing the risk of a longer and more intense wildfire season . It can also reduce runoff efficiency as spring arrives, meaning less water ultimately reaches reservoirs and canals.

For producers already watching input costs and water allocations closely, that adds another layer of uncertainty heading into planting season.

Economic Ripple Effects

Snowpack is also an economic engine in the West. Rural Western communities rely on winter recreation, agriculture and energy production tied directly to mountain snow.

The impacts are already being felt in the recreation sector, with ski areas and tourism-dependent towns facing thin coverage and shorter seasons. Water supply concerns are also mounting for agriculture and hydropower generation, sectors that depend on predictable spring runoff.

Meanwhile, other parts of the West have seen a different story. Just weeks ago, California’s snowpack and drought picture looked far more favorable, underscoring how quickly conditions can shift, for better or worse.

A Narrowing Window

A potential pattern shift could bring wetter-than-normal conditions to parts of the West leading into spring; however, forecasts still favor warmer-than-normal temperatures across large areas, which could limit how much new precipitation sticks as snow.

Abundant snowfall over the next couple of months could still reduce the worst impacts. But for now, the West’s snowpack picture is one of historically low coverage at a time of year when mountains should be steadily building their reserves.

For farmers like Arnusch, that means making contingency plans and hoping winter isn’t finished yet.

Wildfires have also ravaged the Plains over the past week. You can see why conditions have been so ripe for the devastating wildfires, and concerns about a warmer-than-normal pattern in those areas.

Produce Leaders Sound the Alarm as California Closes the Window on Packaging Rules

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:55:49 GMT

The story of the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act is not a new one in the state of California. However, those in the produce industry say the regulations called for in this act have taken a sharp and alarming turn, one that would have severe consequences in the fresh produce industry.

This act calls for all packaging to be recyclable or compostable, and plastic packaging to exceed a 50% recycling rate by 2032. CalRecycle released a permanent draft of the regulations for the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, which is significantly different than its December 2025 draft, which it withdrew and replaced with a new version on Jan. 29.

Gail Delihant, senior director of governmental affairs at Western Growers, says this new draft eliminates previous categorical exclusions for fresh produce packaging, which would have allowed for compliance while also meeting food safety requirements.

Kevin Kelly, CEO of Emerald Packaging, says he has been advocating for achievable goals within produce packaging since SB 54’s inception. But he says this latest change in the regulations has definitely caught the fresh produce industry a little off guard.

“I think what surprised people is everybody thought that the language would eventually make for a gentle transition to using products in the ag sector that could be recycled or were compostable,” Kelly says. “And that we build a recycling system that could actually handle like a salad package or a clam shell. Instead, what we’ve gotten is something that still says, ‘By 2027 if your recycling rate isn’t 25%, you’re potentially banned.”

Delihant says there is an immediate need for those in the fresh produce industry to review this final draft and submit comments on the potential impacts of this regulation. CalRecycle will accept comments on this draft regulation through Friday, Feb. 13.

“We just need people to raise the alarm loud enough that they actually do change the wording and send it back out for another 15 days,” she says.

What Changed?

Kelly says SB 54 was a tough bill for the produce industry from the start, but he adds the change in these regulations has made it worse.

“It was an unreasonable bill, and these regulations now are unreasonable,” he says. “They don’t make packaging impossible, but they’re going to make it very difficult.”

Western Growers broke down the key changes and points of note, which include the addition of the word “mandatory”, which Delihant says puts additional responsibility on growers. Western Growers says growers must now prove no alternative packaging is FSMA, California law and FDA food-contact rules compliant, that liners, coatings and closures cannot resolve conflicts, that a redesign would fail safety or legal requirements and more. Western Growers’ analysis can be found online .

Both Kelly and Delihant say the original draft of the regulations had exemptions carved out for fresh produce that would both encourage progress, but not set unrealistic deadlines and standards.

“They think it would be easy for us to comply, but they have no clue what it would take to gather that information to submit,” Delihant says. “That’s why we’re asking everybody to please write to the governor’s office, write to Cal Recycle and provide comments in the hope they will fix this language.”

Kelly and Delihant say this new draft also makes the exemption process much more difficult and costly for growers. Kelly says while growers can apply for exemptions to not meet the recycle rates, but they will still need to pay the fees.

“Not only are you going to get whacked around the fees, you’re going to have to pay consultants every two to five years to go argue that there’s no possible alternative to the packaging you’re using, and the information they’re asking for is crazy,” Kelly says.

Delihant says what also makes this difficult is the infrastructure to recycle the types of material used currently doesn’t exist. So, it’s incredibly difficult to meet a 50% recycling benchmark by 2030 and the 100% by 2032. And federal food safety guidelines highlight the need for breathable packaging to prevent pathogens.

“We showed CalRecycle, that we are complying with the guidance documents, and that currently we have a hardship in that we don’t have the infrastructure for our products to be recycled yet. It went really well, until almost 15 days ago, when they issued a new draft that basically strips us of our categorical exclusion language,” she says.

Packaging’s Vital Role

Kelly says current produce packaging keeps fresh produce alive, while compostable and recycled packaging does not.

“Most compostable materials don’t breathe at all,” he says.

And Delihant says the industry has spent a lot of time, money and effort in packaging research and development to create what the industry uses today.

“We’ve come up with what we have now that you see in the produce section of the grocery store fully complies with federal rules, regulations and guidance documents for keeping food safe and keeping food fresh longer,” she says. “That’s the goal. Keep your food fresh, keep it alive, because it is alive. Keep it safe to eat and keep it fresh as long as possible.”

Kelly cites studies released by the Canadian government, which says banning produce packaging or pushing for alternatives would raise the price of produce at retail between 5% and 10%, require the hiring of more people and cause much more food waste.

“Jeff Brandenburg [president of The JSB Group and founding partner of QFresh Lab] always says, ‘We keep a living product alive.’ We’re the only packaging that has the honor of keeping a living product alive,” Kelly notes.

Kelly says plastic manufacturers in California lobbied the American Chemistry Council in the 2000s to organize and recycle plastics, but that never moved forward. He says it’s not as though the industry hasn’t worked to add compostable packaging, either — noting Emerald Packaging began offering a corn-based film to package spinach as early as 2002. But, it hasn’t been widely adopted, and that’s part of the issue with scale and capacity, which has widely remained around the same as 2002.

“The problem with all these materials is that they’re expensive, so people don’t switch to them, so the capacity is never built,” he says. “If you were to try and replace the billions of pounds of material that’s used across the United States … there’s a whole petrochemical industry that’s built around this.”

And he says this regulation will require wholesale changes to the entire fresh produce supply chain.

“The world doesn’t work this way,” he says. “There isn’t an infinite capital out there to spend on projects like this, where you’re not going to get a return.”

What Happens Next?

Delihant says CalRecycle will review and respond to all comments submitted by Friday, Feb. 13. If the fresh produce industry successfully raises the alarm, updates would have to go through another comment period.

“We’ve been told they don’t want to do that because there are dates certain in the law that must be met, and those are coming up in April and this summer,” Delihant says.

And Delihant says growers should look to Oregon and Colorado to see what’s coming as producers have received Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) invoices to mitigate the pollution caused by plastic packaging. She says this means growers are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on these fees.

She says these implications will extend way beyond Oregon, Colorado or California, but will impact any company shipping packaged produce into those states.

“You could be growing in Arizona, and packing in Arizona and shipping into Oregon and Colorado,” she says. “You’re going to pay the fees. You could be growing in Florida and shipping into California. With this regulation, you’re going to be paying fees in every single one of the states.”

Kelly, too, says he doesn’t see an outright plastics ban with this regulation as the fees gathered by Circular Action Alliance through the recycling of clamshells and flexible packaging will help fund the recycling infrastructure for the organization.

“It’s not that packaging will disappear,” he says. “It’s going to become a lot more expensive now that may chase it off the shelves. But for CAA certainly, there’s no economic incentive here for them to demand that food packaging get banned.”

Kelly also points out advocating for plastics in the specialty crop industry will not be a one-and-done type of movement. He says the industry will need to continue to be engaged. Much like the adage, of “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” that’s the role specialty crop growers will need to play in the future.

“Individual growers and shippers have to stay involved,” he says. “This rock is going to roll over people if they don’t push it uphill.”

California Water Experts Call for Cooperation on Colorado River Impasse

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:32:08 GMT

There are just over two weeks left for the seven states that depend on the Colorado River to come to an agreement on how to manage its dwindling water resources. This water is critical to millions of people and agricultural acres across the river’s basin, as well as key sectors of California’s fresh produce industry.

If the states can’t agree on a management plan for the Colorado River by Feb. 14, the federal government may step in with its plans. Experts doubt those plans will solve the issues facing the Colorado River, however, and say it could likely result in decades of lawsuits and uncertainty.

While the states have been at an impasse for over two years now, California water and irrigation experts are hopeful for cooperation ahead of the deadline.

“It’s important that we remember as we move forward that we’re all in this together,” says Frank Venegas, water technician for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe. “We have to develop partnerships. If we have some partnerships already, [we have] to make them stronger as we move forward into this next era of the negotiations.”

Venegas was one of several panelists who spoke during a Jan. 28 webinar hosted by the California Natural Resources Agency. Panelists spoke on the relevance of the Colorado River water to California, the challenges facing it, what has happened to address those challenges and what needs to happen in the future of its management.

Not Enough Water to Go Around

Seven states and Mexico depend on and share the water of the Colorado River. The states are divided into the Upper Basin (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico) and the Lower Basin (California, Arizona and Nevada).

However, much like the situation between the U.S. and Mexico on the Rio Grande , the Colorado River is overallocated.

Michael Anderson, California state climatologist, explained during the webinar that the average flow through the river from 1910 to 2000 was roughly 15 million acre-feet annually. The 1922 Colorado River Compact operated on this reality, stipulating that the Upper and Lower Basins would each receive 7.5 MAF annually. Of the Lower Basin’s total allocation, California receives the lion’s share at 4.4 MAF. This also makes it the largest single recipient of Colorado River water in the entire basin.

The 1922 compact granted any water over the states’ 15 MAF allocation to Mexico. The 1944 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico changed this, allocating an additional 1.5 MAF annually to Mexico. This brought the river’s total annual allocations to 16.5 MAF.

Since the early 2000s, however, average annual flow rates have been slightly over 12.5 MAF because of extended drought in the Colorado River Basin. Experts expect the stress on the river and its basin will continue due to climate change and continued warming in the West.

Anderson explains that a warmer West means more moisture will be pulled out of the landscape, including the Colorado River. At the same time, climate change means storms are bigger and more intense, as well as more spread out and less predictable. Warmer temperatures also mean that snowpacks, on which the Colorado River depends, are getting smaller and less dependable.

All these factors also compound on one another. For example, the drier things get, the more dust there is on the landscape.

“Dust from the deserts being blown up onto the snowpack makes it melt earlier, meaning you have that longer period of dryness in the basin to stress the landscape even further,” Anderson says. “So a lot of forces [are] working to make things more challenging in the basin, to be sure.”

California Produce Needs Colorado River Water

Challenges to the Colorado River Basin pose a threat to everyone and everything that depends on its water.

While roughly 40 million people across the entire basin depend on water from the Colorado River, the river’s water also makes specific sectors of fresh produce possible, particularly in California. Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, points to the Imperial Irrigation District, which gets all of its water from the Colorado River Basin, as an example.

“Because they have such a long growing season with few days below freezing, the farmers in IID produce about two-thirds of the nation’s winter vegetables,” she says.

JB Hamby, vice chair of the IID board of directors and chair of the state’s Colorado River Board, quantifies the impact in another way, pointing to 600,000 acres “of highly productive farmland in production all-year round, some of the most high-value and productive in the basin.” He specifically names the Imperial Valley, Bard Valley, the land of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe and the Coachella Valley in his example.

Robert Cheng, assistant general manager of the Coachella Valley Water District, says the area — known for its unique produce items like dates, citrus, melons and specialty vegetables — could not survive without Colorado River water.

“We really depend pretty heavily on the Colorado River Basin,” he says, noting that Colorado River water makes up 75% or more of the area’s imported water annually. “And despite holding senior Colorado River water rights, we also very much understand the importance of working these issues out collaboratively.”

Feb. 14: Deadline to a Decision

Collaboration on the Colorado River Basin has been complicated, however.

The 2007 agreement governing how water is managed along the Colorado River during times of shortages expired at the end of 2025. The 2007 rules will remain in effect until the end of the 2026 water year on Sept. 30. In what is often called “the post-2026 negotiations,” the seven basin states have been attempting to come up with a replacement management plan that all parties agree on for the past two years.

Thus far, no agreement has been reached.

On Jan. 16, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its own version of a water management plan for the Colorado River in the form of a draft environmental impact statement .

“The Department of the Interior is moving forward with this process to ensure environmental compliance is in place so operations can continue without interruption when the current guidelines expire,” Andrea Travnicek, USBR assistant secretary for water and science, said in the group’s announcement from Jan. 9. “The river and the 40 million people who depend on it cannot wait. In the face of an ongoing severe drought, inaction is not an option.”

The draft environmental impact statement examines five different strategies for managing Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two key reservoirs along the Colorado River. While USBR has not identified a preferred alternative out of the five, it has given the seven states a Feb. 14 deadline to come up with an agreement or it may select one within its jurisdiction to pursue.

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times , some of those alternatives are alarming for California and could “lead to lengthy litigation,” according to Shivaji Deshmukh, the general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Metropolitan is the country’s largest water district, serving almost 20 million people, and half of those who depend on the Colorado River for water.

Cooperation is Key

Deshmukh, who spoke at the Jan. 28 webinar, outlines the importance of the Colorado River water to his largely urban constituents. However, he also stresses the importance of partnership and collaborative efforts to reduce demand and cooperate with all water users.

“We have not pitted ourselves against flows of water in the environment or for agriculture, but rather figured out ways to partner, whether it is looking at ways to partner with the state on programs to better balance water supply throughout the state of California or very unique and agency-specific partnerships with our agricultural partners, including IID, Coachella Valley and the Quezon Tribe,” he says.

“We know that without a consensus approach to these negotiations, we could be left with some really severe cuts along the river,” he adds.

All other panelists and participants also call for cooperation and collaboration among the seven states.

“We’re really focused with working across states,” says Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency.

“We know that the future is going to be better when the seven states actually decide the path forward versus looking to the federal government or, at worst, getting mired in litigation, which really characterized so much water management over the last century in the basin,” he says.

From Commodities to Craft Grains: The Farm Built on Constant Change

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:05:44 GMT

Arnusch Farms is in a constant state of evolution. Specifically, its CEO Marc Arnusch says they reinvent 10% to 15% of the operation every year.

“A lot of farmers will measure success on a balance sheet or rate of growth. We measure ours on implementation of successful ventures,” Arnusch says. “This could look like a different planting technique, cultural practices or something as complex as adding a crop like black eye peas, or a value-added process such as in the craft grains space that would get us one more rung up the ladder.”

For his leadership on his farm, growth of the business and excellence in entrepreneurism, Arnusch was named the 2025 Top Producer of the Year, sponsored by BASF, Fendt and Rabo AgriFinance.

“Looking in the rear view mirror, we understand the tradition and history that brought us here. But we aren’t a ditto of my dad’s operation or our neighbor’s.”

Decommoditize Products
Located in Colorado’s Prospect Valley, Arnusch Farms grows more than half a dozen crops across 3,000 acres.

“My tenure of leading the farm will be one of change. We are always pivoting,” he says.

Alongside his wife, Jill, who works as the farm’s controller, guideposts in business include tracking business metrics, such as revenue growth, profit margin, asset expansion, risk management and capital reinvestment. Rooted in data for his decisions, Arnusch is empowered to make tough realizations, such as one 20 years ago seeing how diversifying into nine different crops didn’t equate to profitability. That pivot led to a focus on value-added crops.

While his family’s legacy goes back to immigrating to the U.S. and to eastern Colorado to specifically grow sugar beets, Arnusch led the divergence from tradition to seek profitability and greater opportunities. Today, that vision has manifested into growing grains for the craft beer and spirits industry, which are used at 450 brewers and more than 30 distilleries.

“Looking in the rear view mirror, we understand the tradition and history that brought us here. But we aren’t a ditto of my dad’s operation or our neighbor’s,” Arnusch says.

At the root of his desire to be agile is to be able to recognize the risk that is inherent to production agriculture.

High risk, high reward has been a lesson learned firsthand. One example is the accelerated approach he took to growing onions, going from zero acres to being the third largest onion processor, packer and shipper in the state in four years. But that growth was abruptly met with labor issues at harvest, paralyzing the operation.

Arnusch shares while he’s driven to be nimble and stay flexible, when opportunities arise, he’s learned to balance the excitement of opportunity with a systems approach.

Arnusch has become a student of external forces and how they create opportunity.

“I watch trends. I used to watch them on the national scale. But I started to become more focused on the local side. Our venture into food grade corn, it wasn’t for alcohol, it was for the growing Hispanic population in the West, and therefore the expanding market for tortillas. That’s what had me asking questions like, could we play in that space? Could we grow that crop?”

Arnusch says the industry is often too focused on the current growing season or maybe the next, and something he’s found that sets him apart is his focus on the future.

“We have to focus on 25 years out, and we’re asking ourselves: Will the business still be relevant then?” he says. “My grandfather floated the ocean in 1952. He wanted to grow sugar beets. We may follow that signal, and go where food grade corn is grown, or cereal grains for spirits can be grown.”

AI Game Changer
To give certainty to decisions and reduce blind spots, Marc Arnusch says there is no tool like artificial intelligence.

“For a farm business, this is a bigger game changer than GPS and autosteer,” he says.

Mostly leaning on Chat GPT and Grok, Arnusch says the tools help on the strategic side of things as they narrow down potential decisions into a handful of options instead of an unmanageable amount.

“I set my phone on the console of the truck, talk to AI, outlining what is the problem, where are the challenges, and it helps me narrow my focus,” he says. “Then, most often, I talk with my wife, Jill, and instead of telling her 50 different angles to a story, we have a much more focused conversation in how we problem solve.”

Arnusch admits he believes AI will bring more positives to the industry, but regardless of an personal position on the technology, he encourages every farm to be aware and try it.

Exemplify Resiliency
“We are in the de-risk business,” he says. “We pride ourselves on seeing around the corner, understanding what we can control and insuring against what we can’t control.”

He points to two breakthroughs.

One is moving away from yield protection and revenue protection. Instead, since 2012 they have been a pilot farm for Whole Farm Revenue Protection insurance with NAU Country Farm Insurance Company.

“We are insuring our farmgate revenue over a five-to-six-year period. It allowed us to have predictability for farm gate revenue. It allowed us to insure crops we didn’t otherwise have coverage — like alfalfa. And we took risks with specialty crops that were high risk and high reward,” he says.

Arnusch says it also simplified the claims process, which relies on tax record information, which has already been aggregated.

The second risk management tool Arnusch says was a breakthrough is joining a captive insurance company 25 years ago. The first captive company he joined was via Colorado Corn Growers to underwrite workman’s compensation insurance. Since then, he’s joined a diversified group of business owners to form his current captive pool, with about 120 policy holders.

“Our risk is spread across industries such as construction, real estate and medical,” he says. “That diversification helps us manage exposure and better understand our insurance needs. It’s also allowed us to identify and insure areas we hadn’t considered before — things like cybersecurity, key personnel and certain property and casualty coverages.”

The captive provides error and omission coverage, which includes an instance for coverage in the first year of participation when a seed customer received the wrong herbicide- tolerant seed, a $54,000 mistake. The captive company adjudicated the claim, and Arnusch says the customer was retained.

Change has also illustrated itself in him stopping ventures or services he’s provided.

“We exited the wheat seed business in 2023. I pride myself on doing a good job for the customer, and I wasn’t able to service the customer as I wanted,” he says. “When service starts to suffer, something needs to change.”

(Yvonne Min Photography)

Environmental Steward
Where he farms in Weld County, Colo., there are two water sources: surface water diverted from the South Platte River and the Lost Creek aquifer. He saw this as an opportunity to form a water leasing business, Ag Water Alliance.

“We have dependable water supply, but there are competing interests, mostly municipal, some industry,” he says. “We created an opportunity to lease water rights for a number of years to the energy sector.”

The income from the water rights has helped buffer the variability in ag profitability. For example, in 2018, a series of 11 hail storms led to Arnusch Farms harvesting only 22% of their planted acres. Without the combination of crop insurance, property and casualty insurance and water leasing revenue, the farm might not have been able to persevere.

Arnusch has also weighed the value of the water with crop productivity and soil health to implement a rotation of idling acres, planting cover crops and applying manure.

Employer of Choice
Arnusch says as a leader on the farm, he’s most proud of how he’s invested his time into focusing on creating a culture for the team.

“One of the ways we’ve improved communication is our approach to meetings, which we changed in 2021, with the goal of having everyone ‘in the know,’” he says.

Every Monday, the week starts with a 30 minute all-team meeting talking about jobs of the week, metrics on performance and setting schedule expectations. It also includes a brainstorming session.

“We belt and suspender the weekly meetings with 10 minute daily stand-up discussions to review what we did yesterday, who is on what task and scheduling expectations,” Arnusch says. “You put your best people on the hardest job, but within their skill set. It’s tricky. When we do it right, it works flawlessly.”

Arnusch says earlier in his farming career, he lacked an understanding of how important culture is to a business.

“As we developed our approach to vertical integration, we willed things to work,” he says. “It was a management breakthrough for me to understand the culture piece. It was a bigger educational undertaking than anything agronomic.”

Arnusch Farms uses a tool called Culture Index for all team members and vendors.

“The tool we use, along with the help of AI, determines who a person is as an individual and compares this to the job description they have,” he says. “At no fault of their own, we had set up people to fail. It wasn’t because they weren’t working hard or doing the job, but it was stretching them beyond what they do best.”

He shares a recent example from this fall of hiring a farm foreman who has a near perfect match as an individual and to the job description.

Role Model and Community Leader
Arnusch Farms’ legacy is now being rewritten on the first land the family had farmed.

“I bought my grandfather’s farm in 2018, and that farm started everything, but it’s right on I-76, so I knew it had development potential,” Arnusch says. “But I thought it would be in 25 years - not five.”

“I knew it had development potential. But I thought it would be in 25 years — not five.”

Currently, Arnusch is working to develop 262 acres to provide a mixed-use of residential, commercial, retail hospitality, community, civic and healthcare uses.

“We have an opportunity and an obligation to do this different and build amenities and services at the hallmark of our development. An important aspect our community needs is assisted living and aging-in-place residences,” he says. “If everything is successful, we’ll break ground in 2026.”

His vision includes keeping the farm house and an adaptive reuse agriculture education space, along with a small restaurant and possibly a distillery.

“I understand change is hard for many people. Our plan has gone to the town council three times and earned unanimous approval each time. This plan puts people first, and when you do that, you begin to take the edge off of change,” he says.

Arnusch is the current president of the Keenesburg Chamber of Commerce, and he proudly says when he first joined the organization it had 38 members. Since then, it has swelled to 90. The family also recently bought a building on Main Street to keep the local NAPA and hardware store tenant in place.

“I am a farmer who is choosing to plant seeds in a lot of different fields: my own farm, in the community and seeds in young people.”

Seeds Planted for the Future
“I am a farmer who is choosing to plant seeds in a lot of different fields: my own farm, in the community and seeds in young people,” Arnusch says.

As harvest wraps up, Arnusch says his farm’s next task will be to bring together his farm with his son’s, Brett. Whereas they have been operating two separate businesses and then partnering on machinery and labor, such as at harvest. Arnusch says the biggest launchpad for opportunity he was given was when his own father, Hans, stepped away from the farm.

(Yvonne Min Photography)

Going forward, Brett will take over day-to-day operation, and Marc will transition to a role as president.

“This is what it will take for us to move the ball forward. I’ll manage trucks, markets and try to move some of our specialty business, such as food grade corn, forward,” Arnusch says. “It’s time for the youth on our team to put their imprint on the farming operation. I never thought of it as just mine.”

His mentoring extends beyond the fields of his farm.

“My next metric on how I’ll measure success is how I’m doing teaching and encouraging tomorrow’s producers and visionaries today,” he says.

(Farm Journal)

Attend the 2026 Top Producer Summit and learn about this year’s finalists as well as the announcement of the 2026 Top Producer of the Year.

Voters Approve Initiatives for Food in Colorado and Water in Texas

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 18:54:51 GMT

While most of the 2025 election attention turned to the coasts — California’s redistricting proposal and the New York City mayoral race — there were a few food- and ag-focused items on more central U.S. ballots. And all four items passed, most with strong margins.

Coloradans Fund Universal School Food

Just over a third (35.6%) of registered voters turned out in Colorado for the off-year 2025 election. Both of Colorado’s statewide ballot issues that dealt with funding the state’s universal free meals for public school students — Propositions LL and MM — were approved by voters. Both propositions, in different ways, aimed to help fund the state’s Healthy School Meals for All program and its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Prop LL asked voters if it could keep $12.43 million in excess tax money it previously collected from high-income taxpayers and put it into the HSMA program and SNAP. This question was put to voters because of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which requires the state to return excess tax revenue to the taxpayers unless voters allow the state to keep it.

According to the Colorado secretary of state’s office , Prop LL passed 64.7% to 35.3%, a difference of roughly 425,000 votes.

Prop MM passed with a slightly narrower margin — 58.1% for and 41.9% against, representing a difference of about 236,000 votes — according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Prop MM asked to raise up to $95 million annually by reducing the itemized or standard state income tax deductions high-income earners can claim. Currently, those deductions stand at $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. With the passage of Prop MM, these will drop to $1,000 and $2,000, respectively.

The Colorado secretary of state’s office estimates that Coloradans with a federal taxable income of $300,000 or more will see their income taxes increase by an average of $486 as a result of the passage of Prop MM.

Texans Opt for Untaxed Feed and Money for Water

Just under 16% of Texas voters turned out to voice their desires on two different amendments to the state constitution. Proposition 4 asked voters if the state could ear-mark up to $1 billion in its sales and use taxes for water infrastructure, and Prop 5 asked voters to not count animal feed stored for retail sale among property taxes. Both passed with noteworthy margins.

Prop 4 passed with a more than 40 percentage-point spread at 70.4% in favor and 29.6% opposed, a difference of about 1.2 million votes, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office .

The state constitutional amendment proposed to earmark the first $1 billion dollars after $46.5 billion is collected via sales and use taxes each fiscal year for the Texas Water Fund. This fund, administered by the Texas Water Development Board, goes to fund other water-related projects and initiatives throughout the state.

The amendment also requires that no less than 50% of the money that goes into the Texas Water Fund as a result of this measure must go to the New Water Supply for Texas Fund and/or the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas . Together, these two funds focus on increasing water supplies in the state. This can be through efforts like reservoir building, recapture and reuse projects, acquiring water or water rights from nearby states, or desalination efforts.

Prop 5 passed with 63.6% voting in favor and 36.4% voting against. With the passage of this amendment, “animal feed held by the owner of the property for sale at retail” will no longer be subject to property tax. According to Texas state Rep. Cody Harris, R-District 8, who authored the bill, the amendment will bring added consistency to how the state handles animal feed as it relates to taxes.

Across the state, only 15.7% of eligible Texas voters cast their vote on this issue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, voter turnout for this amendment was higher in small, rural counties.

Nebraska Urges Action on Canal Fight with Colorado

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:56:56 GMT

Claims and counterclaims come in and out like seasonal stream flows in the ongoing fight between Colorado and Nebraska over the Perkins County Canal.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and State Engineer Jason Ullman met with the state legislature’s Joint Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee on Oct. 29. The hearing was to update the legislators on Nebraska’s lawsuit against Colorado, launched July 16, over a proposed canal on the South Platte River, an important source of irrigation water for both states.

“Our position is there is no case that’s yet ripe,” Weiser told the committee. “We’ve told the Supreme Court that this case is not ready for prime time, and the court should decline to hear it.”

Just minutes before the hearing began, however, Nebraska’s Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued a request to the U.S. Supreme Court , urging them to pursue the lawsuit and reject Colorado’s request for denial.

These are just the most recent events in a fight over water rights on the South Platte River that started July 16 when Nebraska sued Colorado .

On the one hand, Nebraska claims Colorado is violating the South Platte River Compact , which governs water sharing on the river between the states, is stealing water owed to Nebraska, and is hurting Nebraskan agriculture as a result.

On the other hand, Colorado claims Nebraska’s lawsuit is “meritless,” and has threatened the state and its agricultural property owners along the proposed canal path with unprecedented use of eminent domain.

Backstory Behind the Current Back-and-Forth

The compact, signed between the two states in 1923, outlined the right for Nebraska to create the Perkins County Canal in Colorado “for the diversion of water from the South Platte River within Colorado for irrigation of lands in Nebraska” during the non-irrigation season. Nebraska’s lawsuit asserts that Colorado has blocked its efforts to build this canal.

In the lawsuit’s bill of complaint , Nebraska says it initiated the building effort in 2022, including initial land acquisition talks with Colorado landowners in the projected canal area and “communicated no fewer than ten times between October 2022 and June 2025” with Colorado’s legal and technical representatives.

“Despite Nebraska’s best efforts to secure cooperation, Colorado has stonewalled and opposed Nebraska at every step,” the complaint reads.

Meanwhile, Colorado says there’s been no canal effort to block.

“For the century plus that this compact has been in place, Nebraska has declined to build such a canal,” Weiser said. “They have taken only the most preliminary steps thus far and there is a significant permitting process they will have to go through if they are serious. Many of these steps they have yet to do.”

Nebraska’s Oct. 29 request to the Supreme Court calls earlier such claims made Weiser and others untrue.

“Nebraska has spent millions of dollars on designs, permitting, legal and consulting fees, right-of-way investigations, and infrastructure engineering for the Canal,” the request document reads. “The design is substantially developed, and all major engineering decisions have been made. Nebraska has already acquired 80 acres in Colorado to facilitate Canal construction.”

Question of State-to-State Eminent Domain

Those Colorado acres came from one landowner who sold to Nebraska after it reached out to landowners along the proposed route in late 2022. While the lawsuit document characterized this initial outreach as amiable with Colorado landowners, saying it offered six Colorado landowners 115% of fair market value for their properties, Colorado characterized Nebraska’s later interactions — which included threats of condemnation — as threatening.

Ullman told committee members, “We are aware that [Nebraska] made these offers and threats of condemnation to a limited group of landowners at the location where the head gate of the canal was going to be, not along the 13 additional miles of canal that is necessary.”

Colorado state Sen. Byron Pelton (R-District 1), who represents the area where the Perkins County Canal would go, said the situation has been hard on those in his agriculture-dependent district.

“They are concerned about where their water is coming from,” he said. Pelton added that “$4.6 billion is generated with agriculture just in my district alone, and that’s because of the South Platte River and the Republican River basin.”

But he also questioned the seriousness of Nebraska’s negotiation efforts in light of the threats of eminent domain against Colorado farmers, ranchers and growers.

“It has been my experience growing up farming and ranching my entire life that whenever you walk into somebody’s property, walk into somebody’s place of business, and threaten eminent domain, everything shuts down — there is no more negotiation,” he said. “[Nebraska has] done nothing but threaten eminent domain from the very beginning.”

With some limitations, however, the compact grants Nebraska “the right to acquire by purchase, prescription, or the exercise of eminent domain” lands and easements necessary for the canal. In its lawsuit, Nebraska recognized that element of the compact as “exceptional.” It nonetheless asserts that it had moved to exerting this right only after meeting with Colorado landowners and met with “little success.”

Even though the right of eminent domain is in the compact, Weiser described it as potentially opening up “some novel, unprecedented territory” should the canal effort move forward.

“If this process is to get started — the eminent domain process, the condemnation process — that will generate some legal question,” Weiser said. “Our position is Colorado’s law of eminent domain is the only eminent domain law that applies in the state of Colorado.”

Food, Water and Ag on the Ballot in Colorado, Texas

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 13:13:41 GMT

Presidential elections get a lot of attention. Attention starts dropping off for midterm elections. But off-year elections? Voters might not even know about them.

This year, on Nov. 4, citizens in at least 22 states will get to vote on a variety of state- and local-level positions and issues. Most ballot items deal with local nitty-gritty issues like school board members, bonds and city council representatives, but some will feature state-level issues as well.

Colorado and Texas in particular have four ballot measures that deal with food access and ag-adjacent concerns.

Colorado’s Food-Funding Props LL and MM

Every Colorado voter will be asked two statewide ballot issues: Propositions LL and MM . Both deal with food funding via tax changes, though neither create new taxes.

Prop LL asks voters if the state can keep the $12.43 million excess tax money it collected from high-income taxpayers following the creation of the state’s universal free Healthy School Meals for All program in 2022. The money would fund the program and, eventually, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the state. According to Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, any tax revenue collected in excess of estimates proposed to voters must be returned unless citizens vote to let the state keep it.

Prop MM would reduce the tax deduction levels for the same high-income Colorado taxpayers who paid excess taxes for the HSMA program. Currently, the itemized or standard tax deductions are $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. The measure proposes to reduce these levels to $1,000 and $2,000 respectively. The additional revenue generated from this would also go to fund the HSMA program and SNAP. If passed by voters, the state estimates that up to $95 million could be generated by the measure.

The HSMA program provides universal free breakfasts and lunches to all Colorado public school students rather than just those students who qualify based on economic need. Eligibility for free or reduced-cost school meals for students are often tied to household eligibility for support programs, such as SNAP, WIC and Medicare. The passage of the Federal Budget Reconciliation tightened eligibility standards for such programs across the country. Nonprofit group Illuminate Colorado estimates that almost 300,000 Colorado families will lose some or all of their SNAP benefits as a result.

Every registered Colorado voter should have received a ballot by mail. Ballots must be dropped off at designated drop boxes or at polling places by 7 p.m. on Nov. 4. Voters who opt to vote in-person can do so, but they must return their unused mailed ballots. For more information, visit the Colorado secretary of state’s voter information page .

Propping Up Water Funds With Texas’ Prop 4

Proposition 4 asks Texas voters to amend the state’s constitution to get more dedicated funding for water infrastructure in the state. Water in the arid state is already a pressing agricultural issue , particularly since the state largely depends on increasingly late, short and unreliable water deliveries from Mexico . But the state’s population is also growing rapidly, according to the Texas Water Development Board , and there is already a massive funding shortfall for the state’s water infrastructure needs.

Rather than create a new tax, the amendment would earmark up to $1 billion per year of the state’s existing sales and use tax revenue for the Texas Water Fund for 20 years, starting September 2027. The Texas Water fund would get the first $1 billion in sales and use tax revenue after $46.5 billion was collected each fiscal year. According to the Texas comptroller , the state brought in $47.2 billion in sales and use tax revenue in 2024.

The Texas Water Fund was established in 2023 is administered by the TWDB, which has the mission to “ensure a secure water future for Texas.” The fund’s money can be used for water infrastructure efforts, including reservoir-building efforts, as well as funding other water-related programs TWDB already oversees.

Taking Off Texas Taxes on Animal Feed

Texans will also be asked to weigh in on Proposition 5 . This is another proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would exempt animal feed held on a property for retail sale from property taxes.

The amendment was authored by Texas state Rep. Cody Harris, R-District 8. In his analysis document, Harris notes that “animal feed is typically exempt from taxation at each location or transaction during its life cycle,” except for when it is inventory and the amendment “seeks to address this inconsistency.”

Texas voters can vote early through Oct. 31 or vote on Election Day, Nov. 4. Texas voters can find their polling places as well as Election Day information here .

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Mendocino Farms opens first Colorado location

Fri, 09 May 2025 16:48:33 GMT

Mendocino Farms, a fast-casual restaurant with a focus on high-quality ingredients sourced from farmers — like fresh produce, humanely raised meats and cage free eggs — celebrated the grand opening of its first Colorado location with a longhorn parade through Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood May 7.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based Mendocino Farms started as a family business in 2005 and in the last 20 years has grown the restaurant chain to more than 70 locations in California, Texas, Washington and Colorado. The company says it has plans for continued expansion with additional locations in Colorado and Texas as well as its first restaurant in Illinois.

Like its other locations, the Denver restaurant at 320 N. Fillmore St. features a fresh-focused menu of salads, sandwiches and soups, all of which include produce.

The menu at Mendocino Farms is packed with fresh produce.

(Photo: Jennifer Strailey)

Mendocino Farms also offers a number of vegetarian options like The Modern Caesar salad, made with curly kale, chopped romaine, housemade superfood krunchies, shaved Parmesan cheese, red onions, grape tomatoes, avocado and lemon squeeze, as well as vegan options such as the Vegan Banh Mi sandwich that features organic baked tofu, vegan aioli, sweet chili sauce, pickled daikon and carrots, cucumbers, jalapeños, Thai basil and cilantro.

Mendocino Farms says it handpicks fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables, partnering with family farms whenever possible, to bring its customers the best of what’s in season.

Mendocino Farms aims to take customers on a “culinary adventure” with its fresh-focused menu.

(Photo: Jennifer Strailey)

“We source each ingredient with care from farmers and food artisans who share our elevated standards for quality — working locally with our neighbors, when possible,” says the Mendocino Farms website. “Those high standards include no added hormones, artificial sweeteners, food dyes, or artificial flavors and a commitment to environmental and social responsibility.”

The opening day parade brought Mendocino Farms’ signature cow logo to life and offered Denverites a rare chance to see the longhorns up close, following their absence from this year’s National Western Stock Show Parade due to inclement weather. The event concluded at Bromwell Elementary School, where Mendocino Farms delivered a complimentary lunch to teachers in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.

High desert harvest: Potato producers readying for San Luis Valley crop

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 11:33:32 GMT

At an elevation of 7,600 feet, situated along the Rio Grande River and tucked between two mountains outlining the horizon — the San Juans and Sangre de Cristos — the second-largest fresh potato region in the U.S. is nestled in the southern heart of Colorado in an area called the San Luis Valley.

Boasting nearly 365 days of sunshine, the high desert growing region provides fertile ground for potato crops, with 150 growers calling the region home, according to the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee. As the first of the new crop harvest comes of the ground this fall, growers, shippers and distributors are taking stock.

Tater Traders , a family-run potato brokerage based in Golden, Colo., works closely with growers in the San Luis Valley. Operations Manager Morgan McCormick was enthusiastic about the season ramp up in the weeks ahead when she spoke with The Packer on Aug. 23.

“It’s always fun when we start to get busy and you get to start talking to the growers every day,” McCormick said. “I always get excited for that time of year.”

As the potato supply moves around the nation, she said she’s looking forward to when the harvest comes to Colorado, specifically the San Luis Valley, when she anticipates doing a lot of business with nearby growers.

Strong markets bode well at Colorado’s season kickoff

The current market for potatoes remains strong. Over the past year, U.S. retail dollar sales of potatoes increased double digits, growing 16.8% from July 2022 to June 2023, according to a recent Circana (IRI) report. The San Luis Valley has reaped the benefits of favorable market conditions in the lead up to the 2023 season.

“The period of the pandemic renewed consumers’ love affair with fresh potatoes and seems to have boosted consumption long term,” MountainKing Potatoes Director of Marketing Andreas Trettin told The Packer.

The potato distributor said that it’s been tracking preferences for fresh potatoes as they shift in assortment, variety and package size.

Related news: Peaches, onions and carrots thrive in Colorado

“The days of deep-discount, large bags of russet potatoes have given way to flavorful varieties, smaller packages and smaller-size potatoes,” Trettin said.

Underlining the sustained demand — and despite a slight decrease in volume — dollar sales for the overall potato category reached a new high-water mark in June 2023, totaling $16.9 billion for the 52-week period, the highest in five years, according to the Circana report.

Retail prices for potatoes increased by 19.9% for the full year. Despite this price jump and as evidenced by the strength of sales, potatoes remain affordable for consumers with an average price of $2.36 per pound, according to the report.

Les Alderete, general manager for Golden, Colo.-based grower Skyline Potato Co. , told The Packer that he’s bracing for a course-correction after a series of high-performing years.

“I’m hoping this year will still be a profitable year, but we’re coming off record highs the last couple years,” he said. “There’s got to be some kind of correction, and we’re seeing that now.”

He remains hopeful, citing decent sizing and increased acreage across the board.

“We’ll see how the year goes,” Alderete said. “In the other major areas, they’ve had strong yields where they’ve started harvesting and size profile has been good. So, we’ll have more potatoes this year than we’ve had the last couple of years.”

Eric Beck, director of marketing for Wada Farms , sees this year’s potato demand continuing to trend favorably.

“With steady pressure of inflation still prevalent in our economy, potatoes remain a value-based basket item for all consumer demographics,” Beck said.

The Idaho-based potato grower-shipper has built its Colorado footprint over the course of two decades and counting.

“Our Colorado network of growers play an intricate part to our potato program by offering efficient and cost-effective supply chain solutions to help the overall bottom line in all industry segments,” he said.

Poised for harvest

The steady demand for potatoes has positioned producers like Wada Farms for a strong season as they ready for an early fall harvest kickoff. While the grower-shipper boasts a year-round Colorado potato program, the new crop typically starts at the end of August. Looking at the weeks ahead, Beck is optimistic.

“From a quality perspective, the growing conditions were favorable, and we should see good quality coming out of the fields,” he said. “There should be good sizing profile ranging across the entire spectrum. Test digs and initial quality inspections are indicating good overall internal and external quality characteristics for the tubers, and we anticipate they should store well for the duration of the 2023-2024 season.”

This year, distributor MountainKing Potatoes has increased its acreage for yellow-flesh potato varieties along with baby golds and baby reds to meet strong demand, Trettin said.

“Due to beneficial weather, we are a little ahead of schedule for our harvest in September,” he said. “Test digs showed good sizing and we expect excellent quality.”

What’s more, timed alongside MountainKing Potatoes’ harvest in September, the distributor is rolling out its fall marketing plan that will include a social media campaign, product Kwik Loks (bag closures), store contests and a full POS merchandising program, Trettin said.

As the grower-shipper Tater Traders prepares for fall harvest in the San Luis Valley, freight is top of mind.

“It’ll be interesting to see the transportation side of things this year,” McCormick said. “It seems like this summer was the first time that there’s been a break in the craziness.”

Water remains a challenge

Water is another consideration for growers this time of year across the dry and sunny Southwest, including the San Luis Valley region.

“It seems that early [this year] in the San Luis Valley, there was quite a bit of water. Some of the recharge pits were the fullest that people had seen them, but as the summer went on, the heat kind of became more of a challenge,” McCormick said.

Growers were hoping that the early precipitation would translate to fully recharged reservoirs; instead, high temperatures and dry summer months translated to increased irrigation needs, and water continues to challenge the region, she added.

San Luis Valley grower Skyline Potato Co. reported no major weather issues but expects a slightly lighter yield due to an early-season cold spell that caused some plants to not size up as expected. Subsequent plantings fared better, said Alderete, adding that the crop is in good shape overall.

“It’s been a balancing act; the weather is warm right now and they’re calling for rain here in the valley,” he said. “We haven’t had rain here in the last month and a half. It’s just been hot and dry.”

Rain is typically a welcome sight, even during harvest, he continued.

“You can get a little bit of rain and it won’t hurt [your harvest]. You just won’t have to run the water as much or pre-irrigate before you harvest,” he said. “You can put a quick burst of water on the potatoes before you harvest and break up any clods, and [rain can] help with that.”

Seeking competitive gains at the season start

The diversified, vertically integrated Wada Farms says it leans on data to put itself, and its customers, a step ahead.

The easiest way to up your fresh produce game, according to the grower-shipper, is to do your research — information is power.

“Do your due diligence and assess the category data to make sure you’re meeting the needs of your customer base. Leverage those shippers that have access to category management and put yourself ahead of the curve,” Beck said. “Data is a very powerful tool in today’s dynamic landscape.”

For others, the upcoming season brings personnel growth and transitions that will inevitably shape the business.

Leading the second generation at Tater Traders, McCormick got her start in the produce business working alongside her mom. Despite the unique challenges that come with working with family, McCormick says she enjoys the closeness that a family business brings.

“My sister just started in August, and it’s been really fun working with her,” McCormick said. “We know each other so well.”

Produce brands give back at nutrition-themed charity trivia party

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:54:45 GMT

Nutrition and family wellness advocate organization Healthy Family Project recently brought together more than 100 dietitians attending the annual Food Nutrition Conference & Expo in Denver for a lively evening and philanthropy.

The goal of the event was to foster connections among nutrition professionals and sponsor brands, and it exceeded expectations by delivering a unique blend of networking, education and charitable giving, according to a news release.

“We’ve always had a deep appreciation for the impact dietitians make in our communities,” Amanda Keefer, Healthy Family Project’s managing director, said in the release. “The goal of our event was to provide this key demographic the chance to kick back and have fun while learning more about our sponsors and the mission of Healthy Family Project.”

Sponsors of the event included Envy Apples, LunchBots, North Carolina Sweetpotatoes, Shuman Farms, USA Pears and Yo Quiero. At the event, sponsors showcased products and brand messaging and were included in the restaurant’s culinary experience. Additionally, trivia questions were crafted around the event sponsors, challenging dietitians’ knowledge while creating camaraderie and awarding prizes, the release said.

A highlight of the night was the collective effort to give back to the community. In the spirit of the event’s theme, “fuel good, do good,” event sponsors made a donation to the Food Bank of the Rockies. Together, the sponsors pledged the equivalent of 350,000 meals to support families in need.

Charlene Moser, corporate partnerships manager at the Food Bank of the Rockies, spoke about the crucial impact the food bank has in the Denver area, emphasizing the importance of such charitable initiatives, according to the release.

Peaches, onions and carrots thrive in Colorado

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:54:07 GMT

Carrots are in full swing in Colorado, some onions will start shipping in mid-September and Palisade peaches are winding down for the season, grower-shippers say.

“It was a weird year,” said Jordan Hungenberg, CEO at Hungenberg Produce Inc., Greeley, Colo.

Early wet weather set the company’s carrot crop behind by about two weeks.

The crop looked “very nice” in late August, though, as the company packed 600,000 to 700,000 pounds of carrots every day.

“We are packing every kind of carrots you can imagine,” Hungenberg said.

Hungenberg Produce specializes in conventional and organic cello and baby carrots but also puts up specialty packs like shredded carrots, matchsticks, coin cuts, chips and snack packs.

Besides servicing its Colorado customers, the company ships to surrounding states like Utah, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota, as well as Chicago, Phoenix, Florida and Maine, he said.

The company has had particular success with organic carrots.

“They’re a big deal, in Colorado especially,” Hungenberg said.

Demand for carrots tends to pick up in fall, when the weather cools, he said.

“Everybody eats a few more carrots,” he said. “We’re looking forward to that.”

Fagerberg Produce Co. Inc., Eaton, Colo., began harvesting onion transplants in late August and expected to kick off its direct-seed onion harvest in early September, said Colby Cantwell, sales manager.

“They’re looking really good,” he said.

The harvested onions will cure for a while, and shipping should start by mid-September.

The company offers white, yellow and red onions along with Colorado Sweets, which “seem to grow in popularity all the time,” Cantwell said.

Harvest will continue until mid-October, and onions will ship out of storage until mid-March.

Growing conditions were cool and wet in May and June, Cantwell said. “But when July got here, we pretty much had ideal temperatures the rest of the way.”

Quality has been good, he added.

Fagerberg Produce installed a new palletizer this year to speed up the packing process and continues to look at additional labor-saving equipment for the packing shed, he said.

Talbott Farms Inc., Palisade, Colo., continues to recover from an October 2020 freeze that knocked out a large part of its peach crop, said Charlie Talbott, a partner at the company with brothers Bruce and Nathan.

The company has replaced about 50,000 trees that were killed during the freeze.

“The good news is, we had a lot of young [trees] that were not severely damaged,” Talbott said.

This is the first year that volume is back to the level of the 2019 crop.

“That’s encouraging,” he said.

Replants will probably increase volume by 25% over the next few years, he added.

This year’s crop was running five to seven days behind schedule and should be finished by Sept. 27, he said.

Talbott said he was pleased with the quality of the peaches and the packouts.

“We had a great spring for growing,” he said. “It was cool and mild through June.”

When its peach crop is finished, Talbott Farms kicks off its wine grape program, which launched in 2000.

The firm also grows a few red and green table grapes from late August until mid-September “just for fun,” Talbott said. They’re not sold commercially, but they’re available at Talbott Farms’ retail market.

Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association plans for conferences

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 18:50:36 GMT

The Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has had a busy summer — and there’s more to come, said Marilyn Bay Drake, executive director.

On Dec. 14, the CFVGA Produce Labor Conference is scheduled for the Pueblo Convention Center in Pueblo, Colo.

Details of the solutions-focused conference are still being developed but will include labor policy updates, a compliance Q&A session and cover topics such as worker health and safety, H-2A, labor contractors and time tracking.

Lunch will feature Colorado-grown produce. Exhibitor spaces are available.

The conference was planned in response to Colorado’s tight agriculture labor market, made even more acute by the Colorado General Assembly’s passage of the Ag Labor Rights and Responsibilities Act in 2021, Bay Drake said.

“The overtime thresholds are taking effect this year and are a real whammy on Colorado growers,” she said.

Looking to 2024, the association’s annual two-day conference is scheduled for Feb. 27-28. About 40 exhibitors will be on hand at the Westin Westminster hotel and resort, Westminster, Colo., to tout their goods and services for an estimated 275 attendees.

Vendors will show off the latest produce input products and farming equipment, and there will be booths where growers can learn about organic certification and farm-related insurance offerings.

With the rising cost of labor and frequent worker shortages, agtech — such as automated weeders — is an important element of the conference, Bay Drake said.

Breakout sessions are planned where visitors can learn about produce production, food safety, weather, advocacy, marketing techniques and the latest labor laws.

Plenty of time will be allocated for buyers and sellers to network, including a two-hour session where growers may visit with supermarket buyers and buyers from the foodservice industry, including schools, restaurants and hospitals, she said.

This summer, CFVGA conducted an influencer tour where social media influencers were able to visit local farms and take part in a cabbage harvest, work on a bean-sorting line and set irrigation tubes.

The association also publishes recipes on its website (coloradoproduce.org) that feature in-season Colorado fruits and vegetables. And CFVGA brought in Carley Smith, a certified nutritional therapy practitioner known as the Fairy Gutmother, to talk to local chefs and retailers about the value of local produce and the role it plays in promoting gut health, Bay Drake said.

Spuds lead the way, but Colorado ships a plethora of produce

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:07:08 GMT

Potatoes may be the No. 1 produce commodity Colorado growers ship, but a variety of other tasty fruits and vegetables emanate from the Centennial State each summer and early fall as well.

Olathe sweet corn; Rocky Ford cantaloupe, watermelon and muskmelons; Palisade peaches; Pueblo chilies, carrots, pumpkins and onions are just a few of the more than two dozen varieties of fruits and vegetables available from the state’s more than 2,000 growers.

Peaches, along with some pears, cherries and grapes, are the main items grown by Palisade, Colo.-based Talbott Farms, said Charlie Talbott, partner in the company with brothers Bruce and Nathan. Peaches usually run from mid-July until Sept. 25, but they’ll wind down about a week earlier this year because of an early spring.

“The flavor is wonderful,” Talbott said.

But hail damage in some orchards was a bit discouraging.

“We’ve got a lot of nice utility-grade peaches this year,” he said. “More than normal.”

The company was on a growth trajectory and would have experienced a 20% increase in volume compared to last year if not for some weather disruptions, including a spring frost.

Talbott Farms also makes fresh apple cider and grows wine grapes on up to 30% of its acreage.

“We’re having fun making some of our own wine as well as selling wine grapes,” Talbott said.

Tuxedo Corn Co. in Olathe, Colo., has been growing sweet corn for 40 years, said owner John Harold.

The company grows flavorful SE — sugar enhanced — varieties that are harvested by hand, Harold said.

Tuxedo Corn started picking around July 20 this year and will continue until mid-to-late September.

“Quality has been very good,” Harold said. “I eat corn every day in the field to figure out maturity and flavor, and it’s been a sweet year.”

Something that’s not so sweet are moths that lay eggs on the corn. Those eggs turn into worms, making the corn unsalable as U.S. fancy grade.

“We’ve had a problem controlling the moths the last two years,” Harold said. “We’re fighting it pretty hard.”

The company reduced its crop by 950 acres this year because of the pest.

Tuxedo Corn has changed its program dramatically this year by turning to moth beneficials — natural predators of the corn ear worm egg.

“It’s helped, but it has not been the total solution,” Harold said.

Petrocco Farms, Brighton, Colo., began its 2024 harvest in early July with cilantro and romaine, green leaf and red leaf lettuces, said Julie Marrone (Petrocco), who handles local and organic sales.

“Our season [dramatically] reduces when we experience the first few temperature frosts, usually sometime in late October or November,” she said.

Cabbage continues into November, and the company ships storage and winter onions from November to January. Other commodities include chili peppers, sweet corn, green beans and spinach.

Volume will remain similar to previous years. Growing conditions were good this year with no severe hailstorms, Marrone said.

Inflation has had an impact on growers throughout the state.

“There’s no escaping it,” Talbott said.

Labor and other costs have risen, and growers must pass these increases on to buyers.

“Ultimately, if you can’t, you don’t stay in business,” he said.

Input costs are not on the decline, Marrone agreed.

“Our empty produce box is 4 cents shy of $3, labor is nearly $20 per hour, and we still only get anywhere from $10 to $30 for the box.”

Despite any price bumps, consumers look forward to some unique offerings from Colorado, said Marilyn Bay, executive director of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

The Mira Sol chili pepper grown near Pueblo, Colo., is a large Pueblo chili pepper with a thick wall that grows straight up, making it easier to harvest than other chilies, she said.

It was developed by Michael Bartolo, the vegetable crop specialist and manager of Colorado State University’s Arkansas Valley Research Center in Rocky Ford, and aims to give the Hatch variety a run for its money, she said.

“It’s hard to beat the flavor of some of [Colorado’s] branded products,” Bay said.

Colorado gears up for summer

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:07 GMT

Supplies of a few local products could be a bit tight this summer, but for the most part, Colorado distributors will have plenty of good-quality fruits and vegetables to sell.

Shipments of Colorado potatoes and onions have been tight because of a freeze last October that wiped out some of the larger sizes, coupled with panic buying prompted by COVID-19 that had both commodities quickly disappearing from supermarket shelves, said Tony Garin, vice president of sales for Colo-Pac Produce , Denver.

Pinto beans were another high-demand item.

Garin expected lower-than–usual volume on local potatoes until a new crop comes on after late September — a little earlier for onions.

Colo-Pac will have gala and Honeycrisp apples from September through early November from Colorado’s Western Slope, and Colorado pears should come on in late summer.

Colo-Pac is pushing apple and pear sales for schools, he said.

A cold snap in April put a damper on the Western Slope stone fruit deal, he said.

It was too soon to know the extent of the damage, but Garin said one grower reported that early varieties of cherries and peaches will be “really light.”

However, more fruit should be available when later varieties come on as the season progresses.

Other local items include asparagus, which started in mid-April, and leafy greens, which should be ready to harvest in mid-June.

For the organic section, Colo-Pac ships a fair amount of tomatoes, onions and potatoes and locally grown yellow squash, lettuces, greens, cherries and a few peaches.

Organic demand is holding steady, Garin said.

Related content: Colorado goes local in springtime

Coosemans-Denver Inc ., a specialty produce supplier, offers hundreds of products, said Garrick Macek, vice president of operations.

Ginger, shallots and fresh culinary herbs are among the most requested.

Although the company tries to source locally when possible, that can be a challenge for a specialty supplier.

“A good portion of the products we offer and source come from outside of Colorado and even the U.S.,” he said.

Coosemans offers a selection of organic items, including herbs, radicchio and bok choy, but organic specialty items are not as readily available as conventional ones, Macek said.

On the foodservice side, popular items include baby peeled carrots, baby heirloom tomatoes, ginger, root vegetables, edible flowers, gourmet mushrooms, rainbow carrots, white asparagus, fingerling potatoes and lots of herbs.

But, as with most produce suppliers, Coosemans’ foodservice business has suffered repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foodservice sales are down 90% at Coosemans with “very little starting to come back,” Macek said.

It’s unlikely that sales at Coosemans will match last year’s, he said.

“I believe we have lost enough business to make it hard to catch up to last year, but it could happen if the economy opens up again soon,” Macek said.

Colorado consumers look forward to local produce, said Brad Jester, co-owner of 5280 Produce in Denver.

Palisade peaches, grown near the Utah border; Olathe corn and Rocky Ford watermelon and cantaloupe are just a few of the local favorites, he said.

Big Sky Trading LLC serves mostly food manufacturers and retailers, said J.T. Pickett, general operations manager and organic produce buyer.

Vegetables account for the majority of the firm’s business, but the fruit side is growing as well, he said.

“It’s a pretty even spread,” he said.

Greens, lettuces and spinach are top-selling vegetables.

The company handles all berry varieties and runs trucks to Washington for apples and pears, Idaho for potatoes and California and Texas for grapefruit, lemons, limes and oranges.

“We can get pretty much everything,” Pickett said.

Local summertime items include Palisade peaches, Rocky Ford cantaloupe and carrots from Greeley.

“We try to incorporate (local produce) as much as possible,” he said.

Buying locally holds down freight costs for customers, he added.

Big Sky Trading is a member of the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Colorado Proud program that promotes locally grown produce.

“We do everything we can to sell and encourage people to buy Colorado produce,” Pickett said.

Full line of fruits and vegetables due from Alpine Summit

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

Denver-based Alpine Summit Sales will have an extensive line of fruits and vegetables this summer, sourcing from varied growing areas including Colorado, California and Mexico, said Brandon Brown, vice president.

Colorado summer offerings, which Brown said are eagerly anticipated by local consumers, will include watermelons, cabbage, leaf items and a variety of vegetables.

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Big Sky Trading expands organics

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

Denver-based Big Sky Trading is expanding its organic offerings, said J.T. Pickett, general operations manager and organic produce buyer.

“That used to be a very small part of our business, but it’s been about a third of our business for the last two years,” he said.

Organic demand continues to increase, Pickett said.

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Colo-Pac Produce expands capacity

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

A year ago, Denver-based Colo-Pac Produce completed a major cooler expansion that greatly increased its cold storage capacity, said Tony Garin, vice president of sales.

This season, the company has completed racking its 10,000-square-foot warehouse to add more space. Capacity has increased from six to eight truckloads to 16 or 17, Garin said.

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Food boxes grow at 5280 Produce

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

A produce box program for consumers that Denver-based 5280 Produce launched about five years ago has exploded as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We have a huge following,” said co-owner Brad Jester.

Prior to COVID, about 300-500 people picked up a box of produce each week that cost $22-30 and contained about 12-14 produce items.

“This past week we did 3,000,” Jester said in mid-April. “It’s been crazy.”

About half the items are vegetables, the rest are fruit. Contents vary each week.

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The Fresh Guys produce supplier awaits summer

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

The year started off fine for The Fresh Guys , said president Peter Braidman. But then COVID-19 came along.

The Denver-based produce supplier is “muddling through day by day,” Braidman said, but business is down 70% compared to last year.

The company, which serves restaurants almost exclusively along with a few small markets, is “keeping somewhat busy” and has had no layoffs, he said.

Customers missed out on spring items, he said, but he’s now waiting for summer fruits and vegetables to come on, which will include a variety of

Rocky Mountain tomatoes, kales, collards, chards, cabbages, onions, bell peppers, Hatch peppers, Olathe corn and peaches.

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Honeyacre Enterprises ramps up greenhouse

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

Honeyacre Enterprises Ltd., Wiggins, Colo., started its greenhouse program the second week of April with tomatoes and cucumbers and will begin shipping orange, red and yellow bell peppers in June, said Russ Shoemaker, who owns the company with his wife Cindy.

Crops were slightly later than last year because of abnormally cold and cloudy weather that started in mid-March.

Honeyacre has about 25,000 square feet of greenhouse production and will have the same volume this season as last year, he said.

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Pacific Shipping cuts produce

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:02 GMT

While vice president Mike Robertson said it’s pretty much business as usual for Lakewood, Colo.-based Pacific Shipping & Trading Co. Inc., he added, “I can’t say it’s totally normal.”

Denver distributors are cutting back, and restaurants are not buying, he said.

And tightened federal trucking regulations have made it difficult for the trucking company to handle produce.

“It gets to the point where your drivers are so tight on hours, you can’t have them go to a produce shed and sit eight to 10 hours and eat up all their day,” he said.

“We don’t do a lot of produce anymore.”

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Tough Regulations over Water Rights for Colorado Farmers

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:04:58 GMT

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — While Harry Strohauer lay unconscious in his hospital bed for four days, his doctor gave his wife an ultimatum.

Strohauer had a reasonably good diet and farming hundreds of acres in Gilcrest kept him fit. His doctor, therefore, knew it could only be one thing that triggered his massive heart attack.

“The first thing that the doctor — after talking to my wife a little bit — said was ‘you cannot let him talk to anybody about water,’” Strohauer said.

Farmers need water. But Strohauer, like dozens of farmers along the South Platte River, has suffered from the effects of curtailed well pumping, the result of legislation, a Supreme Court case and battles with downstream surface water rights owners.

For Strohauer, the results of the court order forcing him to stop pumping were doubly devastating. Not only did it eventually dry out hundreds of acres of corn, it also raised the water table, causing his potatoes to rot. Residents suffered, as well, as their basements flooded, forcing them to install expensive sump pumps and make other repairs.

The timing of Strohauer’s heart attack couldn’t have been worse, coming right in the throes of his attempts to get a water augmentation plan approved. It was a massive fight, with other water rights holders opposing a plan that would have allowed Strohauer to pump his wells to water crops based on certain criteria. It could have saved his crops years later. It also would have relieved some stress.

Eventually, after his heart attack, Strohauer said they just let the augmentation plan go. He’s calmer about it now, even if he says things haven’t gotten much better.

THE DEAD SEA

Underneath Gilcrest lies an aquifer, and the water in that aquifer should slowly make its way north, underground, to the South Platte River.

When it didn’t, at least not at the rate some say it should have, downstream surface water rights holders weren’t too happy and blamed the newer wells in this area as the culprit.

Irrigation wells were first put into Colorado’s prior appropriation system following legislation in 1969. Prior appropriation is a fancy way of saying water rights, and water rights are organized by the date a farmer or ditch owner or reservoir owner or well owner first used the water. People who first diverted water have senior water rights as early as the 1850s.

So, when farmers across Gilcrest began digging wells in the early 1900s, they were infringing upon longstanding senior surface water rights downstream, because that well pumping affected downstream flows in the river.

Numerous studies have shown the negative effects of well pumping, and how it depletes river flows even years later. But for farmers around Gilcrest, the court solutions and augmentation decrees are out of balance with well owners’ perceived wrongdoings and even with Mother Nature.

Folks like Strohauer see it this way: Gilcrest-area farmers are drowning so those out east can drink.

Strohauer admits he’s not the most subtle person at times. But he’s frustrated.

About seven years ago, when he was growing potatoes on the old Lorenz Farm on the east side of U.S. 85 at Gilcrest, he called up John Stulp, the special adviser to Gov. John Hickenlooper on water issues, and started screaming at him.

Stulp came up the next day.

“He put his hand down in the ridge, and we pulled out some nice, big russet potatoes,” Strohauer said. “We walked about 10 feet, and I had him put his hand down again, and it was full of slime from the rotten potatoes.”

The potatoes were sitting in high groundwater, the result of the court-ordered curtailed well pumping, as well as water court decrees and augmentation plans that force farmers here to replace nearly everything they pump out during times of high demand on the river — which is most of the time these days.

The impacts of less well pumping are many:

- Less well pumping means less water for crops during crucial times, such as when Strohauer had to deal with weeds in a potato crop because he couldn’t pump enough water to treat the fields with weed killer early in the season.

- High groundwater leaves mineral deposits, including salt, near the surface, rendering portions of fields useless and stunting crop growth.

THE LAST POTATO FARMER

When a farmer gives a crop less water than it needs, it’s called “shorting.”

A farmer can short corn. He can short hay. The result is better than nothing but less than ideal: They don’t get as much yield on that particular plot.

“It’s not that way with potatoes; it’s all or nothing,” Strohauer said. “If you short potatoes at any given time, you’ve got zero. It’s not half a yield, it’s zero.”

It hasn’t been that easy since the turn of the century, and rather than risk not having enough water, some farmers have switched to less water-intensive crops, more salt-resistant crops or simply moved their crops out of the area altogether.

Strohauer moved more than half of his potato crop to New Mexico in the past several years. He’s got 1,400 acres right where Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico meet. He keeps about 400 acres of potatoes in Weld County, but most of that is in the Lost Creek area, which is considered non-tributary, meaning groundwater there doesn’t make its way back to the river. That means farmers can pump wells there without strict replacement rules.

That makes Strohauer the last potato farmer in Weld County, earning that title after a neighbor pulled out of the demanding crop a couple of years ago.

Other farmers have switched things up as well.

Glenn Fritzler, owner of the famed Fritzler Corn Maze, used to plant one-third of his land in onions, another third in carrots and the final third in corn. Apparently, carrot and onion mazes haven’t yet taken off.

But there’s a problem. Carrots and onions need a lot of water — about as much as corn. They’re also quite sensitive to salty soils, something exacerbated by high groundwater, which deposits salts near the surface once they recede, and by less well pumping, because over-watering is one way of dealing with salty soils.

So Fritzler has changed crops. He’s now planting a quarter of his land in onions, a sixth in carrots and the rest in corn and winter wheat, which uses less water.

Winter wheat isn’t a money maker, certainly not when compared to produce, which, when healthy during a strong market is a farmer’s lottery, capable of paying off farm equipment and setting aside a nice chunk of dough.

“You’re probably breaking even at best; probably minimizing your losses,” Fritzler said of winter wheat. “It’s better than not growing anything.”

WELLS RUN DRY

Jan. 1, 2006.

At least half of the wells along the South Platte River Basin were either reduced or shut down. Thousands of wells, built to get farmers through dry years, couldn’t be operated without an augmentation decree from water court.

Such a decree requires farmers to replace portions of what they pump.

Even farmers who obtained such decrees saw the face of farming change overnight thanks not only to requirements that well pumpers replace portions of what they pump, but that they replace what they had pumped since 1976.

It’s called augmentation, and there are a variety of ways to do it.

One such way is called artificial recharge, and typically it involves digging a shallow pond, filling the bottom with rock or sand to make it more porous, and then filling that pond with water as often as possible.

Artificial recharge, essentially putting water back into the underground aquifer well pumping has drained, pays dividends for farmers.

Almost every acre-foot of water poured into an artificial recharge pond can be claimed to allow well pumping in the future.

It’s why Randy Ray, executive director for Colorado Central Water Conservancy District, says farmers in the LaSalle-Gilcrest area are better off today than they were in 2006.

But it has come at a cost. Some farmers weren’t able to pump their wells for seven years, including the drought year of 2012, when farmers dried up hundreds of acres of corn.

Strohauer doesn’t like to look upon his eastern neighbors with envy. But he does notice things. He has his pilot’s license, and when he was taking potato samples to Imperial, Neb., to get tested for pests in 2012, he noticed something.

“I would see everything east of us, and all of those circles of nice, green corn,” Strohauer said. “Then I would come home and see all of those thousand acres of corn we had let go.”

The key difference between the droughts of 2002 and 2012 was well pumping. In 2012, Gilcrest-area farmers, who weren’t pumping as much, were shoving a lot more water downstream via the underground aquifer. In the process, they were forced to dry out already-planted corn all while exacerbating the effects of high ground water. They had water. It was just in all the wrong places.

“There’s no doubt about it that those guys (out east) were in better shape in 2012 than in 2002, and there’s no doubt about it we were in horrible shape compared to 2002,” Strohauer said.

WINTER IS COMING

For farmers, the formulas used to determine how long recharge water takes to get to the river and how many days they’re able to pump are a headache-inducing mess.

In 2010, when Strohauer’s field was full of rotting potatoes, Stulp recommended Strohauer put in a de-watering well. Essentially, he wanted Strohauer to dig a well, pump water out of that, put it in a pipeline or ditch and send it back to the river.

Strohauer threw up his hands, pointing to his existing irrigation well on the property, the one the courts shut down.

“I looked at John, and I said, ‘John, right there’s your de-watering well. It’s right there. Let us pump the stupid well, and we’ll let the surface water go down the river, and it doesn’t cost the state a single dime. It will cost us some power, and somebody receives some extra water down the river. How hard is that?’”

It’s quite hard, actually, because things are never simple when it comes to water.

If a farmer here sends that water downstream, that will affect the flow of the river, and believe it or not, even the senior water rights holders may not want that extra water all the time. For instance, those rights holders out east may not want extra water coming downstream in March because they don’t have the reservoir capacity to store it.

The formula, called the Glover formula, was first used in the 1950s, and it tells everyone how much that well pumping will affect the river and when. Nearly 70 years later, we’re still using the formula, and Ray, Strohauer, Fritzler and countless others don’t know why.

Bob Longenbaugh, who once worked in the state engineer’s office, and has spent decades studying groundwater, is one of those others.

Longenbaugh said the Glover formula overestimates the impacts of pumping on the aquifer, meaning farmers around Gilcrest are forced to push more water downstream than Mother Nature says.

Further, the formula makes too many assumptions, Longenbaugh said. Among the assumptions are no precipitation, the idea none of the water used to irrigate crops soaks into the soil to recharge the aquifer and an assumption the geology underground between any farm and the river is completely uniform.

Strohauer said it doesn’t have to be this way. He said the old system was working reasonably well, with irrigation and rainfall recharging the aquifer beneath his farmland.

Indeed, groundwater studies going back nearly 100 years show the aquifer around Gilcrest regularly rises and falls with each growing season, with no trend line to indicate a shrinking aquifer over time.

“The wells were put here for a purpose,” Strohauer said. “For the 1950s, the 1930s, 1977, 2002, 2012. For the dry years.”

Since his heart attack, Strohauer hasn’t let the issue affect his health the way it affects his crops. He has since climbed Longs Peak.

And though he may not be able to pump as much, he is pushing forward and adjusting.

That doesn’t solve the problem, but it has kept him out of the hospital.

Information from: The Tribune of Greeley, Co, http://greeleytribune.com

Colorado fruit growers forecast good season

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:10:10 GMT

Peaches and apples dominate Colorado’s summer fruit deal, and the harvests appeared to be on time this year, grower-shippers said.

“Our peach crops are doing well,” said Cassandra Moreland, owner of Palisade, Colo.-based Peach Haven Farms, which specializes in organic tree-ripe peaches. “Although they are slow to start this year, we are expecting a full crop.”

Peach Haven has “branched out” into numerous sales areas this year, including roadside fruit stands, to go along with wholesale markets, Moreland said.

“We look forward to seeing what this new harvest season brings,” she said. “I do know several farmers were hit with hail, causing some damage. However, it’s still looking to be a great year full of fruit.”

The peach crop looked good at Denver-based grower-shipper Ringer & Son, said Joshua Johnson, president.

“We just finished with our early variety, and they’re super-nice,” he said July 26.

The early peaches didn’t size as well as Johnson had hoped they would, but that shouldn’t be a problem with the later crop, he said.

“Later in season, they’re definitely going to be the right size,” he said.

Timing is the only issue with the peach crop for Hotchkiss, Colo.-based Rogers Mesa Fruit Co. and its marketing arm, FirstFruits International, said Jonathan Allen, president.

The firm is not affiliated with FirstFruits Marketing of Washington.

By July 27, the company had peaches moving out of its northern growing area and was beginning to harvest west of the Rocky Mountains.

“We’ve got a good peach crop, and industrywide there’s a good crop,” he said.

“The issue at the moment is it’s being delayed. The late bloom and cool weather in June and July have just postponed the harvest date. But it should be a good year with a lot of demand and a lot of supply. We’re expecting a busy fruitful year all the way through the middle of September.”

FirstFruits also markets apricots, Allen said.

“We don’t have a big volume, and most are going locally, mostly to Denver,” he said.

Two-thirds of the company’s peach volume is organic, Allen said.

Palisade-based Talbott Farms Inc. anticipates normal timing on its peach crop, said Charlie Talbott, president.

“We’ve had a great spring, got through the spring frost period — our nemesis — in great shape, and we feel like we have bearing capacity on the trees,” he said.

It should be a good crop, and the harvest has started, if only slowly, Talbott noted.

Apples and pears

FirstFruits’ apple crop was “looking good,” Allen said.

“We did have a little hail damage earlier, but we’ll have a good apple-pear supply,” he said.

“We’re one of the few apple-pear shippers in Colorado now, and we’ve got good conventional and organic apples and pears and should be a good fall crop.”

Both items should start moving around Labor Day, with some coming off around Aug. 25, Allen said.

“Overall, this has been a really one of the best crops, all fruits considered, that we’ve ever had.”

Hotchkiss-based Wacky Apple Co. LLC anticipates a healthy organic apple crop, said Sarah Tuft, co-owner.

“The Honeycrisp harvest looks promising. Our other varieties — fuji, gala, etc. — look adequate,” she said.

“The harvest timing is looking to be on track — maybe a touch late, but the warm summer days are working in our favor. The organic apple market is in great, great demand, trending up, as it has been in the past years.”

Wacky Apple has more than 200 acres of “young/baby trees,” Tuft said.

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San Luis Valley potato suppliers anticipate good year in 2020

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 19:00:20 GMT

Potato marketers in the San Luis Valley can expect a “really strong” crop this year, said Jim Ehrlich, executive director of the Monte Vista-based Colorado Potato Administrative Committee .

“We have had more growing degree days because of warmer temps, so the crop is at least a week ahead of average,” he said.

Weather hasn’t presented issues this year that it has in the past, Ehrlich said.

“We have been experiencing drought conditions so have not experienced severe weather damage from storms, with the exception of an early hail storm on June 6,” he said.

As a result, there has been less leaf disease in fields, Ehrlich noted.

There was one instance of frost July 1 that “flirted” with some fields, he said.

“If you had both the hail and frost, then your crop is average at best,” he said.

That shouldn’t be the case this year, Ehrlich said.

“If we have good harvest conditions, we should have a very good crop,” he said. “Harvest has begun on a very limited basis and will start in force in early September, about a week early.”

Acreage is up 4% over last year, he said. In 2019, the San Luis Valley had 49,500 potato acres and Colorado, about 54,000, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Mother Nature provided a very good growing season,” said Eric Beck, marketing director of Idaho Falls, Idaho-based Wada Farms Marketing Group . “We anticipate a good crop with consistent quality that will provide customers with good potatoes for the entire 2020 season.”

Everything looked positive in mid-August, said Jamey Higham, CEO and president of Monte Vista-based Farm Fresh Direct LLC .

“Overall, this year’s crop appears to be good quality and with decent yields,” he said.

Phoenix, Ariz.-based Epic Produce Sales started its russet harvest by Aug. 21 in the San Luis Valley, said Art Miller, owner.

“Sizing looks good, a little bigger than last year,” he said. “Acreage is up a bit. Some farmers went to hemp and I don’t think it worked out well, because they came back.”

Epic Produce Sales has potatoes from about 2,400 acres in the area, Miller said.

“Weather was beautiful, a really good growing season,” he said. “They had a little hail early, but no real damage.”

Suppliers can expect healthy markets, as the deal gets going, Miller said.

“I know Oregon and Washington are going, but we’ve had such a big demand, I don’t think there’s gonna be a drop in demand anytime soon,” he said. “We’ve had more customers than potatoes.”

Jed Ellithorpe, marketing director with Center, Colo.-based Aspen Produce LLC , described the upcoming crop as likely to be “one of the best quality crops I have seen in years.”

Yields and sizing should be “at least average or maybe a little above,” said Bill Metz, co-owner of Monte Vista-based Metz Potato Co ., which has about 1,000 acres of norkotah and canela russet potatoes.

“Growing conditions have been hot and dry — we really haven’t had any rain; I think we’re in good shape,” he said.

Metz was looking to start digging around Sept. 1 and last until about Oct. 10, or “about usual,” he said.

Les Alderete, general manager of Center, Colo.-based Skyline Potato , said he anticipates a normal crop.

“The crop is looking good,” he said. “I think we will see a normal yield and size profile this year.”

The situation was similar for Houston-based MountainKing Potato, which supplies spuds out of the the San Luis Valley.

“Our Colorado crop looks excellent,” said Andreas Trettin, marketing director.

“In fact, it’s the best we’ve has seen in years. The quality, sizing, and yields all look very promising.”

All signs point to an “excellent” crop, said Kevin Wright, director of account management-West at Bancroft, Wis.-based RPE Inc. , which has marketed San Luis Valley potatoes for nearly a decade.

“We did have some weather issues early on that had an effect to some degree but, overall, we are very excited about this year’s crop,” he said.

“We are expecting a better yield and better average-size profile compared to last year’s crop. Quality has been very good prior to previous years and expectations are as good or better for this year.”

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Farm Fresh Direct promotes Lonnie Gillespie to chief organic officer

Farm Fresh Direct promotes Lonnie Gillespie to chief organic officer

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:45:44 GMT

Farm Fresh Direct , Monte Vista, Colo., has promoted Lonnie Gillespie to a new position for the company, chief organic officer.

She has been involved in organic sales at the company for five years.

“Over the last several years Lonnie has been a leader and advocate for our organic potato program, working with our team to generate record sales for our customers and increase returns for growers,” Jamey Higham, Farm Fresh Direct’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “In both our private label and branded products, Lonnie has the knowledge and vision to continue to develop organic leadership in the potato category.”

National retail scan data shows that supply shortages have caused organic potato sales to lag recently, Gillespie said.

“One of the challenges for the potato industry has been consistency in the supply of organic potatoes,” she said in the release. “Developing reliable, top quality supplies of organic potatoes has been critical in building trust with our customers to expand retail distribution and leverage consumer demand.”

Farm Fresh Direct is expanding its organic potato line and expects “significant” growth in the next few years, according to the release.

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Cindy Adkins joins MountainKing to market Colorado fingerlings

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:36:00 GMT

Cindy Adkins, who marketed organic fingerling potatoes in Colorado’s San Luis Valley for 22 years, is now a sales representative for MountainKing Potatoes, Houston.

MountainKing purchased a Hooper, Colo., packing facility that specializes in fingerlings and small potato varieties according to a news release.

Adkins is based in the San Luis Valley and will be responsible for helping MountainKing customers increase sales of small round varieties and fingerlings.

“Cindy knows the business from the field to the chain store,” John Pope, vice president of sales and marketing for MountainKing, said in the release. “She’s an important addition to our team as we continue to invest in meeting the increased demand for small potatoes.”

The Colorado facility packages MountainKing’s baby yellow and baby red potatoes and medley packs in 1.5-pound mesh bags. Fingerlings are packed in 1.5- and five-pound bags.

Adkins said the facility allows MountainKing to combine smaller potatoes on mixer loads from its other Colorado packing sheds, a “big plus” for helping chain stores keep fingerlings on shelves throughout the year.

After working alongside her father to market the fingerlings he grew, Adkins founded Cinacia Organics to package and sell organic fingerlings, according to the release, and she purchased land where she farmed fingerlings and ultimately packaged and sold them. She sold her company in 2019.

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Bountiful year expected for most Colorado crops

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 18:33:09 GMT

The year 2020 will go in the record books as one of the toughest in memory, thanks to the COVID-19 virus , but it could turn out to be a profitable year for fresh produce in Colorado, grower-shippers say.

“It’s nice to have a year with no strange weather or market problems,” said Erik Westesen, operations manager with Olathe, Colo.-based Tuxedo Corn Co .

“I know 2020 has been a rough year on everybody, but it’s been a good year for sweet corn.”

Other shippers reported similar experiences as the new shipping season unfolded in early August.

Onions

Eaton, Colo.-based Fagerberg Produce Inc . was on schedule to have red , white , yellow and sweet onions available for shipping the week of Aug. 17, said Colby Cantwell, salesman.

In large part, that’s a result of favorable weather, Cantwell said.

“The hail has been, thankfully, pretty scattered; we’ve largely been spared,” he said. “We had some early wind in Fort Morgan that knocked out about half of our crop, but in the grand scheme, it wasn’t a large portion. Overall, the weather has been OK. It was a little more humid this year and we had some really warm temperatures in June, but we were able to stay on top of the water and everything is looking good.”

Fagerberg, which has onions on about 1,500 acres, will ship onions through about March 1, Cantwell said.

The onion crop was looking good at Brighton, Colo.-based Sakata Farms , said Robert Sakata Jr., owner.

“We’re getting toward the finish line,” he said, predicting a late August or early September start to the harvest.

“We’re very fortunate, knock on wood,” Sakata said. “We’ve avoided most of the storms.”

The growing season had been mostly “hot and dry” for the company’s nearly 400 acres of onions, Sakata said.

Sakata Farms grows reds, whites and yellows, but 80% of the total crop is yellows, Sakata said.

Melons

Rocky Ford, Colo.-based melon grower-shipper Hirakata Farms started packing “light volumes” of cantaloupes about July 21, and accelerated the pace in early August, said Michael Hirakata, co-owner.

“Part of the early crop was torn up by hail about the first part of June; it tore up quite a bit of that first planting, but one field survived pretty good and the quality is excellent,” Hirakata said.

“Just by the flavor, we’re in that 15-brix range, which is great.”

Hirakata Farms’ seedless watermelon crop is “going pretty good” by early August, with sizing “mostly a 45-count and a little 60s,” Hirakata said.

“The crop looks to be pretty good; most of the watermelons missed the bad weather,” he said.

“Yield may be a problem in some blocks, but in others, yields will be phenomenal.”

A year ago, weather knocked down Hirakata Farms’ production by about 60%, Hirakata said.

“Last year, we had hailstorm after hailstorm,” he said. “We’re way better off than last year..”

Markets were looking “pretty good” by early August, Hirakata said.

“We’re very happy with what we’re getting,” he said. “Supply and demand is almost neck-and-neck. We have a good inventory, but we’re getting rid of whatever comes in right away. We’ve been pretty fortunate that we were able to pick tomorrow’s loads today, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Carrots

Greeley, Colo.-based organic and conventional carrot grower-shipper Hungenberg Produce Inc . started harvest on a “really good” crop July 10, said Jordan Hungenberg, salesman.

A March ice storm hit about 100 of the company’s 1,200 acres, and three fields required replanting, but weather presented no further issues, Hungenberg said.

“All the yields are really good, and the quality is excellent,” he said.

The season runs until about the week after Thanksgiving, Hungenberg said.

Hungenberg Produce has about 250 acres of organic carrots , he said.

“We spend a lot of money weeding organics by hand, but we’re getting better,” he said.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has topped the list of concerns across the industry, other hurdles persist, Hungenberg said.

“One main challenge we’ve had is labor. The minimum wage is now $12 in Colorado, and you have to try and get a little more money from your customers, which always presents a challenge to us, but they’ve been very fair with us and we’re very pleased in that manner.”

Potatoes

Center, Colo.-based potato grower-shipper Mountain Valley Produce expects to begin its harvest by the second week of September, said Virginia Myers, co-owner.

“The crop’s coming along well,” she said, noting that the company has yellows, russets and fingerlings . “I think we’ll have right at average yields and good quality.”

The weather has cooperated, Myers said.

“We’ve not had any real weather issues; it has been dry, which is kind of good when you have irrigation but not good for the overall environment,” she said. “We’re going to be very average, but good quality.”

Harvest should be complete by about Oct. 10, Myers said.

Corn

“It’s a great year for corn,” Tuxedo Corn Co.’s Westesen said Aug. 7. “We happen to be a little low this week, but we’re shipping corn all over the place.”

Harvest got underway July 7-9, compared to a usual start of mid-July, Westesen said.

“Lots of warm weather; that heat really will make the corn come on quicker,” he said. “We planted everything we planned to. We’re going to harvest all of it.”

There had been some doubt, during earlier stages of the COVID-19 crisis, Westesen said.

“We were a little surprised that there wouldn’t be as much demand with the coronavirus, but things are picking up,” he said.

Tuxedo has 1,660 acres of conventional and 5-10 acres of organic sweet corn, Westesen said.

Peaches

Colorado peach production will be down this year, thanks an April freeze, said Charlie Talbott, president of Palisade, Colo.-based peach grower-shipper Talbott Farms Inc .

“It’s pretty tough,” he said. “The morning of April 14, we had a record-setting cold that reduced our crop to about 10-15% of our expectation of what a good crop would be,” he said. “The good news is, in the last 20 years, we’ve had only one half-crop. So, we were due — part of the game.”

Some production areas saw 22-23 degrees, Talbott said.

“Despite all our frost protection, that was just too cold,” he said.

As a result, Talbott Farms likely will ship 800,000 to 1 million pounds of peaches this year, compared to a normal volume of 8 million to 10 million, Talbott said.

“It’s interesting, because the better areas for frost, the hardy versus more tender varieties, didn’t matter,” he said. “Some orchards had full or near-full crops through the Mesa County growing area. We’re not among that fortunate group. The county south of us, Delta, had a better crop. They were less advanced during that cold event.”

The best estimate for Colorado’s crop is about 35% of normal, Talbott said. There won’t be promotable volumes of Colorado peaches this year, he said.

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