By Rachel Gabel | The Fence Post
Paul Schlagel’s family was one of the many Volga German families who came to Colorado more than a century ago and grew the crop they knew: sugar beets. Their first sugar beet crop in northern Colorado was harvested in 1911. His father purchased the farm from his mother and began farming on the current farm in 1963. Next year will be his 50th crop.
The operation also includes Coors barley, corn and alfalfa on all irrigated farm ground. In recent years, he said they have invested a great deal into irrigation and have transitioned from flood irrigation to mostly sprinklers.
“It’s made us better farmers,” he said. “That was always, it seems like, a shortcoming to get things irrigated properly and our crop yields have increased substantially since we undertook that.”