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Rep. Holtorf offers cattle class 101 to ‘city slickers’ in special session tax discussion
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Rep. Holtorf offers cattle class 101 to ‘city slickers’ in special session tax discussion

By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice What is the impact of rising taxation on a cattle ranch or agricultural operation? That's what Eastern Colorado rancher Richard Holtorf asked what he termed "city slickers" in the Colorado Legislature to consider Tuesday as he offered a master's class in the costly prospects of cattle-raising, while perhaps straying from the topic at hand. "To run cattle, you have to have grassland," Rep. Holtorf said. "To have grassland, you have to own or lease grassland. There is a property tax element to that." In Eastern Colorado where Holtorf ranches, many cattle raisers and agriculture producers work on 640-acre "sections" of land or larger. The land is dry and most cattle raisers restrict grazing to no more than a head per 15 acres, or supplement w...
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Retired brand commissioner, Chris Whitney, honored for his service to industry
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Approved, State, thefencepost.com

Retired brand commissioner, Chris Whitney, honored for his service to industry

By Rachel Gabel   | The Fence Post Recently retired Colorado Brand Commissioner Chris Whitney was honored for his service to the state’s livestock industry by the Colorado Livestock Association at their recent meeting in Black Hawk. In a statement, CLA said Whitney has exemplified a profound understanding of the intricate balance between producers, sustainability, good business practices and animal stewardship. Whitney jokes that how he became the commissioner is a bit of a mystery to him. He grew up on the Walking Horse Ranch in Ridgway, Colo., a Western Slope Hereford operation but after graduation, found himself in Vietnam in the Air Force. “I’ve been so lucky in my life, it’s just disgusting,” he said. “When I was in college, I took undergraduate and graduate degrees in Russia...
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There are 2.5 million acres of ag land in Colorado owned by foreign interests, but will lawmakers pass a bill to stop it?
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

There are 2.5 million acres of ag land in Colorado owned by foreign interests, but will lawmakers pass a bill to stop it?

By Deborah Grigsby | Denver Gazette State Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Roxborough Park, introduced House Bill 23-1152 more than a year ago, aiming to ban foreign ownership of agricultural land in Colorado. Although the bill did not make it out of committee, discussions during Wednesday's Water Resources and Agricultural Review Committee meeting indicate renewed interest in the topic, and a new bill is expected to be introduced. Some 2.5 million acres of Colorado farmland are owned by foreign entities, according to a 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture report. This makes Colorado home to the third most foreign-held agricultural land in the nation, followed only by Texas (5,435,906 acres) and Maine (3,489,957 acres). Ashley House, Colorado Farm Bureau vice president of stra...
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Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately destroying this year’s grain harvest
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Approved, National, thefencepost.com

Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately destroying this year’s grain harvest

By Chris McCullough | The Fence Post Dozens of Ukrainian arable farmers have accused Russia of deliberately bombing their crops in the fields setting them alight and destroying this year’s harvest. According to the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), it has received dozens of reports from Ukrainian farmers about the deliberate destruction of fields by the Russian invaders. The UAC says the Russians are deliberately shelling fields in the big grain regions of Sumy, Dnipro, Odesa, Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk, resulting in the burning of hundreds of hectares of crops. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE FENCE POST
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Ah, grasshopper. They are everywhere in Colorado this year.
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Approved, CBS Colorado, State

Ah, grasshopper. They are everywhere in Colorado this year.

By Dillon Thomas | CBS Colorado Coloradans across the Front Range, especially in Northern Colorado, have noticed significantly more grasshoppers this year. Researchers with Colorado State University confirm there has been a spike in grasshoppers across the state. "Colorado is seeing a very large number of grasshoppers, we have been getting reports from all around the state," said Lisa Mason, horticulture specialist and entomologist for CSU. Mason told CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas the grasshoppers we are seeing right now are the result of eggs buried in the dirt by grasshoppers in 2023 which were able to hatch as the result of a relatively warm and dry winter and spring. READ THE FULL STORY AT CBS COLORADO
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Colorado now has the worst outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle in the country
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado now has the worst outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle in the country

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun Colorado’s outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle is now the worst in the country, with more cases in the past month than any other state, according to the latest state and federal data. As of Monday evening, Colorado had identified 26 herds with cases of avian influenza. Of those, 22 were identified within the past month and the herds are still in quarantine. Four other cases were identified earlier and quarantines have since been lifted. All affected herds are in the northeastern part of the state. The rapid and still largely mysterious spread in Colorado — hardly a leading dairy state — contributes to growing concerns that U.S. health authorities are not doing enough to contain the virus. While the threat currently to humans is ge...
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Longmont’s Schlagel family has farmed sugar beets for four generations under shadow of Rocky Mountains
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Approved, Northern Colorado, thefencepost.com

Longmont’s Schlagel family has farmed sugar beets for four generations under shadow of Rocky Mountains

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 ...
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Farm animal sanctuary near Colorado Springs provides home for abandoned, abused livestock
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Approved, Colorado Springs Gazette, Local

Farm animal sanctuary near Colorado Springs provides home for abandoned, abused livestock

By Jennifer Mulson | Colorado Springs Gazette It was after midnight on a cold, dark December morning when Carrie Thornburgh found herself with a hand up inside a pregnant goat. The doe was in labor at Thornburgh’s farm animal sanctuary in Peyton, but her kid was stuck — only one leg had made its way into the world and all Thornburgh could feel was the top of the kid’s shoulder. And labor was going on too long, stretching toward two hours, when goats typically give birth in 30 minutes. It was a problem. After calling around to vets, Thornburgh finally found one in Larkspur who agreed to come out at 2 a.m. to OutPaws’ Sweet Home Sanctuary. She looped a shoestring up around the kid inside her mom and pulled her out. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE
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Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun San Luis Valley cattle rancher George Whitten was halfway through a mental health workshop when he let himself tally up a figure he had never wanted to know — the number of people in his life who had died by suicide.  It was eight.  “You just sort of file that away in a gray box, a place in your mind that it’s there, but it’s not something you want to revisit,” said Whitten, who is 71 and runs 150 cows on land outside Saguache that has been in his family for 140 years. “There’s still a lot there that I really haven’t unpacked.”  All eight of those relatives and friends were from the rural, agricultural community, starting with Whitten’s cousin, who died at 18 after he was sent from the family’s ranch to Brigham Young Universit...
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In open range Colorado, brand inspectors key in cattle shooting case
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Approved, State, thefencepost.com

In open range Colorado, brand inspectors key in cattle shooting case

By Rachel Gabel  | The Fence Post When brand inspectors Jesse Phillips and Brenna BeGeer arrived to a property in Larimer County, Colorado, seven head of cattle lay dead and another was injured and needed to be destroyed. Baby calves were orphaned, bred cows were killed, and a bull was shot and killed. They worked to identify ownership of the cattle and contact the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. They also assisted in determining the value of the cattle killed. According to law enforcement reports, Michael Hester was taken into custody on April 1, 2024, after they responded to a call in a rural neighborhood west of Fort Collins. Jordan Yarber runs his cowherd on his family ranch right alongside the herd belonging to his grandmother, Dixie Gibbens, who still owns the family ranch....
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