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Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better

By Bobbie Daniel | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Drive a mile in Colorado and you’ll know the truth: our roads are crumbling, and so is the promise that the government would take care of this basic function. Families scrape by to keep their cars running while the same political elite who’ve run this state for twenty years pour billions into pet projects and leave working people holding the bill. Colorado’s highways were built the way a farm is built — ditch by ditch, fence by fence, harvest by harvest. Generations of Coloradans invested billions so our economy could function. From rural to urban, our families could get where they needed to go. But now the ditch and fence are broken, and instead of repairing it, the political class is off buying themselves a BMW. Nice ride, m...
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Colorado’s rural-urban divide revealed: 10 takeaways from the Rural Reckoning series
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The Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado’s rural-urban divide revealed: 10 takeaways from the Rural Reckoning series

By Vince Bzdek | The Gazette How bad is the rural/urban divide in Colorado? That’s what a team of reporters at Colorado Politics and The Colorado Network, our statewide collective of freelancers, set out to measure and understand. Through extensive interviews, data analysis and community voices, our journalists have documented the yawning gap between what rural areas contribute to the state through agriculture, energy production, tourism and outdoor recreation, and the attention, money and support they receive in the halls of the Capitol and the governor’s mansion. That gap has resulted in a host of unaddressed problems unique to rural Colorado. Our reporters also have found that culturally, the polarization between rural and urban has deepened so much that when it comes to pol...
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High steaks for Independence Day: Colorado beef costs top national average
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Colorado Hometown Weekly, Approved, State

High steaks for Independence Day: Colorado beef costs top national average

By Miguel Otarola | Colorado Hometown Weekly The price of meat ahead of the Fourth of July weekend will be higher in Colorado supermarkets than in the rest of the country, according to an annual industry survey. Produced by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agriculture lobbying group, the survey found that ground beef and pork chops were more expensive — and chicken breasts were cheaper — in Colorado than in other states. State and national economists attribute the surge in beef prices to fewer cows nationwide, a result of more than a decade of drought that has withered food supplies. “When that number shrinks, you have less calves being born to go down the supply chain and prices rise,” said Nathan DeLay, assistant professor of livestock economics at Colorado S...
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Gabel: Why I have no beef with President Trump’s beef tariffs
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, Commentary, National

Gabel: Why I have no beef with President Trump’s beef tariffs

By Rachel Gabel | Commentary, Colorado Politics President Donald Trump’s tariffs should be on the radar of every agriculture producer in the U.S. Our country is not only the top producer of beef at 12.1 million metric tons annually, but also the top importer of beef, consuming 12.7 metric tons annually. There are hundreds of other ag commodities that rely on trade, of course, but beef is on my radar. One of the countries at the top of the beef tariff list is Australia, which is one of the countries that imports no American beef, a result of a 2003 restriction following a North American outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. Our country, however, imports $4.8 billion in Australian beef annually, making the U.S. Australia’s largest beef market. Japan, Mexi...
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Will Colorado Springs’ growth come at cost to Eastern Plains? Farmers say yes.
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State, The Colorado Sun

Will Colorado Springs’ growth come at cost to Eastern Plains? Farmers say yes.

By Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District stepped up its fight against a massive Colorado Springs annexation, citing concerns that water from farms in southeastern Colorado would be used to supply 6,500 new homes and businesses to support them. The district, which serves Pueblo, Crowley, Bent, Otero and Prowers counties, passed a resolution outlining the threats its communities face when Colorado Springs expands.  Big cities in Colorado regularly turn to agricultural water to get more water to satisfy their growth. For farmers and ranchers, selling or leasing water to cities can mean drying up farmland, laying off workers or compromising their way of life. A recently approved annexation plan, the Karman Line project n...
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How Colorado’s first agriculture-focused charter school is giving students tools for life
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

How Colorado’s first agriculture-focused charter school is giving students tools for life

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun The last thing the rancher from Arkansas wandering through the cattle barn at the National Western Stock Show thought he’d encounter was the group of kids surrounding him dressed in the un-ranchiest clothing. You could see it in his face.  So it took a minute for 10th grader Kailey Seymour, in a flannel, jeans and sneakers, to gather the courage to ask if he’d let them interview him while her classmate Gianni Montoya, in a fuzzy black-and-white Raiders poncho that grazed his knees, recorded the conversation on a phone.  Lucky for them — Philip Moon of Moon Herefords in Harrison, Arkansas — obliged. He listened to Seymour’s question — Do you sell your cattle at stock shows? — and gave a thoughtful answer. He said he raises cow-ca...
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Beef industry should enjoy profitable 2025, analyst tells Farm Show audience
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Akron News-Reporter, Approved, Local

Beef industry should enjoy profitable 2025, analyst tells Farm Show audience

By Jeff Rice | Akron News Reporter Don’t look for retail beef prices to come down any time soon. That was part of the message from an industry expert Tuesday at the Colorado Farm Show in Greeley. Tyler Cozzens, an economist for Livestock Marketing Information Center in Lakewood, told a small crowd of about 70 people that cattle prices finished strong in 2024 and look to remain strong throughout the coming year. That translates into higher prices in the local supermarket. “Retail beef prices will stay high, but demand is very strong,” Cozzens said. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE AKRON NEWS REPORTER
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Colorado Farm Show is Jan. 28-30 at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Colorado Farm Show is Jan. 28-30 at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley

By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice A winter rite of passage in agriculture returns this week, as the Colorado Farm Show takes place at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley. The three-day exhibition of farm and ranch equipment, vendors, exhibits, seminars and more takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, and Wednesday, Jan. 29, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30. Admission is free. A $5 fee for parking assists in funding of youth agricultural scholarships. Read the full schedule of events HERE. See the list of scholarship recipients HERE. See exhibitor maps HERE. See the Greeley Tribune's Farm Show Guide HERE.
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Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary

Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other

By Cory Gaines | Guest Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Whether you run cattle on the Western Slope of Colorado or you grow forage on the Plains, there are precious few people in Colorado in Production Ag, while there seems a never-ending list of advocates — paid, volunteer, and sometimes from out of state — who are speaking up in support of things that either have the potential to harm producers or that will most assuredly harm them. Listen to any CPW commissioners meeting and you’ll have no trouble at all seeing what I mean. I have heard from people in the past that testifying is a challenge because of jobs, lack of technology, and lack of know how. I understand the constraints and so I made this quick guide to help ease some of those problems, to help you find ways t...
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The reaction of ag-related groups following the election of Donald Trump
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Approved, National, thefencepost.com

The reaction of ag-related groups following the election of Donald Trump

By Hagstrom Report  | The Fence Post Several agriculture-related groups today congratulated President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance and made comments about their priorities for the next administration. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall congratulated Trump and all the senators and House members elected. “Now that the American people have spoken, it’s time to put politics aside and begin the work of ensuring families nationwide can prosper,” Duvall said. “Among the most pressing issues in rural America is the need for a new, modernized farm bill. The two-year delay is unacceptable. The new administration must also address the impending tax hikes, which would crush many of America’s farmers and ranchers when stacked on top of inflation, high supply c...
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