Colorado

Colorado’s Biggest Snow in 1,100 Days Raises a Bigger Question: Is the Plains Pattern Finally Changing?

Mon, 11 May 2026 17:31:39 GMT

After one of the driest stretches in recent memory, parts of Colorado finally caught a meaningful shot of moisture this week , and for many farmers and ranchers, it felt long overdue.

A spring snowstorm dropped more than a half foot of snow across portions of eastern Colorado, bringing measurable relief to drought-stricken areas that have spent months watching systems miss them to the north or south.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, roughly five million Colorado residents remain in drought conditions, with drought coverage increasing nearly 8% from the previous week. But for producers who finally saw gauges fill and snow pile up, the storm offered something equally valuable: optimism.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows 60% of the U.S. is experiencing drought, up from 44% just three months prior.

(U.S. Drought Monitor )

Near Keenesburg, Colorado, farmer Mark Arnusch reported approximately six inches of snowfall after receiving about a half inch of rain before temperatures turned colder. By his measurement, it was the largest single storm event his farm has experienced in nearly 1,100 days.

That statistic alone underscores how unusual the recent dryness has been across the western Plains.

The Winter That Wasn’t Across the West and Plains

Meteorologist Brian Bledsoe, based in Colorado, says many areas have endured a winter that barely resembled winter at all.

“We’ve only had about 12 minutes of winter this year,” Bledsoe says after measuring 7.5 inches of snow at his home south of Denver in Castle Rock.

Bledsoe says he spoke with Arnish about the timing of the storm and realized the last comparable moisture event occurred during another major climate transition.

“He was telling me the date that he last saw that moisture — May 12th, May 13th of 2023 — and ironically enough that was the last time we did this whole La Niña to El Niño switch,” Bledsoe says.

Now, Bledsoe says another atmospheric transition may be developing, one that could eventually favor better precipitation opportunities across the Plains.

Pattern Shift Could Bring Better Rain Chances to the Plains

Through mid-May, upper-level weather patterns still favor ridging in the West and troughing farther east, a setup that typically limits widespread moisture across the central United States.

“This has been kind of a more March-like pattern,” Bledsoe says. “But the precipitation anomalies associated with this pattern are not that conducive to moisture in the middle part of the country.”

In the short term, Bledsoe says many areas of the Plains could remain drier than average through at least the middle of May.

However, forecast models suggest a notable shift later in the month.

“We have upper-level ridging moving east over the middle part of the country and the Midwest and a trough of low pressure out along the California coast,” Bledsoe says. “This traditionally means more active weather coming back to the Plains.”

That evolving setup could increase thunderstorm activity and improve rainfall opportunities from the western Plains into parts of Texas.

“We are going to start to see the Plains wake up,” Bledsoe says. “Not only with better rain chances, but also more chances for severe thunderstorms during that period of time.”

Seasonal Models Lean Wetter for the Western Plains

While seasonal forecasts always carry uncertainty, several major long-range models are beginning to align around a similar signal: the western Plains may trend wetter this summer.

Bledsoe says the latest European seasonal model for June through August favors above-normal precipitation across the western High Plains, portions of the Intermountain West and parts of the Southeast.

“You can’t derive a ton from these models, but you can pick up some signals,” Bledsoe says.

The North American Multi-Model Ensemble and Canadian seasonal guidance also point toward improved moisture potential farther west, without signaling widespread drought expansion across the middle of the country.

Bledsoe says historical analog years support the same general idea.

“If we do a little digging in terms of history and look at these analog years — 1957, 1965, 1972, 1982, 1991 and others, those precipitation anomalies also favor areas farther west,” he says.

That does not mean every region benefits equally.

Bledsoe says portions of central and southeast Texas could still trend drier, while some areas of the Midwest may continue to see uneven rainfall distribution.

Still, for producers in Colorado, western Kansas, eastern New Mexico and nearby areas, the recent storm may be an early indication that a more active moisture pattern is finally developing.

Relief Arrives at a Critical Time

The timing, though, matters.Many winter wheat acres across the western Plains entered spring under significant moisture stress, while ranchers have continued battling poor pasture conditions and limited stock water supplies.

One storm will not erase long-term drought concerns. Subsoil moisture deficits remain significant across many areas, and producers know meaningful recovery requires repeated events over time.

But after nearly three years without a storm of this magnitude in parts of eastern Colorado, the latest snowfall delivered a reminder of how quickly conditions can shift when atmospheric patterns cooperate.

“Some rain coming back to the Plains, especially the western Plains, would certainly be a good start,” Bledsoe says.

The next several weeks will determine whether this storm was simply an isolated event — or the first sign of a broader weather turnaround for the Plains.

What Does the JBS Strike Mean to Beef Producers?

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:25:47 GMT

Union workers at the JBS packing plant in Greeley, Colo., have gone on strike Monday morning. This is the first walkout at a U.S. beef slaughterhouse since the 1980s.

According to The Colorado Sun and the UFCW Local 7 , union workers were picketing early this morning. The workers are calling for higher wages, safer working conditions and respect on the job .

After months of disrespect and unfair labor practices, the workers at JBS Greeley are done waiting.

The line is drawn. The strike has begun.

UFCW Local 7 members are standing up for dignity, safety, and the contract they deserve. ✊#jbsulpstrike #greeleyco #ufcw7 #unionstrong pic.twitter.com/nBPsazGyF8
— UFCW Local 7 (@UFCW_7) March 16, 2026

According to a union press release , the unfair labor practice (ULP) strike at the JBS-owned Swift Beef plant was set to start at 5:30 a.m. Monday, March 16.

JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson says, “This morning, many JBS Greeley team members chose to report to work rather than participate in the strike called by UFCW Local 7, and we expect that number to continue increasing in the days ahead. Our team members want stability, they want to support their families, and they deserved the opportunity to vote on the company’s historic offer — an opportunity the union leadership has denied them. We are paying all team members who come to work, and we are operating the facility to the best of our ability this week.”

The union says workers hoped a recent bargaining session would have led to a breakthrough in negotiations with JBS, but instead JBS sent the workers a clear message that the company is putting profits ahead of its people.

“The Union’s member-led bargaining committee has met more than two dozen times with the company in an effort to reach a mutually agreeable contract. JBS is failing to listen to the 99% of its workers who authorized a ULP strike,” the union says in the release. “The Company needs to give them an offer that takes life saving safety equipment seriously, provides wages which meet the rising cost of living in Colorado and ensures rising health care costs do not consume workers’ wages. The Company committed numerous Unfair Labor Practices which are preventing an agreement. The Company continues to threaten to withhold both a proposed bonus and lump-sum pension payment if workers strike. The Company also retaliated against workers who have stood up for their rights and co-workers.”

The union represents 3,800 workers at the plant.

The Greeley plant did not harvest cattle the week of March 9.

“To ensure continuity for our customers and partners, we are temporarily adjusting production across our network as needed,” Richardson explains. “By utilizing available capacity at other JBS facilities, we can maintain supply, protect the long‑term stability of the beef chain and minimize disruption for consumers and retailers. Our priority is to keep product moving while we work toward a resolution in Greeley.”

She summarizes, “We remain focused on supporting our team members, and any employee who reports for their scheduled shift will have work available and will be paid. We will continue scaling operations this week as more team members return.”

Markets Lack Reaction

Live and feeder cattle futures opened higher on Monday morning. Brad Kooima with Kooima Kooima Varilek says there are a couple of reasons why the market ignored the strike and the biggest are the higher equity markets and lower crude oil. However, he says it is also tied to the fact the strike news was already priced into the market.

Don Close, senior animal protein analyst at Terrain Ag, joined Chip Flory on AgriTalk Thursday, summarizing the strike will increase packer leverage and help reduce negative margins.

He says even with Greeley down, the industry still has excess slaughter capacity.

“Even with Greeley, with the limited cattle supply we’re dealing with, we still have excess slaughter capacity,” he stresses. “It’s going to give way more leverage to the packers, but it will help them shore up their negative margins.”

Close adds the biggest headache to the industry will be additional freight and added shrink from the extra haul to a different plant.

Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University professor of agricultural economics, agrees with Close. “Any disruption in labor availability has largest impacts on producers operating closest to involved plants. In aggregate, I do not expect large fed cattle price impacts as the industry is operating with excess physical capacity, relative to available cattle supplies.”

From an industrywide standpoint, Close downplays the potential disruption to supply.

“From the industry as a whole, the supply of product going out to meet our demand side of the market should be fine,” he says.

John Nalivka, Sterling Marketing Inc. president, says it is hard to predict the impact on the market.

“We have had Tyson’s closure of Lexington [in Nebraska] and a shift taken off the Amarillo plant [in Texas], tariffs, the current Iran situation and oil back to $100/barrel with little to no impact on the market,” he summarizes. “Supplies are tight and demand is strong. These are the overriding factors impacting this beef market. I would not be comfortable with predicting the impact of an impending strike.”

Hyrum Egbert, Riverbend Meats vice president of strategy, sales, accounting, HR, FSQA, logistics, purchasing and warehousing — who authors the biweekly The Big Bad Beef Packer newsletter, which takes a look at packinghouse truths, trends and tough questions — predicts if Greeley goes dark, even temporarily, the immediate reaction is cattle backup fear.

“A potential strike at JBS Greeley is loud ... but it’s not automatically structural,” he says. “Yes, it’s a big plant. But in 2026, cattle availability is the governor, and packers have already been living in ‘under-utilized capacity’ land for a while.”

Egbert summarizes, “This is likely more of a pricing/psychology event than a true supply collapse ... unless it turns into a long, messy, multi-plant labor domino.”

Your Next Read: Can Cattle Recover and is the Greeley Strike Priced In? Row Crops Follow Oil

Why the Southern Plains Became a ‘Perfect Recipe’ for Wildfires

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:29:07 GMT

Farmers and ranchers across the Plains are dealing with the aftermath of devastating wildfires .

According to Drovers , fast-moving Ranger Road Fire has already scorched more than 283,000 acres in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas since last week. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture said Monday it’s now 65% contained, but the devastation has charred thousands of pasture and farmland, also killing an unknown number of cattle.

Flames spread across Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico since last week. While March through April is typically wildfire season in Kansas, conditions across the Plains are creating conditions that are fueling the flames.

According to Brian Bledsoe of Brian Bledsoe Weather, the devastation is the result of a “worst-case scenario” pattern that has been building for months.

A Windy Season Meets Dry Fuels

Bledsoe says in order to understand why conditions are so ripe for wildfires this year, the calendar alone raises red flags.

“From February through early to mid-April, that’s traditionally when we see some of these higher-end wind events,” he explains. “But it’s not just about the wind. It’s about what the wind and fire combine to burn.”

The Southern Plains experienced adequate to above-average moisture over parts of the region during the past year. However, that broader window masks a sharp turn toward dryness in recent months.

When looking at the last 180 days, moisture held on in portions of the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwest Kansas. But conditions deteriorated quickly moving south into the Texas Panhandle. Over the past 90 days, dryness expanded northward into the heart of the wildfire zone.

90-day precip map for the Plains

(Brian Bledsoe, Brian Bledsoe Weather )

Zooming in further, the last 30 days tell the most concerning story. Some locations in the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwest Kansas have received just 5% to 20% of average precipitation.

That rapid drying followed a warm-season growing period that produced ample vegetation. Once cured and left without additional moisture or snow cover, those grasses became prime fuel.

“You grow up all that vegetation during the warm season, then you dry it out and don’t get anything else to keep it somewhat wet so it doesn’t burn. It’s a perfect recipe,” Bledsoe says.

Precipitation over the past 30 days.

(Brian Bledsoe, Brian Bledsoe Weather)

Wildfires in the Plains

The setup isn’t without precedent. In late February 2024, the Smokehouse Creek Fire burned more than a million acres in the Canadian River Valley of the Texas Panhandle under similar conditions, which were strong winds, above-average warmth and critically dry fuels.

“This is not unprecedented for the Western High Plains this time of year,” Bledsoe notes. “It’s just the worst-case scenario when you put all those things together.”

Little Relief in the Forecast

Unfortunately for producers hoping for moisture, the near-term outlook offers limited help.

Over the next 10 days, much of the U.S. is expected to trend drier than average. The only notably wet areas are projected to be in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Meanwhile, above-average temperatures are likely to persist across much of the Plains, with colder air remaining locked in Canada.

The short-term forecast shows little relief for much of the U.S.

(Brian Bledsoe, Brian Bledsoe Weather)

Above normal temperatures could also pose a problem for producers in the West and Plains.

(Brian Bledsoe, Brian Bledsoe Weather)

“This pattern is not going to be that favorable to grace those areas that we’re dealing with the wildfires with any real significant moisture,” Bledsoe says. “In fact, you see a pretty good chunk of the U.S. that will likely see just drier than average conditions for that 10-day period. Not necessarily dry for everybody, but drier than average. The only really wet areas will be in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. And we’re going to revert back to the warmth too.”

Looking ahead to March, extended European model guidance suggests a continuation of the pattern: dry conditions across California, Arizona, New Mexico and much of Texas and the Southwest High Plains, with wetter conditions developing farther east.

The extended forecast shows little relief across the Plains.

(Brian Bledsoe, Brian Bledsoe Weather)

March is often a volatile month, Bledsoe says, bringing sharp contrasts between “haves” and “have-nots” in terms of precipitation.

“You’re going to the haves farther east, and then areas farther south and west that have been kind of shut out are probably going struggle a little bit. And time, I know it only takes one storm to change this narrative here in the Western High Plains to cover the ground with snow or put more moisture in the ground or kind of turn the corner,” he says. “But right now this pattern is not conducive to bringing one of those significant storms into the fray.”

Bledsoe knows more than anyone that the forecast can change, but the set-up right now doesn’t look favorable for moisture in the Plains through March.

“It only takes one storm to change the narrative, to cover the ground with snow or put meaningful moisture back into the soil,” he says. “But right now, this pattern is not conducive to bringing one of those significant storms into the fray.”

For livestock producers and farmers across the High Plains, that means continued vigilance. With cured grasses, persistent wind and limited precipitation in the forecast, wildfire risk may remain elevated as the region moves deeper into its traditional spring wind season.

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

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:54:52 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.

Lawsuit Claims Rail Fee Blocks Competition, Cuts Plains Farmers’ Grain Prices

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:42:03 GMT

In a lawsuit filed in late January in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, two agribusiness plaintiffs and 13 farmers allege antitrust violations by a Class I railroad, Union Pacific, and a short-line operator, Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad.

Plaintiffs include Weskan Grain and Colorado Pacific Railroad, along with D&L Farms, GP; E&D Farms, GP; D&C Farms, GP; L&E Farms, GP; North Four Farms, GP; Marienthal Grain, LLC; D&A Farms, GP; Hineman Land & Cattle, Inc.; Hineman Ranch, L.L.C.; Circle C Farms, Inc.; Steven Compton; Mark Sanders; and JLD Partnership.

The lawsuit alleges UP and K&O worked together to stifle competition after Colorado Pacific Railroad rehabilitated the Towner Line. Plaintiffs claim the alleged conduct gave the railroads unfair control over westbound grain shipments — affecting the prices farmers receive for grain in Lane, Scott, Wichita, and Greeley Counties in Kansas and Kiowa County, Colo.

Union Pacific provided this statement, noting its view that the matter falls under the Surface Transportation Board’s purview: “Union Pacific denies the allegations of the lawsuit and will present the facts to the court and Surface Transportation Board who handles these issues.”

Will Bramblett, CEO of Weskan Grain, said after Soloviev Group acquired Colorado Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific and K&O put in place what he described as a “paper barrier” that makes interchange across the Kansas-Colorado line uneconomic–reportedly over $500 per car.

“What we’re trying to do is just get a more competitive environment for our local producers — farmers in the area — to be able to ship grain to markets across the U.S. and export markets in a more competitive manner,” Bramblett said.

As an example, he said in eastern Colorado, Weskan has been able to use a 110-car shuttle served by both BNSF and Union Pacific to bring cost savings and basis improvements of 25 to 40 cents.

“We’d just like to see that same thing happen in western Kansas,” he said.

Watco, the parent company of K&O, provided this statement: “We do not comment on litigation matters, but as a matter of course we will defend our commitment to the values that define us through the proper legal channels.”

Farm Journal TV subscribers: Watch the full fireside chat with Stefan Soloviev, chairman of the Soloviev Group, from the 2026 Top Producer Summit.

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

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:05:43 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.

Nebraska Urges Action on Canal Fight with Colorado

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 13:52:06 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.”

Pete's Pick: Used Equipment Trio Turns Heads

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:31:09 GMT

This week’s “Pete’s Pick of the Week” is a trio of used farm machines that sold at two separate auctions in the Dakotas.

And stay with us until the end as Machinery Pete has a line on two upcoming auctions that you need to check out if you’re in the market for some nice, late-model equipment.

Pete’s Pick of the Week for July 7, 2025

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

Last Wednesday, the team at Big Iron Auctions held a sale in Flandreau, S.D., where a “very sharp” 2020 Kubota M6141 tractor with a loader attachment (shown above) and just 846 hours on it sold for $85,000. According to Machinery Pete, that’s the third highest price all-time for that make/model of tractor on the used auction market.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Pete says. “The only two higher (prices) were both from back in ‘22, which as we have talked about often, that was clearly the highest watermark I’ve ever seen in the used farm equipment market.”

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

Another item that caught Pete’s eye in that same auction is a 2023 Schaffer 6680 T telescoping wheel loader (237 hours) that sold for $81,000.

And in a Steffes Group auction near Williston, N.D., that took place last Monday, a 2005 John Deere 8320 tractor (3,561 hours) sold for $122,000, which is the highest auction price on that make/model of tractor in 2025 thus far.

“I’ll be really interested to see (auction prices) from July and on,” Pete says. “I don’t think we’re going to see quite the heavy volume (we saw in 2024), but there are definitely some dealer auctions with more volume starting to appear.”

Bonus Video: Looking for a used combine for harvest this fall and want to find the price “sweet spot”? Check out this recent AgDay segment where Machinery Pete breaks down three harvester transactions:

Upcoming Auctions To Watch
On July 14, Machinery Pete will be making the drive out to Mandan, N.D., for the Burger Cattle Company/Freddie Burger Estate Auction. Brent Ulmer and Ulmer Auctions will be handling the bidding there. A quick video preview is available below if you’re interested:

“I’m sure many of you knew Fred. He passed away in January. He was only 67, but Fred had an amazing life,” Pete says. “Fred was well known throughout the country in the cattle sector and also in bull riding. I think he had been inducted into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, last year.”

You can check out the auction docket and get registered for online bidding on that sale here.

The Adam Marshall Land & Auction Company is also holding its statewide sale loaded with used farm equipment pulled out of farms and dealer lots across Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. That is a no buyer premium/fees, no reserves auction, Pete adds.

You can check out the details on that online sale here.

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Vintage Vibes: 4 Old Tractors Make Pete's Pick Of The Week

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 18:53:07 GMT

The vintage trend is hot in 2025, but who knew it goes for farm tractors, too?

Well, Machinery Pete knew, that’s who!

For this week’s “Pete’s Pick of the Week”, Machinery Pete highlighted a handful of vintage tractors as living proof that old machinery is still in high demand — especially when the price is right.

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

First up is a 1968 Oliver 1950T mechanical front-wheel drive tractor (shown above) with 5,040 hours that sold last week for $35,000 in a Steffes Group farm estate auction for farmer Bob Donowski. Pete says that is the highest auction price ever on a Oliver 1950T. The previous record high was $26,000.

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

Pete was also intrigued by a 1989 White 185 mechanical front-wheel drive tractor with 38,163 hours that brought $21,750.

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

And a 1984 White 2-155 2WD tractor with 31,181 hours that sold for $16,750.

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

Rounding out the Steffes Group auction was a 1997 White 6085 mechanical front wheel drive tractor with 21,135 hours that sold for $16,250.

And finally, at a Union, Iowa, auction helmed by Mid Iowa Auction Company, a 1972 John Deere 4020 front-wheel drive power shift tractor (above) sold for $45,500.

Auctions This Week
On Tuesday, June 10, Pete says it might be worth checking out the Adam Marshall Land and Auction no reserve, online equipment auction. The Nebraska-wide sale will also pull in used machinery from Kansas and Colorado.

Specifically, Pete is watching a 1987 Case IH 2594 2WD tractor with 44,145 hours on it in that sale.

Another promising sale on Tuesday is the Weiman Land & Auction Company annual summer farmers and dealers consignment sale. Pete says there are some nice, low-hour items as well as some interesting, hard-to-find machines in that sale — like a 1980 Big Bud tractor he says is “really sharp.”

There is also a retirement auction in Mapleton, Iowa, for Al Bruhn on Saturday, June 21, that Pete says you don’t want to miss. Iowa Machinery Man is handling the bidding for that sale.

And on the same day, a farm estate auction in Lime Springs, Iowa, for Harry and Lola Blackburn features low-hour John Deere equipment, including a 2009 Gold Key-certified, one owner JD 7230 tractor. Joel’s Tractor & Auction will handle the bidding there.

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Grit, Grease, and Gears: Meet the Colorado Teen Breathing New Life into Old Tractors

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:57:13 GMT

Colorado teenager Tyson Hansen is a shining example of that old saying “If you start them young…”

That’s because Hansen, 17, has cultivated a rare passion for buying and restoring classic tractors. It is a passion passed down from his great grandfather, who started the Hansen family farm and pieced together a massive tractor fleet over the years.

“He had over 200-some tractors, mostly two-cylinder, and when he passed, they had the big auction and my dad bought one to remember him by, and well now it’s our family tractor,” Hansen remembers. “My dad still talks about the first day he let me drive it, and he always says since that first ride, I was just hooked.”

The tractor that launched his lifelong love for tractors - the 1934 John Deere GP in all its glory.

(Photo courtesy of Mecum Auctions)

That first taste of classic tractor heaven was on the hardened steel green seat of a 1934 John Deere GP, a popular two-plow row crop setup John Deere built and sold from 1928 to 1935.

The high school junior says he’s wrenched on about 16 to 17 classic tractors at this point, all while participating in his high school FFA program and wrestling for the varsity team. And it’s not a hobby he tackles alone in a dusty, dark barn – his dad, stepmom, and brother all pitch in and help out. Because everyone knows nothing brings a family closer than bonding over busted knuckles and stripped chassis bolts.

Tyson says his family is “pretty much a John Deere family” but that he has started to feel the pull from other legacy brands.

“I started out as a John Deere guy, but I don’t even actually own any John Deeres,” he says, adding that right now his personal collection consists of two classic Case IH tractors and two Farmalls.

That doesn’t mean a young man can’t dream big, though, and Tyson’s big dream restoration project is to someday fix up a John Deere Model R.

He purchased his latest tractor, a Case 400 Super Diesel Western Special Edition with a hand clutch – one of only eight ever built, he says – with the goal of fixing it up and flipping it to raise enough cash to make that dream a reality.

“Once I got that tractor I went online and looked up some Facebook groups where the guys are all about Case, and I didn’t know anything about them at the time, so I just started asking guys for help and next thing I know within an hour I had about seven or eight texts from guys asking to buy that thing off me,” he says. “That’s when I realized that 400 is a little rarer than I figured it would have been.”

His Case 400 is also going to end up helping his fellow students in the FFA program. Tyson’s FFA teacher has asked him to bring the 400 in and is going to let the young man lead his classmates through a lesson on how diesel engines work.

Work is a key word in any farming family, and the Hansen family is no different.

“I don’t know why, my dad always tells me I won’t like it when I am out of high school, but I like to work,” Hansen says. “I guess I’ve just got a working mindset – I’m not the biggest fan of sitting in the house.”

Check out Tyson Hansen’s latest Tractor Tales spotlight below, where the teen shows off his rebuilt Case 400 tractor. And subscribe to the Farm Journal YouTube channel to get all of the latest Tractor Tale videos.

Also keep an eye on U.S. Farm Report every Saturday morning for the debut of the newest Tractor Tales feature.

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2025 Top Producer of the Year Marc Arnusch Looks for Success Beyond Commodity Farming

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:50:46 GMT

As he checks last year’s crops and thinks about the future, Colorado farmer Marc Arnusch and his team are excited about what’s ahead.

“At the end of the day, this is about family,” stresses Arnusch. “It’s about growing an operation. It’s about growing a community. It’s about helping others lead and that’s been the greatest reward.”

Getting to those rewards has been a journey for this operation located in Prospect Valley about 35 miles northeast of Denver.

“My family immigrated to the United States in 1952 from Austria,” he explains.

It was the sugar beet that lured them to the Colorado climate and it was a key part of the farm until the late 2010s.

“I couldn’t control my market and I couldn’t control my destiny. There were so many variables that I had no impact on,” Arnusch says.

His wife Jill remembers, “I was doing all the finances and telling him we just we can’t do this anymore. I was telling him that this is uncomfortable for me, but I don’t feel right about this. We’ve got to change. We’ve got to move.”

Ultimately, Jill’s warnings won out and Marc broke the news.

“That was hard when I had to tell my dad that I grew my last sugar beet crop,” he said. “You can imagine he wasn’t very happy about that.”

Like so many others, it was one of the family decisions Marc and Jill made together. Early on, there were plenty of thin margins.

“I wanted to raise our son at home and we made it work,” Jill says. “You can make a pound of hamburger stretch for three meals for three people if you really try hard.”

Diversification Becomes Key
Today, they grow seed wheat, seed barley, grains for the craft beer and spirits industries, black-eye peas, alfalfa and food grade corn.

“We grow a lot of things that my grandparents and my father would never even consider,” Arnusch says. “Growing a grain for a distillery or taking on a new crop like a black-eyed pea that had never even been grown in this region of Colorado, there’s certainly some risk but there’s also the reward.”

It’s a way to control their own destiny and de-commodititze a commodity. Diversification has been the key to weathering the challenges of Colorado.

“We don’t always get along with Mother Nature,” Arnusch says. “Hailstorms are frequent here in this area, and we’re a very dry climate.”

Which is why they’re constantly looking for other ways to de-risk their business. It’s a lesson they learned a few years back while growing onions.

“We were growing 600 to 700 acres a year, and we acquired a packing shed where we shipped our crop to over 30 different states and four foreign countries,” Arnusch says.

However, he soon found access to steady labor was a constant challenge.

“There was a morning where I came out into the field and I had 250 workers helping transplant a crop out of Arizona into a field here in Colorado,” Arnusch says. “The following day I had nine.”

Join Them, But Do It Better
Despite the investments and the market, he walked away from the onion business because he couldn’t control those variables. Instead, he found other ways to supplement the farm beyond the field. Good snow melt and a good aquifer means excess water is available for other uses during certain times of year.

“Weld County has more oil and gas wells in it than all of Saudi Arabia combined and part of that development process requires a large amount of water,” Arnusch says. “We had it in the right place, in the right time, in close proximity to where it needed to be delivered and so Ag Water Alliance was born.”

It was a collection of farmers selling water together to the oil and gas industry and that helped bulletproof the Arnusch balance sheet. They also started a captive insurance company to help take catastrophic risk off the table. Soon, they’ll continue to expand on their family motto, “We Grow Things,” as they look to grow their community.

“We’re getting ready to develop my grandfather’s farm,” Arnusch says. “I would imagine you’ve not heard too many farmers say they plan to build on top of their family’s legacy.”

Jill adds, “When New York investors and people from overseas start calling you every day and asking if your farm is for sale because it is the most prized piece of property in town, we decided if you can’t beat them, maybe you join them and do it better.”

The goal is to bring resources, services and amenities back to their small town that were common just 50 years ago. Things like healthcare, assisted living and a place for new businesses.

“Rather than just selling the property and letting somebody else develop that farm, we’re doing something that’s very hard,” Arnusch says. “We’re going to do this ourselves. We’re going to do it with a purpose and it’s about putting people and our community first.”

With their son and his new family by their side along with a newly hired farm manager, the future is bright for the Arnusch operation.

“Farming goes beyond just the seed that you plant in the field, the crop that you grow, the equipment that you have,” Arnusch says. “It’s about investing in tomorrow. Our future at this farm is one built on tomorrow.”

They recognize all of it is a gift for them to steward.

“If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t really know your business and you can make good decisions on bad numbers and bad advice,” Jill says. “It can all go away very quickly.”

This Colorado operation may have faced adversity, but the willingness to reinvent the farm is why they’ve been named the 2025 Top Producer of the Year.

Tractor Tales: Rediscover Classics from John Deere and International Harvester

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 21:31:23 GMT

If you love antique and unique farm tractors, then Machinery Pete’s Tractor Tales segment is right up your alley. You can find the videos on YouTube. The segments are also featured each weekend on U.S. Farm Report.

Here’s a roundup of some of the latest Tractor Tales videos.

John Deere Tractor Tales

Ohio farmer Chris Durham has one of only 39 John Deere 435 diesel tractors on his McClure, Ohio, farm. Making this tractor even more special is the original engine Deere planned to use for this model was swapped out for a General Motors 253 hp “Detroit Diesel” two stroke engine. Durham said that Deere did not like how the engine sounded or its rough starts in cold weather, so large-scale production was scrapped.

Manlius, Ill., farmer Kim Sanden and a couple buddies took the time to painstakingly restore this 1970 John Deere 4070 diesel tractor, which Sanden purchased from a lady in Springfield, Ill. The old workhorse tractor was pretty beat up when Sanden and his friends first got to wrenching on it, but you’d never be able to tell looking at it today. That is one sweet, sweet looking restored John Deere tractor.

Colorado farmer Tyson Hanson and his family have restored a John Deere GP tractor that has been in the family for over 50 years. It’s the first tractor Hanson ever drove as a kid growing up on the farm, and it’s not one you’d easily forget due to the unique clickity-clackity-sputtering cadence of its engine. It was owned by Hanson’s great-grandfather, who owned 200-plus two-cylinder tractors during his life. Apparently, the old tractor is still a beast when it comes to tractor pulls: The Hansons have only lost a handful of pulls with the GP.

Fun with Farmall

You’re going to start picking up on a theme with these: Farmers love to go back and buy the first tractor they ever drove, and that’s exactly the case with Saint Mary’s, Kan., farmer Dan Kennedy and his candy-apple red Farmall BN tractor.

Kennedy purchased the tractor from a farm in Shanksville, Penn., that was right next to the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on 9/11. Kennedy says he still gets choked up even today talking about this special tractor. That’s one farmer who will truly never forget.

Adrian, N.D., farmer Lee Miller has a beautifully restored 1949 M-D Diesel that also takes unleaded gasoline. He says the diesel engine is more powerful than the gasoline combustion engine, so most farmers would take the tractor to a local machine shop and have them widen the original rims a few inches so they could use wider footprint tires to take advantage of that additional torque to the ground.

Northfield, Minn., farmer Jeremy Sevcik bought and restored a 1946 H Series tractor as part of a 4-H project during high school. He fixed a broken gear box, sandblasted all the sheet metal and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It turned out to be a pretty solid school project: Sevcik bought the tractor off his Dad last fall, and he uses it for pulling trailers and moving around hay racks.

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Gov. Polis Releases Wolves in Covert Ceremony

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 01:04:27 GMT

One might think Colorado Governor Jared Polis would scale back his anti-agriculture campaign – at least publicly – after his tone-deaf proclamation of Meat-Out Day on the first day of spring in 2021. But despite that PR fiasco, the governor has again thumbed his nose at Colorado ranchers with last week’s covert wolf reintroduction.

Colorado voters approved the reintroduction of gray wolves via a ballot measure in 2020, so the release of five wolves on Dec. 18 into the wilderness of Grand County was legal. But if it was legal, why was it done secretly? And that’s not the only question Colorado ranchers are demanding the governor answer.

To date, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have released 10 gray wolves – four males and six females – at two locations on state-owned land in Grand and Summit counties. Wolves were eradicated from Colorado in the 1940s, and the controversial ballot measure (Proposition 114) passed with a slim 51% to 49% margin.

The state’s ranchers campaigned against the ballot measure, and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Gunnison County Stockgrower’s Association filed a last-ditch lawsuit last month in federal court against Colorado Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. The ranchers argued the reintroduction of wolves should be reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act and they asked the federal court to block wolf releases until the complaint is reviewed. That request was denied.

That decision paved the way for the first reintroduction of the wolves, and the governor’s unusual photo opportunity. Colorado Public Radio’s Sam Brasch was one of just three reporters selected to be onsite when the first five wolves were set free.

Brasch told Aspen Public Radio’s Elanor Bennett he received the mystery invite on Monday morning of last week. The reporters met Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials at a rest stop and were then driven to the release site.

“The agency had flown five wolves from Oregon earlier that morning. And when we got there, each one was in these dark metal crates in the backs of pickup trucks,” Brasch said. “They were then driven to a small clearing where there were about 45 invited guests who wanted to watch the releases — that included CPW officers, Governor Polis, his husband, and top wolf advocates from around the state. Then we watched the governor help open each crate. Three of the wolves bolted up over a snow-covered road into the woods immediately. You know, two others took their time before just kind of sauntering out of their crates and running into the woods.”

Notably missing, according to Brasch’s description of the guests, were any representatives from Colorado’s ranching community, which might have included some top wolf opponents. Yet that omission is likely because the wolves released already had rap sheets as members of packs with known livestock kills in Oregon. Wowza!

You read that right. The wolves released in Colorado come from packs that have already killed livestock. Could CPW have chosen wolves for relocation that hadn’t already appeared on a naughty wolf list? Maybe. Except Wyoming, Idaho and Montana refused to allow Colorado to adopt any of their wolves.

Some have viewed that refusal as a political wedge issue as Wyoming, Idaho and Montana are Red states and Colorado a Blue state. But Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s comments to the Wyoming State Daily earlier this year sound like the decision was made for more practical reasons.

“Our border with Colorado is an unsuitable area for wolves, and that would mean more human conflicts. Resolution of conflicts is almost always deadly to wolves,” Gordon said.

In any case, Colorado found some adoptable wolves in Blue state Oregon.

Reporting for The Fence Post last week, Rachel Gabel reviewed the rap sheets of the relocated wolves . Two of the wolves, a juvenile male and a juvenile female, come from Five Points Pack. Gabel noted that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Livestock Depredations Investigations found “Five Points Pack wolves injured one calf and killed another in separate depredations in July of 2023; killed a cow on Dec. 5, 2022; and injured a 900-pound yearling heifer on July 17, 2022.”

USDA killed four wolves from that pack by August 4, 2023.

(Gabel’s reporting on the controversial wolf reintroduction has drawn the ire of the state’s official first gentleman, Marlon Reis, who attacked Gabel on Facebook. His comments did not sit well with the editors at The Gazette. )

The other three wolves released into Colorado under Governor Polis’ supervision, also come from packs with confirmed livestock kills. Gabel reported another juvenile male and female came from the Noregaard Pack which was involved in the killing of a calf on June 15. The fifth wolf, an adult male, came from the Wenaha Pack involved in the killing of a 7-mont-old calf on Sept. 18, and a cow on Oct. 25.

But that’s just the first five wolves! The second batch of five wolves had a similar record of misbehavior. Cowboy State Daily columnist Cat Urbigkit accurately describes why Colorado ranchers are so angry.

“Colorado released a total of 10 wolves – all but one from confirmed cattle-killing packs, according to information from Oregon wolf depredation records. What on earth could be wrong with that?

“Over the last two years the message to Colorado livestock producers has been to do all they can to reduce the risk of livestock depredation, and producers have been stepping up to do that. The words ‘conflict minimization’ are repeated 176 times in Colorado’s wolf plan. So, when the same agency then takes an action that appears to increase the risk of conflict to livestock producers, what message does that relay?”

The answer, as Urbigkit writes, is that “Colorado put its own livestock producers into a higher risk situation than it needed. Bringing in wolves from packs that are already known as livestock killers raises the risk for repeat performance.”

Interestingly, Urbigkit’s opinion is shared by Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Technical Working Group’s (TWG) final recommendations to the agency : “No wolf should be translocated that has a known history of chronic depredation, and sourcing from geographic areas with chronic depredation events should not occur.”

That important tidbit, however, was missing from news releases documenting the wolf release, as was any apparent wolf pardon granted during Governor Polis’ photo opportunity.

And that’s why the covert wolf release was another in a long string of botched PR episodes from Colorado’s current governor.