BUENA VISTA — Seth Roberts’ Weathervane Farm on the banks of Cottonwood Creek feeds dozens of families in the Upper Arkansas River Valley. His organic produce, free-range chickens and eggs, and fresh cut flowers are in high demand at the local farmers markets.
He is living his life dream. But when Roberts ponders settling permanently near Buena Vista, he laments the short-term lease for his farmland. He has looked at land to buy that was as small as 15 acres or as big as 50 — and both cost more than $750,000 in this valley, where a state research group predicts a pending “tsunami of development.”
“That permanence, that land security, is crucial,” says the 32-year-old farmer, thrusting his hands into a weathered Carhartt jacket. “We have laws to protect endangered animals. We need that kind of protection for farmland, which will soon be extinct.”
A proposed program sprouting from a farmhouse in Buena Vista could allow Roberts to establish stable roots for both his family and his vegetables in the valley. The Chaffee County Land Link program is based on programs in 21 other states that unite retiring or aging farmers with their young, energetic counterparts.
“It’s like a matchmaking service, providing access to the next generation of farmers who want to be a part of their local food system while helping older, local farmers keep their land’s agricultural heritage and get some benefit — like a steady paycheck — from it,” says David Lynch, whose Guidestone organization works to stimulate sustainable farming in the Upper Arkansas River Valley and is spearheading the Land Link plan.
Lynch is gathering support from local leaders to buttress his group’s application for a small USDA grant that could get the program moving.
Lynch’s former Guidestone Farms dissolved when it lost its lease for land near Loveland three years ago. Losing his farm, where he trained aspiring farmers in sustainable techniques — he had solar composting toilets — was the blow that birthed the idea of a Colorado Land Link program.
A Land Link toolbox would include a variety of leases that protect both the new farmer and the landowner. It could be a crop share, a profit share or a straight land lease or lease-to-own. It would include an educational component for young farmers. It would require prospective tenant farmers to have a solid business plan.
It’s not a new idea. It’s more of a return to the days when Salida had 18 grocery stores (it now has three) and food came from the farmer down the street.
“This is the way farmers used to work. Farmers used to feed the people around them,” Roberts says. “I want to know the people I am growing food for, and that connection goes beyond shelf price.”
In California, a decade-old Land Link program has connected 100 aging farmers with new farmers. In Iowa, a Land Link program has paired farmers on industrial, high-yield farms. In Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Nebraska, Land Link registers are swelling with farmers of all ages.
The programs hold promise for a keystone industry in decline. The 2007 Census of Agriculture showed the average age of farmers climbing to 57 in 2007, up from 55 in 2002. And while the number of farm operators older than 75 grew by 20 percent from 2002, the number of operators under 25 fell by 30 percent.
“We see a tremendous need for the next generation of farmers to come along,” says Ben Rainbolt with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which represents 23,000 farming families in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. “Trying to hook these newcomers up with landowners is very important.”
The Land Link program could also help aging farmers who are abandoning their efforts simply because they can’t find help. Bill Gardiner with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Salida fields calls weekly from older ranchers unable to handle needed work anymore.
“Keeping these farmers and ranchers employed is a good thing,” Gardiner says. “This program is a way to help some struggling families.”
With Colorado’s ever-present development pressure fueling high land prices, the hurdles for new farmers are formidable. The Colorado Rural Development Council’s 2008 economic report on rural Colorado says Chaffee County’s appeal as a region for living and playing places it “on the front end of (a) tsunami of development.”
Those developers come knocking on Chaffee County farmer Bill Thomas’ door every year.
“Those subdividers, they are like vultures. They come in and suck it dry and kill it,” said the 57-year-old second-generation farmer.
Three years ago, Thomas shuttered his dairy farm. Rising feed prices for his 130 cows and rising costs of transporting his milk did not mirror the decreasing prices of milk. He remembers a night when his dad, a few decades ago, sat down at the kitchen table and after hours of calculations determined he was making a nickel an hour. It hasn’t got much better since then, Thomas says.
Still, he’d love to see his farm remain agricultural.
“I’m getting old, getting tired and this doesn’t pay (squat),” says Thomas, gazing across his dormant farmland as spandexed cyclists spin past his wife working with a young mustang. “I’d say 90 percent of all farmers in the U.S. today now are in town holding down a second job just to keep the farm a farm. Either that or they sell it.”
Lynch has a couple of young gourmet-cheese makers in Vermont interested in taking over dairy operations at Thomas’ farm, becoming the first Land Link participants.
“We’d have to negotiate, but I’d like to see this agricultural ground stay agricultural ground,” he says. “Agriculture in this valley is sputtering. We need to keep it alive.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
