This summer’s disappointing wheat harvest stung two Denver metro airports and the farmers who seed the buffer zones around their runways.
Front Range Airport expected to earn $29,000 from the wheat crop planted on its 2,000 acres but instead saw revenues of just $3,700. Farmers’ insurance provided another $12,000, but the airport still fell 50 percent short of its projected budget.
Warmer-than-usual weather in May dried out the wheat before it could be harvested.
“It was looking real good, but it turned hot when the heads were forming,” said Dennis Heap, director of aviation at Front Range Airport. “We ended up with only 1,600 bushels of good wheat.”
At nearby Denver International Airport wheat crops were just as sparse, but due to a new cash rent arrangement only the farmers took the hit.
The airport contracts with 10 farmers who grow wheat, sunflowers, millet and corn on 16,000 acres. Until last year, DIA operated under a crop-sharing system that gave the airport one-third of everything harvested while the farmers kept the other two-thirds.
The airport switched to cash- rent contracts after consulting with experts from Colorado State University. Farmers are now required to pay roughly $18 an acre, earning the airport about $288,000 a year.
“This year’s wheat crop was very short,” said Mike Kruse, who farms at DIA. “We are going through a three- to four- year stretch of bad crops. As farmers, we have to deal with the short crop.
“If you have years like this year in and year out, you would go broke.”
Front Range is handling the setback by reducing its expenses. “If you have a shortfall in revenue, you adjust and cut back,” Heap said. “We are going to cut back on small capital projects.”
Staff writer Marcus W. Vanderberg can be reached at mvanderberg@denverpost.com or 303-820-1209.
