Colorado’s Eastern Plains farms have had an exhausting three years rooted in low commodity prices, dried up reservoirs and a growing inventory of crops that cannot be sold.
Grains continue to fetch roughly half of what they did just four years ago, with wheat, for instance, selling for $3 a bushel last year, less than half of the $7.75 it commanded in 2012.
Those working Boulder County’s farm fields believe the industry will take another hit in 2017, and as a result some farmers say they plan to stockpile certain crops until prices rise.
“There are just some things we’re not selling until things get better,” said Paul Schlagel, a Boulder County man whose family has farmed outside Longmont for more than four generations.
” We’re going to hold some of our crop corn in grain lockers until prices get better,” said Schlagel, who grows sugar beets and barley in addition to corn.
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