The snow continues to fall and blow across the streets in southeastern Colorado Monday (Dec. 19), shutting down streets and causing traffic accidents.
Highway 109 in La Junta is closed to 160; Highway 287 is closed to the Oklahoma line and Highway 160 from Springfield to Trinidad is closed. Interstate 25 south of Pueblo is closed and Trinidad is reporting all lodging facilities are full.
In La Junta, a Red Cross Shelter has been set up at 114 E. Second St.
Blizzard warning remains in effect until 5 a.m. Tuesday for much of southeastern Colorado. As of 7 p.m., about 6 inches has fallen on the ground, but drifts are measuring much higher.
Colorado State Patrol is on accident alert.
Energy related inputs make up as much as 60 percent of total operating expenses on the average farm, indirectly in the form of fertilizer and pesticide, as well as directly from fuel, lube and electricity.
“Energy can have a big impact on your bottom line,” said Cary Weiner, a Colorado State University clean energy specialist who was one of several speakers at a recent ag energy expo held in Northeast Colorado.
Weiner is collaborating with 15 additional faculty members as co-director for CSU’s new Center for Agricultural Energy, a joint project of CSU Extension and the CSU College of Engineering. With funding from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the center is piloting comprehensive ag energy audits on eight farm operations across the state, developing an assessment process that can help farmers and ranchers identify savings and make their farms more energy efficient.
It’s a wonderful thing.
That’s what some children here will be proclaiming this Christmas when they receive a present under their tree through the efforts of Big R.
And for many of these children, it could be the only present they will receive.
Sid Ducharme, who has been manager of the Big R store in La Junta for the past three months, said he talked to the employees about helping the community collect toys for the needy families in the community.
Like farmers everywhere, Gary May is in the midst of a busy fall season.
He has 1,300 acres of field corn to cut. He recently got out the drills and planted 1,500 acres of wheat.
What makes his situation unique is the large corn maze that opens to the public during the month of October and the 10 acres of sweet corn he picked and sold earlier this year. Fourteen acres of bright orange pumpkins lay ripening in the sun, many of which will be harvested by visiting school children and families. A short golf-cart ride from what is likely the state’s largest lavender patch, he’s also planted a strip of decorative Indian corn that yields miniature multi-colored ears.
Jensen Farms in Granada, Colo., on Wednesday (Sept. 14) announced it is voluntarily recalling Rocky Ford cantaloupe shipped from July 29 through Sept. 10 and distributed to at least 17 states. The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to not eat the cantaloupe and to discard any remaining in their homes. The CDC reports that at least 22 people in seven states have been infected with the outbreak associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes as of Sept. 14. No other Rocky Ford cantaloupe producer has been found in common in the Colorado traceback. The recalled cantaloupes are packed in cartons that are labeled: Frontera Produce, www.fronteraproduce.com or with Frontera Produce, Rocky Ford Cantaloupes. Both cartons also include: Grown and packed by Jensen Farms Granada, CO and Shipped by Frontera Produce LTD, Edinburg, Texas.
Representatives from the Colorado Rail Passenger Association encouraged La Junta City Council Monday (Aug. 15) to show its support for keeping Amtrak in southeastern Colorado.
A sale barn made an appropriate backdrop for a drought management meeting presented recently by Oklahoma State University extension professionals, as hot, dry conditions persist across the Southern Plains and the cost to keep a cow climbs to historic levels.
In a scenario repeated at sale facilities across the south, runs of cows at Northwest Stockyards west of Enid have been unseasonably high in recent weeks.
Official exclusion of brands and eventual inclusion of feeder cattle continues to raise hackles in some quarters as the U.S. Department of Agriculture moves forward with a long-awaited plan to trace U.S. livestock moving into interstate commerce for disease mitigation purposes.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the nation’s chief veterinary officer John Clifford held a press conference in Washington D.C. Tuesday and presided over a conference call with stakeholders to announce official publication of the animal disease traceability rule in Thursday’s Federal Register. Comments on the proposal will be accepted through Nov. 9.
