Housing developments, shopping centers, office complexes, schools and open space are gradually taking over land that used to be farmed in Boulder County. What is happening to the family owned farms and why are farmers selling their land?

Are county regulations making it too difficult to farm?

Are taxes too high?

Is urbanization driving farmers out?

Is the land worth more for development?

Is it better to sell and retire or buy a farm somewhere else?

Both Howard Morton and LeRoy Schlagel have spent much of their lives in farming in the Niwot/Gunbarrel area. According to them, the real reason farmers sell is that they can no longer afford to support their families by farming.

For those involved in agriculture today, this fact is no surprise. It seems that farming in the Gunbarrel, Niwot, Longmont area is a microcosm of national trends. Prior to World War II, most farms in Boulder County were small and family operated. In 1917, Ralph Morton, Jr., Howard’s father, started farming a half mile south of Niwot Road, with seven men and horse drawn, walking plows. He started with 120 acres and bought an additional 40 acres the following year.

At that time, 160 acres of irrigated land was a decent sized farm. An average family could make a good living farming and, when necessary, supplement their income by raising cattle or chickens, milking cows or ranching. A non-irrigated farm required from 160 to 320 acres to support a family.

At one time members of the Schlagel family owned and farmed much of south Longmont. Conrad Schlagel, LeRoy’s grandfather, emigrated to the US from Russia in the early 1900’s and started farming leased land. According to LeRoy’s wife Alberta, farming was a "real family affair" and you "have to have everyone there or it doesn’t work." While tractors started replacing horses in the 1920s, farming was still extremely labor intensive, and required the involvement of the entire family.

World War II saw many young men and women leave the farm to work in war related efforts. Many never returned.

Agriculture changed after the war, according to Morton and Schlagel. Operating costs grew due to larger and more expensive machinery. Out of necessity, many farms became larger and more specialized. This trend is mirrored in the lives of the Morton and Schlagel families.

Howard Morton took over the farm from his father, eventually farming over 1400 acres on Gunbarrel Hill. Morton was a dry land farmer, using no irrigation water.

Morton sold most of his land in the 1970s and turned to development when he saw the way farming was headed. He still owns 70 acres that he rents out.

The Schlagel family continues to farm on smaller plots of land off Nelson Road in Longmont. LeRoy Schlagel started with 80 acres in 1948 that he bought for $16,000. His farm was "one of the most competitive farming operations in the country," said Schlagel. He owned up to 480 acres and farmed as much as 800 acres.

In the early 1950s, Schlagel was supplementing his income feeding 300 head of cattle for $1.25 per head a month.

In the 1960s overproduction caused problems. More crops were produced than could be consumed. "Agriculture failed miserably in marketing," according to Schlagel.

Problems continued into the 1970s. For example, the Kuner-Empson Company, a vegetable processing company on Third Avenue in Longmont, closed. They used to buy cash crops – peas, beans, pumpkins, and red beets – from local farmers. Many farmers then switched to growing corn, barley, alfalfa, pinto beans and wheat.

Sugar beets were Schlagel’s main cash crop. A group of farmers tried to buy the Great Western Sugar Company, but according to Schlagel, the Hunt brothers beat them out while the farmers were trying to obtain financing. The Hunt brothers eventually went bankrupt and Great Western Sugar closed.

Without a grain elevator, sugar mill, sugar beet plant or vegetable processing company in Longmont, there was no place to market local crops. Farmers today market their crops in Denver.

Schlagel was buying and selling livestock in the late 1970s to supplement his income but had to give that up when interest rates on livestock loans climbed as high as 20 percent.

The Schlagels did continue the farming tradition by having each of their children raise Angus cattle. The children learned the bookkeeping and how to handle money by putting what they earned from their cattle into their educational funds.

Today only one of LeRoy and Alberta Schlagel’s four children, Eddie, continues to farm, growing alfalfa and grass on 700 acres. One of Eddie’s children, Phil, a student at Niwot High School, occasionally helps in the fields, but does not plan to continue to work the family farm after graduation. Leroy estimates that their farm will be "consumed in its entirety in five to seven years" by development.

Local farmers, such as Schlagel, are slowly selling their land to keep from going broke.

"To survive in today’s economy, an irrigated farm requires from 500 to 1000 acres of land and a non-irrigated farm from 2000 to 4000 acres to be profitable," said Morton. "Dairy farming, cattle feeding, egg and chicken production have left the farmers and have become commercial enterprises," he noted. This leaves the farmers with no means to supplement their income.

County records show that most of the remaining farms in Boulder County are smaller, approximately 35 acres or less, and many are devoted to tree farms, horse facilities or herbal farms.

At one time Gunbarrel Hill supported eighteen farm families. Currently, two families are farming there on a part-time basis.

One of the remaining farmers on Gunbarrel Hill is Dan Cito. His grandfather, Angelo Iannacito, homesteaded there in the early 1900s. Besides growing wheat, barley and alfalfa, he milked cows to supplement his income. His sons, Mike, Tony and Dan Iannacito continued to farm the land until they died.

At one time Dave Iannacito, Tony’s son, ran a dairy farm at 79th Street and Mineral Road, but it eventually closed. Most of the land is still owned by family members. Currently, Dan Cito, Dan Iannacito’s son, is the only family member still farming, and that is on a part-time basis. Dan is also self-employed in business. Recently, some of the original farm land was sold to Boulder County for open space at $6,300 per acre.

Production costs have increased dramatically, according to the farmers interviewed. Crop prices have not kept up with inflation. In 1949, farmers received $4.10 per 100 pounds of barley. Today farmers receive $3.20 for that same 100 pounds. The same is true of other crops, according to Schlagel.

It’s difficult for the small farmers now to stay in business. They need to farm more than one piece of land to maintain their income. The "days of 160 acre farms are gone," said Morton.

In the US today, the average age of farmers has increased to 57 years. Morton estimates that a young person will need to invest anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 on machinery alone. Tractors, which were once 25 to 45 horsepower prior to World War II, are now 100 to 350 horsepower costing $100,000 or more.

"If you’re going to be in agriculture and make a living, you have to have the land and equipment", said Morton.

Ron Stewart, Boulder County Commissioner and Director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department, echoes Morton’s comments. Stewart said that many aging farmers, with no one to continue the farming tradition, are selling their land.

According to Stewart, farmland can be worth between $5,000 to $12,000 per acre depending on the location, the availability of water and land productivity.

This increase in land value can be very appealing because it has allowed some farmers to sell their land for three to eight times its agricultural value. Stewart is familiar with many farmers who have sold their land for open space and then bought farms in eastern Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska where they can afford three to eight times the acreage they had in Boulder County.

Stewart said the county has been encouraged by the interest shown in farming county open space. By leasing open space land, the farmers who want to stay here and farm can put together enough land for an economically viable operation.

Between 1993 and 1998, agricultural land was converted to 35 acre home sites at the rate of two square miles per year, noted Stewart. Ten square miles of farm land were converted to home sites in those five years.

Stewart also added that county regulations "try to be as sensitive to farmers as [possible.]" The county has tried to limit additional development in farm country.

Farmers also receive the biggest tax preferences according to Stewart. Farmers are taxed on their annual productive yield. On the eastern plains, taxes amount to from $1 per year per acre to $20 per year per acre. A 160-acre farm in Boulder County pays less property tax than one subdivided lot.

But the tax breaks have not been able to offset the other pressures facing Boulder County farm families. With production and equipment costs continuing to rise and children of farmers choosing different careers, the smaller family farm may join the horse drawn plow and become a thing of the past.