Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently announced the approval of $500,000 in grants for seven projects that promote the use of agrivoltaics, which is the simultaneous use of land for solar energy production and agriculture. Polis said that the projects are funded by bipartisan legislation, and that the grants indicate that agricultural production and the energy department can help the state overcome climate challenges.” Agrivoltaics include the simultaneous use of areas of land for both solar panels and agriculture for either crop production or grazing. Agrivoltaics also includes floatovoltaics, that are solar energy generation facilities placed over, near, or floating on irrigation canals or reservoirs.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture is inviting agricultural producers to submit listings for this year’s 40th annual Farm Fresh Directory, that is published by the agency. The directory, which will be released in June, promotes farmers’ markets, roadside stands, u-picks, community-supported agriculture, agritourism, wineries and farms and ranches that sell directly to consumers. There’s a $25 fee to be included and the listing deadline is February29th.
The Creighton University January Rural Mainstreet Index, is a survey of community bank presidents and CEOs in non-urban, agriculturally and energy-dependent portions of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. The January Index declined for the fifth straight month, with the overall index for the ten states sinking below growth neutral. Some key findings include that farmland prices increased for the month, and the last time the farmland price index fell below growth neutral was November 2019. But higher borrowing costs, tighter credit conditions and weaker grain prices pushed the farm equipment sales index below growth neutral for the seventh time in the past eight months. However, Colorado’s index grew to 73.7 from December’s 52.4, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that over the past 12 months, Colorado’s Rural Mainstreet economy expanded employment by 5.6%, while the state’s urban areas grew employment at a much lower 0.6%.
Which which brings me to an observation that I made a couple of couple of weeks ago, concerning the record setting prices of farmland and the outlook for lower farm income over the next couple of years that might lead to another 1980s debt crisis in agriculture. Last week at the Land Investment Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, Tom Hoenig and Ester George, who are former presidents of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, and Bruce Sherrick, director of the TIAA Center for Farmland Research at the University of Illinois all expressed concerns about the state of the greater U.S. economy as well as where the U.S farm economy may be headed. Sherrick stated that three-year rates of return in farmland values of 19% in Kansas; 18% annual growth in Nebraska; 16% in South Dakota; and 15% in Iowa. Other strong performers for land values included North Dakota and Indiana at 14% and Minnesota at 13%. All three presenters are concerned that the growing annual federal budget deficits are going to eventually slow down the nation's economy, and if farmland values continue to increase, there is a chance that we may end up in a 1980s crisis all over again.
Albert Einstein wrote, “Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
