Owner. Farmed winter wheat, sorghum, millet, canola, irrigated wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, hay, corn, soybeans, potatoes, quinoa (among the first commercial growers in the US) and citrus on over 40,000 fee and private-leased acres in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona using sustainable farming practices including low-till/no-till.
Participated in Federal Agriculture Support Programs including the Conservation Reserve Program, Soil Conservation Service Program and other USDA programs. Bought federally subsidized crop insurance and borrowed working capital from federally supported specialty agricultural lenders. Ranched on fee land and leased land in Colorado. Engaged in cattle feeding in Arizona and Texas. Operated a leased meat packing plant in Colorado. Bison ranching.
Bought seed, ag chemicals and equipment, leased and bought farmland, drove tractors, built fences, graded roads, hired custom cutters, cut and stacked hay, hired supervised and fired hands, hired trucking companies, stored grain, owned grain storage facilities and sold production to packing plants, grain mills and feed lots.
Ran conventional and organic cow-calf operations, conventional and organic summer stocker operations and cattle feeding operations. Worked cattle from horseback and with squeeze chutes.
