Who's your farmer? Grant Family Farms headed for auction

Update: Localization Partners LLC, one of the creditors mentioned below, bids $85,000 for Grant Family Farms assets.

This Grant Farms bumper sticker spotted today in a parking lot may soon be a collector's item. The more than 2,000-acre Grant Family Farms, the nation's largest Community-Supported Agriculture program, heads to the auction block next month after filing for its third bankruptcy in December. Localization Partners LLC, the farms' major creditor, has set, appropriately for this blog, what is known as a "stalking horse" bid. Read the full Coloradoan story.

Read also:

Creditors wonder if Grant Farms' funds were used to pay home mortgage

What happens to the land?

Considering this sad story along with the IKEA/European horse-meat-in-the-food scandal, it really would be nice to know: Who's your farmer?

Coors donate top-of-the-line footing to Colorado Horse Park

“There are so many reasons we invested,” said Kathy Coors. “The Horse Park is such an asset. We are so lucky to live in Colorado. West of the Mississippi, this is where you come to show. We gave because of Helen Krieble and her contribution to the community. She is an amazing Colorado leader.”-- Kathy Coors

Those planning to show at the Colorado Horse Park this spring can start licking their chops ...

Read the details in the Colorado Horse Park's news release.

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Good Samaritan donates semi-truck of hay to Humane Society

IKEA horse-meat scandal: Meatballs, lasagna, anyone?

"As soon as we received information from the Czech authorities, we stopped sales of that particular production batch."
-- Ylva Magnusson, IKEA

I think I've lost my taste for Italian food for a while. Read the entire Wall Street Journal story.

Are you an animal lover? Read what the U.S. military has been doing to goats, dogs, and pigs. 

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow!

... will stop the erstwhile boarding stable from fixing its tractor! And Murphy's Law says the tube will go bad in the middle of winter. Still thankful for the moisture ...

You might also enjoy "All I Need to Know I Learned From My Tractor".

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Caught in the curry comb

You know spring is on the way when the shedding pile from one grooming is bigger than your brush box. This came just from using the blue plastic curry comb, not a comb or blade especially designed to free loose hair.

You might also enjoy the free grooming quiz in our Horse Quizzes category!

Breakfast al fresco

Thank goodness for the moisture! I can just feel little shoots of new hay quivering with happiness in all the hay fields across Colorado. Also, I don't know about yours, but our horses' hooves have been very dry lately!

You might also be interested in Larimer 2013: Less water = less farming = less food

A mini-horse in a restaurant?

You have to check out this picture of a miniature horse in a restaurant. OK, it’s probably staged, but the fact that you could even get an equine to do this just proves that my miniature horse fantasy was not so far-fetched. An Arizona House panel has approved miniature horses as service animals, falling into line with new-ish federal ADA regulations. Next question: Which size of miniature horse are we going with here? The American Miniature Horse Association's 34-inch model or the 34+-to-38-inch mini described by the American Miniature Horse Registry? Actually, the way I read the regulation, size doesn't matter, as long as the mini fits the activity.

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$1.1 million later, Moondrift Morgan Horse farm goes to CSU celebrity

FORT COLLINS, Colorado -- Many of you may remember Moondrift Farm and June Baker, who for decades raised, trained and showed Morgan Horses with her husband, Robert Baker. The 45-acre Moondrift Farm property at 1108 N. Lemay Ave. was sold to genetic sex-selection company X Y LLC many years ago, and recently came back on the market. One of our local celebrities, Colorado State University athletic director Jack Graham, purchased the property for $1.1 million in October, according to the Northern Colorado Business Report. June Baker is forever remembered around here by all the adults who learned to love horses at her place as children. Hmm ... one wonders if this is a development investment. It is so sad when another local farm bites the dust. I just had coffee with a stable owner who has put their place on the market. Caught between the Great Recession, drought, hay prices, land use regulations, and property taxes, horse people are slowly being sqeezed out.

Read also, Next door: Save the Poudre drops appeal opposing development's density

Good Samaritan donates semi-truck of hay to Humane Society

"We're all working together on this."
-- Amie Cavarra, Colorado Humane Society

It is heartwarming when humans actually live up to their potential. Because drought and fires radically reduced this season's hay supply, the Colorado Humane Society's case load has tripled this year. Read the entire Denver Post story and see the photo of the truck that delivered the hay.

Read also: Colorado hay banks can help struggling horse owners

Rancher: Hay worth more than my cattle

"The hay is worth more than my cows right now."
-- Bill Berg, Boulder County rancher

The increase in the Colorado Horse Rescue's case load, mentioned here, is scary.

A friend of mine told me just yesterday that he also sold off much of his cattle herd because he is in the same situation as rancher Bill Berg, quoted above. My friend took a loss on his cattle because with hay-supply fears, nobody wants more livestock. Pretty soon, we could all be asking "where's the beef?"

Read the entire Longmont Times-Call story and see the video of rancher Bill Berg.

Read also: 
Larimer 2013: Less water = less farming = less food 

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