Ag Commissioner Departs

Ag Commissioner Departs. I’m Greg Martin with Colorado Ag Today.

Ladies and Gentlemen - Colorado Ag Commissioner, John Salazar, has left the building. Last Tuesday was Salazar’s last day and while his replacement has yet to be named we talked about what accomplishments he was most proud of

SALAZAR: We’ve had the best four years that we have ever seen. We have doubled agricultural exports since 2009 and this year it’s forecast to hit 2.25-billion and in 2009 they were 869-million. Despite the severe drought that we’ve faced, we’ve faced fires, we’ve faced floods - a lot of people say we have been through hell and high water, we are still looking very, very positive.

Salazar says farm families in Colorado are seeing record net farm incomes.

SALAZAR: Beef is leading the way of course and you’re looking at cattle prices now anywhere from calf prices $2.50 up to as high as even $3.99, $4 a pound. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen it like this.

But he says there are still some challenges for his predecessor.

SALAZAR: We continue to see that the lack of education and the lack of knowledge as more people move away from the farm is one of our biggest challenges. You know we’ve faced several major initiatives here in Colorado. We’ve beat back three HSUS initiatives that could have really devastated the dairy industry. Second of all we beat back the GMO labeling initiative. It was a 2-1 victory for us.

And that’s today’s report. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening to Colorado Ag Today on the Ag Information Network of the West.