Augmenting water and Colorado FFA with a donation
When the Hall and Hall gavel dropped on the first of 90 shares of Big Thompson (C-BT) water rights, the sale symbolized not only an augmentation of water, but also of Colorado FFA and the students who wear the blue jackets.
Carol Yoakum sold her family’s Meadow Green Farm, near Longmont, Colo., after her husband of 37 years, Harvey, passed away and she elected to move to a home in town. It is, she said, the first time she has had neighbors since 1962 and she hopes she knows how to be a good neighbor. With the farm sold, she was left with the C-BT shares that she sold in a rare auction in February. The first share sold to Colorado FFA Foundation via John Stahley, the foundation’s executive director, for $72,000.
In honor of Harvey Yoakum’s love for FFA — he was a product of Oklahoma FFA and a supporter of area chapters for years — Carol donated that share to the Colorado FFA Foundation. The foundation owns and operates the Lewis Heritage Farm, via tenant farmer, John Sullivan, near Berthoud.
“I did it for Harvey,” Carol Yoakum told The Fence Post. “He really liked the FFA, and he supported them here and in Oklahoma. I wanted to do this for him.”
The Lewis family wanted that portion of their farm to remain a working farm after their retirement and subsequent sale of land. A portion of the farm was donated by the Lewis family and the balance was purchased using grant funds from the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Agriculture Land Trust. The farm will be planted this spring to Coors barley and corn for grain.
AG EDUCATION PURPOSE
“The intention is that the farm be used for educational purposes,” Stahley said. “With fewer and fewer kids coming from production agriculture, our intention is to give youth from that area and agricultural youth the opportunity for education around agriculture and production agriculture in particular.”
The donated share of the C-BT will be used to augment the current water rights on the farm. The Lewis Heritage Farm is becoming, he said, a last bastion of agriculture as many area farmers grow their last crop and houses take the place of crops along the Front Range.
“C-BT is valuable to the Lewis Farm from the standpoint that it will keep our water right on the farm and other farms raise their last crop and become subdivisions, it becomes harder and harder to get your share of water due to length of ditch and transpiration and evaporation and all the things that happened there,” he said. “Having that share helps us to have a little additional water so we can get our water share down the ditch.”
Water shares were sold to 15 buyers averaging about $52,000 per share. Buyers went through a pre-approval process with Northern Water to ensure they could utilize the water within the correct boundary.
Yoakum served in the U.S. Army after being drafted in 1966. He served in the veterinary corps and remained in the Army Reserve until 1972. His start came in the beef industry and later led him to entrepreneurship, banking, commercial and residential projects, and service to several charitable organizations. He passed away in 2023.
