Colorado vineyards were featured in the Rocky Mountain News over the weekend. Experts in the field “predict last fall’s harvest will produce some of Colorado’s better, if not best, wines in recent years.” According to one winemaker, “It was a long, not terribly hot season. We got great ripeness. The flavor and the color are all really good.”
Photo: Orchard Mesa Reserve, a vineyard for sale in Palisade, Colorado.
In response to criticism of the World Record “Spider Bull” taken last fall in Fishlake National Forest, the Boone and Crockett Club released its internal investigation into the “circumstances surrounding the harvest of this bull.” The investigation by Eldon “Buck” Buckner, VP, Records Division, “found no evidence that would disqualify this elk from listing in the B&C Records.” More.
Photo: Fishlake Ranch, a ranch for sale bordering the Fishlake National Forest.
The 2007 USDA Agriculture Census was released yesterday and reported that there are 2,204,792 farms in the U.S., a 4% increase over 5 years earlier, and the first increase in 60 years. According to Stu Ellis of the University of Illinois Extension Farm Gate in an Agriculture Online article:
“Operations that declined included beef enterprises, grain and oilseed farms, dairy farms, nursery and greenhouses, swine operations, cotton farms and tobacco farms,” Ellis says. “Operations that grew in number compared to 2002 included hay and other crop farms, aquaculture, fruits and nuts farms, sheep and goat farms, poultry and egg farms and vegetable operations.”
One of the biggest surprises on the census was the rising number of “principal operators” that were female, which experienced a nearly 30% increase since 2002.