Ag pumps millions into local economy

Just as water is essential to any living being, agriculture is the river in the Morgan and Logan county valley that keeps the economy alive and kicking.And an important part of this economy is agribusiness, which floods millions of dollars into the counties each year.
Although crops may seem like a vast ocean, business that feeds off those fields and adds value to the product is just as vital.
Major swimmers in the Morgan and Logan county agribusiness sea are Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan and Sterling, Leprino Foods cheese factory and a Western Sugar Co. processing mill, both in Fort Morgan.
“Agriculture is truly our lifeline in Morgan County and Northeastern Colorado,´ said Patti Lewis, executive director of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp. “It has great impact because of the jobs it provides, which in turn allows people to invest in the county.”
Pam Gumina, community development director for the City of Sterling in Logan County, concurred.
“From my point of view … agriculture is still the No. 1 industry in our county. While Sterling has definitely been diversifying, part of its diversification has been an expansion at Excel. So yes, it is still a vital part.”
In the agribusiness fields, Excel, which opened in 1987 in both counties, is the biggest hitter, employing 375 at the Sterling plant and 1,950 at the Fort Morgan facility, according to figures from Mark Sheldon, human-resources manager at Sterling, and Mike Chabot, general manager at Fort Morgan.
Although downsizing in July makes it difficult to pinpoint the amount of payroll at Sterling, plant controller Mo Karim noted that the company beefs up the economy annually by about $200,000 in property taxes.
A much larger drop in the bucket, Fort Morgan’s factory fattens the Morgan County financial cut by $50 million in gross payroll and about $10 million spent locally, Chabot noted. Add money to buy cattle, and the river rages faster.
Both Excel facilities offer stability, with company officials attempting to remain on the cutting edge of technology, including steam pasteurization to kill the threat of E. coli.
Leprino is another smooth-sailing machine, which had a twofold effect on Morgan County. The factory that produces mozzarella cheese strictly for the pizza industry broke ground in 1992.
A 20-year lease with Thornton-based Western Dairymen Cooperative Inc., which markets products of local dairies, ensured a demand for milk, which spurred growth of the industry, Lewis explained.
“It gave them some security,” she said. “They know that as much milk as they could produce would be shipped and sold. That’s who’s seen the biggest impact in addition to jobs created.”
“It certainly facilitates it,´ said Larry Jensen, Leprino’s senior vice president of business development. “With the growth in demand for manufactured products, it has helped facilitate growth for milk producers.”
That assertion is backed up by recent numbers from the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Service. Morgan County has 9,100 milk-producing cows, compared with 2,800 in 1988, Morgan County extension agent Marlin Eisenach pointed out.
Some dairies moved in from the Front Range for dual purposes – Leprino’s presence and a difficulty in getting expansion permits in the Front Range area, Eisenach explained. “It really started increasing when we found out Leprino was coming to our area,” he commented. “There were 7,000 cows in production in the county when Leprino opened the doors.”
Of the 28 semi-truck loads of milk Leprino uses each day, Eisenach estimated that about half is produced in Morgan County. Yet, Weld county is still the biggest dairy producer in the state, he added, which gels with Jensen’s contention that Morgan and Weld top the Leprino scales.
To buy this milk, which is all produced within a 100-mile radius of the Fort Morgan area, Leprino spends $60 million per year, Jensen noted. Other money running into the county includes $5 million to 215 employees and an undetermined amount of supplies, he continued. The company spends about $6 million annually on supplies. However, Jensen did not have the breakdown of how much of that is spent locally.
And there seems to be more on the way. Fort Morgan’s Leprino, Jensen noted, plans to expand by 40 percent, with the work to be completed in spring 1998.
Another fish in the sea is Western Sugar’s Morgan County plant, which has been filtering money into plant payroll and the pockets of area producers.
The company has 98 full-time employees, 209 seasonal workers and an additional 150 for a three-week period during beet harvest, explained Kevin Vollmer, Western Sugar’s Colorado agriculture manager. This computes to $4.5 million annually in payroll.
Another local economic stream is $13.5 million spent per year on supplies and $18 million paid to farmers in Logan, Morgan, Washington, Weld and Adams counties.
And stability is the captain of the sugar ship, as the crop is a sure-fire bet, and the factory appears to be here to stay.
“As far as a cash crop, it probably doesn’t return as much as onions or potatoes will, but onions and potatoes are volatile,” Vollmer said. “Sugar beets are more stable. For a lot of growers, this is their major crop.
“It’s a major contributor (to the county), as big as having Excel and Leprino here.”
In 1995, the company invested about $10 million into a new state-of-the-art diffuser from Germany designed to boost production from 4,200 tons per day to 5,000. This year’s additions include a computerized card system to simplify beet weigh-in and equipment to convert part of the granules into powdered sugar.
These indicate that Western Sugar truly is a big fish.
Each of the three big agribusinesses add to jobs, supplies and agriculture in general, but also strengthen the economic tide in terms of feed, seed and equipment, Lewis noted.
In addition to these, a number of smaller agriculture-related businesses are also riding the wave, as is crop production itself. A variety of plants pumped about $87 million gross ino Morgan County and about $47.5 million into Logan County in 1995, according to figures from the respective CSU extension offices.
Still, there us room for expansion in both counties. Morgan County Economic Development Corp., Lewis said, actively recruits companies that could enhance the agricultural base; and Logan County has many of the same rural attributes to offer.
Lewis added, “We’re trying to expand even more our agribusiness in terms of home-grown added value.”
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