This survey project is a collaboration among CSU Extension, Boulder County Parks and Open Space, City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, and Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting.

We have two objectives that we will explore via two surveys to the Boulder County agricultural producers:  

1.  Understand the top constraints affecting the business success of Boulder County farms and ranches.  Responses due no later than Nov 28

2.  Explore why these are top constraints and recruit suggested solutions.  This survey will be built upon the first survey and open for responses Dec 20 - Jan 21, 2022  

Your participation is voluntary.  There are no perceived benefits or risks to participation.  No personal identifiable information will be required for participation, thus making your responses completely anonymous.  Should you choose to include your name and contact info for follow up, you will find that option at the end of the survey.  

Our desired outcome:  the public sector in Boulder County utilizes this information to co-create solutions to farm and ranch business constraints.

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* 1. How would you describe your operation?

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* 2. What are your average sales of all farm or ranch ag products for the past 3 years?  If you have been in operation less than 3 years, respond with your most current average.

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* 3. Are you a beginning farmer or rancher with 0 – 10 years of experience operating your ag business?

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* 4. What is currently the primary business goal for your farm or ranch? Choose up to two?

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* 5. Please rank the following list of constraints related to farm and ranch business success in Boulder County?   Assign your top issue #1, next top issue #2, etc.  Use up and down arrows OR drag and drop to reorder.

  1. Ag housing suitable for local and H-2A workers
  2. Lack of off farm worker incentives (convenient transportation, rent/utility subsides, etc.)
  3. Irrigation water supply
  4. Ditch delivery performance
  5. Business growth constrained by local policies and/or state public policies and/or lack of ag knowledge with policy makers
  6. Conflicts with non-farm neighbors
  7. Crop competitors (microbes, plants, insects, wildlife)
  8. Weather related business losses (hail, flood, heat extremes, etc)
  9. Infrastructure for holding, processing, and value added for markets (livestock slaughter, canning, processing, cold chain, etc.)
  10. Staff recruitment and retention (ability to recruit qualified workforce, lack of employee opportunity for advancement, ability to pay competitive wages, etc.)
  11. Lack of business development resources (grants, loans, technical assistance, etc.)
  12. Lack of funding for faster response to ag needs

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* 6.  This is optional and not required for submission of your responses.  Please include your name, farm/ranch name, email and phone number for our team to follow up with additional questions.