2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

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2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended Page 26 of 49 So, if all the dairy farms in Colorado had an up to 25 percent decrease in water allocation, what that would mean to the Colorado dairy fanners all over the state is about $43.8 million in increase in feed costs to their operations. That obviously would put us out of business. The second piece that I wanted to raise, the importance of water shortage to the dairy industry is that those dairy farms that are confined animal feeding operations, you know that they are required by EP A to have a nutrient management plan. When those crops are not able to be produced and raised, then how will they apply those manure nutrients to those crops? They can't do it. So automatically then they're out of compliance. So Ijust wanted to give you two kind of really important examples. There are so many more out there on how those water shortages impact dairy farmers, farmers, etc. In the long mn we really hope that the state of Colorado will continue to take actionable steps that are both short term and long- term in solving the water shortage issues for all Colorado citizens because we are very connected to all Colorado citizens. The chairman of my board, Chris Craft, a dairy farmer from Ft. Morgan, two years ago when we were going through several other water battles said, "Cindy, we've got to help the municipalities by taking the pressure off of them so that the pressure is taken off of us in agriculture." So I want to once again thank Representative Penry, Russell George, etc., for putting together such a visionary concept. We will be at the table working with you on that. I would also like to leave you a copy of some statistics with the diary industry. If you have any questions, I'm available for questions. Madam Chair: I have a question, Miss French. The water shortage you speak of - can you tell me the origin of that? Is that due to drought conditions or is that a hypothetical scenario you were laying out? Ms'. French: I believe that drought conditions are pali of it. I could speculate about the rest of it, but I don't know if that's really appropriate, Madam Chair. I just know that there is a water shortage in that area. Over the last two years now its becoming more and more dramatic. So it is associated with the drought. www.escriptionist.com Page 26 of 49