Committee advances expanded loan program to help new farmers buy and protect farmland

The House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday advanced Senate Bill 64 to the Committee of the Whole by a 9‑4 vote, moving a proposal that sponsors say would help new and beginning farmers acquire agricultural land and preserve water and farmland in Colorado.

Sponsor Representative Brett McCormick said the bill expands an existing loan program to let local partners — including conservancy and water districts and land trusts — participate in transactions that reduce the market price of farmland and return property to farming. “This gives us a more nimble loan program that will protect agricultural land and support new farmers,” McCormick said in committee.

Supporters from the farming and conservation community said the mechanism — described on a committee fact sheet and in testimony — is intended to be financed using existing program structures and private foundation capital rather than new state appropriations. Evan Caviness of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, who also described himself as a rancher from Bayfield, told the panel that the tool would provide short‑term financing so local partners can move quickly when an at‑risk property comes to market.

Rocky Mountain Farmers Union director Madeline Robertson and national group American Farmland Trust’s western managing director Eddie Candeeb testified in favor, saying similar programs in other states helped preserve farms and enable generational transfers. Ben Lehi of Colorado Openlands and Deputy Commissioner Jordan Beasley of the Department of Agriculture described how combining conservation easements with targeted lending can lower upfront costs for successor farmers.

Committee members pressed sponsors on protections to keep institutional or investor buyers from crowding out beginning farmers, and on the existing program’s repayment and default history. Brian Cobham, program manager for the Colorado Agricultural Future Loan Program, said the existing program has had four borrower defaults among roughly 100 loans, a 1.67% charge‑off rate, and that the new mechanism is designed as a separate pool leveraged with private funds so it will not draw down existing state capital.

The committee’s favorable recommendation forwards the bill to the Committee of the Whole; further floor action will determine whether the program is enacted and whether additional guardrails will be added.