Journal staff report

When urban dwellers try to escape the city and move to the country to enjoy open space and solitude, they are not always prepared for what life in the country is really like. Farmers often get complaints from their new neighbors grumbling about noise from baling hay or combining late at night, the smell of manure and the sound of bellowing cattle. Sometimes these complaints lead to nuisance lawsuits against farmers or ranchers.

A bill dealing with this issue is being considered in the state legislature. "If a farm existed before the homes surrounding it, the farm should be entitled to continue its normal agriculture operations and should not be considered a nuisance to city folks who have recently moved in," said Farm Bureau President Roger Mitchell. "Some of our members in high-growth areas have received complaints from their neighbors and we want to make sure these complaints don’t turn into frivolous lawsuits."

Phyllis Snyder, a member of the San Juan Basin Farm Bureau board of directors, said Monday that while no nuisance lawsuits are currently being litigated, development within Montezuma County may lead to such legal issues.

"I don’t know of any [nuisance lawsuits] that are going on now, but the potential is there as more and more land is being subdivided," Snyder said.

The Snyders operate a small feed lot on agricultural property that is surrounded by land being subdivided for development. The odors from the feed lot can be unpleasant, she said, but that is part of living in a rural, agricultural setting.

"Odors, dusty roads, noise, lights — it’s all part of farming," Snyder said. "Across the state, people need to realize this before they move out to the country. It is not uncommon for tractors and combines to be running all night during the alfalfa harvest out here, or for activity to start up at 4 a.m."

Senate Bill 29, sponsored by Sen. Mark Hillman (R-Burlington) and Rep. Brad Young (R-Lamar), strengthens Colorado’s current "Right to Farm" law by stating that agriculture operations cannot be considered a public or private nuisance if they employ "methods or practices that are commonly or reasonably associated with agricultural production."

The bill also lists five conditions which exempt a farm from being found as a public or private nuisance: change in ownership; interruption of farming; participation in a government program; employment of new technology; or a change in the agriculture product being produced.

A nuisance lawsuit can still be brought upon a farmer if the farm is operating negligently, but if the instigator of the lawsuit loses, he or she is responsible for all court costs.

Kenny Smith, an agent with the CSU Agriculture Extension office in Cortez, said that nuisance suits are associated more with hog farms or giant feed lots in northern and southeast Colorado, yet "it is only a matter of time before there are more neighbor complaints around here. I’ve heard stories where a neighbor just cannot believe why someone would be bailing hay in the middle of the night. What they do not understand is that hay needs to be cut at a certain moisture content, and that may be in the middle of the night."

Dogs that run loose and harass livestock is another problem that extension agents hear about, in addition to noxious weed control on pastures subdivided into ranchettes and purchased by urbanites who may not realize that certain weeds need to be controlled.

An informative booklet called "Rural Living in Southwest Colorado" is available at the CSU Extension Office downstairs in the county building. The small-acreage owners manual informs city slickers of the realities of living beside a farm or ranch operation, and provides information about weed control, fence and water laws, and contacts to report stray livestock.