Albin News Readers,
This week, there is ground shaking news. Seismic survey crews were in and around Albin all week stringing cable and black boxes in grid-like patterns. Since this is the biggest news to hit Albin in a long time, I wanted to dig into it a little further. As some of you know, we are sitting over a strata of minerals called the Niobrara oil shale formation. This is an oil-prone, mature-source rock formation that many have tried to tap for years using traditional vertical drilling. More recently, a Texas mineral exploration company called EOG drilled a more expensive horizontal well in Weld County, CO and reported 1,770 barrels/day of oil production. For perspective, the total 2009 oil production from the Golden Prairie oil field was just under 157,000 barrels or about 430 barrels/day average for the 13 producing vertical wells. As you can imagine, this new approach to drilling the Niobrara raised eyebrows and caused landmen to flood into the Laramie and Weld county offices to research who owns the once worthless mineral rights in this area. Many landowners including myself have been approached by mineral exploration companies trying to make a “play” for the minerals in this area. The game is to lease a large enough area at a low enough price that if there indeed are minerals in the area, the extraction companies can make a good profit mining them. At this point, I would guess most if not all of the area landowners have been approached by companies seeking to lease their mineral rights. If you are a land owner and haven't leased your mineral rights, I would suggest you find out if any of your friends or neighbors are in the same boat and try to put together a large block of land that can be shopped around to the myriad of profit hungry mineral companies in the area. It seems like the larger the block, the more attractive it will be to the potential buyers.
Because these companies need to research who actually owns the mineral rights, the Laramie County clerk's office has become a bottleneck. In the meantime, bigger companies have moved into the area and have purchased or traded with the smaller companies who have done all of the leg work. One company, Rex Energy Corp out of PA, just announced to its shareholders that it has leased or farmed-in 20,000 acres in Weld and Laramie County. They announced that they paid an average of $215/ac for these acres which made them “pleased to be able to provide our investors with exposure to this exciting new exploration play at minimal cost.” It sounds like they feel $4.3 million was a steal! If you leased your land out for less than this, don't be kicking yourself - just try to remember where you were a year ago and count your blessings. Devon Energy has also announced that it plans to make a play on the Wyoming side of the Niobrara formation.
Once companies have secured their mineral rights, they can start seismic testing to zero-in on their drilling location and applying for drilling permits.
A website containing lots of information about oil and gas permitting, drilling, and production is wogcc.state.wy.us. This website reports that as of June 14, 2010 there were 33 horizontal drilling permits in Laramie County and nine in Goshen County. I would expect to see seismic testing to continue in the area through the summer and fall. For the local businesses, this will mean a nice extra source of revenue. For those lucky enough to own mineral rights, there's no telling what will happen. It could be the early bird who gets the worm, or the second mouse that gets the cheese.
In community news, Tim Malm is still in the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center ICU. He is stable and breathing on his own, but hasn't regained full consciousness. Howard and Dixie Malm once again wish to extend their thanks for all the prayers, concerns, and acts of kindness.
A reminder from Mary Kay Romsa to the American Legion Auxiliary members of Albin: the Auxiliary will have a bake sale on Albin Day morning as usual. The bake sale will be held at the Fire Station and members are encouraged to have their baked goods there by 9 am if possible. There will be a meeting during the bake sale as well.
For many, there will be a new way to pass the long winter months next year. Pam Weaver is having a new 32' x 24' quilting studio built on her property in Albin. There is a lot of work to be done yet, but Pam hopes to have the shop completed and ready for use by January of 2011. Her vision is for people to bring their ideas and quilting projects to a place where the coffee is on and all are welcome. Pam has over ten years of quilting experience and had her own custom quilting service in Texas. She has done everything from making new quilts to restoring old quilts. The oldest quilt that she has restored was an antique quilt from the civil war era. She is currently retrofitting her Gammill Vision quilting machine with the latest quilting technology to enable her to perform a higher quality of work. Anyone interested in learning about a Gammill Vision machine can check out this link: www.gammill.com. You can also contact Pam at (307) 246-3457.
Many of you were probably unaware that we have a certified Master Gardner in our community. For you gardeners, Ann Sanchez has generously agreed to give a few gardening tips for the Albin news. Here's what Ann had to say this week...
After the wonderful rain, I’m looking forward to seeing my vegetable garden burst with new growth. I’m sure the weeds will be a part of the growth. Have you tried using a scuffle or stirrup hoe to cut small weeds off and loosen the top ½ inch of soil? This lighter weight hoe has double edged blades that cut on both a push and pull motion.
Do you anticipate having extra garden produce this summer? Pine Bluffs will be having a Farmers’ Market starting July 31st and continuing through October 2nd. It will be held at the south end of the City Park from 7:30 am to 11:00 am The cost for vendors will be $5 per market or $40 for the season. Contact Lisa Hancock 245-3905 for further information.
In Ag news, just when the wheat had headed out and began to fill, it got a much needed soaker. Many of the area farmers also noticed a heavy dose of rust moving into the wheat and invested in a fungicide application. With the local wheat price below $3.25/bu, it was a tough call to make. With the recent rain, it may be that the yield potential warrants the extra protection.
The University of Wyoming had a walk-through of their Albin-Pine Bluffs wheat trials this week. All of the wheat had rust on the flag leaves but some of the varieties that showed more resistance were Pronghorn, Good Streak, and Buckskin. I'll try to publish a more detailed report on this later.
The rain was also timely for the emerging sunflowers, beans, millet, and other recently planted crops. Unlike the other recent rain storms, it didn't come all at once with hail included. It was just a nice gentle two day rain.
Although the rain was very welcome, it also brought cooler temperatures. In keeping with last weeks subject of Growing Degree Units, the GDUs for May 15 through June 13 for 2009 and 2010 are 239.0 and 324.0 respectively. Apparently it was cold this time last year as well because last week we were 36.5 GDUs ahead of 2009 and this week we are 85 GDUs ahead. This is good news for all crops including pasture ground.
Now that I've pointed out what a great start we've had to our growing season, I had better explain why you may see the occasional farmer frown. There are two numbers that determine the majority of a farmer's income. The first is the yield and second is the price received for the commodity produced. While the former is looking promising, the latter isn't. It's the old supply and demand thing again. When farmers have a good year, it tends to bring the price down. The National Ag Statistics Survey's June 10 crop production report continued to confirm the large wheat crop that is nearing harvest. After record wheat prices in 2008 and very good growing conditions in 2009, the US had nearly 50% of its predicted 2010 consumption as carryover from 2009. The June 10 report had 2010 winter wheat acres down 7.8% from 2009 but average production/ac up 5.4%. All told, their current wheat production prediction is only about 3% lower than the over-production year we had last year. Some people are already saying that wheat produced this year will be so cheap that it will be used as livestock feed. In other words, there's so much of it that we humans can't eat it all! Normally, the price of wheat is at least $1.50/bu more than the corn. If you were to haul a load of wheat and a load of corn to the Kimball elevator today, you would only receive $0.14/bu more for the wheat! Now that's hard to smile about.
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