Paul Schlagel grew up on his family’s farm in Longmont, Colorado. Paul and his wife, Vicki live on the family farm, where he and his son, Scott farm together.  Paul and Scott represent the fourth and fifth generation of Schlagels in the Longmont farming community. Paul’s family has produced sugarbeets in Colorado for over 100 years. He and Scott currently farm 1500 irrigated acres in Western Weld County and Eastern Boulder County.  Paul’s primary crops consist of sugarbeets, malt barley, corn and alfalfa.  Paul is passionate about the move of farming to a more eco-friendly process by using less herbicides and strip tilling his fields where possible.  Paul is truly an innovator when it comes to conservation, by developing some of his own equipment to improve his crop and residue management.  He often designs and builds his own irrigation structures to manage our most precious resource here on the Front Range, our water.

Paul has been involved and continues to be involved in many agricultural related organizations.  He serves on the American Sugarbeet Growers Board of Directors, as well as local boards of:  Agfinity, Colorado Sugarbeet Growers, Left Hand Water District and FAIR (Farmers Alliance for Integrated Resources). Paul has also been a member of Colorado Farm Bureau since the mid 1970’s.  In 2005, he received the recognition of Cooperator of the Year by NRCS.