Note 1 - Organization and Business | 9 Months Ended |
Sep. 30, 2013 |
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Note 1 - Organization and Business | ' |
NOTE 1 – ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS |
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Our Business |
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Two Rivershas developed and operates a new farming and water business model suitable for arid regions in the Southwestern United States whereby the Company synergistically integrates high value fruit and vegetable farming and wholesale water distribution into one company, utilizing a practice of rotational farm fallowing. Rotational farm fallowing, as it applies to water, is a best methods farm practice whereby portions of farm acreage are temporarily fallowedin cyclic rotation to give soil an opportunity to reconstitute itself. As a result of fallowing, an increment of irrigation water can be made available for municipal use without permanently drying up irrigated farmland. Collaborative rotational farm fallowing agreements between farmers and municipalities make a portionof irrigation water available for urban use.The Company’s initial area of focus is in the Arkansas River basin and its tributaries on the southern Front Range of Colorado. |
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Our Corporate Structure |
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Two Rivers Water & Farming Company |
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Weconduct our farming and water operations in wholly owned subsidiaries, except for the Huerfano Cucharas Irrigation Company (“HCIC”), of which we own 95%.The Company’s organizational structure is illustrated below: |
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Our Farming Operations |
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The Company currently owns approximately 7,467 gross acres. In 2013, we farmed a total of 1,337 acres, of which 820 acres were planted and 517 acres received federal crop insurance due to drought conditions. For the nine months ended September 30, 2013,Two Rivers generated $946,000 in farm revenues,a 148% increase over 2012. |
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Two Rivers’current crop production consists of cabbage, pumpkins and squash. Two Rivers expects to increase the variety of crops we produce as we expand our farming operations. As a rotation crop to reconstitute the soils and diminish disease and pest pressure, the Company grows animal feed crops, including corn, oats,sorghum and alfalfa. |
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Two Riversplans to acquire and develop up to 30,000 acres of high yield fruit and vegetable production on irrigated farmland along the Arkansas River in Colorado over the next ten years. |
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Dionisio Farms & Produce, Inc. (“DFP”) |
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Two Rivers acquired the properties in DFP in 2012 and conducted its first full year of farm operations in 2013. In 2013, 230 acres were farmed by DFP, of which 105.5 acres were owned and 124.5 were leased. DFP’s revenues accounted for 90% of the Company’s overall farm revenues, in 2013. |
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DFP’s farmland is located in Pueblo County, Colorado with surface water provided by the Bessemer Irrigating Ditch Company (“Bessemer Ditch”) which has senior water rights on the main stem of the Arkansas River and whose water is stored in the Pueblo Reservoir. DFP obtains additional water from wells that draw water from the Arkansas River alluvium. We believe that the farmland served by the Bessemer Ditch has the soils, climate and water resources that in combination make this farmland some of the most prolific farm areas in the United States. |
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Farmland served by the Bessemer Ditch is underutilized sinceapproximately 90% of the farmland produces fodder crops. Changing the crop production to fruit and vegetables generates 8 to 10 times more revenue per acre and a similar increase in gross profit margins. One of Two Rivers’ main goals for the next three to five years is to acquire additional irrigated farmland and work collaboratively with other Bessemer farmers to increase the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables. |
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Butte Valley Farm |
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In 2012, as part of Two Rivers Farms F-2, Inc. (“F-2”), we purchased the Butte Valley Farm and put 150 fallowed acres in Huerfano County, Colorado back into crop production. In 2013, the Butte Valley Farm produced corn, sorghum, oats and triticale feed crops. In 2014, the Company expects to begin fruit and vegetable crop production. |
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HCIC Farms |
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In 2010 and 2011, Two Rivers purchased land served by the HCIC ditch system.In 2010, Two Rivers tested growing feed corn and found the land to be extremely fertile with the soil composition comparable to farmland served by the Bessemer Ditch. Based on the average annual diversion of surface stream flow, in 2011, as part of Two Rivers Farms F-1, Inc. (“F-1”), the Company redeveloped approximately 500 acres of HCIC farmland that had lain fallow for over a half century. From 2011 to 2013,only dry land crops were planted due to the exceptional drought in the area.In 2014, we intend to continue irrigated crop production, moving toward fruit and vegetable production in 2016. |
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Future Farming Operations |
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Two Rivers expects to develop additional irrigated farmland along the Arkansas River and its tributaries. Prior to redeveloping farmland, the Company assembles water resources that include: |
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purchasing a suite of water rights, including both surface flow, augmentation and storage rights; |
refurbishing historic ditch systems and reservoirs to restore and upgrade their efficiency; |
negotiating with appropriate water authorities the necessary agreements to sustain production, and |
providing for rotational farm fallowing. |
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When redeveloping farmland, we deploy state-of-the-art methods and equipment with the aim of optimizing product yield, water efficiencies and labor inputs. This includes: |
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deep-plowing fields to loosen soil beds; |
laser-leveling planting areas to optimize water and nutrient absorption and minimize runoff; |
installing state of the art irrigation facilities to increase water efficiencies, and |
applying organic and non-organic fertilizers and soil conditioners to enhance plant growth. |
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Redevelopment generally takes two to three years to transform fallow farmland into fruit and vegetable crop production. |
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Our Water Operations |
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Two Rivers acquires its portfolio of water rights through the acquisition of its farming assets. In evaluating its farm acquisitions, the most determinant factor in evaluating the farmland acquisition is the water right. |
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Water Rights |
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The right to water in Colorado is a right that can be developed, managed, purchased or sold much like real property subject to appropriate regulation. Water rights are judicially decreed and, under Colorado’s application of the Prior Appropriation Doctrine (“first in time, first in right”), senior water right holders are entitled to the beneficial use of water prior to junior holders. Consequently senior water rights are more consistent, reliable and valuable than junior rights, which may be interrupted, or “called out” in the parlance of Colorado water administration. Two Rivers will continue to evaluate acquisitions of farmland in light of their associated water rights. |
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Rotational Farm Fallowing |
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Water is a scarce and extremely valuable natural resource in Colorado and other portions of the southwestern United States. In Colorado, approximately 86% of all water rights are held by agricultural users as a result of the original water court adjudications occurring during the end of the 19th century when most water use was for growing fodder crops[1]. Today, the majority of Colorado’s population (85%), lives in urban or suburban areas[2]. |
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As municipal populations have grown and rural populations shrunk in Colorado, a well-documented water supply shortage for municipal users has developed. To help solve the water supply shortage for municipal water users, irrigation water from fodder crop production is being transferred to municipal use. However, the people of Colorado have politically and prudently determined that it is bad long term social policy to “buy and dry” the best irrigated farmlands that can grow local higher value fruit and vegetable crops so that municipal users can sprinkle lawns or fill swimming pools. The people of Colorado have also recognized that fodder crop production is not the best use of a valuable water right[3]. |
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A better policy has evolved over time that forestalls drying up the best farmland and enables the transfer of water from fodder crop irrigation use to municipal use through rotational farm fallowing.Colorado, through the Governor’s office, the Colorado Legislature and the Colorado Water Conservation Board, are aggressively developing rules and procedures supportingrotational farm fallowing. |
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Two Rivers has acquired its farms and associated water rights with a view towards unlocking the true value of water by converting fodder crop production into vegetable crop production. Two Rivers intends to provide up to 25% of surface water available for municipal and industrial use through rotational farm fallowing. The Company expects to accomplish this without diminishing the amount or revenue from farming by replacing the surface flow transferred to municipal and industrial users with water Two Rivers pumps from river alluvium. |
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The Bessemer Ditch System |
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The Bessemer Ditch is a mutual ditch company that operates an irrigation canal which has its headgate in the Pueblo Dam and delivers irrigation water for growing crops from the Pueblo Reservoir to eastern Pueblo County. Its water rights date back to 1861. DFP currently owns 183 shares of the Bessemer Ditch. |
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The Southern Delivery System |
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In 2010, Colorado Springs Utilities (“CSU”) began construction of the Southern Delivery System (“SDS”) which is to be completed in 2016. The pipeline is expected to cost in excess of $1,000,000,000 and will pump water from the Pueblo Reservoir and deliver the water to CSU’s municipal water system. |
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When the SDS is completed, it will enable CSU and other water users in the southern half of the Front Range of Colorado to receive physical water from the Arkansas River that is stored in the Pueblo Reservoir. |
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Orlando Water Rights |
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The Orlando water rights were purchased through TRW Orlando Water Assets, LLC in 2011 and include the #1 and the #9 water rights which are used to irrigate the Butte Valley Farm. The assets purchased also included the Orlando Reservoir which has a storage capacity of 3,100 acre-feet on the Huerfano branch of the Huerfano River. The seniority of the Butte Valley water rights allowed the production of crops during the most recent drought. |
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Huerfano Cucharas Irrigation Company |
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In 2009, Two Rivers began purchasing the shares of HCIC in anticipation of restoring 20,000 acres of previously highly productive fruit and vegetable irrigated farmland. The farmland became fallow in the middle of the 20th century when coal mines in Huerfano County, Colorado were shut down. The coal mines when in production continuously pumped water from the Vermejo/Trinidad Formation, which contained a renewable underground aquifer that is fed by Sangre de Cristo Mountains snowmelt. The Vermejo/Trinidad Formation contains an estimated 30 million acre-feet of relatively untapped, clean and renewable water[4]. |
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Two Rivers, through HCIC Holdings, LLC, eventually acquired 95% of the ownership of HCIC in 2012. HCIC owns the Cucharas and Huerfano Valley Reservoirs and two ditch systems located in Pueblo County, Colorado. The HCIC ditch systems have the right to distribute water over approximately 40,000 acres in Pueblo County, Colorado. |
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Augmentation |
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Tributary ground water is any underground water that is hydraulically connected to astream system that influences the rate and/or direction of flow on that stream system. Any new ground water diversions that are tributary to an over appropriated stream system require augmentation to off-set out-of-prioritydepletions.[5] In 2013, as a result of the drought, many well water users on the Arkansas River and its tributaries were unable to use their wells due to a lack of augmentation water. As a result, Two Rivers was asked by one of the augmentation providers to help build a more efficient and plentiful augmentation supply. Two Rivers has begun the development of additional augmentation sources in conjunction with that augmentation provider and expects to provide additional supplemental augmentation in 2014. |
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Management plans for funding future operations |
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As of September 30, 2013 our current assets of $2,023,000 consisting of $1,010,000 in cash, $394,000 in accounts receivable, $433,000 in farm product and $186,000 other current assets. The current portion of long-term debt is $1,509,000. The Company plans to raise up to $10,000,000 in additional funds through scheduled and anticipated financings and the sale and lease back of some of its assets to one or more independent investors. There can be no assurance that the Company will succeed in raising additional capital. |
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To assess our ability to fund ongoing operating requirements, we have made assumptions regarding operating cash flow. Critical sources of funding, and key assumptions and areas of uncertainty include: |
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as of November 4, 2013 we had $805,000 in cash and accounts receivable of $957,000; |
additional cash flow from crops stored, but not yet sold, estimated to be in excess of $100,000; |
near term monetization of development projects sold to third parties; |
scheduled sale and lease back, debt and equity financings; |
farm management fees; |
hunting and grazing leases; |
continued support of, and extensions of credit by, our suppliers and lenders, and |
the level of spending necessary to support our planned initiatives, which we estimate for our operations to be less than $1,500,000 of cash expenses until our farm income begins again in 2014. |
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Based on these assumptions, we believe our existing cash and cash equivalents, along with the cash generated by our anticipated results from operations, will be sufficient to meet our needs through 2014.We intend to seek additional capital to provide a cash reserve against contingencies, address the seasonal nature of our working capital needs, and to enable us to invest further in trying to increase the scale of our business. We may seek additional funding through debt and/or equity offerings, or through sale and leaseback transactions. However, there can be no assurance we will be able to raise this additional capital, that we will be able to increase the scale of our business, or that our existing resources will be sufficient to meet all of our cash requirements. In such an event we would reduce the scale of our operations and take such actions as are available to us to reduce our cash requirements. However, there can be no assurance that such actions would be successful. |
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The Company maintains a website at www.2riverswater.com, which is not incorporated in, and is not a part of, this report. |
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