Nov. 5--Southeastern Colorado farmer Lorraine Schleining used to hate the strong, relentless winds that blew in the Lower Arkansas Valley.

Dust scattered around her farm and the howling breeze made a simple trip to the mailbox a nuisance.

These days Schleining, 72, has a different take on the wind.

She is harnessing her old nemesis with the use of a modern wind turbine to convert the energy from wind currents into electricity to help power her domestic water well, household and machine shed on her 300-acre grain farm.

"I look at the wind in a different aspect now. It used to be annoying and now it's creating an option for me," Schleining said. Schleining is one of four ag producers in Bent County using wind to power their farmsteads.

To assist them with this new initiative, the Bent County Conservation District applied for a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation grant in 2007. The funds are part of the conservation service's Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

The $75,000 grant was awarded last year and has helped farmers to erect wind turbines on their property. The district provided 50 percent of the cost to install the turbines for the four producers.

Caroline Morlan, a soil conservationist with NRCS, said the conservation district for several years has promoted the conservation and wise use of traditional natural resources such as soil, water, air, plants and animals.

Morlan said knowing that the cost of energy and electricity probably would continue to increase, the district decided to expand into and promote the use of small farmstead wind turbines for energy conservation.

"We wanted to do something different and be kind of on the forefront of working on a greener energy alternative," she said.

Morlan said the goal of the project is to increase awareness of alternative energy for farm use, to promote the utilization of wind to supplement commercial electricity and to expand the use of wind to power farmsteads.

The valley is home to two of the state's largest wind farms. The Colorado

Green Wind Power project, spanning 11,840 acres between Lamar and Springfield,

is the fifth largest wind farm in the nation and the largest in the state, while

the Twin Buttes Wind Power Project runs adjacent to Colorado Green.

"Wind farms are no strangers to the people out here. We kind of know a lot about them," Morlan said. "I believe that there is definitely a trend in wind power out here and across the country."

Morlan said that originally nine producers had feasibility studies done on their land for the program.