A Kansas rancher turned one of the Great Plains’ most abundant resources into what he calls his “best cash crop” — wind. Pete Ferrell has 50 wind turbines spread across his family’s roughly 7
A Kansas rancher turned one of the Great Plains’ most abundant resources into what he calls his “best cash crop” — wind.
Pete Ferrell has 50 wind turbines spread across his family’s roughly 7,000-acre ranch near Beaumont, Kansas. The turbines form half of the Elk River Wind Project and have become an important source of income alongside the cattle that continue to graze around them.
(Source: Renewable Energy Farmers of America)
Since the wind farm began operating in 2005, Ferrell says royalties from the turbines have accounted for roughly half of his income. Unlike ranching revenue, those payments are far less exposed to drought, livestock prices or poor grazing conditions.
That stability has helped Ferrell keep the property intact and prepare to eventually pass it to his children and grandchildren.
The Ranch Is Part of a Much Bigger Wind FarmFerrell’s turbines represent only half of Elk River. The complete project contains 100 GE wind turbines rated at 1.5 megawatts each, giving it 150 MW of total capacity.
Project documents show Elk River covers about 7,907 acres across five landowners, with much of the land continuing to be used for cattle grazing. The facility was originally expected to produce approximately 550,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.
The arrangement sheds some light on one reason wind farms can appeal to agricultural landowners: the turbines themselves use relatively little ground compared with the acreage surrounding them. Cattle and farming operations can often continue around the towers.
Ferrell’s experience is also representative of Kansas' energy economy. Wind accounted for 52% of Kansas’ electricity generation in 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration, giving Kansas the third-highest wind share of any state behind Iowa and South Dakota.
Nationally, wind generated roughly 464 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2025, which was about 10.5% of US utility-scale generation. Kansas was also among the five states producing the most wind-generated electricity.
For Ferrell, however, the biggest benefit is more personal. The wind keeps producing even when agricultural conditions turn against him. Nearly a century after his great-grandfather installed a small wind generator at the ranch in 1923, wind power has gone from providing electricity to the family home to helping finance the future of the entire ranch.
