Much of the oil and gas extraction in Weld County takes place on private farmland and thus requires royalty payments to mineral owners. Although energy extraction on active farmland involves significant environmental risks, particularly with hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", it can also infuse substantial cash into farmers' livelihoods through royalty payments. While the influence of such large supplementary cash flows on farmer decision-making is not yet well-researched, this money certainly effects farmers' annual expenditures and long-term farm investments, and may have major implications for socio-economic and technological change in agricultural communities. For example, it is likely that energy royalties buffer farmers from chronic economic and environmental volatility (due to low commodity prices and crop losses), providing a vital financial safety net for vulnerable farms. Extra cash could also make possible novel investment choices, such as resource conservation technologies or college education, as well as encourage farmers to leave land fallow for soil recovery. Conversely, cash from royalties also fluctuates, and may ultimately increase the debt burden and financial volatility of small farms. Moreover, many farmers are not mineral owners, and hence a significant proportion of royalty cash is never in fact re-invested in agricultural production at all. This research surveys Weld County farmers in order to explore the nuanced socio-economic dynamics of energy royalty cash in agriculture. Such insights could either complicate and/or reinforce conventional critiques of "fracking" which claim it threatens agricultural land and livelihoods.