A Walden rancher who lost cows to wolves and a wolf advocate who teaches strategies to protect cattle tried to work together. Their falling out shows just how controversial wolves are in Colorado.
cattle ranching
Posted inNews
A Colorado ranch lost 9,000 acres to a wildfire in April. So how does it look in August?
LAMAR — Gazing north across the rangeland from the spot where a spring wildfire destroyed 9,000 acres of May Ranch pasture in a few hours, you can see scorched cottonwoods puncturing the horizon like black thumb tacks. In April, after a year so dry the sage roots turned to powder, the wildfire flew on hurricane […]
Posted inBusiness
Colorado ranches are trying to survive. The solution is selling more than beef, preserving land for more than cattle.
Ranchlands, which leases the Chico Basin Ranch southeast of Colorado Springs from the state land board, is finding other ways to make money
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government
Wolf attacks continue on North Park cows as rancher fights for compensation and hazing methods fail
Don Gittleson was sitting in his pickup at 2:30 a.m. when he heard a cow and calf calling to each other, a nervous mooing and a commotion in the dark. The Walden rancher started up the engine and began wildly honking the horn as he drove through the pasture toward the noise, where he spotted […]
Posted inNews
A Colorado family tried to save their cattle ranch by betting big on rare birds. It’s paying off.
LAMAR — The day that Dallas May started to feel his family ranch’s fortunes solidify, after more than 40 years of raising cattle, was the day he got in his pickup to chase what appeared to be two poachers carrying weapons the size of rocket launchers. It turned out they were international bird experts from […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Zornio: Could Colorado be looking at a future without cows?
If the reactions to Gov. Jared Polis’ inaugural “MeatOut Day” were any indication, Colorado ranchers are about to get extra moody. For many in the Centennial state, herding pink-snouted bovines is a source of pride. From juicy hamburgers to Gucci handbags, a whopping 2.7 million cows — equivalent to nearly half of the state’s human […]
Posted inColoradans, Economy, Education, Health, News
A Colorado school district wants its students to know where their food comes from — and how to scramble an egg
HAYDEN — In an eighth-grade health class, in a community surrounded by grazing cattle, chicken farms and fields of spinach, some students had no clue how to make a scrambled egg. A few had never even cracked one into a bowl. There was a clear division in the class of 13- and 14-year-olds. Some milked […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News, Water
As drought in the West worsens, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado faces a dwindling water supply
TOWAOC — In late June, Simon Martinez drove along one of the dirt roads crisscrossing the parched rocky shrubland on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch Enterprise, a 7,700-acre agricultural operation owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. In normal times, he would be driving past […]
Posted inNews
Colorado ranchers are selling off cattle to survive another year of dried-up grass and parched soil
Janie VanWinkle can hear it in the discontented way her cows call to their calves, the way the dried grass crunches into powder under her boots. It’s the sound of drought. The landscape where her cows graze in Grand Junction doesn’t have a green tint this spring. It’s gray and brown, ugly and parched. “And […]