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 […]
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Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
As Colorado drought cuts hay crop, cattle ranchers face decision about culling their herds
By Brittany Peterson, The Associated Press STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — With his cattle ranch threatened by a deepening drought, Jim Stanko isn’t cheered by the coming storm signaled by the sound of thunder. “Thunder means lightning, and lightning can cause fires,” said Stanko, who fears he’ll have to sell off half his herd of about 90 […]
Posted inNews
How is Colorado’s new farmworkers’ rights bill being received by migrant farmworkers? With a shrug.
OLATHE — Erasmo Cano downs a bottled drink and dumps the dregs of packaged cookies into his mouth before he climbs out of the van where he and his coworkers have been taking a 15-minute shade break. It was a brief escape from pulling weeds in a 14-acre field where his crew has been toiling […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Supreme Court rejects animal cruelty ballot measure strongly opposed by farmers, ranchers
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday rejected a proposed 2022 ballot question on animal cruelty, saying the measure seeking to define common ranching and farming practices as sex acts violates a clause in the state constitution. The court specifically ruled that Initiative 16 violates the Colorado constitution’s single-subject requirement, which says a ballot question or […]
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 […]
Posted inColoradans, Economy, News, Politics and Government
Animal cruelty initiative aggravates Colorado ranchers fresh off MeatOut Day controversy
Coloradans who participated in the great, governor-inspired meat battle of 2021 either tore into a juicy steak Saturday or opted for a vegan burger and a side of veggies. But last weekend’s fight, prompted by Gov. Jared Polis’ proclamation of MeatOut Day, was nothing compared to a brewing battle over what ranchers are calling the […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Culture, News
Colorado ranchers already had beef with Jared Polis. Then came “MeatOut Day.”
LIMON — When Kelsey Pope watches her kids doing after-school chores, scattering hay for some of the 1,200 head of Red Angus cattle on their high plains farm, a beef-bashing proclamation from a governor 70 miles away doesn’t feel like a distant nuisance. Colorado’s official embrace of “MeatOut Day” on March 20 feels like a […]
Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit
Beautiful, self-confident and hot tempered, “Queen” Ann Bassett stood up to Colorado’s powerful ranchers
Award-winning author and historian Diana Allen Kouris grew up a cowgirl along the famed Outlaw Trail in the region where Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah converge. Decades of research and writing have rendered Kouris an authority on the spellbinding history of the area. She’s authored three nonfiction books including “The Romantic and Notorious History of Brown’s […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
A family connection to a legendary Colorado cowgirl sent an author on an exhaustive research roundup
Award-winning author and historian Diana Allen Kouris grew up a cowgirl along the famed Outlaw Trail in the region where Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah converge. Decades of research and writing have rendered Kouris an authority on the spellbinding history of the area. She’s authored three nonfiction books including “The Romantic and Notorious History of Brown’s […]
Posted inBusiness, News
Colorado’s attorney general joins colleagues in seeking federal probe into meatpacking industry
By Rozana Hegeman, The Associated Press BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — The attorneys general for 11 Midwestern states urged the Justice Department on Tuesday to pursue a federal investigation into market concentration and potential price fixing by meatpackers in the cattle industry during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the […]