Snowstorms pile on trouble for Colorado ranchers

GRANADA, Colo. -- The snow curled up before the massive plow blade fitted to the front of one of John Duvall's tractors.

The 58-year-old rancher clenched his jaw as the vehicle trembled and then stalled. There were still about 100 yards of snowed-in road he had to clear before he could haul hay to his starving herd of cattle.

"This is [what] you put up with every day," Duvall said. "You're working your butt off, and looking at your livelihood go down the drain."

The snow Duvall spends 10 hours a day clearing began to fall before Christmas, and has continued since. Howling winds blow it back across previously plowed roads and highways, regularly choking off travel in this isolated stretch of the high Plains.

Coupled with unseasonably low temperatures, the snow has created a slow-motion disaster in an area that was already reeling from drought and depopulation.

More than 8,000 head of cattle have died. Those that have survived are losing weight, their pastures buried under 2 feet of snow. Calves are being stillborn or dying within hours. Equipment is wearing down, and local governments are burning through their budgets just trying to keep roads open.

"It's almost like this is the straw that could break the camel's back," said Chad Hart, a representative for the US Department of Agriculture here. "It's affected the city, county, and ranchers. It's been . . . tough."

So far, there has been little federal help. The area was declared a disaster last month, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency will only reimburse local governments for 48 hours' worth of expenses -- and many are racking up costs every day.

Governor Bill Ritter is asking the US Department of Agriculture to free up low-interest loans for ranchers. But state Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp, who owns a ranch in Prowers County, said that is expected to be a tough sell because so many other regions -- including California's citrus belt -- are seeking disaster aid after an arctic storm swept across the United States earlier this month.

Stulp said he fears the worst is yet to come. "This has been so enormous, it's beyond what a typical winter would be," he said. "And we're only one month into it, with two more to go."

Southeastern Colorado is used to hard times. Prowers County, which includes Granada, has lost 4 percent of its population since 2000, as young people leave for urban areas. A lingering drought has cut into crop yields, and led many ranchers to slim down their cattle herds. Last year, a bus manufacturer left the biggest town in the area, Lamar, taking 400 precious jobs with it.

"That's why nobody lives out here," said Ronnie Brown, 52, who owns Granada Feeders, a local feedlot. "Only the tough stay."

Even the toughest are cutting their losses. Bobby Lord, who 20 years ago moved his cattle ranch from Nebraska to near Granada, sold his entire herd of 400 earlier this month -- even though he hadn't lost a single cow.

"All I wanted to do is get 'em out of here," said Lord, 61. He had plowed an area where the cattle could eat, but "you put a couple of hundred cattle on an area the size of a football field, and it's going to get pretty messy."

As much as 48 inches of snow has fallen since the first storm hit Dec. 22. Winds up to 60 miles per hour created 16-foot-high snowdrifts, and temperatures have stayed below freezing almost all month.

Though the vast majority of the snow fell during the last week of December, people here say every day feels like a new blizzard.

Jim Rogers, his wife , and their two children left their ranch outside the town of Eads last weekend to go to church and run errands -- normally a 20-minute drive.

It took them six hours to get back home -- something they could do only because a neighbor lent the Rogers his tractor to plow the road to their ranch .

Rogers hasn't lost any cattle, but he worries that he'll run out of feed soon. Like most ranchers, he was counting on the cows sustaining themselves by grazing on grass.

The feed shortage has gotten so severe that the Colorado Cattlemen's Association has started an online "hay contact list" to connect ranchers with potential suppliers.