Author: By Rachel Gabel

It wasn’t likely a scene out of a spaghetti Western, but when thieves spotted and stole 80 head of bred heifers from Steve McEndree, it was about a $100,000 heist. With the margins in the cattle business today, it was a financial hit for the 65-year-old lifelong rancher. It will continue to be expensive, too,…

They spent the day before the storm getting their proverbial ducks in a row. The vehicles were fueled. The extension cords were coiled and hung. And the windbreaks were set into place to block the cattle from the wind. Tractor block heaters were all plugged in and double-checked again. Hay and straw bales were moved…

The Republican River Basin, part of the Ogallala Aquifer, has allowed irrigated agriculture to serve as the lifeblood of small communities in eastern Colorado for decades. When wells began pumping in the 1950s and 1960s, pivot sprinklers slowly crawled across fields and crops were grown that would flounder without the water. The harvests funded families,…

In mid-December 1977, after several years of strong farm profits, advances in technology and record crop yields pushed prices down. Much the same as today, the costs of inputs like fuel, seed and herbicides had increased. At the same time, farmland values had fallen and taken farm equity with them, leaving bankers less than enthusiastic…

Three rail lines once lay parallel to the South Platte River, and it was there that corrals were built, and the Denver Union Stock Yards Company opened for business in 1881. Iron latches to connect gates to railcars for unloading were hand forged by men who may not have considered themselves artisans, but who were,…