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Ranchers share the lifestyle they love – College class lets residentslearn about cows, calves and morePosted on August 25, 2010 by mmckibbin

RIFLE, Colo. – For generations, ranching has been in the blood ofpeople like Gary Erpestad.

“You’ve got to really love it,” the manager of the 1,300-acreSpring Creek Ranch said as he walked across the rolling hills ofthe ranch, eight miles south of Silt in western Garfield County,Colorado.

Erpestad and fellow rancher Mike Dodo talked at length about the ranching life for some30 people who signed up for a springtime class through Colorado Mountain College’scampus in Rifle. The campus is one of the comprehensive community college’s 11 sitesthat serve 12,000 square miles of rural and resort areas in north-central Colorado.

Along with Spring Creek Ranch, the half-day class in April featured a visit to the 1,000-acre Dry Elk Ranch north of both Silt and Harvey Gap Reservoir. Both ranches are hometo large cattle herds, and the class occurred during calving season.

“The satisfaction comes in raising these,” Erpestad said as he motioned toward a herd ofcalves and their mothers. “It’s kind of like Christmas when calving season comes around.”

Cows, calves keep ranchers busy

When the calves are ready to be born, the cows will find an isolated site, Erpestad told theclass. He explained that calving season can start in mid-February, so it might get as coldas 10 degrees below zero if the birth happens at night. A special heating unit in a barnhelps newborn calves warm up in cold weather.

Cows recognize their calves through the sense of smell, Erpestad said, and have excellentmemories. “They remember where they ate, where they got water, where their calves are,”he said. They also get to know how to get home from the ranch’s Forest Service grazingallotment, he explained, which allows up to 2,400 head of cattle to graze four months onWhite River National Forest land.

Spring Creek Ranch raises red Angus cattle and irrigates with water from East DivideCreek, which crosses the ranch.

Fellow rancher Mike Dodo’s family has raised cattle on the Dry Elk Ranch, on a mesa northof Silt, since 1931. He said they try to raise the animals as naturally as possible. “I thinkonly five of about 250 calves were doctored,” he said. “And that was because they weresick.”

Erpestad estimated he spends about $5,000 a month on ranch maintenance and some$14,000 a year on fuel to run all the big tractors and other equipment. Each year, a

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rancher will lose about 10 percent of his calves to weather, injury and other causes, hetold the class.

“That’s what makes it a real marginal business,” he said.

Tried and true, or new sources of income?

Don Fulton lives in the same East Divide Creek house he was born in 70 years ago. Hejoined the class at a barbecue that was held at the conclusion of the ranch tours.

His grandfather came to the area from New Mexico in 1917, he told the students. “He wasone of those cowboys you see in the movies with the old cattle drives all the way fromTexas,” Fulton said. “My dad and my uncle started out cutting cedar posts for theranchers and breaking horses. My uncle died owning 3,000 acres and had 600 head ofcattle.”

He said he helps neighbors like Erpestad sell their cattle through connections he gainedover the years, cutting out the middleman.

“When you sell them that way, they send the trucks to pick them up, so you don’t havethe transportation costs of getting your cattle to market,” he said.

He said his sales method hearkens back to early ranching days as well: “I’ve sold millionsof cattle on just a handshake.”

Like the Spring Creek Ranch that Erpestad manages, Mike Dodo’s Dry Creek Ranch has asummer lease on White River National Forest land and allows some big game hunting. “It’sa little bit of income for us,” he said.

The arrival of natural gas development, especially since the turn of the century, has helpedsome ranchers in terms of royalty checks, Fulton said. “I think some (gas operators) camein with the idea of a bulldozer. But I think when they got done dealing with some of ushard-nosed ranchers, they learned how to do a better job and still get the gas out.”

The ranching business is “being crunched” by environmentalists and the government at atime when cattle prices are low, Fulton told the class. “It’s really a matter of pride for arancher to stay in business.”

Conservation easements, voluntary agreements that allow a landowner to limit the type oramount of development on their property while retaining private ownership of the land,has helped to maintain ranches and the ranching lifestyle, Fulton noted.

Despite changes, much remains the same

Ranchers are the first stewards of the land, Fulton said, since their livelihood depends onit. “The reason this is still such beautiful country is because the older ranchers, the oneswho first came here, helped care for it. You just hope you can instill that in the nextgeneration.”

Fulton helps to run 3,000 head of cattle from East Divide Creek ranches up to a 640,000-acre allotment on the White River National Forest.

One positive aspect of managing the Spring Creek Ranch, Erpestad said, is owner RonRogers allows him to run the ranch as his own. “He pays the bills, so there’s usually moremoney to help keep up the fences, buy and repair the equipment” on the ranch, he said.

Rogers owns a large public relations firm in California, but often visits and helps withrepairs and maintenance of the ranch.

“I get a paycheck every two weeks, too, compared to a rancher who owns his ranch and

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may only get paid in the fall” when cattle are sold, Erpestad said.

While technology in the form of huge tractors, hay balers and the like are common sightson today’s farms and ranches, Erpestad said 90 percent of a rancher’s job is the same asit was 100 years ago.

“We still plow the land, grow the hay and raise the cattle, fix the fences,” he said. “And wemake improvements on the Forest Service allotment. We can’t use machinery on theforest, either. So it’s definitely a lifestyle.”

“The ranching core up here on East Divide is pretty tight,” Fulton said. “It’s a definitelifestyle for those who like being their own boss and doing things their own way.”

College to offer more ag classes

The class is one of several noncredit offerings at Colorado Mountain College through aprogram called Encore. “It’s all about people getting out in their own community so theyunderstand more about where they live,” said Nancy Drew Cowdrey, program manager.“We had people in the class from ages five to 85. Many probably wondered at some timehow ranches work.”

Cowdrey said similar ranch tours would likely take place in the future.

Also this past summer, the college’s Rifle campus offered a Cowboy Camp class on thehistory of livestock brands. Class participants were served dinner, followed by a campfiretalk by Colorado Brand Commissioner Rick Wahlert. He explained how brands are created,purchased, transferred or passed down; what the symbols in a brand mean and how toread them; and how brands tie into legal ownership of cattle.

Sue Schmidt, instructional chair at the Rifle campus, said other potential ag-relatedclasses this fall could include a visit to a corn maze at the farm of Charles and AngelaRyden of New Castle. Each fall the Rydens have welcomed elementary school students andmembers of the public to their maze, which features winding paths cut through theircornfields. Along the way, participants read written questions and facts about agriculture.

Colorado Mountain College’s Rifle campus also underscored the importance and history oflocal agriculture by hosting a “branding event” and dedication ceremony a few years agoto honor longtime ranchers Frank and Bubbles Starbuck. Local ranchers placed 90 brandson a plywood board on a wall of the campus’ student patio. The student lounge and patioin Rifle are named after the Starbucks.

“It’s all about reaching out and connecting” with the ag community, Schmidt said.

By Mike McKibbin

Rancher Mike Dodo, center in plaid shirt with cowboy hat and arms folded, talks tomembers of a Colorado Mountain College class at his Dry Elk Ranch, north of Silt andHarvey Gap Reservoir. Dodo was one of two ranchers to talk to the class about what ittakes to operate a ranch. Photo Scott Cowdrey

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← Ritter, Spence, Sobanet, Carpenter: Who’s who ofpolicy, politics in Colorado to offer analysis of politicalissues in Community College of Aurora class

Morgan Community College Ranked One of America’s 50Best Community Colleges →

Two 5-year-old girls, Emily Strong of Rifle (yellow shirt) and Samantha Scott of Parachute,had a chance to pet a calf on the Spring Creek Ranch, south of Silt. Colorado MountainCollege in Rifle held a class that day that included visits to Spring Creek Ranch andanother ranch in an effort to familiarize residents with the ranching business. Looking onis ranch manager Gary Erpestad, right. Photo Mike McKibbin

Media contact: Debbie Crawford, Colorado Mountain College’s public information officer,Glenwood Springs, 970-384-8535, dcrawford@coloradomtn.edu

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