Life on the Ranch
08/15/2024 12:24PM ● By Elainna Hemming
(Photography courtesy of The Long Family.)
Steamboat Springs, CO - Before Routt County became an outdoor athletes’ haven and a magnet for city dwellers looking for a reprieve, agriculture dominated its cultural and physical landscape. Families whose ancestors settled the Yampa Valley in the early homesteading days are true locals of this community.
(David and Kami Long with their eight grandchildren, representing the fifth and seventh generations of family on the Lazy J Quarter Circle Ranch.)
The Long family has lived in South Routt for seven generations. David Long’s two sets of great-grandparents both homesteaded in the valley; one in 1889 near Yampa and the other in 1911 near 20 Mile Road. David’s family has lived on their current ranch just north of Oak Creek since 1972.
The sound of a distant rooster amidst lush greenery is just a glimpse into the serenity of the Long ranch. It’s a working ranch with three bulls, 52 cow and calf pairs – which the family raises and sells – chickens and horses (plus a few new foals this year, too).
But behind the peaceful facade that the ranch first evokes, agriculture is a difficult vocational path. Those in the industry, locally and beyond, are confronted daily with economic and environmental challenges, while struggling to find a strong social voice with which to express their concerns. From their resistance to the reintroduction of wolves to the impact of expensive living conditions, ranchers often feel as if their hardships aren’t broadcast to the larger community. Nearly everyone in the Long family has had to obtain a second job – mostly at the mines before they were shut down. “I am the only one who has been able to stay and work fully at the ranch,” says David’s mother, Linda Long.
Behind the peaceful facade that the ranch first evokes, agriculture is a difficult vocational path.
(David Long, with his son Joseph and grandson Oliver, move cows from summer pasture corrals to wean and process calves before selling them.)
Linda, who, at 79, is now the oldest surviving member of the family, has seen the county transform. She used to ride the train every day from Oak Creek to Steamboat to attend high school; back then, class sizes were small enough that they were condensed across towns. She remembers when Mount Werner was not a multimillion-dollar ski resort but rather, a ranch. “I’ve never skied on Mount Werner but I sure have ridden a horse through that land,” Linda says.
The following decades and the expansion of the Yampa Valley only made the strife of ranching more apparent for the Longs. Farmers receive a miniscule amount of profit off of their meat – even after they’ve spent hundreds of hours caring for the animal and hundreds of dollars on feed. For example, the Longs typically break even after selling their beef to larger companies. Aside from financial worries, adapting to climate change and becoming more efficient is constantly on David Long’s mind. As a rancher and provider of food, he is aware of the gravity that rising population levels and loss of land means for the industry. The Longs have many hard discussions about how to become more sustainable. Potentially owning their own milk cow, cutting down on water usage and reducing cattle numbers are just a few of their worries. But ranching and agriculture runs through the Long family’s blood. “It’s who we are,” says David’s daughter, Courtney.
(Makinly Long, 15, checks on her potential show calves.)
Steamboat Springs, CO - Before Routt County became an outdoor athletes’ haven and a magnet for city dwellers looking for a reprieve, agriculture dominated its cultural and physical landscape. Families whose ancestors settled the Yampa Valley in the early homesteading days are true locals of this community.
(David and Kami Long with their eight grandchildren, representing the fifth and seventh generations of family on the Lazy J Quarter Circle Ranch.)The Long family has lived in South Routt for seven generations. David Long’s two sets of great-grandparents both homesteaded in the valley; one in 1889 near Yampa and the other in 1911 near 20 Mile Road. David’s family has lived on their current ranch just north of Oak Creek since 1972.
The sound of a distant rooster amidst lush greenery is just a glimpse into the serenity of the Long ranch. It’s a working ranch with three bulls, 52 cow and calf pairs – which the family raises and sells – chickens and horses (plus a few new foals this year, too).
But behind the peaceful facade that the ranch first evokes, agriculture is a difficult vocational path. Those in the industry, locally and beyond, are confronted daily with economic and environmental challenges, while struggling to find a strong social voice with which to express their concerns. From their resistance to the reintroduction of wolves to the impact of expensive living conditions, ranchers often feel as if their hardships aren’t broadcast to the larger community. Nearly everyone in the Long family has had to obtain a second job – mostly at the mines before they were shut down. “I am the only one who has been able to stay and work fully at the ranch,” says David’s mother, Linda Long.
Behind the peaceful facade that the ranch first evokes, agriculture is a difficult vocational path.
(David Long, with his son Joseph and grandson Oliver, move cows from summer pasture corrals to wean and process calves before selling them.)
Linda, who, at 79, is now the oldest surviving member of the family, has seen the county transform. She used to ride the train every day from Oak Creek to Steamboat to attend high school; back then, class sizes were small enough that they were condensed across towns. She remembers when Mount Werner was not a multimillion-dollar ski resort but rather, a ranch. “I’ve never skied on Mount Werner but I sure have ridden a horse through that land,” Linda says.
The following decades and the expansion of the Yampa Valley only made the strife of ranching more apparent for the Longs. Farmers receive a miniscule amount of profit off of their meat – even after they’ve spent hundreds of hours caring for the animal and hundreds of dollars on feed. For example, the Longs typically break even after selling their beef to larger companies. Aside from financial worries, adapting to climate change and becoming more efficient is constantly on David Long’s mind. As a rancher and provider of food, he is aware of the gravity that rising population levels and loss of land means for the industry. The Longs have many hard discussions about how to become more sustainable. Potentially owning their own milk cow, cutting down on water usage and reducing cattle numbers are just a few of their worries. But ranching and agriculture runs through the Long family’s blood. “It’s who we are,” says David’s daughter, Courtney.
(Makinly Long, 15, checks on her potential show calves.)
David is a firm advocate for the irreplaceable values that agriculture instills upon a person. “It’s just a way of life,” he says. “It keeps the children and grandchildren out of trouble.” The chores of a ranch are a 24/7 task; the immense time and effort they take teach strong work ethic and responsibility from a young age. “My daughter wakes up early every morning to collect the eggs and feed the animals. She’s even stayed up all night in a blizzard with a calving cow,” Courtney says.
(Oliver, 6, and Bridger, 4, check out new calves on the calving lot.)
David believes that agriculture is crucial to preserving the wide-open land that makes Routt County so enticing for residents and tourists alike. Large ranches owned by historical families prevent developers from tampering with too much nature. “It keeps city growth at a manageable rate,” David says. “And rural Colorado gives tourists the getaway experience they seek.”
(Makinly at the horse pasture working with her newborn foal, Goose.)
In the future, it will be vital to provide ranchers with a platform so that they are able to educate the community about their perspective and current struggles. For David, this platform takes the form of local youth. His granddaughter, Makinly, is passionate about her ranching heritage. She’s involved in South Routt’s 4-H programs which offer projects like raising cattle, or running an egg stand. In school, vocational agriculture classes, which have 90% student participation, teach Makinly and others how to run their own ranch. The leadership skills they’ve acquired and the values instilled in them give young ranchers the opportunity to talk to the public and get their message across: that the current cost of living is simply too high for agriculture to be a sustainable industry. The solution that ranchers are seeking lies in the youth and ensuring that they have the financial capability to remain in the Yampa Valley. “I want all of my children and grandchildren to have the dream of staying here,” David says.
(David and his wife, Kami, on the Long ranch.)