Associated Press

TRINIDAD — The hunt is on for hay on the parched plains of southeastern Colorado.

Desperate area wildlife has been consuming what little green pasture grass is left in the area, grass usually reserved for cattle, said Las Animas County Commissioner Ken Torres.

With little or no feed, county cattle ranchers have had no choice but to sell off their herds.

"I don't think it was even this bad in the early '30s. Everybody is hunting for hay, and there isn't any hay in the country," said Stan Barron, 80, a prominent lifetime western Las Animas County rancher.

"At my place, the river is running at 3 cubic feet per second. At this time of year it's usually running 50 or 60 cubic feet," said the Whiskey Creek Ranch owner. The half-inch of rain that fell in his water gauge on May 17 was the first measurable moisture he's had in three months.

Torres and fellow commissioners Robert Valdez and Mark Ritz last week passed a resolution declaring the county a drought disaster area to help qualify farmers and ranchers for state and federal aid.

"I think this is the worst it's ever been. Now is when our runoff usually takes place, and there is no runoff," said Torres, who represents the western portion of the county and whose family has farmed in the Stonewall area for many years.

Trinidad City Council also passed a citywide water conservation and restriction plan limiting water usage during the day.

"Every day I've got about 300 head of elk on my place, and they all know where the green grass is," Barron said.

Torres said about 200 elk graze in his hay meadows every morning.

"It's so discouraging because every day I see ranchers loading up their cattle and taking them to sale," said Torres. "Everybody is having to cut down their herds."

La Junta is having its largest cattle sales in many years.

Steve Johnson, who ranches and farms in the Kim area, said conditions are the worst since at least the early 1950s. "We're having to go into central Kansas to buy feed for our cows, and that's getting pretty expensive," Johnson said.

May 29, 2002

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