Water hauling is the new chore no rancher asked for

Mark Ragsdale's phone rings off the hook with neighbors asking the same question: Where can I find water? During the day, he works as the state's water commissioner for Norwood, Colorado, where his cousin Snyder ranches. But morning, afternoon, and evening, he hauls water to his small herd of 45 cow-calf pairs. He counts his luck that his solar-powered well is still producing water and his herd is nearby. “It was a no-snowpack winter,” he said. “Maybe a snow or two of five or six inches and it would be gone in a day.” Hauling water across rugged landscapes has become a daily chore for many ranchers in the U.S. Rockies. They historically relied on snowmelt to sustain stock ponds, springs, and creeks for livestock to drink throughout the summer, but this year's snowpack was the worst on record in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. Human-caused climate change made the snow drought about 14 times more likely, a new study confirms. Coping with the impacts of minimal snow and a so far lackluster monsoon season is requiring more time, money, and stress from producers who are already struggling to maintain family legacies and meet America's demand for beef. As water shot into an open stock tank atop a high-country mesa, a trickle soaked the dusty earth below. Scott Snyder rose from the shade to fasten a hose and stop the spillage. It took eight trips in three vehicles over nine hours in sweltering heat before the 800 cow-calf pairs finally had enough water to make it through to the next day—maybe two. He can adapt, said Snyder, who operates Mex and Sons Ranch in Norwood, Colorado, with his family. But there’s a huge cost. “It's every bit of money, every bit of time, every bit of effort, and a lot of sleepless nights of trying to control what is really not controllable,” he said. Like many other ranchers, Snyder and his brother Monte already shrunk their herd, bought hay to supplement what little they could grow, shuttled cows farther to reach grazable land, and are constantly monitoring whether wildfires are blowing their way. And now, they are hauling drinking water. This article was provided by The Associated Press.