Water hauling is the new chore no rancher asked for

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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 and video were provided by The Associated Press.

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[Dry stock pond]

[Mark Ragsdale pulling the handle to show a dry well]

[Ragsdale’s cows resting in the shade]

Mark Ragsdale (interview): “It was a no snowpack winter. On this we never had a sled out here on this ground. Maybe a snow or two of five or six inches and it would be gone in a day.”

[Ragsdale walking to bed of truck where water tank is]

[Ragsdale opening spout, water flowing]

[Ragsdale refilling his stock tank]

Mark Ragsdale (interview): “Nobody’s got water now, so that’s why the water hauling is going on as we speak.”

[Scott Snyder driving in truck]

Scott Snyder (interview): “Well, we got one that’s half full, one that’s a quarter full and one that’s not so full. How we adapt is just getting water to the cattle. It seems…it seems simple, but it’s not simple, you know, because the cows are our livelihood and they don’t do well unless they have water.”

[Cattle near stock tanks]

[Cows drinking out of stock tank while truck refills them]

Scott Snyder (interview): “We found a water source on some private land.”

[Reservoir]

Scott Snyder (interview): “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.”

[Snyder walking along a water tank truck while it refills with reservoir water]

[Hose sucking water from reservoir]

[Snyder climbing a ladder to access the top of the water tank on a flatbed]

[Snyder snaking a hose into the tank]

[Water filling tank]

Scott Snyder (interview): “We can manage the situation and do the best what we can for the cows. But there’s not control over it, basically.”

[Snyder pulling up to stock tanks to refill them]

Scott Snyder (interview): “You know it’s going to be bad, so you start making plans to make it better in hopes that it’s gonna get better. But it may not, you know, we don’t know that.”

[Snyder pulling up in a truck]

[Snyder fastening the hose to a tank spout]

[Hose moving as it spews water into the stock tank]

[Snyder watching the tank refill]

Mark Ragsdale (interview): “It’s just that there’s a big demand on a limited resource that’s being dwindled by climate change. I think everybody’s trying their best. We think, we hope they are. We hope everybody’s trying their best, from the cattle rancher all the way to the politicians all the way to the state engineer. We hope that everybody are trying their best to figure it out, and I think they are, but it’s gonna be a long, hard battle.”

[Snyder driving and looking at cows and stock tanks]

[Hay stacked on Snyder’s ranch]

[Hay stacked]

Scott Snyder (interview): “There’s probably a point that’s gonna probably stop us. It won’t be…I don’t think it’ll be because of us, unless our health gets too bad or something like that. But if Mother Nature doesn’t want to help out here, we’re probably in a lot of trouble.”

[Water swirling in a stock tank]

[Snyder watching the water tanks refill]

[Cow drinking water from a tank]

[Dry pasture]

[Hay bale in field]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

The related lesson for this video will be published next Tuesday.