Author: Rachel Gabel
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Catch-a-Calf stories illustrate the dignity of hard work in Colorado | GABEL
I’m currently researching and writing a history of the National Western Stock Show’s Catch-a-Calf program to mark its 90th year. The program began in 1935 with a group of boys who entered the fat steer show that year. Among them were Joe Beauprez of Boulder, Harry Bostrom of Sterling, Harold DeBacker of Boulder, and Dwight…
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Questions raised about right-to-farm resolutions | GABEL
A show-cattle operation in Pueblo County is locked in a battle with the county commissioners and county planning commission about whether their cow-calf operation is technically a feedyard or not. Much of the fight seems lost in translation, and at the end of the day, an existing Planned Unit Development (PUD) that limits the number…
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Commemorating a 70-plus-year Colorado ranching legend | GABEL
Marlin Eisenach is an institution in Colorado 4-H and FFA circles. I assume the Colorado State Fair, National Western Stock Show and Morgan County Fair would, in fact, occur if he weren’t present but I don’t want to risk it. Eisenach, who is the Morgan County Extension Livestock Agent, first entered the show ring when…
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Misinformation behind millions spent in Denver’s asinine anti-meat campaign | GABEL
Rachel Gabel Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s $3 million campaign to urge Denver residents and visitors to eat less meat to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) is tone deaf at best. There is no need for widening the divide between people and where their food comes from, especially here and now. Attempting to influence people’s food choices…
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What wildfires mean for Colorado’s ranchers | GABEL
Rachel Gabel On the plains, grassfires rip across miles of pasture, fueled by wind and drought, two things that carouse around together like two drunks with a pocketful of whisky money. Fires move fast and burn hot, fought by small volunteer crews, farmers pulling discs to create barriers, and ranchers who cut fences and push…
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Water war with Nebraska could cost Colorado a bundle | GABEL
Rachel Gabel It’s a red state vs. blue state court case over the water that both states’ agriculture industries depend upon, with the most affected areas in Colorado being in Sedgwick, Logan, and Washington counties. The state of Nebraska has filed a suit with the U.S. Supreme Court against Colorado over the Perkins County Canal.…
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The man who led the U.S. through the farm crisis of the 1980s | GABEL
Rachel Gabel My favorite interview last week was 90-year-old Illinois farmboy John “Jack” Block. Block was former President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Agriculture from 1981 until 1986, the worst of the domestic farm crisis. He recently published a memoir, “Pigs, Politics and Persistence: The Life and Legacy of John ‘Jack’ Block”, which I read nearly…
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Fiscal dumpster-fire furthers disaster that was Colorado’s failed wolf reintroduction | GABEL
Rachel Gabel Waiting for word on the names of the newly appointed Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission members has been a bit like waiting for an upcoming birthday, knowing you’re not going to get what you asked for. If there weren’t a special commission meeting on July 7 to discuss — without public comment or in…
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Beef industry’s border battle comes with screwy screwworm can of worms | GABEL
Rachel Gabel In the 1940s and 1950s, cowboys carried a stick to treat cattle infested with screwworms. The stick was used to scrape the flesh-eating maggots from infested wounds — eyes, noses, umbilicus — and then used to smear benzol and pine tar oil on the wound to prevent reinfestation. Most maggots and flies feed only on…
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Lower Arkansas Valley ag groups stand together to defeat Karman Line | GABEL
Rachel Gabel The communities of southeast Colorado — and the farmers who produce Pueblo chiles, Rocky Ford cantaloupes, hay, beef and other local foods — throughout the Lower Arkansas Valley united in opposition to the proposed Karman Line development, which went to Colorado Springs voters on June 17 in a special election. Voters soundly defeated the thirsty…