Rounding up the Future

Cortez, Colorado — It’s a job description fit for a superhero: with your spouse and two young children, manage every inch of 600 acres of rugged westernland, and tend to every need of the 800 cattle living on it. Work around the clock and around the year – vacations not included.

Understandably, there aren’t many takers for a job like that. But those who do sign on help keep America the world’s largest producer of beef.  Running a family cattle ranch through the seasonal extremes of the high plains of Colorado takes a passion for family, for the future – and for being alone.

Patrolling his spread on a frigid February afternoon, rancher James Snyder doesn’t equivocate about his chosen profession.  “It’s what I love to do. Other than my parents, you’re pretty much your own boss. You get to be outside and enjoy the outdoors and the weather (whether) it’s good or bad. Don’t have to sit behind a desk and deal with a lot of people every day. I’d rather deal with a lot of cattle than a lot of people.”

He’s not yet 30, but Snyder is daunted by neither the solitude nor the workload of the ranching life. His home is cattle country, in the shadow of Colorado’s majestic La Plata Mountains. He comes from a long line of farmers and ranchers. His father bought this spread back in 1972.  Most of his stock is beef cattle, but he also keeps a few bulls to be sold at auction for breeding.

The story of the Snyder Ranch family is fairly common in 21st-century agriculture: four children were raised here, but only one, the youngest, James, has decided to stay and make it his life.

There are no slackers in the Snyder clan. James’ sister is an accountant, one brother works in construction, and the other is a Marine Corps helicopter pilot. A far cry from the tough, muddy, dirty, dusty business of ranching. It’s a hard undertaking for a loner, but Snyder has a committed partner.  

She’s Carry Daves, a young divorced mother whom he met one Valentine’s Day at a cattlemen’s banquet. They’re a good match, since Carry and her two sons love the land as much as James, and they’re not afraid of hard work.

Says Carry, “My dad always had cattle. We were always around them. The farming part was always fun. I didn’t enjoy inside at all.  It’s better to be outside."

Since James took over the ranch, his parents Sidney and Phyllis Snyder have finally been able to take the occasional break. James and Carry have photos of Sidney parasailing in Mexico – out-of-place images in a ranch house in winter.

James says, “You don’t have weekends off, or holidays. If the family gets together, you go somewhere, you gotta find someone to feed for you.” It’s not a complaint. In fact, James and Carry plan to pass this legacy on to her boys and to the children the couple hope to have together.

James hopes his and Carry’s children take to it as his own siblings didn’t.  “I’ve been interested in it since I was little, and none of them ever had been.  They always wanted to have a regular job and have time off and days off and weekends and make money.  “I’d rather be happy than make money,” he adds with a laugh.