By Shannon Lukens.

 

 

You can expect to see many new calves in Northwest Colorado this spring. It’s calving season for local ranchers.

Routt County rancher Krista Monger says calving season started last week.

“The snow hasn’t been too judgmental yet but we are worried about all of the spring runoff because that creates big mud and water piles in the meadow and it’s not a great welcoming for the baby calves.”

It’s also been a hard winter in Moffat County.

“The winter has been difficult on domestic livestock for sure this year. It’s been tough.”

That’s Moffat County rancher Mark Voloshin. He says the cows break through the deep crusted snow and can’t move as well. But the predators, like coyotes, can run on top of the snow. And then the cows can’t protect their calves as easily.

“Well the depth of snow is a big concern but the predators you know also are a big concern when the livestock can’t get away from them or protect themselves.”