Ranchers in Rich County dealing with massive flooding from snow runoff
May 4, 2023, 10:15 PM | Updated: May 7, 2023, 7:46 pm
RICH COUNTY, Utah — Ranching is a way of life in Rich County. There are cattle and ranches almost anywhere you look.
Although it’s not the easiest lifestyle, Joey Weston couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“I can have my kids out here with me and check the cows together,” he said. “I mean, you got to love it. If you don’t love it, you are not going to do it for very long.”
You can’t blame him lately if even he’s questioning that love.
“Unless you’re just a glutton for punishment,” Weston said with a laugh.
This season has brought the types of challenges even the most rugged rancher has seen here.
It turns out too much water, even for farmers used to drought conditions, is a bad thing.
“Too much water all at once,” Weston said. “When you are trying to bring a new baby calf into the world, there are three things that just does not mix with that. Wet, wind, and cold. And we have just kind of had all three of them altogether.”
This past week, flooding has become the big issue.
Rich County Commissioner Sim Weston says it is about the worst he has ever seen.
“I will tell you; it has been brutal. I never thought I would see this,” Sim Weston said.
About 30 ranches along the Bear River have been impacted.
Rich County is normally one of the colder spots in the state, but temperatures started to increase this week causing the massive snowpack in the mountains to begin to melt.
The water run off has caused the Bear River and many creeks in the area to spill over their banks.
It has led the State Department of Agriculture and Food to look for ways to help ranchers, especially with all the animal losses because of the flooding and cold.
“I think we are looking at around 25-percent, maybe even 30-percent in death losses in calves,” Sim Weston said.
Ranchers have been moving cattle to higher ground, which means thousands of more dollars to move them. There is also an effort to find additional hay to feed the cattle. It is all a big cost to ranchers they were not expecting this season.
“It has just been a struggle,” Sim Weston said. “It has been a brutal struggle this spring.”
Like any rancher will tell you, there is always hope.
For them, it is just their way of life.
“I have just been breaking it down into weeks. Next week will be better. Next week will be better,” Weston said. “We got green grass coming. It will pass. We will get through it.”
