By Christopher Coon
Managing Editor, N.M.
Farm and Ranch Magazine

Des Moines, N.M.  It had been six days since the worst storm in decades dropped two to three feet of snow on Union County and rancher Shari Morrow still had not seen any of her cattle. Morrow, whose Sumpter Bannon Land & Cattle Company Ranch borders Colorado in the northeastern section of New Mexico, was one of many ranchers worrying she might not reach her cattle herds in time to save them from smothering and starving to death. Sub-zero temperatures coupled with strong winds and blowing snow on the vast plains that characterize this area, continued to complicate efforts to reach the herds for weeks after the initial storm.

“Most people didn’t have the equipment (to move snow) and those that did, could not get to it,” said Morrow.
Finally, Morrow got a break. A KRQE News helicopter, on a news assignment to cover the record snowstorm, gave Ronnie Rigoni, a local contractor a lift to his bulldozer on Morrow’s ranch. Rigoni went to work and eventually cleared enough of a path to allow more snow removal equipment to get into the remote area.

“They (KRQE News) flew in here, took Ronnie to his bulldozer and I am amazed that it happened,” said Morrow. “Ronnie made a pass into the canyon and then my brother was able to get to his front-end loader. Those cattle all made it.”
Rigoni said he dug through the snow until the Morrow’s cattle were found.

“KRQE gave me a helicopter ride to six miles south of the Colorado border,” he said. “There were 15-foot drifts of snow and we could not see any cattle. We finally found them at 2 a.m.”

Rigoni didn’t stop working after helping the Morrow’s get to their cattle. As of 11 days after the storm, Rigoni was still logging 18-24 hour shifts digging people out of the snow, and one rancher estimated that Rigoni had cleared 35 miles of snow covered roads and dug out 12 residences by that point.

“I feel obligated to some of these people,” Rigoni said.

Burl Brown, a New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau board member and rancher with property directly south of the Sumpter Bannon operation, said he was unable to leave his house for five days after the storm and did not reach the first of his cattle for eight days. Some of his cattle went 10 days before he was able to reach them.

“It could have been a lot, lot worse,” said Brown. “We did not lose any cattle and I feel very lucky about that. I do realize that many of the cow/calf operations are having some real problems and we hope those operations have minimal losses.”
Brown reiterated that the biggest challenge presented by the situation was the inability to move around, and get to and move cattle. Brown had plenty of hay for his cattle, but no way to get the feed to them for the first eight days.

“We had the roads cleared three times and each time the wind has blown the roads back shut with drifting snow,” said Brown. “There was a terrible storm late in the season in 1973 which is the closest thing I have seen to this.”

Dino Cornay, a rancher and artist near Folsom, reported seeing 25-foot snowdrifts after the storm near Johnson Mesa on Highway 72, located approximately 20 miles northwest of Des Moines. He also said the main problem with the situation was getting to the cattle.

“It was a very difficult situation,” said Cornay. “We would just get a road cleaned, bank the snow on the side, and the wind would blow and shut the road worse.”

Despite the setbacks, Cornay said he was able to reach most of his cattle in time. He reported losing a total of 15 head.

“I have been very impressed so far by the non-complaining nature of the ranchers affected out here by this storm,” said Cornay. “Everyone takes care of each other and most would be willing to work till 4 a.m. to help someone out. We will survive, we will make it and I am very proud of my ranching heritage.”

Cornay alluded to the 1973 storm that several other Union County ranchers mentioned.

“This storm is reminiscent of 1973, and although this is not a cattle killer like that year’s storm, one more snowfall and it will be rough.”

Although no official figures were available for the storm of 1973, David Graham, the cooperative extension agent for Union County, witnessed the storm and said three big, back-to-back blizzards hit the area in early spring and claimed approximately 1000 head of livestock. He also said it is too early to tell how many livestock this year’s storm has claimed.

“It is way too early to tell,” said Graham. “We are starting to find a few (dead cattle) here and there, but final numbers will probably not be available until spring.”

Graham said a healthy cow can live without food or water for 8-10 days, but he suspects most cattle that perished did so from smothering rather than starvation.

“We just need to get a little more organized with our emergency plan,” said Graham. “We need to figure out a way to get a quicker response, and we did not have adequate equipment to deal with a county-wide storm of this magnitude.”

Beginning five days after the storm, the New Mexico National Guard, via helicopters, checked on the welfare of residents stranded in their homes and dropped bales of hay to some of the endangered livestock stranded without food in the most remote areas of the county.

Tim Manning, director of homeland security and emergency management, said the record storm forced the state to rank its responses with limited resources and a statement from the Governor’s office said all of those resources were being used to the maximum. The statement claimed that all available helicopters first had to rescue people before beginning haydrops. It said the Guard conducted five full days of missions servicing dozens of ranches in eight counties, providing food to thousands of head of cattle with two Blackhawk helicopters. To date, There have been no human deaths reported in Union County as a result of this year’s storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the town of Clayton, located in Union County, approximately 55 miles east of Des Moines, received 29.5 inches of snow from this year’s the three-day storm, including 18.5 inches on Dec. 29, more than doubling the previous record for a one-day precipitation total set in 1958. Clayton is the nearest point to Des Moines that National Weather Service snowfall totals are available for. Similar conditions were reported throughout the county by those interviewed for this article.