Two ranchers who lost livestock to wolf attacks in Grand County will receive nearly $350,000 in compensation for losses reported starting a year ago after the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved the payment during its monthly meeting Wednesday.
Farrell Livestock will receive $287,407.63 for sheep and cattle losses and Bruchez and Sons will receive $56,008 for cattle losses.
“The request for payment on this is not a bonus for anybody,” commission chair Dallas May said. “It’s simply trying to recover some of the costs that have been lost, and actually should have been to these producers last fall.”
The payment to Farrell is for both the direct loss of 15 animals agency officials confirmed killed by wolves during the spring of 2024 and for animals indirectly impacted by wolves — either missing sheep, calves with reduced weights after they were weaned, and lower-than-average pregnancy rates of livestock in Farrell’s herds. Another $112,000 claim for missing cattle on the Farrell ranch is being negotiated, regional wildlife manager Travis Black told the commission.
The commission’s decision comes after Farrell and other ranchers hit CPW with a bill for $582,000 for wolf kills and related impacts on cattle and sheep in the first year of reintroduction. The commission will consider another $112,000 for missing cattle on the Farrell ranch that still is unresolved, regional wildlife manager Travis Black told the commission.
“We are today contemplating whether this is going to happen, and it has a huge impact on the people that are affected,” May said before the vote. “We have spent the last five years trying to get to a point where producers, wolves, wolf advocates and the general public could get to a good place where we could work together. This is one of the big tests of, can we do that?”
The payment claims were on the commission’s consent agenda, where large numbers of items are grouped and passed in a single vote, and so received only brief discussion before the members voted to approve.
In addition to the payments to Farrell and Bruchez, the panel also approved $65,523 to James Craig Bair Ranch for losses of sheep to bear and $41,786 to PRR Operations for alfalfa and grass lost to elk. Two small claims were denied.
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