KUSA — For two weeks and counting, a rancher’s routine begins with a bottle and the hungry, foaming mouths of calves named Brett and Fluffy.
“This one’s about 3-weeks-old,” Kyle McConnell said, feeding one of the calves. “[The other’s] about a month-and-a-half old.”
McConnell, his wife Brandi and their 2-year-old daughter, Tyndle, took turns feeding the calves on their property just north of Haxtun in Phillips County.
The calves needed the milk because they could no longer get it from their own mothers.
“We can never replace their mothers,” McConnell said.
Wandering in a pen beside Brett and Fluffy, was a cow who lost her calf.
“She’s the only one. Only mother without a child,” McConnell said.
The calves who lost their mothers and the mother who lost her calf survived the March 7 fire that burned more than 30,000 acres across Phillips and Logan counties.
“That fire went across a half-mile circle in 90 seconds,” McConnell said.
The fire consumed crops, grass and killed hundreds of cattle. The fire spread to land McConnell leased and where his cattle grazed.
“At the end of the day, we lost 185 head and that was our, really, in all honesty, that was our kids’ college funds,” McConnell said.
McConnell said he was left with about 50 head of cattle. While his loss was devastating and will take years to rebuild, McConnell said he felt for those who lost their homes and expensive farming equipment.
“We buried cows,” he said. “We did not bury friends. We’re not sitting in a cemetery right now.”
McConnell, like many others in the farming and ranching business, is now focused on recovery. He’s also grateful for the help that’s been offered from those near and far.
“When you have so many people rooting for you to rebuild, it’s more than likely that’s the direction we’re going to go,” he said.
From all directions, donations of hay, feed, fencing, seeds, cattle and more have poured into communities in Logan and Phillips counties.
“Been getting phone calls from Colorado Springs and on up into Wyoming and well, every corner of Colorado,” McConnell said.
McConnell said semi-loads of hay were delivered from Iowa. A Facebook page dedicated to relief efforts in Haxtun details similar donations made by truckers in South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.
“Absolutely amazing the selflessness that has been happening and the support from all directions,” McConnell said.
For all that he lost in the fire, Kyle McConnell is still thankful that new life and a new season lie ahead.
“Once we turn this whole area green again and the corn plants start coming up, it’ll look different,” he said.
As the dust clears and new crops sprout in the months ahead, a rancher will return to routine.
“We will rebuild, we’ll renew, we’ll figure out a way to make it work,” McConnell said.
The Haxtun Community Federal Credit Union is handling donations for those affected by the fires in Phillips and Logan counties. Checks can be made out to:
Haxtun Chamber of Commerce
C/O Haxtun Fire
P.O. Box 41
Haxtun, CO
You can also call the credit union at (970) 774-7396 to donate using a debit or credit card. Follow the Haxtun Community Fire Relief Facebook page for more information