Our third stop of day 6 was James Ranch. This is a family ranch located in Durango, Colorado who own several hundred acres of farmland. This ranch was started a few generations ago as a small cattle operation running Charolais cattle through the valley. It has since grown into a large operation with a dairy, angus cattle herd, restaurant, cheese making facility, and market. They are a close family with roughly 25 members active in the business. In this small-town, James Ranch is also partners with the Adobe House Farm that we also visited, providing the ranch with produce.
Our day there started off with walking through their market where they sell cuts of meat, fresh produce, clothing, books, and household items. Once we got a taste for their smalltown style, we got some lunch at their restaurant. This consisted of a menu with items like burgers, steak sandwiches, salads and baked goods all produced from products on their farm or from local partners. After a delicious lunch on their outdoor patio, Dan James began our tour of the property.
We walked through their dairy barn which is constructed based off of how the New Zealand dairies operate. They milk 30 cows every morning at 7:30, rotating 5 groups of 6 cows in their milking parlor. When the cattle are not being milked, they are out on grass pastures with various grasses and legumes. James Ranch moves their cattle’s fencing that is made of electric wire and small metal posts every day to rotational graze their animals. This helps with pest control and keeps the grass growing healthier year-round. Out in these pastures their dairy cows are in two separate groups, the milkers and the nurse cows with the calves. The nurse cows are not being milked because they provide milk to the calves so that the ranch can milk the other 30.
Another cool thing they do in their pastures is have free range chickens that scratch at the manure piles to help with pest control by eating the fly larva. They are in a coop at night that is on wheels so it can be easily moved from pasture to pasture.
Our last part of the tour was the cheese making facility. The milk travels in metal pipes from the milking parlor to the cheese facility to let it settle and create cheese curds. The process of making this Artisan cheese takes a while but they make enough in the summer to supply them with cheese for the restaurant and market during the winter. Because of the harsh winters they do not milk their animals during the winter months.
Unfortunately, we were unable to see their beef cattle side of the operation because the cattle were too far out in the pasture for us to see. But we were able to spend some time talking with Dan and he helped explain their business and family. In their family, each kid, including Dan, was raised on the ranch and had the chance to learn about the family business. After high school they each left and explored different colleges, careers and places in the world. When they heard that their family wanted to sell the ranch to become a golf course, 4 of the 5 kids came back and contributed to the business. When they came back, they each had to add a section of business to the ranch. Dans part was the dairy and cheese making. One sister brought in the restaurant, another with a tree farm, and another with a small-scale food garden. Each of them now lives and works on the ranch every day helping to build up what their parents had created.
Now every part of the ranch works together to be a thriving business for people in the community. They do tours and have it set up for people to take self-guided tours along the ranch and cheese facility. This was a great stop and we’re so thankful for Dan James for giving us a tour!
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