Wagon Wheel Ranch of Yuma has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award. The Kenny and Jody Rogers family are cattle ranchers and owners of Wagon Wheel Ranch in Yuma and Washington counties. They will be presented with the award in June at the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Convention. They receive $10,000 for being selected. Among the many outstanding landowners nominated for the award were finalist Camblin Livestock of Maybell in Moffat County.

Kenny Rogers’ family has a long history in Colorado agriculture dating back to the late 1800s. Beginning in 1950, Francis and Mary Rogers purchased their first registered cattle. The family began breeding and marketing bulls at the National Western Stock Show among the wooden pens in The Yards. As the program grew and the cattle marketing began to move away from Denver, the Wagon Wheel Ranch’s annual production sale became a March tradition.

“It required years of trial and error, expansion when possible, and careful nurturing what assets, land, and animals we had, to arrive where we are today,” Kenny Rogers said.

The Rogers are quick to acknowledge the grit and contributions earlier generations made to the operation. When it was Kenny and his wife Jody’s turn to take over Wagon Wheel Ranch’s day-to-day operations from his parents, Francis and Mary Rogers, they were spread thin between raising crops and cattle. Considering the labor needs and soaring costs of inputs and equipment to grow irrigated crops, they opted to focus on raising purebred Angus cattle. Leasing their farmland allowed them to better manage their cattle and grassland.

What previous generations began, Kenny and Jody carry on, alongside their son, Jace and son, Jerrod Massey, his wife Hollie, and grandsons Mason and Carter.

THE OPERATION

Rogers said two years ago, they moved entirely to a rotational grazing program. Cattle utilize the 6,440 acres cross-fenced into paddocks (ranging in size from 150 acres to 260 acres), with a corral and water tank at the center. Cattle walk less than a mile to get water from any location. Their stocking rates, he said, remain below the industry standard to maintain quality forages.

“We don’t really cut our cowherd numbers back with the drought, going back several years ago,” he said. “Provided we get some late in the year moisture, you’ll always have grass to go to. Now, we’ll see how this drought plays out how that’s going to work, but theoretically it always allows for new grass rather than just turning cows out and letting them mob the places they like and ignore the places they don’t like. When you rotational graze, it forces them to get up into some of those areas where you have less desirable, less palatable grasses. They will get on those with the rotational grazing scheme.”

He said when cattle producers do what is best for their cattle, the wildlife on the ranch also benefit.

“Anecdotally, I can say I’ve seen more prairie chickens since we started doing this than I ever used to,” he said. “Now, is it because of that? I can’t say, but it does allow them places that they can nest undisturbed if they get in those places we’re going to rotate over to. I think the same holds true for whatever songbirds we may have on the ranch.”

The same holds true, he said, for mule deer and antelope, who have plenty of areas to rear fawns in the spring without disruption.

“The benefit to wildlife wasn’t something we did on purpose, but we did start noticing that we were seeing more of basically everything,” he said. “The wildlife also reaps the benefits from what we’re doing to benefit the livestock. It helps them all.”

SPRINKLER MODIFICATIONS AND CRP

One project Rogers recently completed was replacing the sprinkler heads on the operation’s center pivot sprinklers to utilize 15% less water on each circle. It was, he admits, a significant investment, but using a lower volume was the best choice as the water table in the area is no longer static, but declining.

“That was voluntary, we didn’t have to do it, but when it came time to replace nozzles, we went with the lower volume choice,” he said. “We do our little bit we can to help in that regard.”

Rogers said they’re waiting for the irrigation company to come lower two of the irrigation wells that have been pumping air as of late. The company, he said, has four trucks working across the area above the Ogallala Aquifer on similar projects, illustrating how widespread the problem is becoming.

The Rogers family enrolled highly erodible former crop fields and grasslands into the federal Conservation Reserve Program. The seed package they chose when planting grasses for CRP contained native plants that benefit wildlife. Although the CRP payment is less than potential income from crops, they say the net positive in terms of conservation is immeasurable.

The award honors ranchers, farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land. Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to environmental improvement. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold advocated for “a land ethic,” an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage.

Beyond Yuma County, Kenny and Jody’s service benefits the agriculture industry. Kenny was a founding board member of the North American Weed Management Association, and past president of its Colorado affiliate. Kenny is also a past president of both Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Colorado Livestock Association, and he is currently the policy division vice chair of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association board of directors. Jody has served on various state and national beef industry boards as well.

The Colorado Leopold Conservation Award is made possible by generous contributions from the American Farmland Trust, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, American AgCredit, CoBank, Farm Credit of Southern Colorado, Premier Farm Credit, Sand County Foundation, Stanko Ranch, ANB Bank, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, CKP Insurance, Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and The Nature Conservancy.

For more information on the award, visit http://www.leopoldconservationaward.org.