A historically dry winter in many Western states has ranchers facing tough choices.

Colorado has joined several Western states in declaring a drought emergency. This past winter was warm with record low snowfall. CPR's Dan Boyce takes us to one small family ranch facing hard choices near the border with New Mexico.

DAN BOYCE, BYLINE: Barely a trace of snow is left on the towering gray peaks across the road. The sun is that midday bright that bleaches color, including the baby blue of Dwight Mondragon's weathered ranch house.

DWIGHT MONDRAGON: This was my dad's house. They built this house the year I was born.

BOYCE: One hundred twenty acres that's been in his family for a century. He wants to pass it down to his two adult sons someday. Mondragon has 20 cows and their calves. It's late May, and normally we'd see...

MONDRAGON: Beautiful green fields. Grass would be about foot and a half high already. Now it's barely a couple of inches.

BOYCE: And it's more yellow. Stepping out onto the land, you can hear the bone-dry grass. The cows are picking through that grass, looking for the green.

MONDRAGON: I don't see much pasture left in this field. So I'm going to have to move them here pretty soon.

BOYCE: This region near the town of San Luis, is one of the driest in Colorado, but the drought is widespread.

KATE GREENBERG: We are sort of tracking stress around the state.

BOYCE: Colorado's agriculture commissioner Kate Greenberg, speaking during a recent state drought task force meeting.

GREENBERG: Stress on crops, stress on livestock, stress on people, and how we can help navigate through this time together.

BOYCE: The drought emergency declared this month should allow farmers and ranchers more access to federal disaster money, emergency loans and grants for crop loss. But even if ranchers like Mondragon do get that help, it's shaping up to be a generationally bad season.

BOYCE: About 160 hay bales lie stacked near Mondragon's corral might sound like a lot, but it's all he's got to get him through next winter. He's not at all sure will be enough.

MONDRAGON: If I have to start buying hay to feed my animals, then it's not worth it, so then I'll have to get rid of some of them.

BOYCE: The cows and calves rest beneath a stand of shady cottonwoods. Mondragon says the last time he experienced a dry spell like this was 2002. His herd was twice the size back then.

MONDRAGON: When that drought hit, we had to get rid of half of them.

BOYCE: So more than two decades later, he still has not recovered. He has to downsize again, he's worried the business won't be viable.

MONDRAGON: And that's a heartbreaking situation 'cause I don't want to let this farm go to waste. Once the cows are off of here, there's nothing left.

BOYCE: He says a lot of his neighbors are in a similar position. And nationwide, the size of America's total cattle herd is now smaller than it's been in three-quarters of a century. Years of dry conditions in the West have forced ranchers to downsize, as have rising costs and international competition. There are fewer cows and fewer young people choosing to be ranchers. Climbing back into the truck, the herd starts to move across the brittle grass toward us.

MONDRAGON: Yeah, see, they even want to get out of here already. Got to listen to the animals sometimes. They'll tell you, hey, there's nothing here.

BOYCE: He'll move them to his cousin's pasture soon, and that'll serve for a time. Driving back to the ranch house, Dwight Mondragon nods to himself. "We'll get water eventually. Faith and patience," he says. "Something my dad always told me. Have lots of faith and patience."

For NPR News, I'm Dan Boyce outside San Luis, Colorado.

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