The Hutchinsons have six brands. Abby’s,
in the shape of a wine goblet, once belonged to Annabelle Hutchinson. “My grandpa gave it to me when I was little,” Abby says. “I grew up coming to the ranch in the summer and on holidays.” Doc would take her out on horseback to check on the cows. “I loved riding with grandpa. It was exciting.”
C
onservation easements allow landowners to sell certain development rights while retaining ownership of their property and continuing to ranch, farm, or harvest. One advantage of the easement approach is its flexibility: landowners can opt to protect specific natural resources, such as a wetland area or wildlife corridor, or to allow for some types of structures—like new barns or storage areas—while preventing others.
Today, more than 400 acres of the Hutchinson property are covered by easements established
with help from The Trust for Public Land and now held by the Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas and Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust. One of those easements safeguards Pond Patch, a lush, 224-acre meadow shaded with cottonwoods. The terms allow for continued grazing on the tall grass by the river, spanned by a new bridge and a road that rises to a tidy corral. Huddled together there are three pregnant heifers and a “mama,” as Abby affectionately calls her,
with a calf not yet two weeks old. Abby walks slowly and deliberately into the corral, boots sinking into ankle-deep mud, and approaches a cow whose belly is heavy with her first offspring. “She’s get- ting really close,” Abby says. When they’re this far along, either Abby or her part-time ranch hand, Mike Brazil, will check
them regularly, night and day. With an animal science degree from Colorado State University, Abby monitors the heifers closely through each stage of pregnancy and birth, giving the newborns their shots within 12 to 24 hours of their entering the world—not easy, with protective mothers on high alert. Abby’s ancestors would travel along the route of a defunct narrow-gauge railroad toward a cabin
in the hills, where they’d spend the summer keeping an eye on their herd. Like them, Abby can identify individual cows even from a distance, tell you all about their histories, and assess their well- being from their movements. “You know cows as good as Uncle Bailey did,” her grandpa tells her. “The fact that she chose to keep up the tradition means everything to the family,” says Abby’s
father, Art. “Abby is smart and tough, and she has a knack for ranching not everyone has. We know the place is in good hands.”
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