The southeastern Colorado ranchers and farmers hardest hit by recent blizzards soon will get help from one of their own.
Michael Martin Murphey, an award- winning country songwriter synonymous with cowboy music, will headline a March 18 benefit concert at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo.
The show is part of a fundraising effort intended to offset costs from the snowstorms, which have stranded or killed thousands of head of livestock in the agriculture-driven southeastern counties.
“It’s a far-reaching and prolonged pain that a lot of farmers and ranchers will be feeling down here,” said Colorado Farm Bureau executive vice president Troy Bredenkamp.
Bredenkamp spent part of Thursday touring affected ranches and farms near Trinidad with Murphey. The official estimated that 10,000 cattle have died and countless more are missing.
Murphey organized the concert after hearing about the havoc wrought by the storms on the national news and at the American Farm Bureau convention. He invited friends and fellow musicians such as Waddie Mitchell and Baxter Black to follow him in donating their time.
“We didn’t call any government agencies or anything; we just got together with the farmers and ranchers and said, ‘Let’s do this,”‘ Murphey said.
Bredenkamp said he would like to raise about $500,000 for the Colorado cause – $240,000 through ticket sales and the rest through corporate donations.
