Growing up working sheep and rolling haybales on a ranch on Wright’s Mesa, Terri Snyder Lamers wasn’t keenly interested continuing the work as an adult. Of her four siblings, she says, she was probably the most “domestic” minded.But once ranching is in your blood, it can be hard to deny. And it’s in Lamers’ blood in a big way. Her grandparents, Lorna and Neal Snyder, moved to Norwood from Bedrock in 1936 to start a ranching operation, and the Snyders have been a major ranching presence in the region for generations.
And so, after spending 25 years in the Denver area, where she attended technical school and worked in the drafting and construction business, she found herself returning to the Snyder Ranch in 2005.
“It kind of just happened,” Lamers said, adding that. “I came back in time to help my mom and dad as they got older, which I think is really important.”
These days, she runs the Wright’s Mesa operation with her brothers Steve and Todd. Together, they raise animals on roughly 1,300 acres in San Miguel County, selling prized lamb meat, beef, breeding rams and wool to customers that range from large Colorado meat buyers to the Fresh Food Hub, restaurants like Maggie’s and individual families.
Anyone who has crested Norwood Hill on a spring day to see the green fields dotted with tumbling, adorable, wobbly-legged lambs — a scene that epitomizes the season — has appreciated the Snyder family’s animals.
And as it turns out, Snyder isn’t as domestic as she once thought.
“My favorite parts [of the job] are when I can actually be outside working with the livestock,” she said.