Meet the Knotts
Meet the Knotts
Five generations of Colorado ranching, one place to call home.
For the Knott family, ranching is about more than raising cattle and sheep. It is about knowing a place deeply, caring for the land that sustains them, and making sure the next generation has the opportunity to continue the work.
Knott Land and Livestock calf in pasture
Meet Your Rancher:
Knott Land & Livestock
Oak Creek, Colorado
For the Knott family, ranching is about more than raising cattle and sheep. It is about knowing a place deeply, caring for the land that sustains them, and making sure the next generation has the opportunity to continue the work.Just outside Oak Creek in Colorado's Upper Trout Creek Valley, Knott Land & Livestock is a fourth- and fifth-generation family ranch. The family's roots in the valley stretch back to 1936, when Courtney and Emma Ives moved from Steamboat Springs and established a sheep operation on what would become the Knott Home Place. The ranch eventually became part of the Knott family when their daughter, Doris Ives, married Dan Knott. Over the decades, the family expanded the operation and diversified its livestock enterprise.
Today, Tyler and Megan Knott operate the ranch alongside Tyler's parents, Bernard and Debra. Their children, Ella and Collin, represent the fifth generation growing up on the land.
Caring for the Land
For the Knotts, livestock production and land stewardship go hand in hand.
Their approach is not about forcing the land into a predetermined system. It is about paying attention and adapting.
During the growing season, cattle and sheep graze fresh forage and are moved as conditions require. Pastures may be deferred to allow native grasses to seed and regenerate, while other areas may be grazed strategically for purposes such as creating grazed firebreaks. During winter, the family relies on hay produced from irrigated meadows to feed their livestock.That relationship with the land is one of the reasons conservation has become such an important part of the family's story. A majority of the ranch is protected through conservation easements held by the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT). The family's conserved lands include the historic Knott Home Place, protecting working agricultural land, water, wildlife habitat and open space from future development.
For Megan, conservation is deeply connected to the future of agriculture.
The goal isn't simply to preserve a landscape exactly as it is today. It is to make sure the land remains capable of supporting agriculture and the people who depend on it for generations to come.
A Ranch Built for the Future
Ranching is not easy. The work doesn't stop for weekends, holidays or vacations, and the economics of agriculture can be challenging. But the Knotts continue to look for ways to build a resilient operation that can adapt to changing environmental and economic conditions.
Their approach combines livestock production, conservation, local food, wildlife habitat and a commitment to keeping working agricultural land in agriculture.
For the Knott family, success isn't simply measured by what they can produce today.
It is measured by whether the land, the livestock and the ranching tradition will still be here for the generations that follow.
That is what it means to be a Colorado rancher.
Meet the family. Learn their story. And see how Colorado beef gets from the ranch to your table.
Knott Land and Livestock
Oak Creek, Colorado
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