Colorado
Opinion: Colorado ranchers, restaurants worried about ballot issue that would shutter meat processing plant
Lamb is as Colorado as 14,000-foot peaks and Palisade peaches. Raised in rugged terrain, Colorado lamb is known for its lean meat and rich flavor. Many connoisseurs have long claimed its superiority over its New Zealand counterpart.
It’s also less niche across culinary cultures than you might realize. It is served as birria or barbacoa in Mexican restaurants; Aleppo kebab in Syrian restaurants; on extra-large noodles in spicy northern and Sichuan Chinese menus; stewed in a dark gravy on Indian dosa or in a curry; shawarma or burgers in Mediterranean cuisine; in Nepalese dumplings; or in Moroccan tagines.
Some of Denver’s best or most well-known restaurants serve it, including Buckhorn Exchange, El Taco de Mexico and Michelin-starred Brutø. Most of it is Colorado-raised. A5 serves Buckner Ranch rack of lamb, as do Safta and Blackbelly. Chef Paul Reilly of Coperta gets lamb from Longs Peak Lamb. Alma Fonda Fina and Frasca Food and Wine get their lamb from Superior Farms.
“Diners eat meat,” Reilly said. “That’s just not going to change. They like beef and pork and lamb and chasing an essential service — the slaughterhouse — out of the city of Denver is not going to change that. It will only make it more expensive for diners and harder for ranchers. No one wins.”
“Colorado Lamb has been a staple on my menus for as long as I’ve lived here,” shared chef Max Mackissock of A5 and the Culinary Creative Group. “There is no other protein that is as synonymous with our state. Chefs locally, as well as around the world, cherish the amazing product for its mild yet nuanced flavor, and unparalleled texture. Colorado Lamb is one of the few local products that us Coloradans can share with pride wherever we go.”
Chef Matt Vawters, this year’s James Beard winner for Best Chef: Mountain category, regularly features Colorado lamb at his two restaurants in Breckenridge, though said it has become harder to source since a prominent facility in Greeley shuttered.
This November, lamb will also be served up on a Denver ballot referendum. The measure, proposed by an animal-rights group, would shut down the only lamb slaughterhouse in Denver and prevent any others from opening.
Superior Farms, located on Clarkson Street in northwest Denver, is a 70-year-old business responsible for processing between 15 and 20% of all the lamb raised in the United States. The employee-owned company is the only Halal-certified slaughterhouse in Colorado; its staff of 160 workers, predominantly Latinos, help supply meat to many restaurants, but also to retailers like King Soopers, local favorite Tonali’s Meats, and renowned gourmet food purveyor D’Artagnan.
The Denver Slaughterhouse Ban would shut down its operations by 2026 and ban any other meatpacking businesses from the city and county of Denver. A group called Pro Animal Future submitted the measure, arguing that “slaughterhouses are inhumane to workers, animals and the surrounding communities they pollute.”
As it is the only business affected, Superior Farms feels specifically targeted.
“I take pride in my work and the work of my colleagues,” said Gustavo Fernandez, general manager at Superior Farms. “I started here as a janitor when my brother was already employed by the company and worked my way up. We train our staff and see ourselves as an important link between ranchers and people who love to eat lamb. This proposal to shut us down could really hurt our employees, but also the ranchers and restaurants and the American lamb supply chain.”
Pro Animal Future maintains it is focusing on the bigger picture: ending factory farming across the U.S. While there are no factory farms in Denver, spokewsoman Natalie Fulton acknowledged on a local radio show recently, the group sees this as a first step in its long-term mission.
But Superior Farms does not get its lambs from factory farms; it sources them from a collective of ranchers, most of them in Colorado — and most of them are worried.
“This would have a huge impact on our industry as a whole,” Julie Hansmire, rancher at Colorado’s Campbell Hansmire Sheep, said. “We care for our animals and we are lucky. Sure, we have to manage around hikers, skiers and other land use, but our lambs thrive on the native forage in the mountains and desert.”
Hansmire owns three herds, each with around 1,000 animals, in Eagle County, north of Edwards. They graze in Colorado in the summer and fall, and are moved to Utah in the winter and spring.
According to Colorado Agricultural Statistics, in 2023 there were 415,000 lambs and sheep in the state in 2023, making it the third-largest sheep and lamb inventory in the United States, behind Texas and Wyoming. About half are ready to be processed at any time, Colorado Food Systems Council statistics show, which makes Colorado second nationally, behind California, in terms of slaughter-ready lamb inventory.
The majority of sheep and lambs raised in Colorado are harvested in USDA-inspected facilities or custom-exempt facilities in Colorado, according to the council. The USDA seal ensures that facilities comply with rigorous federal animal welfare standards. Of 21 such facilities in Colorado, two stand out for capacity over 1,000 heads. One is Colorado Lamb Processors in Brush, which handles up to 165,000 head a year and ships full carcasses to the East Coast for fabrication, further processing and distribution. Lambs harvested there are not distributed within Colorado.
The other one is Superior Farms, which processes only lamb.
Sheep ranchers all over the state are concerned with the possibility of losing a vital link in making their business viable, whether they use Superior Farms or not for processing. Reducing the capacity of lamb slaughter in Colorado and in the United States by nearly 20% will exacerbate the issue at a time when less than a quarter of the lamb consumed in the United States is American lamb. The other 75% is imported, mainly from New Zealand and Australia.
Mary-Kay Buckner, a supplier of restaurants and consistent presence at farmers markets, is not among Superior Farms’ clients, but she’s still worried.
“Sheep ranching, like much of agriculture, is a lovely but fragile business model with small margins and many variables that can shatter one’s plans,” she said. Buckner, who raised animals in Boulder County for 13 years, stumbled into the industry. “I was a vegetarian in college and after, mostly because I didn’t know how animals were being raised and didn’t like that,” she said. “My grandparents were butchers and farmers and agriculture just made sense to me through my family background.
“For our family, it is important to give animals the best life, let them roam and graze and never feed them grain. They only have one bad day in their lives.”
There is a lot of emotion in the way Hansmire and Buckner speak about their animals, their livelihoods, and about this proposed ordinance. There is also a lot of emotion in how the ordinance is presented by Pro Animal Future, and rightfully so. “A slaughterhouse is a facility where animals are brought for the purpose of being killed to be processed into food,” reads the Pro Animal Future website. “Denver’s last slaughterhouse kills over 1,000 baby lambs every day,” blasts a poster.
Meat eaters should recognize that our diet choices mean the taking of animals’ lives. While we as diners support trendy, hip phrases like nose-to-tail butchery, whole animal kitchens, and farm-to-table restaurants, we brush aside the uncomfortable reality of animals dying for that.
But that isn’t going away.
Nick Maneotis of High Country Lamb is also worried about the the Denver Slaughterhouse Ban. When his grandfather immigrated from Greece, he arrived in Utah and worked in mines, but soon bought sheep and traveled with them to Colorado, near Craig, where lots of Greeks also established their ranching roots.
A third-generation sheep rancher, Maneotis has been on high alert since the beginning of 2024, after wolves have been reintroduced to his area following a state ballot measure, approved by voters. “We are right in between where the wolves are between Jackson County and Grand County, holding our breath hoping they don’t come our way. This new proposed ordinance in Denver would affect sheep ranchers in a new way, when we already have a lot of serious challenges,” he said.
Chefs and restaurateurs are also concerned. EatDenver, an independent restaurant association, is opposing the ballot measure, as well as the Colorado Restaurant Association.
Restaurant consultant John Imbergamo, a vegetarian for over three decades, said: “I like Colorado lamb being available to restaurants and their guests. Closing that plant will increase financial and environmental costs to consumers during a time that everyone is concerned about value and climate change.”
Pro Animal Future, meanwhile, is hoping to change the national tide of the agricultural system away from using animals and toward a more plant-based food system.
Denver voters will decide this fall.
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A Boulder County man was sentenced to 48 years in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in 2024.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Christine Barron Olivas’s body was discovered in a remote area of unincorporated Boulder County on Sept. 14, 2024. She was last seen leaving the neighborhood with her boyfriend, Carlos Dosal, the week prior.
The coroner’s office determined the cause of her death was strangulation.
In Feb. 2026, Dosal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as a crime of domestic violence in her death. On Saturday, the judge sentenced him to 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Leading the Way
Nate the Great
MacKinnon is tied for fifth in the NHL in points (10), while ranking tied for seventh in goals (4) and tied for ninth in assists (6).
All Hail Cale
Cale Makar is tied for first in goals (4) among NHL defensemen,
Toewser Laser
Among NHL blueliners, Devon Toews is tied for third in points (7) while ranking tied for fifth in assists (5) and tied for sixth in goals (2).
Series History
The Avalanche and Wild have met in the playoffs on three previous occasions, all in the Round One, with Minnesota winning in 2003 and 2014 in seven games while Colorado was victorious in six contests in 2008.
Making Plays Against Minnesota
MacKinnon has posted 16 points (4g/12a) in nine playoff games against the Wild, in addition to 70 points (27g/43a) in 55 regular-season contests.
Makar has registered three points (2g/1a) in two playoff contests against Minnesota, along with 26 points (6g/20a) in 29 regular-season games.
Necas has recorded five points (1g/4a) in two playoff games against the Wild, in addition to nine points (5g/4a) in 15 regular-season games.
Scoring in the Twin Cities
Quinn Hughes is tied for the Wild lead in points (11) and assists (8) while ranking tied for second in goals (3).
Kaprizov is tied for first on the Wild in assists (8) and points (11) while ranking tied for second in goals (3).
Matt Boldy leads the Wild in goals (6) while ranking third in points (10) and tied for fourth in assists (4).
A Numbers Game
4.50
Colorado’s 4.50 goals per game on the road in the playoffs are tied for the most in the NHL.
39
MacKinnon’s 39 playoff goals since 2020-21 are the second most in the NHL.
2.17
The Avalanche’s 2.17 goals against per game in the playoffs are the second fewest in the NHL.
Quote That Left a Mark
“It should definitely get you up and excited. It’s gonna be a good test. [It’s a] great building and [it’s] against a desperate team. It’s gonna be great.”
— Gabriel Landeskog on playing in Minnesota
Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs state budget, with Medicaid taking brunt of cuts to close $1.5 billion gap
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday, May 8, signed into law a $46.8 billion state budget that cuts healthcare spending but preserves funding for K-12 education.
The budget applies to the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, and caps months of work by lawmakers, who wrestled with how to close a roughly $1.5 billion gap that ultimately forced reductions to Medicaid funding and other programs.
“This year was incredibly difficult and challenged each of us in a myriad of ways that put our values to the test,” said Rep. Emily Sirtota, a Denver Democrat and chair of the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, which crafts the state’s spending plan before it is voted on by the full legislature. “It’s a zero-sum game. A dollar here means a dollar less over here.”
The state’s spending gap was the result of several factors.
The legislature is limited in how it can spend under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution approved by voters in 1992 that limits government revenue growth to the rate of population growth plus inflation.
Lawmakers are also dealing with the consequences of increased spending on programs they created or expanded in recent years, some of which have seen their costs balloon beyond their original estimates. Costs for Medicaid services, in particular, have surged, driven by inflation, expanded benefits and greater demand for expensive, long-term care services due to Colorado’s aging population.
Medicaid cuts
Medicaid recently eclipsed K-12 education as the single-largest chunk of the state’s general fund and now accounts for roughly one-third of all spending from that fund.
Lawmakers, who are required by the state constitution to pass a deficit-free budget, said they had no choice but to cut Medicaid funding as a result.
That includes a 2% reduction to the state’s reimbursement rate for most Medicaid providers. The budget also institutes a $3,000 cap on adult dental benefits, limits billable hours for at-home caregivers of family members with severe disabilities to 56 hours per week and phases out, by Jan. 1, automatic enrollment for children with disabilities to receive 24/7 care as adults.
The budget also cuts benefits and places new limits on Cover All Coloradans, a program created by the legislature in 2022 that provides identical coverage as Medicaid to low-income immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of their immigration status.
That includes an end to long-term care services for new enrollees, a $1,100 limit on dental benefits, and an annual enrollment cap of 25,000 for children 18 or younger. The cuts come as spending on the program has grown more than 600% beyond its original estimate, going from roughly $14.7 million to an estimated $104.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
While the budget still represents an overall increase in Medicaid spending compared to this year, funding is roughly half of what it would have been had lawmakers not made any changes to benefits and provider rates, which total about $270 million in savings for the state.
Healthcare leaders say the cuts will exacerbate an already challenging environment for providers, who are bracing for less federal support after Congress last year passed sweeping Medicaid cuts and declined to renew enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
For rural hospitals in particular, Medicaid is one of their key funding drivers.
“While a 2% (Medicaid reimbursement rate cut) doesn’t sound like a whole lot, when we already have close to 50% of our rural hospitals statewide operating in the red and 70% with unsustainable margins, facing another 2% (cut) on top of that is just devastating,” said Michelle Mills, CEO for the Colorado Rural Health Center, which represents rural hospitals on the Western Slope and Eastern Plains.
If the state provides less reimbursement for Medicaid services, Mills said it will lead to fewer providers accepting Medicaid plans. That in turn will mean fewer care options for people, particularly in Colorado’s rural counties, where healthcare services are already more limited.
“I feel like all of the decisions and cuts that they’re making are hitting everyone,” she said.
Rep. Rick Taggart, a Grand Junction Republican and budget committee member, said cuts to healthcare led to “a lot of tears.”
“This was a tough budget, and nobody won in this budget, but we did what we had to do by way of the (state) constitution,” he said.
While Medicaid saw some of the biggest cuts, lawmakers also trimmed spending from a suite of other programs, including financial aid for adoptive parents and grants providing mental health support for law enforcement.
Preserving K-12 education
One of the brighter spots for Polis and lawmakers in the budget is K-12 education.
After years of chronically underfunding the state’s schools, lawmakers in 2024 rolled out a revamped funding formula and abolished what was known as the budget stabilization factor, a Great Recession-era mechanism that had allowed the state to skirt its constitutional funding obligation to schools for more than a decade.
The new funding formula went into effect this school year, and the state is set to continue delivering higher levels of K-12 funding in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget. The budget allocates roughly $10.19 billion in K-12 funding, an increase of roughly $194.8 million, though the specifics of that spending are still being worked out in a separate bill, the 2026 School Finance Act, which has yet to pass the legislature.
The finance act guides how state and local funds are allocated to Colorado’s 178 school districts on a per-pupil basis. As it stands now, the bill is on track to increase per-pupil funding by $440 per student for the 2026-27 fiscal year, for a total of $12,314 per student.
“We are not returning to the days of underfunding our schools and a budget stabilization factor,” Polis said.
Still, there are challenges on the horizon for some districts.
Combined with a proposed three-year averaging model for student counts instead of the current four-year averaging, recent dips in student enrollment across the state will weigh more heavily on how much funding is allocated to each district. The shift to three-year averaging advances the state’s plan to gradually phase in the new school finance formula by 2030-31.
With several districts seeing decreased year-over-year enrollment and rising operational expenses like healthcare, some Western Slope school districts are poised to see less funding compared to this year, while others are seeing their increases eaten up by inflation.
A note on wolves
The topic of Colorado’s spending on gray wolf reintroduction hasn’t gone away, and while Medicaid headlined much of the budget discussions, lawmakers also used the spending plan to send a message on the future of the wolf program.
While the budget allocates $2.1 from the general fund to Colorado Parks and Wildlife to spend on wolf reintroduction, it also contains a footnote from lawmakers asking the agency not to use the money to acquire new wolves.
Footnotes are not legally binding, but rather serve as a direction or guidance from lawmakers to agencies on how they want certain funds spent.
Under the footnote, the wildlife agency could still use gifts, grants, donations and non-license revenue from its wildlife cash fund to bring additional wolves to Colorado. Most of the agency’s wolf funding goes toward personnel, followed by operating costs, compensation for ranchers and conflict minimization programs and tools.
Education reporter Andrea Teres-Martinez and wildlife and environmental reporter Ali Longwell contributed to this story.
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