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Kat Wilder and the Last Cows- Paonia Books

November 12, 2025 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
A book cover titled "The Last Cows" by Kathryn Wilder. The subtitle reads "On Ranching, Wonder, and a Woman's Heart." The image depicts a rustic, weathered wooden fence or corral structure in the foreground, set against a vast, dry Western landscape with distant mountains under a dramatic sunset sky in shades of purple, pink, and orange.

Kat Wilder and The Last Cows

Join us Wednesday November 12 at 5 in the KVNF Community Room for a reading and conversation among author and Dolores, CO, rancher Kat Wilder, Cynthia Houseweart of Hotchkiss-based Princess Beef, and author/plant biologist Susan Tweit.

Kat’s newest books, THE LAST COWS, explores the joys, challenges, heartbreaks and qualms of contemporary ranching in the American West.

On nineteen thousand acres of combined public and private land in southwest Colorado, Kathryn Wilder and her son, with the help of additional family members, run Criollo cattle, a heritage breed that originated in Spain. Smaller by hundreds of pounds than other European breeds, these cows are uniquely adapted to the desert. In The Last Cows Wilder considers whether the integrity of her program—Criollo cattle, holistic management practices, and organically raised, grass-fed-and-finished beef sold through local markets—is enough to support a regenerative relationship between cattle and desert. And as Wilder approaches seventy, she considers how long she can maintain the demanding physical labor and complex schedule that have been part of her life’s work.

In this engaging and thoughtful narrative that blends biology, geology, natural history, and human history into her personal story, Wilder offers an intimate view into the inner workings of a rancher’s heart.

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