BEDFORD - Lifetime rancher Roger Preston figures most years, he works for free.

Ranching on more than 1,500 acres in the tiny community of Bedford in western Wyoming's Star Valley, Preston took over the family's operation in 1977, the year his father died and the year he graduated from veterinary school.

"I realized then I was kind of hooked on ranching, but in all the years that I've run this place … I think we've only shown a profit probably three or four years," he said. "The ranching economy, it's just never been good. I sometimes feel a little bit like a dupe to be working 12 to 20 hours a day while everybody else is playing, and just because you're trying to keep the ground open."

Preston sees the rural character of Star Valley changing. Agricultural lands are being subdivided and developed, and open spaces are disappearing.

"We had a dairy herd for a long time, but that's one of the first things we quit," he said. "Our heart and soul is with range livestock and open range, but Star Valley is such a small place that it doesn't necessarily fit with what our operation was. So right now, we grow horse hay and just a few beef cattle."

The 58-year-old Preston and his wife talk quite a bit these days about what will happen to the family business when retirement comes.

"One challenge we've had is that our son was killed when he was 20 years old, and we were kind of really counting on him taking over the reins," he said. "But we have a daughter, and she cares about the ranch. I think she'll be reluctant to sell, but at the same time she's not operating the ranch, either."

The aging of Wyoming's ranchers and farmers, the effects of estate taxes and increases in land prices are all working against open spaces, in Star Valley and elsewhere.

"If I were to sell, I can't think of anything I would go out and buy that would give me any more satisfaction," Preston said. "I still feel like it's my forefathers' ranch, and I'm just the steward at this particular point in time … It seems to me just a little bit immoral to just cash in on it."

"But I can't blame my neighbors (for doing so), particularly some of the smaller outfits. What are you going to do when the kids can't make a living on these smaller places and when the parents need money to sustain them when they get older?"

Feeling the pinch

Over the years, Wyoming's agricultural industry has proven to be at least resilient in the face of increasing development pressures. Agriculture continues to be the third-leading industry in Wyoming, generating $1.5 billion annually in economic revenue.

Because agriculture is the dominant private land use in Wyoming - controlling more than 95 percent of the private land in the state - much of the concern about maintaining open spaces focuses on private ranchlands and farms. Those lands often include bottom lands along rivers and other important areas for wildlife habitat, especially during winter.

The future of a vast majority of the state's open spaces will depend to a large extent on the retention of agricultural land in Wyoming.

But more and more, agricultural land is being subdivided and developed. Escalating land values and marginal returns from agricultural endeavors are making it harder for ranchers and farmers to operate. And many ranchers are facing retirement but find it difficult to pass their ranches down within the family.

It took Preston, for example, about 15 years to pay off the inheritance tax when he assumed ownership of the ranch.

"We were able to get on a time-payment type of thing, but for a real productive time of my life, we were basically just scrounging and saving every penny we could to pay off the government so I could continue to work on a ranch that I'd been working on since I was 8 years old," he said.

Studies show that the percentage of Wyoming farmers and ranchers age 65 and older has more than doubled, from less than 12 percent in 1964 to 26 percent in 1997. Ranchers age 34 and younger declined from 15 percent in 1982 to 6 percent 1997.

In addition to the hurdles posed by inheritance taxes, limited profitability in agriculture may be a reason for lack of young people becoming involved. In 1993, net profit for ag in Wyoming peaked at $200 million. It dropped to a $7 million deficit in 1998, bouncing back to about $75 million the following year.

Land inflation

Uncertainty is the perhaps the biggest problem for ranchers and farmers in Wyoming, said Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust board and former executive of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

Even at a time when livestock prices are at historical highs - cattle and lamb prices set records in 2005 - the challenges posed by weather and other factors are daunting, Budd said.

"If we could maintain this kind of (livestock) market - and not have things like $3-a-gallon diesel - this is probably as healthy a position as the industry has been in for 50 or 60 years" from an economic standpoint, he said. But the fact is that in many parts of the state, land where the "highest and best use" historically has been agriculture is now valued more for its development potential.

Statewide, the average value of irrigated cropland rose from $744 per acre in 1990 to $1,389 per acre in 2001, an 86.7 percent increase.

"The land inflation issue is one that is daunting," Budd said. "The average age of most ranchers is over 60. In order to bring family back in, most ranches have to look at some type of retirement plan for the older folks and a buy-in plan for the young family members. But the kids can't afford to buy it, and the parents can't afford to sell it."

Expansion could make ranches more profitable, but "you really can't expand given the value of the land," Budd said. "Even with decent cattle and sheep prices, when any bank or businessman runs those numbers, it's probably not a real good investment."

Preston said he fears the dice have already been cast regarding the future of ranching in Star Valley.

"We've already gone past the critical point to where there's not that many ranches here that are going to be able to sustain themselves in the future," he said.

As change keeps creeping closer, Preston is learning to live with his new neighbors.

"I noticed the other day somebody had built a shop on a ridgeline … and screwed up the view in the process," he said. "Wyoming is a great state, and it's really nice to have the freedoms that we have … and it's hard to start telling your neighbors what to do, because you don't want them telling you what to do."

State Editor Chad Baldwin contributed to this report.

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.