RBC | Grand County rancher Paul Bruchez stands in a hay field near Kremmling, holding a small tuft of hay between his fingertips, twirling it back and forth, seeing how quickly it disintegrates after a summer without water.
The plant, known as timothy, feeds thousands of cattle here in the Upper Colorado River Basin. (An earlier version of this story said Timothy hay is native to Colorado. It is not.)
This hay…