2016 Cattle Drive - Bernie Fehringer: chemist, lawyer, farmer

After careers as a chemist and then patent attorney, Bernie Fehringer returned to his roots near Peetz, Colo., nearly three decades ago to become a farmer.

"He always talked about returning to the farm, and I thought, well, this will never happen," said his wife, Sharon, with a laugh.

Fehringer and his family had lived on both coasts of the U.S. – any many places in between – before his father passed away and the future of the family farm was left uncertain.

"My dad got cancer and died, and it was sell the farm or somebody come home to farm it," he recalled. "My brother and I both said...