Yahn Ranch
Representing: Agriculture
Board Term: 2023-2026

​ ​Jim Yahn is a Logan County Commissioner and, along with his wife Tracy, is owner and manager of Yahn Ranch, a cow calf operation north of Sterling.  Jim is the past manager of the North Sterling and Prewitt Reservoirs, a position that he held for over 33 years.  He is now a consultant to the North Sterling and Prewitt Boards.  As manager, he was responsible for overseeing the diversion and distribution of water to over 350 farmers.  Together the reservoirs are a source of irrigation water for approximately 70,000 acres.  Jim is a registered professional engineer, receiving his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Colorado State University.  Prior to his employment with North Sterling and Prewitt he worked as a private consulting engineer in Fort Collins for 5 years.  He is a native of Colorado growing up on a family ranch, which used water from the North Sterling Reservoir System.

Jim was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper in 2015 to serve as the South Platte Director on the Colorado Water Conservation Board.  He served for a total of 5 years, one year as Chair.  Jim has been a member of the South Platte Basin Roundtable since its inception in 2005, served as chair from 2009 – 2012, and currently serves as one of the roundtable’s two representatives to the Inter-Basin Compact Committee.  Jim also currently serves as a Colorado Water Congress board member and serves as one of two Colorado board members to the Family Farm Alliance.  Jim was given the friend of the South Platte award in 2019 and was awarded Four States Irrigation Council’s Headgate award for Colorado in 2025.

Jim and Tracy are the parents of two married children, daughter Hannah and husband Weston and son Austin and wife Amber.  They are also grandparents of grandsons Knox and Maverick.  Jim is also an elder at the United Church of Crook.