CHEYENNE -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Micheli's family ranch has received more than $132,000 in federal agricultural payments in recent years, according to an environmental group's database.

The Farm Subsidy Database, a compilation of federal agricultural payments maintained by the Environmental Working Group, states that the Micheli Hereford Ranch in Ft. Bridger, owned by Micheli and his family, received the payments from 1995 through 2009.

Micheli, one of four main Republican candidates in the gubernatorial race, said in a recent interview that he reviewed the payment figures and didn't dispute them. He said more than half of the money was for drought disaster subsidies in 2001-2003.

Another $32,500 went to conservation subsidies, which Micheli said paid only a part of the ranch's cost of moving corrals away from the Black's Fork River. He said the federal government asked many area landowners to move corrals to reduce water pollution.

Micheli, a former director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, is running on a conservative platform that includes keeping government spending down and ending "federal intrusion" into Wyoming.

Micheli said didn't see any contradiction between his calling for smaller government and decrying federal deficits while his family business accepted federal payments.

Micheli said that as long as the federal government wanted to relocate the corrals, it's proper that it helped to cover the cost. "It was a federal intrusion," he said.

On the drought payments, Micheli said, "In the case of the disaster, I have never said that there is not legitimate functions of government. And I do believe that one of the legitimate functions of government is to aid people in the event of a disaster.

"Uinta County and much of Wyoming was declared a disaster for drought," Micheli said. "It was one of the most severe droughts that we've experienced since we've been on the ranch. And since Uinta County was a drought disaster, that enabled us to qualify for assistance to try to keep going."

Micheli said that without the disaster payments, "Honestly, we probably would have continued to exist, but it obviously would have been more difficult."

The Farm Subsidy Database site also states that Mead Land and Livestock, owned by Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Mead and his wife in Goshen County, received $5,200 in 2008, mainly for corn subsidies.

Mead, who also runs a ranching operation in Albany County, said in a recent interview that he wasn't sure whether the payment information on the website was accurate.

"I think it may be related more to irrigation," Mead said of the money his farm received. He said the USDA has programs that provide subsidies for landowners who make irrigation improvements.

Mead said he and his wife have put a lot of money into their Goshen County farm in recent years to make it more productive. "I'd also say that $5,200 relative to the years of time and money we've put up there is not in any way a big portion of what we've done," he said.

According to its website, the Environmental Working Group has been researching and analyzing federal farm subsidy data from a range of programs for the past 17 years. The group states the federal government has paid out a quarter of a trillion dollars in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009.