Get to work

Guest post by Clemson Montana Summer Program student Brett Jenkinson

After only the first couple days of actual field work, I am already starting to think differently about this landscape and the people that call it home. The first two people I’ve met from Montana couldn’t have been better ambassadors for ranch culture.

What struck me immediately was the “Get to work” mindset, in addition to the fact that no hand on the farm is not useful. This was illustrated as I watched Terry’s eighty-six-year-old father move like he wasn’t a day over fifty.  Not many people face as many tasks every single day as ranchers do, as Terry’s adventure attempting to move the heifers later in the day proved to be a difficult task that required quick problem solving and improvisation to get there. I won’t say that I had terrible misconceptions about ranchers and cattlemen, because I’m not even sure that I had any conceptions to begin with. But what these people showed me after but one day is that their relationship to their work and their land is remarkable.

Out of the whole day, one thing that really struck me the most was Terry’s familiarity and tenderness with his herd. After explaining the ear tags and how the top number is the father, the bottom number is the mother, and the middle number is the calf’s ID, Terry could look at each individual calf being held in the Silencer to be vaccinated and tattooed and immediately make remarks to me about the calf’s parents. I thought first, then mustered up the voice to ask him out loud, “Wait. So you can match a cow’s face to each number on a calf’s tag?” only to be met with, “Oh sure, this one here has got a beautiful mother with a real nice temperament. I have no idea where this one got hers from!” from Terry. I’m not sure why, but I was just astounded that he could not only learn each mother’s number and know exactly the cow that was behind it, but know the characteristics of each cow and traits of its individuality. And this was on over 70 cows, likely most of which have different mothers. I always thought that large scale ranching was a highly impersonal and removed, as getting attached to the cattle creates a bond that might not be ideal for this type of work. But nonetheless, Terry seems to have gotten past that. All the more special, while this was going on, LaVonne was riding and pushing cows in the chute, edging them forwards, while Terry's father was smacking them forcefully with rubber paddles to do the same. I was astounded, amazed, and impressed beyond belief at the complete effort that this family puts into maintaining and caring for their property and animals.

After the session with Dr. Lascano about ruminant nutrition and dietary demands, it really brought the whole range concept to more of a full circle for me. Understanding that the land dictates how well the cows and heifers are raised and fed really means that the ranchers, like Terry, have to pay absolute attention to every single kind of plant that’s on his ranch, where it is, and how much of it there is. When Dr. Lascano mentioned aborted calves from pine leaves, it reminded me of how Terry was right on top of that; he explained to us that it’s one of the major reasons why he calves in the fall. This made me think of the ongoing relationship that both Terry and Dr. Lascano suggested between the plants, wildlife, and a rancher’s livestock. They both suggested that by thinning bull pines and ponderosas, you can create higher quality and higher quantities of grasses for either wildlife, to keep them off of the main grazing lands, or your cattle, to expand your grazing land. It’s crazy how many things Dr. Lascano made it seem like a rancher can do wrong, and it’s even crazier that Terry seems to know all of it.

      

After the feed lot visit, we were able to see a lot more of the production behind beef cattle on a lot that was much larger scale than Terry’s. Here, Dr. Lascano’s ruminant nutrition lesson was helpful in understanding how a rancher knows exactly what he’s feeding not only his cattle, but whoever’s he is in charge of, and how to make sure he’s doing it right. We also got to see part of the insemination process of seeding and how important it is that ranchers know whose genetics are going into which cattle. What really struck me was when Dan told the story of how this winter he sold his cattle before finishing them because the price was predicted, “by the experts”, to not be too great. But in fact, after he sold them the price changed and he would have made a lot more money if he had finished them himself and then sold them. Then, he said, “Nothing’s guaranteed, and everything’s a gamble.” That stuck with me and suggested that a few sales or a bad season can prove to have tremendous repercussions down the road, even though it might seem like the best call at the time. In situations like this, I don’t think there’s really much you can do except go with what appears best at the time.

It seems difficult to appreciate and understand conservation efforts from a rancher’s perspective. Like Dr. Lascano said, if you travel to the Brazilian rain forest and try to convince them to stop their deforestation, they’ll look at you like you’re crazy. How can these people who need cattle to feed their children care about the forest, when it’s not what keeps them and the things they love alive? Although I think that the environment belongs collectively to every organism on the planet, I do see how it would be hard for people ranching out here to listen to people from across the country telling them how to run their land and how they can and can’t make money. If I was in their shoes, I would most likely feel the same way. Thus, the conflict that these people deal with is just as real as it seems, even from across the country.

In conclusion, after only five days on the ranch, I am beginning to see how conservation efforts can create problems for the ranching lifestyle, and vice versa. Ranching is an incredibly difficult lifestyle and occupation, which perhaps accurately reflects the arduous relationship between it and conservation efforts on the plains.