Out of my comfort zone
Guest post by Montana Summer Program student Jacob Moreland
Here I was, getting off the plane into Billings, Montana. My body sore from traveling all day and sitting on three flights with little leg room. I’m not sure what I was expecting the city of Billings to look like but I definitely had it wrong in my head. When we first started drive to the ranch, I was instantly shocked by amount of land you could see from the car. Back in Clemson, you can only see far distances from mountain tops like Table Rock because of the tree coverage. When I applied to take this class during my first semester, I had little to no experience to with livestock or ranching which made me feel out of my comfort zone and nervous to travel to Montana for three weeks.
On our second day on the ranch, we drove up to Terry and LaVonne Frost’s ranch, called Frosty Creek Angus Ranch, to learn about the process of vaccinating livestock and to learn about the “ranch” life. As soon as we hopped out of the van, I realized the pace at which Terry and LaVonne operated and how much work and dedication ranching involves. I felt like everything was sped up with so much going on throughout the ranch. With the way Terry and LaVonne operated, there was little instruction prior to helping at the ranch ,which caught me off guard, but I quickly caught on. We learned about a disease called Brucellosis, which is a zoonotic disease found in ruminants and also known as contagious abortion. The veterinarian, Judy, joined us at the ranch to give the heifers their vaccine for this disease and told us about the laws pertaining to this disease and other diseases that cows are vaccinated for in their early life. I was impressed with the family-owned ranch’s work ethic. I could see that Terry was passionate about his work and cared for his animals. I was impressed by how Terry could recognize each calf and compare its characteristics with its mother’s characteristics based solely on the tag and appearance of the cattle. It surprises me how people can view ranching as just feeding and watering animals without going out to see the operation in person and hands-on to understand the entire picture. There’s so much that goes into raising cattle like caring for the grass and landscape, caring for all the animals, maintaining the fences, keeping up on vaccines, harvesting hay, and infinite others, that I don’t know how one family can keep up with all the work to do around the ranch. For a ranch to succeed, it needs to be managed correctly for it to thrive decades later.
A poorly managed ranch can lead to many problems. The rancher must know how to rotate his cows properly to provide the most nutrition for his cows and also preserve the grass for years to come. Terry explained to us all the ways he gets the most forage for his animals as well as his explanation to calving in the spring rather than the winter in Montana. Terry worked a lot with thinning trees on his ranch to provide more grass for his cows since ponderosa pine can easily take over a pasture. Ponderosa produces many seeds which fall beneath and cause a tightly packed group of pine which eliminates space for ranching. As for calving in the spring, spring calving exposes the mothers to much less stress than in the winter months. Lack of food in the winter months can cause the cows to consume pine needles which can cause a mother cow to abort its calf. Also, it’s important for Terry to know when he should graze each lot depending on the grass length and prevent overgrazing which can cause many problems with the land. When talking with Terry, he told us about the uncertainty of ranching when knowing what the outcome he will have. Fire can ruin years of work in just a few hours and depending on the weather, the amount of water you receive is uncertain year to year. As with preserving the landscape and protecting your herd, Dr. Lascano explained to us the importance of having natural areas set aside for wildlife on the ranch. If you do not have an area like this, many problems can arise like having predators enter your grazing space causing danger to your livestock.
With all the students staying in a house together, it allows us to exchange information with one another and share experiences with one another. I feel like this aspect improves the course even more.
On our second day on the ranch, we drove up to Terry and LaVonne Frost’s ranch, called Frosty Creek Angus Ranch, to learn about the process of vaccinating livestock and to learn about the “ranch” life. As soon as we hopped out of the van, I realized the pace at which Terry and LaVonne operated and how much work and dedication ranching involves. I felt like everything was sped up with so much going on throughout the ranch. With the way Terry and LaVonne operated, there was little instruction prior to helping at the ranch ,which caught me off guard, but I quickly caught on. We learned about a disease called Brucellosis, which is a zoonotic disease found in ruminants and also known as contagious abortion. The veterinarian, Judy, joined us at the ranch to give the heifers their vaccine for this disease and told us about the laws pertaining to this disease and other diseases that cows are vaccinated for in their early life. I was impressed with the family-owned ranch’s work ethic. I could see that Terry was passionate about his work and cared for his animals. I was impressed by how Terry could recognize each calf and compare its characteristics with its mother’s characteristics based solely on the tag and appearance of the cattle. It surprises me how people can view ranching as just feeding and watering animals without going out to see the operation in person and hands-on to understand the entire picture. There’s so much that goes into raising cattle like caring for the grass and landscape, caring for all the animals, maintaining the fences, keeping up on vaccines, harvesting hay, and infinite others, that I don’t know how one family can keep up with all the work to do around the ranch. For a ranch to succeed, it needs to be managed correctly for it to thrive decades later.
With all the students staying in a house together, it allows us to exchange information with one another and share experiences with one another. I feel like this aspect improves the course even more.
