People Rely on a Rancher Every Day
Post by Clemson undergraduate Abigail Greer
In all honesty, I was worried about this blog post. After the symposium I felt like I was experiencing an information overload. After being able to speak to some of the ranchers who were in attendance, as well as some of the lecturers, my thoughts were buzzing about the concept of grassbanking. But not all thoughts were good. I worried about the scale at which it could be used, the feasibility (or lack thereof) to young ranchers, and the overall hostile environment that ranching takes place in. Having experienced a hailstorm on a mid-June afternoon, I was wary of having any trust in the weather here.
Contrary to the brucellosis debate however, I felt more hope that given time things would begin to work out upon collaboration. Seeing older ranchers like Bud vouch for the process of grassbanking as well as meeting young ranchers gave the idea longevity when compared to the ranchers we saw on the frontlines of brucellosis. What was consistent between all speakers, ranchers, and attendees was the call for young blood in the ranching industry. That sent me into another temporary spiral of despair when I realized that I could not fathom myself or anyone else my age willing to go into such a daunting industry.
A small parallel I was able to draw between ranching conflicts and the extensive herpetology work I have done in the past year was the struggle of introducing species in order to solve a problem. This can be seen with Crested Wheatgrass and Cane Toads—both brought about to solve an immediate problem without a long-term outlook. Crested Wheatgrass requires special management in order for it to be eaten in pace with how it grows, according to Brian Martin with the Matador Ranch. I found this interesting and a little humanizing, as thus far we have heard about ranchers as being under attack by things entirely out of their control, whereas Crested Wheatgrass was called for by the industry.
Fortunately, seeing the High Meadow Ranch in the following days gave me some hope that more progressive management strategies were emerging, and hopefully with those new life might be brought to the ranching culture in Montana. Having heard about the Dahl Fire from darn near everyone we spoke to in this section, I was struck by how fortunate and intelligent the High Meadow Ranch was. It seems that they were ahead of the curve in regard to management perspectives. I couldn’t help but think of the semi-recall of Smokey the Bear in the southeast, and how fire needs to be given a more positive reputation given the resurgence of fire ecology. However, that is an amazingly uphill battle that will have to be fought for a long time with lots of reeducating before positive change is seen on a large scale. This seems to also be the case with new management techniques in the ranching community. John Pfister with the extension service spoke about how hard it is to go into a rancher’s home and tell them they need to change their management after them being on the frontline of their ranching issues. John spoke of rancher pride and how they are hesitant to take government assistance despite the idea that people “rely on a rancher every day, even three times a day”. We rely on them, but they are a proud community that strives to be self-sustaining.
Forage sampling after the lectures Dr. Agurero gave our group was a lot more interesting than snipping grass. Learning about the selectivity of cows (which I never would’ve guessed) and the differing quality in each type of forage, the fields stopped looking like expanses of grass. I also quite enjoyed the wildflowers that changed as we changed elevations during sampling. Speaking about the forage preferences of each type of animal answered a question I had for a while that I felt was too dumb to ask: where are all the sheep? They aren’t suited to the most widely available forage, which is why ranching is predominantly cattle. Thankfully I didn’t have to buck up and ask that, it was answered for me. Lucky for me, a humble wildlife major, many of my “dumb” questions about livestock were patiently answered in these past couple days.
Contrary to the brucellosis debate however, I felt more hope that given time things would begin to work out upon collaboration. Seeing older ranchers like Bud vouch for the process of grassbanking as well as meeting young ranchers gave the idea longevity when compared to the ranchers we saw on the frontlines of brucellosis. What was consistent between all speakers, ranchers, and attendees was the call for young blood in the ranching industry. That sent me into another temporary spiral of despair when I realized that I could not fathom myself or anyone else my age willing to go into such a daunting industry.
A small parallel I was able to draw between ranching conflicts and the extensive herpetology work I have done in the past year was the struggle of introducing species in order to solve a problem. This can be seen with Crested Wheatgrass and Cane Toads—both brought about to solve an immediate problem without a long-term outlook. Crested Wheatgrass requires special management in order for it to be eaten in pace with how it grows, according to Brian Martin with the Matador Ranch. I found this interesting and a little humanizing, as thus far we have heard about ranchers as being under attack by things entirely out of their control, whereas Crested Wheatgrass was called for by the industry.
Fortunately, seeing the High Meadow Ranch in the following days gave me some hope that more progressive management strategies were emerging, and hopefully with those new life might be brought to the ranching culture in Montana. Having heard about the Dahl Fire from darn near everyone we spoke to in this section, I was struck by how fortunate and intelligent the High Meadow Ranch was. It seems that they were ahead of the curve in regard to management perspectives. I couldn’t help but think of the semi-recall of Smokey the Bear in the southeast, and how fire needs to be given a more positive reputation given the resurgence of fire ecology. However, that is an amazingly uphill battle that will have to be fought for a long time with lots of reeducating before positive change is seen on a large scale. This seems to also be the case with new management techniques in the ranching community. John Pfister with the extension service spoke about how hard it is to go into a rancher’s home and tell them they need to change their management after them being on the frontline of their ranching issues. John spoke of rancher pride and how they are hesitant to take government assistance despite the idea that people “rely on a rancher every day, even three times a day”. We rely on them, but they are a proud community that strives to be self-sustaining.Forage sampling after the lectures Dr. Agurero gave our group was a lot more interesting than snipping grass. Learning about the selectivity of cows (which I never would’ve guessed) and the differing quality in each type of forage, the fields stopped looking like expanses of grass. I also quite enjoyed the wildflowers that changed as we changed elevations during sampling. Speaking about the forage preferences of each type of animal answered a question I had for a while that I felt was too dumb to ask: where are all the sheep? They aren’t suited to the most widely available forage, which is why ranching is predominantly cattle. Thankfully I didn’t have to buck up and ask that, it was answered for me. Lucky for me, a humble wildlife major, many of my “dumb” questions about livestock were patiently answered in these past couple days.
