Just because a place is beautiful, does not mean it is easy to live in

Guest post by Clemson Montana Summer Program Student Addie Carter

When first arriving in Billings, Montana, it was surprising to me how small it is considering it’s the largest city in Montana.  I thought there would be more shops and entertainment areas than what I could see from the drive through it. My first thought as we drove though the city and began our 45 minute car ride to the ranch where we would be staying was “Who would willingly live in a place this remote?” Part of that question was answered upon arriving at the ranch. To say the views are beyond spectacular would be an understatement. No photo that I have seen of Montana was able to do it justice. The rugged mountains are covered in grass that waves in the wind creating an emerald sea that makes a beautiful balance to the sky that is constantly changing from clear and blue to wonderfully dark and stormy.

Just because a place is beautiful, though, does not mean it is easy to live in. Mr. and Mrs. Frost showed us that. On their beautiful ranch they run a cow-calf operation and while we were there we were able to help run heifers through the chute to get their brucellosis vaccine. From this experience we got a taste of what life running a cattle ranch is like. There is the yearly scheduled farm maintenance such as giving the cows their vaccines but then there are the unplanned tasks such as having to fix a fence because a tree fell on it. So with all of these tasks there doesn’t seem to be a moment of rest for Mr. and Mrs. Frost. It’s not like they can just decide to not go out if it’s cold outside because these cows depend on them. From this experience I learned that you can’t just be a rancher for the money, you also have to care about the cows and the land and Mr. and Mrs. Frost do both. Their passion for their land and their livestock is very obvious. You can see it in the way Mr. Frost pets his heifers while proudly reciting their lineage or in the way Mrs. Frost gives the tour of the original house built in 1909. This passion of theirs is very contagious and I am very grateful for being able to experience it because it gave me a better understanding and appreciation for the ranchers that make Montana their home.

This view of a rancher’s everyday life showed me another side of two conflicts dealing with bison and the coal industry. With regards to bison and their reintroduction to Montana my opinion was that it was terrific and I wondered why there were people who were against it. This original opinion of mine that bison were amazing and there was nothing bad about their reintroduction was changed slightly by coming to the Frost’s ranch. The brucellosis vaccine that they were giving their heifers is a mandatory requirement to be able to ship cows across state lines. I learned that Montana is very strict about this partly due to bison because bison can also get the disease and transmit it to the cows. The transmission of diseases from bison to cows was not something I previously though of when considering the issue of bison reintroduction. Another debated issue was that of coal mining.  I was surprised when Mr. Frost liked having the coal mine as a neighbor. While he does think that coal is on its way out as a fuel, unless it can become more efficient, he says that they make very good neighbors because they will help make retention ponds and fire breaks when the need calls for it. I greatly appreciated learning about other opinions such as these. I think that this introduction to cattle ranching has helped prepare me for having my some of my old opinions changed during the rest of my visit in Montana.