Animals and the Land
Post by Clemson Montana Summer Program student Gillian Taylor
Within this section we learned a ton about what physically goes into cattle, as in the diet of them as well as about some of the other factors that go into the improvement of feed quality.
On the first day, we hung out with Jeff Hermanns, a representative from the DNRC Montana who specializes in wildfire management. He stated that Montana doesn’t actually have a plan for prevention, but spends millions of dollars on suppression. I understand people’s fear of the potential risks, but I would of thought that the evidence in support of controlled burns would have started to change peoples' mind. This environment has evolved with fire, and it’s going to burn whether we like it or not, so we might as well do it on our own terms. Something that bothered me was that some individuals in our group kept proclaiming that the locals aren’t educated and that’s why they don’t take the precautions, which frustrated me because we weren’t here for the fires, and I doubt any of us have ever seen anything like it. It isn’t our homes, livelihoods, and lives that are being risked, so who are we to call them uneducated and tell them how they should do things. I’m in no way disagreeing with the science, but the assumption shouldn’t be made that preventative measures aren’t being made because the people are uneducated. That type of attitude on our part can only do one thing, and that’s grow resentment between the science and the locals, which is completely counterproductive.
The next day we learned about grazing patterns and the pros and cons to each, and in what cases each is the most beneficial. Then we did the calculations to figure out how much land and forage we would need in a hypothetical situation. I was surprised by the amount of different factors that go into determining how much land is needed to run a successful cattle ranch.
The next day we learned about what all goes into feeding cattle including all of the nutrition factors that have to be taken into account. Then we built our own supplement plan, which I genuinely enjoyed. I take my own nutrition seriously and so the concept wasn’t unfamiliar to me. The only thing I really struggled with was not really knowing what all the different feeds were, but once I got that figured out, it was just playing around with some numbers. Later that afternoon was when the real fun started. We got to go out on the Frost’s ranch and help them vaccinate some of the yearling heifers. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty and doing the actual work that we’ve been talking about. Afterwards we got shown around the ranch by Terry Frost during which he talked to us about some of his opinions on the current trends in ranching. Terry told us that “everything has a place, we've just got to adapt.” I took this to mean that the world is going to do what it wants, when it wants, and if we want to keep living in it as a species we have to learn to adapt and submit to the will of the world.
The next day we spent some more time learning about the route the cattle will take in order to complete full production. We went out to a feed lot and got to see what they do and how they do it. To be completely honest, I had negative connotations with a feed lot in terms of animal welfare, but going out there and seeing it for myself, changed my thinking. The steers were in good shape and not overcrowded by any means. It was interesting to hear about how they try to grow what feed they can as well as distributing the manure to farms in the local areas, making it a real multi-use operation.
On the first day, we hung out with Jeff Hermanns, a representative from the DNRC Montana who specializes in wildfire management. He stated that Montana doesn’t actually have a plan for prevention, but spends millions of dollars on suppression. I understand people’s fear of the potential risks, but I would of thought that the evidence in support of controlled burns would have started to change peoples' mind. This environment has evolved with fire, and it’s going to burn whether we like it or not, so we might as well do it on our own terms. Something that bothered me was that some individuals in our group kept proclaiming that the locals aren’t educated and that’s why they don’t take the precautions, which frustrated me because we weren’t here for the fires, and I doubt any of us have ever seen anything like it. It isn’t our homes, livelihoods, and lives that are being risked, so who are we to call them uneducated and tell them how they should do things. I’m in no way disagreeing with the science, but the assumption shouldn’t be made that preventative measures aren’t being made because the people are uneducated. That type of attitude on our part can only do one thing, and that’s grow resentment between the science and the locals, which is completely counterproductive.
The next day we learned about grazing patterns and the pros and cons to each, and in what cases each is the most beneficial. Then we did the calculations to figure out how much land and forage we would need in a hypothetical situation. I was surprised by the amount of different factors that go into determining how much land is needed to run a successful cattle ranch.
The next day we spent some more time learning about the route the cattle will take in order to complete full production. We went out to a feed lot and got to see what they do and how they do it. To be completely honest, I had negative connotations with a feed lot in terms of animal welfare, but going out there and seeing it for myself, changed my thinking. The steers were in good shape and not overcrowded by any means. It was interesting to hear about how they try to grow what feed they can as well as distributing the manure to farms in the local areas, making it a real multi-use operation.
