A disconnect

Post by Clemson undergraduate Sara Jayne Wint

This past section contained a wide variety of activities and tours, but they all tied together with common themes. For example, we explored Weschenfelder Feedlot and then spoke to forester Jeff Hermans an hour later. And although the two may seem unrelated, it was interesting to hear about how forestry directly affects cattleman. Jeff began his talk by saying that people are emotionally attached to the trees on their land. They enjoy looking out into their backyard and seeing pine trees. However, in Jeff’s eyes, pine trees are fuels for fire. In traditional forestry, it is recommended to have at least thirty feet between each tree in order to decrease the ability for wildfires to become crown fires that are impossible to put out. However, ranchers are afraid of changing how they have managed their landscape, feel they do not have to time to cut down trees on their property, or do not have the money to pay someone to do it. But with the research on the increasing woody plant encroachment, such as what we saw from Montana State University students at the Matador Symposium, I think this will need to be more common practice to prevent catastrophic fires.

Related to the topic of trees, we spoke to rancher Terry Frost, who has a fall calving herd specifically to avoid letting the cows eat pine needles, which contain turpentine that can lead to abortions. I thought was a very interesting opinion, as I know that ranchers most commonly calve in the spring. I also learned from Terry that it takes 40 acres to sustain one cow in Montana. That was very surprising to me because in South Carolina, most of the beef cattle farms are quite small. For instance, it is not uncommon in South Carolina that a rancher may own 40 acres and put 30 cows in that pasture.

Additionally, I was really looking forward to visiting a feedlot in Montana because I had never seen one in real life but learned about them in my animal science classes. As we toured Weschenfelder Feedlot, it was crazy to see how much science goes into finishing cattle. The research behind the chute system and the specificity of their nutrition was fascinating, and although it seems somewhat inhumane to keep one hundred cows in such small lots, they are only there for a few months of their lives, and it seems to be tradition that keeps feedlots from changing. There is not a lot of research being performed to change the feedlot system to subdue animal rights groups from criticizing the cattle industry.

Everywhere we went, there was mention of RFID tags and grow safe systems: our tours of Weschenfelder Feedlot, MSU beef farm, sheep farm, research endeavors, and Midland Bull Test facility. It was mind-blowing to think how this feeding system has revolutionized so many aspects of the livestock industry. Just 15 years ago there was no way to measure an animal’s efficiency, or in other words, its ability to eat less but gain more. But now, it is one of the most important pieces of cattle ranching, as Steve McDonnell, owner of the Midland Bull Test facility was telling us, “The profit margin for ranchers is slim, and the number one input cost is feed.” As efficiency is a relatively new idea, there is a lot of progress to be made in respect to selecting for it in bloodlines, and I definitely think that will be the path bull testing will take going forward.

Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed touring Montana State University. There were a lot of presentations on the research being done at the school, and one of the most interesting projects was done by Devon Ragen, in which she studied the effect of finishing sheep on wheat stubble fields. In turn, the are sheep applying manure and urine to the field and increasing the soil nutrients. The results were surprisingly very positive. The sheep had higher dressing percentages and it reduced tillage intensity and soil erosion. However, the biggest obstacle to implementing this system in the future is connecting sheep farmers to wheat farmers across Montana. This connects to what we’ve been learning throughout this class; there is a disconnect between different groups of people who need to be working together to achieve common goals.