Relationships make long-lasting communities

Post by Clemson undergraduate student Cora Price

One thing everyone loves about living in Montana is the relationships in their communities. Montana reminds me of where I grew up, small towns, all the people are neighborly, and help each other in a time of need. This state will hopefully always be a long-lasting community. There are many matters on which the people of Montana collaborate, but I am only discussing a few of them in this paper: the way feedlots work with ranchers, how forestry goes along with ranching, how ranchers work together, and how researchers work to better things for livestock.

            Feedlots are where ranchers send their cows or bulls for growing, developing heifers for breeding, fatten for slaughter, and also growing buffalo. We visited the Weschenfelder Feedlot, where the owners of the cattle have to trust the owner Dale with the ability to do the best for their cattle. When coming into this feedlot I saw how much these cattle meant to him and how much the feedlot meant to him. Weschenfelder feedlot was bought by his parents then passed down to him. When ranchers bring their cattle to Dale, he processes them. Processing includes branding, shots with boosters, making their custom feed, Bangs shot which is for brucellosis, and some cattle have implants. The Weschenfelder feedlot makes all their feed, roughages, and forages for each owner. All the tasks Dale has to take care of shapes a relationship with all his costomers.

            The Midland bull test facility we visited reminded me of a feedlot. Both of these facilities are about what works best, not about the most popular thing that is convenient at the time. Steve mentions, “Stick to core values instead of popularity. The subject that is popular at the time will go out of style.” This statement is very true, and more people should understand this concept. Understanding this concept would save people more money. Montana is trying to conserve this land by sticking to core values. Doing this shapes the future ranchers. Future ranchers are a younger generation. This scares me because I see that many of the younger generations and people around my age do not care about core values. I think this subject will disintegrate in time. I also think core values make up a long-lasting community.         

Forestry plays a big role with ranching. Before we talked to forestry workers and ranchers, I never knew the importance of their relationship. Not all ranchers or people that live in Montana let forestry workers thin their trees. This can be dangerous to the wildlife, to the people that live there, and to everyone else’s land around. In an area where trees are not thinned the fire can grow hotter and things can burn more quickly. If a fire goes up a hill this is called pre-heating. Pre-heating also makes the fire hotter and faster. Thinning of trees helps the fire slow down and stay at the ground, this enables forestry workers and firefighters to contain and put the fire out as soon as possible. Thinning of trees should be a necessity for all land owners in Montana as well as ranchers because this is the safest option for their land, animals, and houses.    
Ranchers work with together with other ranchers to achieve their goals in life and to keep their ranch afloat. Terry and Lavonne Frost, owners of Frosty Creek Ranch stated, “They have great neighbors, including the coal mine which is very considerate.” They also mentioned that if a ranch does not do proper weed management that the public will come in, take care of it, and the rancher will have to pay for it. In other states I know, weed management is not a necessity, this subject surprised me because the public comes in and does this for ranchers. This shows me that people of Montana care about the production, the land, and how people take care of land. This subject goes along with ranchers that let research be done on their land to see what the best for the environment is, for ranching, and for their land. This relationship is important for the communities to last longer.