I have always had some appreciation of ranchers, but I have even more seeing what goes on behind the scenes

 Guest post by Clemson student Joseph Romano

Seeing the Ponderosa Pines covering the hills around Bull Mountains was a contrast to the sea of grasses I experienced while camping further North. The Bobcat Fire scars showed the occurrence of an intense and severe fire. The majority of the pines in the hills had gone up like matchsticks by way of intense crown fires. Most trees were dead or dying as a result of the fire damage. Some had fallen, but they remained fully intact on the landscape thanks to the lack of decomposition that occurs in the dry weather and poor retention of moisture on the ground here.

We went out on the farm truck into different sample sites of the Bobcat Fire. The sites include all possible combinations of thinned or unthinned, and burned or unburned. We used both an established method and a novel method so we could gauge the accuracy of the novel method. First, for the novel method, we photographed the vegetation four meters away from a white board background. Those photographs are to be later analyzed using AI to estimate the biomass for that plot. Species composition is manually identified just like it is in the established method. For the established method, we sought to observe the species composition and biomass of an area by identifying plant species and trimming and weighing vegetation across four one meter transects at each plot. This was conducted at several of the differing sites to find out what if any effects thinning and burning had individually or collectively on vegetation. Learning to identify not just forbs with showy flowers, but many grasses had that much more subtle characteristics to identify has been a growing process. We also looked at the fuel load for some sites by counting one, ten, hundred, and thousand hour fuels that intersected 3 transect lines across the plot. We only did that once, so I haven’t observed any trend or association between sites. I think the takeaway from the work we did on these sites was how different treatments or combination of treatments affect the sustainability of biodiversity and forage for cattle.

We also traveled to two different large-scale cattle operations and received the grand tours. The first one we went to was Yellowstone Cattle Feeders. They operate a large-scale cattle finishing operation of up to twenty-five thousand head and have mostly local Montana based customers. They have a lot of rules to comply with and challenges, such as what to do with the vast amount of manure that builds up. The previous owners had over fertilized a lot of their land with the manure, which results in excessive nitrogen and phosphorous, effecting the vegetation composition, soil microbiology and leaching into waterways. Local farmers and ranchers have grown accustomed to excess manure being donated to them for free, but it’s a huge cost to the agency that has to move the manure, so despite producing a valuable commodity, it’s an expense rather than an asset. The scale and efficiency of the operation was impressive though and they were working on improving many legacy components left to them by the previous owners. They had installed water shut-off valves for each water tank, so if they had a leak, they could cut the water locally instead of cutting off the water for the whole feed lot. Vehicles drove down the rows with feed troughs to fill them up evenly with grain in one easy movement. Grain is needed over grass for finishing in most operations because it puts way more weight on the cows faster than a grass diet. There are only a few months turnaround before the rancher sees a profit when using grain to finish, and it’s much less risky. If they rely on grass, not only does it take longer, the forage must be absolute top quality, so if there is a drought year, they’re pretty much done for. Some cows we saw suffered from bloat, which is a common problem when finishing livestock.

The other cattle operation we visited was Judith Basin County Farms. The gentleman who gave us the grand tour, Steven, had a lot more knowledge than just his expertise in cattle operations themselves. He knew a lot of what was going on with wildlife migration patterns and what they did to improve wildlife habitat and viable pathways. I liked how they had “let-down” fences where they could open up paths during migration season for certain species. They also got support from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation as well as Montana State University extension offices with improving their practices to help conserve resources and protect wildlife. They would even send them soil samples to see what was going on with the soil biology. There was a lot of direct cooperation with scientific research. We also got a new perspective on the use of hormones in cattle. He told us that newer research has shown that the different levels in the meat are not any different in cattle raised with hormones vs. hormone free. Public perception has threatened to turn against the use of these at times though and that could hurt the rancher’s ability to turn a profit with cattle numbers being at a historical low. The equipment they used was mammoth and it was staggering how much some single big ticket items cost. The tires alone on many were taller than any of us. My service dog Tarsa demonstrated how big some of the equipment was for some photo-ops.

I can see how the cattle operations were important players in sustainability and conservation. Cattle livestock have been targeted as a global warming issue for their methane production, but practices have been improved and more research is constantly being done to reduce that impact. Phosphorus is no longer overfed, which led to a significant decrease in methane production as well as negative impacts on soils and waterways. Many ranchers are taking care of the land in important ways and working with side by side with scientists to do so. I appreciated learning where the beef I consume comes from and the efforts that go into it. I have always had some appreciation of ranchers, but I have even more seeing what goes on behind the scenes.