By Austin Snedden, Ranching Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
I have had the privilege of being able to travel around much of the country shopping for herd bulls and learning about cattle. I have always felt that the best way to learn about a herd was to learn a breeder’s philosophy and try to see things through their eyes. The bovine is an amazing creature: It can survive and thrive in arid country that has no other ag value, and it can also thrive on the most valuable farm ground in the world. Variations in environmental factors across the nation make the methods of production quite different from region to region. The genetics that work well in one area may not work well in another, the tools of the trade and the uniform may vary from region to region, but the goals are the same.
A cattleman in Minnesota may not know how to saddle a horse but can diagnose and repair a broke down tractor in the field with minimum tools. A western cattleman may be able to pasture rope a yearling effortlessly on his/her own but may not know how to turn on a pivot. You have folks that refer to their stocking rate in cows per acre, and folks that operate in a country that takes 100 acres per cow. Even the variation within a state can be shocking. One operator may be maintaining 10 miles of one-inch water line to deliver drinking water to arid country, while another is operating an eighteen-inch irrigation well to flood irrigate a pasture. A western rancher may be able to give you the thorough epidemiology of Foothill Abortion but may have never heard of fescue toxicity. Northern tier ranchers spend a substantial chunk of their growing season putting up feed for the harsh winters, while ranchers in the southwest work to carry cows through the dry feed of summer and early fall just to get to a winter green up.
All these differences are highlighted by different apparel, tools, equipment, and maybe even different conversations, but the bovine at the center of attention is what brings all these folks together. The goal is the same, protecting the health of the cow, while converting natural resources into fantastic protein. Though the methods are quite different these folks have more in common than they do things that separate them. They all work very unconventional schedules usually dictated by biology, daylight, and weather. All of them are trying to time the productions of their operations to match the biological production of their environments. All of them are comfortable with a certain level of inherent risk. All of them are trying to mesh environmental forces with market forces in order sell their cattle in a market they have little control over and that has weak indicators and forecasts. Throughout my travels, I have learned a lot about different methods, while also learning how little I knew about different forms of production. The cow being at the center of life is what ties the rancher, tightening a cinch on a horse to the cattleman fueling up the harvester. There are market and regulatory issues that our industry needs to confront and I hope we can draw from our common goals to speak with a louder voice collectively.
