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This week provided the Taste of the Wind Crew a chance to tag along moving some "doggies" across the Centennial Valley with the Rardin and Sigel families....
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The day started around 5AM, when I jumped out of bed to get all of my animals squared away before Peter and I headed out to Hecht Creek Ranch in Centennial.
We ate our hearty breakfast of pasture-raised eggs and bacon in the car as we sped along the highway looking forward to a chance to break up the daily routine.
Peter got to hang with my friend Harmony for the day, and boy did they have fun!
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Pip, Jameson, my intern Elizabeth and I went out on the several mile cattle drive with 6 others on horseback and 2 other dogs (the k-9 kind), pushing a herd of about 900 head of Hereford/Angus cross steers along highway 11 to their new pasture, where they will spend most of the rest of the summer.
It was a great day, and a great reminder of the impact we all have when we choose where to source our food.
We crossed several driveways of other ranches, we passed fence lines across which other cattle herds and herds of horses were grazing and enjoying the day's spectacle.
Most of the traffic that passed us had the courtesy to slow down and drive cautiously, which was greatly appreciated by our group.
Did you know that livestock have the right of way on roads in Wyoming?
Wyoming is a Right to Farm and an Open Range state. This means agriculture operations can not be shut down for being a nuisance to surrounding property owners, and that if you do not want livestock on your property, it is your responsibility to fence them out, not the livestock owners'.
When it comes to roads, livestock have the right of way when they are being driven along highways and rights of way, and if the county does not want livestock crossing in a certain place, it is the county's responsibility to provide a crossing over or under the road.
It would have taken at least 15 trips with a semi-truck and trailer to get these cattle down the road, but it only took us one trip on horseback and then one trip back to the ranch at the end of the day with 2 pickup trucks and trailers to get all the horses, dogs, and humans home.
We got these steers moved in just under 4 and a half hours. I bet it would have taken a lot longer to load them all into the semis and haul them and unload them, not to mention the hauling fees that would have incurred.
So overall, this method of moving cattle just makes more sense, and was quite a bit more enjoyable for the cattle, the dogs, and the people involved.
The horses, on the other hand, probably would have rather stayed home and took a nap, but they have to earn their keep sometimes too.
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This kind of work makes me feel so fulfilled. I have always loved working with animals to accomplish a common goal. It is such a fascinating relationship to partake in with the dogs, horses, and cattle all working together following an ingrained code of nature that goes back eons to our roots as predators and prey- with notably with less violence and stress. We don't have to run these cattle down until they just can't run fast enough to avoid becoming a meal anymore.
Thanks to the old cowboy tv shows and movies, this slow-paced method of moving livestock goes against what most people tend to imagine when you say the words "cattle drive." It's not a very fast-paced endeavor at all. It takes the form of a prolonged stroll, with intermittent jogs when the cattle see something up ahead they are looking forward to, like fresh running water, or a particular type of forage. This week, the Basin Wildrye and Greasewood were real hits!
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There is something about working alongside animals that love the work as much or more than we do.
Pip and Jameson really give any human co-worker I have had a run for their supper when it comes to passion, dedication, and going all-in. It was fun to watch them slip into their grooves.
Pip hasn't had too many chances to work sheep separately from Jameson. Jameson was our first dog that we trained on livestock, starting about 6 years ago, and Jameson trained Pip into the work for us as she matured. Pip really looks to Jameson as her mentor whenever she has doubts about what I am asking her to do.
However, on this drive. Jameson picked up the drag position, in the back of the herd while Pip and I took on a side position, keeping the cattle moving forward and pushing them off the road. Because of this positioning, Pip couldn't consult with Jameson when she had doubts, and she had to make decisions for herself. She was a bit hesitant at the beginning, but she gained confidence as the day went on, and eventually she was putting cattle back into the group from the road all on her own. This experience was a great confidence boost for both dogs, and by the end of the day they were both working different parts of the herd, making clean decisions that I felt proud of.
They are pretty dang smart!
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It's these relationships that go under the radar the most when we talk about what goes into raising our food.
Everything about ecosystems and animals is dynamic, and livestock management is truly an immersive art that is both instinctual, intuitive, yet hard to understand until you experience it.
Thinking back to just how many relationships were involved in one cattle move is incredible to me. So many families fit into this complicated web of nature, community, resources- it humbles me to consider it all.
Knowing that what I choose to eat on a daily basis has a massive role in deciding which of these relationships prevail and which perish is nothing less than humbling either...
I do find hope in the fact that I can support families like the Rardins and I can keep them out on the landscape doing what they do best along the animals we so heavily depend on and respect.
I have hope that my choices and the choices of people like you BJ can help keep these spaces open, this air fresh, and these water sources clean.
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I have been thinking a lot about how we borrow this earth from our children.
It really hits home when you have children of your own and it has sure put the future into a lot clearer perspective for me.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed at all of the messes there are to clean up from my generation and all the ones before mine...
If Peter can know what it is like to breathe in fresh air and to take a nice big gulp of clean water, to work along side animals and plants that he will gain nourishment from for his own family one day- I feel like I will have done an important, but small part of a really big job that is my responsibility as a parent and a member of my generation on earth.
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I hope one day Peter realizes the work that goes into producing clean, natural, foods and he takes his role in preserving our precious resources on earth seriously.
If he is anything like you and me, experiences like this cattle drive we participated in the other day will help him understand.
Do you want to experience the landscape and the animals like we did?
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E and H Guide Service offers trail rides throughout the summer on the Hecht Creek Ranch, in Centennial Wyoming, where you can see a lot of the same ground we covered, ride the same horses, and talk to the same cowboys!
You can book a ride on the Hecht Creek Ranch HERE.
And if all this talk of cattle drives has you hankerin' for a good old Wyoming Steak, you can still reserve bulk beef for late summer and fall of this year. Early bird pricing is over, but you can still snag beef and lamb shares on our website HERE.
Until next week.
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-BJ and the Taste of the Wind Crew
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