Category: My Blog

Blog Entries

Entrepeneurs

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment
Out to Summer Pasture
Photo by Janice Cartwright

Yesterday I was able to attend a class about Growing Food Businesses sponsored by AERO. The day circulated around produce and Farmer’s Market opportunities. I’ve not been one to delve into Farmer’s Markets yet, but with our homegrown beef it is something we wanted to know more about. Additional information is almost always helpful for obvious reasons, but it also triggers new thoughts.

There’s something about being in certain groups of people that get your wheels turning. I didn’t know any of these folks and I won’t be seeing them regularly, but the energy present from a group of entrepreneurs certainly was fun. Being with others who want to create something new or use things they have to produce a product that will benefit others reminds me of the fact that we too are entrepreneurs.

I realize that as beef producers we aren’t classically seen as entrepreneurs, but really we are. The definition of entrepreneur is “someone who initiates or finances new commercial enterprises.” (Encarta Dictionary) Some don’t think of ranching as a commercial enterprise, but cattle are bought and sold as a business, so it classifies. Thinking about things in this way makes me want to mull over new ideas, see new perspectives, and dialogue about what’s been working and what hasn’t.

Since we are small scale, the idea we currently have implemented is selling beef directly to consumers. While this isn’t a new idea, what we finish them on isn’t average feed. Our beef are finished on natural forage. Last year they grazed on a cover crop of radishes, turnips, triticale, and sunflowers. When we do grain the steers, we give oats and barley. The cattle that grazed on the cover crop alone (without grain supplementation) gained an average of three pounds a day.

We love seeing things from different angles. It seems imperative to make it in our day and age. What about you? How would a new perspective shift your day? What new ideas can you implement?

Let’s not be afraid to try new things!

Our Business Brochure

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

Last week I talked about a business plan in ranching, so this week I’m sharing our business brochure with you.

Your place is unique, so decide upon a model or plan that works for you. We need a brochure style. Maybe you want a one-page outline or a spreadsheet. Since we are sharing this with customers, we wanted a formal approach combined with our story.

We can’t put everything on a brochure, but I’m a strong believer in connecting our story with your story. Maybe you’re a fellow producer, perhaps you’re a customer, or you could have stumbled upon this website. Whatever “you’re” you are, we value your journey and how it connects with us. A solitary story line is a very boring place to be and we treasure how our story has, or will, weave along with yours.

The Plan

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

ImageWhat did you want to be when you were growing up? Are you doing it?

After the phases of wanting to be Tinker Bell, Batman, and such, did you have an idea of what you really liked? I dreamed of being an author. Oh to write books like Judy Blume! Today, words impact me more than any other art form. For my hubby, it was ranching. He’s wanted to be a cowboy since he was old enough to “saddle” the arm of the couch.

He shared his passion of agriculture and I found it naturally alluring. As we’ve done this ranching adventure, we’ve had to adjust and think about what we want the future to look like. When we first began years ago, we started out with a few cows here and there. Our setup was less-than-ideal, but we made it work. In 2013, we sold the 125 cow herd we’d grown (still not huge in many ranching circles, but it was profitable and enjoyable), as well as our house. We let go of leases. We didn’t have land of our own, so this move was to lead us to a place of our own where we’d rebuild the herd.

It took two years before we found our land and it didn’t end up being where we thought. Now we have 135 acres–a fair chunk of land–but you ranchers know this isn’t enough land to accomplish ranching full scale. We had nearly 4,000 acres in lease land before–this seems minute. However, it isn’t impossible. We just need to change our business plan. Obviously we can’t run a cow/calf operation that will pencil with so few AUM’s.

What we can do, is support a small herd of beef cows where we supply local restaurants with high pasture raised veal. This is a different picture than we ever anticipated, but as I’ve dealt with health issues and our family with food allergies and sensitivities, we are increasingly excited about quality food. We have a mission statement and business plan that clarify and outline our goals.

Do you know where you want to be in ten years? How will you get there? What will be different? What will be the same?

Here’s what we did: First, come up with a vision statement and/or mission statement that describes what you do and WHY you want to do it. Simon Sinek has an excellent talk about the motivation behind what you do. Your WHY is always more important than your WHAT.

Next, outline your business. That’s right, ranching is a business. Obviously we sell cattle. Go deeper. Do you want to start keeping replacement heifers? Raising bulls? Is your target wean date in October for November shipping? Even if you’ve done this for years, look at if there is something you don’t want to do or something you’d like to add to your operation. Get it on paper. This brings solidarity to your ideas and uniformity to your thoughts. Thoughts will often swim around in our brains for decades unless we give them some form of action.

Finally, make a plan for what you’d like to accomplish this year. Even though it is March, there is time to evaluate. As I’ve mentioned before, use what resources you already have and then look at moving forward. It might not happen exactly as you plan, but you will move closer toward that place of where you want to be in ten years

Nearly Calving…

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment
cardwell ski day, cattle pics 074
Some of the new girls.

It’s almost that time for us–calving season! I know its cliché, but calving season and spring are true reminders of the cycle of life. The snow will stop (although sometimes in Montana we wonder). Trees will become green. Everything that slowed for the harsh temperatures and weather patterns of winter will indeed come to life again in the spring.

As I’ve mentioned before, we downsized when we moved, selling our herd. We’ve had short-term cattle and steers and now we are building back a small herd. We picked up a few “late” calvers from some friends. They begin calving in January, but we prefer to aim for the first of April. Their lates were our on-times.

Most every rancher has their calving preference. Some like after the first of the year because it allows for older calves in the fall, it doesn’t interfere with spring farming, and rebreeding happens before you turn them out to pasture in the summer.

We like April calving because the temperatures are milder and we don’t have indoor facilities. We have very minimal farming on our place and historically our calves gain well by November. This timing works for us, but each producer must do what works best to fit their needs. Where a small group didn’t fit the winter calving bunch on one place, they were a perfect addition to our pasture.

Wouldn’t it be handy if everything in life worked that way? There are avenues were it does: that’s why craigslist and garage sales are successful.

Don’t you ever wonder sometimes though–what does work best? Certainly trial and error are great teachers. If you happen to have heritage on a place, perhaps time has shown you what works best. However, conditions (people included) change over time. It isn’t ever a bad idea to create a business plan for ranching. (More on business plans in ranching next week.) Having a vision of where you are going will help you take steps in the right direction.

We began ranching from scratch and we are thankful for the piece of land we have now. Is it feasible to stock it with a lot of cattle? Absolutely not. It’s going to need a few years of TLC before it reaches maximum production. It is in our best interests to have a small scale operation focused on instilling quality grazing for meat production. Our goal this fall isn’t to sell to a feedlot, but to sell high quality veal to consumers.

We believe in a symbiotic relationship between land and animals. This vision gives us an opportunity to grow and care for both land and animal alike with a family focused production. We’re quite excited about this spring…

Let the calving commence!

 

 

 

How About Those ZZZ’s?

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

Boy, Male, Man, Young, Sleeping

Maybe it is night calving, or worry, or working two jobs…whatever the source, lack of sleep messes with people. I’ve misplaced my keys after just having them in my hand and forgotten what someone told me… in addition to yawning my way through the day. At some point, it seems sleeplessness affects everyone.

In keeping with the unwritten laws of cowboy culture, plans do not change because of exhaustion. After repeated cups of coffee or several pinches of chew, the cowboy keeps going as if nothing had ever happened. Life doesn’t stop because we are tired, I understand. It’s just that after decades of pushing through, it can catch up with a person.

There are a couple of old wives tales or pioneer remedies for lack of sleep, like drink a glass of warm milk before bed. (This has actually been proven to have some merit because of the soothing effect of a warm drink as well as a tidbit of tryptophan in milk.) My grandpa used to put a big rock in the oven, then put the warm rock in his bed before climbing under the sheets at night. Early settlers used to pick hops, dry it out, and put it in their pillows. Hops are still recommended as a natural remedy for sleeplessness. (This doesn’t include passing out from drinking your hops.)

If you google insomnia, there are more websites than I can count with suggestions for sleeping. There are many helpful tips. Yet hearing people in agriculture talk about difficulty sleeping makes me wonder: Can a lack of sleep come from adhering to past cowboy culture in our modern world? In other words, how much pressure is there to work sun up to sun down because that’s what ranchers “do”? Does an unwritten mentality–I must do x y and z today in this particular way because otherwise the neighbors might think I’m lazy or incapable–keep us from a peaceful night of sleep?

Ranching is hard work no matter what. It is rarely a lack of exercise that keeps a cowboy or cowgirl awake at night. Many days our bones melt into our beds. What I’m wondering is if old mindsets effect new circumstances. I think they do.

There are worthy traits passed along in ranching: good work ethics, caretaking, respect, joy, nurturing, tenacity, etc. May we always hold on to these! However, if we are doing something simply because that’s the way it has always been done (even if there is a simpler method available), maybe we can save ourselves some hassle and catch a few more zzz’s. In our place that we bought last year, we are modifying the irrigation system because what’s always been done here is wasting water and causing soil erosion. Upfront, it would be easier to just leave what’s here, but in the long-run, we’ll have some mighty dry and unproductive pastures. We are looking to enhance productivity for the future–not just for us, but for those who come after us.

I’m also reevaluating my daily process because doing what I think looks good to others or continuing in something because that’s what’s always been done has cost me some sleep. I certainly don’t want to do the opposite and tick everyone off just because I can, but I think remaining true to how God made me, even if it doesn’t fit the mold, is of high priority. I may not get it right all the time, but I suppose that’s why there is grace.

May we find grace for one another, our mindsets, and our ranch–and may this lead to some restful nights.

Living or Dying?

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

April 2015, Cardwell Hike, Billy cattle class 054

 

“Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.”

                                                      –Henry Van Dyke

 

America is home of the free, but it is also home of the stressed-out, fast-paced, daily-grind type of living. Not everyone, mind you, operates at break-neck speed, but it is certainly a temptation in our culture. Whether our personalities thrive with on-the-go living or not, it is important to consider what promotes our living style.

 

It seems like no matter where I go, people offer me their stories. I love this because I enjoy connecting with others and hearing about their lives. Often in the middle of another’s journey, we find some resemblance to our own. Lately I’ve noticed and been introduced to many people who have worked decades in jobs they detest. They do it because they need to provide for their families, or it provides a better income than what they really wanted to do, or because they felt like someone else needs them to do it.

 

Do we do this in ranching?

 

I’d like to think not, but I’m leaning towards assuming that we all do it sometimes. Certainly there are times in our lives when we have to do things we don’t like or wish not to do. Early on especially, there are hoops to jump through or classes to take. (Have you ever said, “I don’t see how this will ever apply to me?”) However, those menial jobs, the classes, the hoops–they all help lead us somewhere…

 

Where is that somewhere though?

 

Are the things we are going through leading us to a place of discovering more of who we are? Are they uncovering our talents or weaknesses? Most importantly–are they promoting passion?

 

It is a lot easier to keep up the pace, when we are motivated by desire or passion and enjoy what we are doing. This isn’t an excuse to go out and quit your job, but an invitation to see how you can bring joy or desire into your position. Maybe it will include changing careers, but first know who you are and what you were meant to do and pray for the right time.

 

As for us in ranching, it means we have a mission statement and a vision of what we’d like to see happen. This includes our desire for a symbiotic relationship between land and animals. It encompasses good stewardship. It definitely includes failure.

 

Whatever we are willing to get back up from time and again is a good indicator of desire.

 

We’ve tried things that didn’t work, downsized at the right times and the wrong, and made a lot of money or just a little bit. It is always after things don’t go that well though that we reassess. This isn’t punishment, it is a gift. Reassessment leads to defining moments and a stronger operation. How many times after a failure though is it hard to take a risk? It’s the most difficult time to risk, yet probably the most important. Sometimes we are so afraid of dying in our ag production, that we never really come alive in the caretaking of it. That’s why the quote above hits me so hard. If I’m afraid to die, then I’m never really free to live.

 

Of course there is balance necessary in all arenas in life, but there is also a strong need in our communities and country to live out our giftings and talents. What do you think? Are you really living? May we all be in the place, or come to the place, where life blossoms out of us. LET’S LIVE!!

 

What Do You Have Right Now?

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

february--2016--calendar

February 2016. Are you where you want to be? Thinking back five years, are you on the path you thought you’d be on at this point in your life?

Yeah, me either. Although I must admit my life goals have been somewhat ambiguous. “Do more writing. Be a better ranch wife. Choose joy above all.” These aren’t bad things, but they are hardly quantifiable. Have I reached them? I don’t know, how much is more? What is better?

What if I’d said, I’d like to be writing four pages a day. Or I’m going to study the cattle market weekly. If I have a target, I’ll know whether my aim is on.

I realize it is February and usually it is January that beckons for resolutions and goals, but the year is still young. In previous years, January’s been full and February starts to feel like the New Year. January’s been a time of dreaming and casual thinking, while February brings details. What do you want for the upcoming year?

My goal is to be writing a couple pages a day and studying market trends. I’m tackling health issues and looking forward to resolution.

When we first started out and had nothing, we operated day by day, reassessing what we had to use it to further what we wanted. We are in the same boat again. Due to relocating, we are starting over again. We chose to do this because letting go of a smaller dream allowed us to pursue a bigger one. Now we are evaluating our assets. What do we have? How will it help us grow? What other tools do we need to achieve a larger herd?

The obvious is money. No one would turn away more money. Yet this isn’t the heart behind our life. So what can we do now with what we have?

We have desire…vision…a tractor…land…new fences…Grass…Water Rights…Kids that want to help…We have knowledge.

We need to reseed pastures…to plant new cover crops…to bring in goats for weeds on the river…

These things are all doable. Yes, we’ll need to buy a few things, but we have the ability to complete the work ahead of us.

 

What do you have already that can help you get to where you want to go?

 

Puppies!

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

 

puppies! 004

How cute is that face?

It’s pretty adorable. It doesn’t scream full-blooded Border collie though. We raise Border collie pups, usually. Only this time our momma dog became pregnant on her own. We hoped it was the closest neighbor’s Border collie that fathered them, but when they were born, they were awfully dark.

Mostly black.

Some Border collies have less coloring, we rationalized.

Don’t you love when you try to talk yourself into the answer you want instead of the answer you have?

Maybe they’ll look different as they get bigger, we quipped.

Yet they look like this at almost six weeks…

puppies! 007
Cuties! 1 red/chocolate color…4 blacks

 

Is that a little black lab I see? Our nearest neighbors confirmed they’d seen a black lab in the area–we just hadn’t seen him.

It’s a risk you run when you have an unfixed female. Yet it isn’t hoped for much. We really don’t have many neighbors–and by neighbors I mean people within a mile or more of us–no city neighborhood blocks. We didn’t anticipate it much because there isn’t that much traffic around here.

Yet things happen. These five oopses happens to be very mild tempered and sweet as candy. Some surprises are tolerated easier than others. Now I just have to find five lovely people who’d give these cuties good homes…

All Kinds of Cattle Crazy

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment
compressed dog pic
One of our dogs is cattle crazy…the other isn’t. Can you guess which this one is?

Last spring, our daughter performed a poem at a school gathering. She picked Cow Attack by Baxter Black. Being a ranching family, we’ve always found Baxter Black’s poems to be all-too-funny.  While Baxter Black certainly has a knack for telling humorous tales, anyone who’s ever ranched also knows this: there is fodder for his material in agricultural living. If you’ve been around livestock, you’ll know a story about someone who’s roped a calf from the back of a truck or had their ranch dog embarrass them. Better yet, you’ve probably got your own stories. We do.

We started out cattle crazy because we knew what we’d like to accomplish, but didn’t have the upfront capital to accomplish it. We decided we’d do something with what we had rather than wait and do nothing. So we bought the ugliest, oldest, cheapest cattle, put them on rented pasture and concocted a mobile corral. Now our chute was pretty well given to us and our “corral” consisted of fencing material gained from WalMart. (It used to be around their garden center.) We are not proud of this, like I said, we simply decided to start somewhere. Well, the first cow we sent through that contraption entered the chute like a champ. We smiled. She snorted, not in refutation, just more like a cow sneeze/snort. Well, everything but the head catch fell off that chute and this big ol’ girl just stood there, the head catch stuck on her neck, looking at us like, “What do I do now?” This is when buying an old cow came in handy because she wasn’t surly cull material and she let us get that head catch off. It’s funny because it’s true.

Sometimes crazy cow things just happen.

Years ago my hubby and his friend drove by a fancy wedding (unintentionally of course) sporting a bloated bovine carcass on our flatbed with four legs straight in the air. The guests stared and my hubby drove by quick as he could without dropping her unwanted hide on the party.

Once we had a guy drive buy while we were working cattle and offered to help. On a Harley. Seriously? We politely explained the cattle and horses weren’t used to Harleys.

We’ve had handfuls of people offer to help us gather and such. Which is nice until they say things like “Yeah, I’d be a lot of help. My grandpa had a ranch I visited all the time.” We ask a few questions and find out the grandpa had five acres and ten rabbits. Sometimes conversations with people who think they know ranching can be humorous. For us anyway.

Recently though, on my way to a school function, I drove past one of our pastures only to see…nothing. Now, there weren’t many in the pasture, but there were pairs in it yesterday. I dropped the kids off and went back. I walked through the brush, found the mommas, and came up a barrow pit to see the calves on the other side of the fence…on the railroad tracks. Now, I was in my mom suburban, I didn’t have anything with me, but I couldn’t leave them on the tracks. So I circled around them and started moving them back towards their mommas. Now all cattle owners know that a calf can find a loose spot in the fence to get out, but they can never find it to get back in. The calves dropped down into the brush on the wrong side of the fence, but didn’t squeeze back through. So I started walking the tracks to push the group in the brush where I wanted them to go. A few popped through, but there’s always one or two… The last two challenged me, causing me to run the tracks while they frolicked through the brush one way, then the other, then back again, then the other way… Over and over. I finally got them on the right side, but it occurred to me that anyone driving by saw me dancing a jig on the tracks, while the calves themselves weren’t visible to anyone but me.

Yes, dancing on the tracks is my newest cattle crazy. But, we’ve brought calves in the house, gone to town covered in milk replacer (which I realized saying to town folk, “I’m covered in colostrum” might sound a little off, so I just looked dirty without excuses.) The kids have walked 4-H heifers through town, put hats on the animals, and fallen asleep in the barn. We’ve talked baby talk to a calf struggling for life. We’ve hooted and hollered and waved our arms dressed in our Sunday best because the cows always get out on the way to church (or on a date night). You just never know what someone will do who owns cattle.

I guess it is all okay though as long as you don’t go too crazy and buy goats to eat your weeds. I mean, you’ve never done that have you? Yeah, neither have we….

Who Am I? They say I’m a ranch wife…

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My Blog3 Comments

one sunset, marci on horse 015

Here’s who I want to be: I want to be an amazing horseback rider, cattle entrapenuer, business woman, writer, friend, and encourager. I want to rope and drag without missing, load every shot gun with vaccine in record time, and have strength to wrestle calves. In my wild imagination, I’m Annie Oakley, Martha Stewart, and Sacagawea. I climb rough terrain, wrangle every last cow, and know exactly when to buy and when to sell.

Enter reality.

I’m really good at dreaming.

I’ve never roped and dragged anything. My riding skills are currently nil due to trepidation after a mishap awhile ago. My husband is the brains, brawn, and bravo behind most business deals. (I’m super proud of him; this is not said with angst.) The last calf I attempted to wrestle laughed at me. I haven’t shot a shotgun in years and my vaccine shotgun sticks frequently. My home is my peaceful refuge, but nothing Martha would endorse. My exploratory and navigational skills are top-notch–but only to scout out my kids or a good deal.

We recently watched “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. In the film, a man finds adventure only in his daydreams until circumstances arise that excite him to a point of actually embarking on adventure.

To some extent, I’m completely happy in my daydream land. I’m somewhat quiet and reserved, especially in agricultural circles. What if I say the wrong thing?

This is why I loved the idea of this ranch wife blog, but sometimes find it difficult to write it. I admire you Annie Oakleys, Martha Stewarts, and Sacagaweas of the west. I’m amazed by the skill of you women who ride and rope.

I enjoy cooking and studying market trends. I like giving vaccines. Although it sounds weird, my favorite thing in agriculture is to pray blessings over the land and cattle–mine and yours. I don’t rope. I don’t ride anything with more kick than a carousel horse.

For this, I’ve always felt inferior. Afraid to step out.

Then we moved to Idaho for a couple years. No one knew me, so I tried to put my best self forward. The only thing was I was afraid someone would find out my secret that I didn’t possess true ranch wife skills. I didn’t intend to hide it–I don’t believe in being fake–I just hoped it wouldn’t come up. (Is there a difference?)

During an Idaho Cattle Association meeting, I stepped out and attended the Cattlewoman’s Meeting. I didn’t know anyone, but found them all to be nice. At one point in the meeting, someone said something like, “We’re trying to reach all ranch wives. Some work out of the home to support the ranch. Others are outside with their husbands. Some are stay-at-home moms. Still others cook and clean, taking care of whatever they can to help their ranch.” My heart nearly stopped. You mean I didn’t have to be Annie Oakley, Prairie Woman, and Sacagawea? I could be me and still be a “ranch wife”? It was shortly after I started this blog.

The demons of doubt didn’t flee though. I struggled to keep writing because our ranch is minute compared to other places, my talents meek in comparison.

Yet, no one else can be me.

Friends, if you have ever found yourself in a similar arena–others’ talents mounting past your own, your worth fragile in comparison’s light–maybe we can help each other by reminding ourselves that who we are isn’t determined by who someone else is.

I’ll probably never gallop up steep hills like Jim Craig (The Man from Snowy River). Yet I’m willing to try and I love to bless. So friends, may our cattle increase, may our land produce. May new opportunities find us and solutions spill out of us. May love and gratitude be our foundation and evil never prosper. May good things happen in the agriculture industry. In Jesus Name, Amen.