Sage Signals
Voice of the Nevada Livestock Industry
July 2012
Volume XXXV, #9
INSIDE ✧ Across the Kitchen Table: Bieroth Angus Ranch pages 1-2
Published monthly for its membership
Across the Kitchen
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✧ What has NCA Done for You? page 3 ✧ NCA Scholarship Recipients Biographies page 5 Will Marshall’s Essay page 6-7 Lynn Dodge’s Essay pages 8-9 ✧ Settlemeyer Attends YCC Conference page 11 ✧ Market Reports pages 12-13 ✧ Beef Council Checkoff page 15 ✧ Industry News page 16 ✧
Bieroth Angus Ranch Thank you to all our supportive members. Nevada Cattlemen’s Association has greatly grown since 1935 and we couldn’t have done it without you. I hope you enjoy reading our summer series of ranching families and members of NCA as much as I enjoyed getting to visit their places and learning about their operations. My Dad had always told me, “Agriculture isn’t just a way of life anymore. It’s a business.” Now my Dad is a smart man, but it never really sinks in until you hear it from someone else. I was just sitting down to enjoy a cup of coffee at the Bieroth’s house when Dennis said just that, “Ranching isn’t just a way of life anymore.” We had just begun talking about the place “the kids” had bought next door. The BS (Bieroth-Small) Ranch as the place is tentatively called by the family was purchased this last year by Casey, Cara and her husband Wade Small. In an effort to stay in ranching, the kids, being Casey, Cara and Wade, bought the ranch next to their parents but, as we all know, it’s getting harder to make a living just ranching. And, an even bigger challenge, keeping the family in ranching and working together. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised to learn, this determined family has worked hard to overcome both challenges. Dennis and Marcia Bieroth are both natives of the Elko County area. A young man in his twenties, Dennis returned to the ranch in 1974 to help his Grandpa, soon to marry Ms. Marcia Maxon and have three children, two girls and a boy, Jennifer, Cara and Casey. Over 30 years later, the ranch now
runs Angus cattle using their small operation and grazing on Forest Service land that surrounds the ranch. I’m a native Nevadan as well, but the first picture that comes to my mind when I think grazing on public land, isn’t what surrounds the Bieroth Ranch. North of the popular recreation area Wild Horse Reservoir, turning on Magy Summit Road into the forest, the Bieroth Ranch lay at the foot of the rugged Bull Run Mountain Range, one of the most northeastern ranges of the Great Basin. True to Forest Service land, the area is well watered by several creeks which eventually empty into the Owyee River. My visit to the Bieroth Ranch took place in the middle of June but none the less, still cold as we walked around both ranches. After a few cups of warm coffee, I was eager to walk around outside, cold weather or not. Bundling up in our jackets, vests, gloves and wild rags, we started outside. A few small old barns stand behind the small, quaint home of the family on the main place. Many of the buildings are older barns which the family has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2