Progressive Rancher June-July 2012

In this Issue...

WE UNDERSTAND WE UNDERSTAND COMMITMENT .

COMMITMENT .

Nevada Cattlemen’s Association...................pgs. 3-4, 9

White Paper: The Greater Sage-Grouse Does Not Warrant

For decades, Edward Jones been committed to has been committed to For has decades, Edward Jones providing financial solutions and personalized service providing financial solutions and personalized service Cow Camp Chatter, .........pgs. 5-6 to individual investors. to individual investors.

Listing Under ESA.......pgs. 20-24

You can rely on us for:You can rely on us for:

Bull Sale Reports..........pgs. 26-27

�

Convenience

�

Eye on the Outside................pg. 8

Convenience

Locations in the community and face-to-face meetings and face-to-face meetings Locations in the community at your convenience at your convenience �

Horse Snorts & Cow Bawls ..........................pg. 13 A Quality-focused Investment PhilosophyInvestment Philosophy � A Quality-focused

Wells FFA State Success.....pg. 28

A long-term approach that A focuses on quality long-term approach that focuses on quality investments and diversification investments and diversification

Ed Jones Financial Focus....pg. 28

Highly Personal Service � Highly Personal Service

Coloring Page......................pg. 31

Look Up........................pgs. 14-15

�

Investment guidance tailored to your individual needs Investment guidance tailored to your individual needs Nevada Beef Council..........pg. 15

Call or visit today.

Sonny Davidson, AAMS® Financial Advisor .

2213 North 5th Street Suite A Elko, NV 89801 775-738-8811

Call or visit today.

Jason B Land AAMS® Sonny Davidson,

Jason B Land

Financial Advisor Financial Advisor .

Financial Advisor

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2213 North Street 2213 North 5th5th Street Suite Suite A A Elko, 89801 Elko, NV NV 89801 775-738-8811 775-738-8811

www.edwardjones.com

Letters to the Editor......pgs. 16-17

2213 North 5th Street Suite A Elko, NV 89801 775-738-8811

NVSRM: Toads, Humans,

www.edwardjones.com SIPC Sage Grouse Member and ESP,

Old School Cowboy: Merv Takacs.................pgs. 32-33

Pearls from the Past:

Member SIPC

Part 2.............................pgs. 18-19

My French Connection........pg. 34

The Progressive Rancher Owner/Editor/Publisher - Leana Stitzel progressiverancher@elko.net

Graphic Design/Layout/Production - Julie Eardley julie@jeprographics.com

Photo: Wrangle Morning by Denise Smith.

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2 June | July 2012

The Progressive Rancher

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A

S

everal mornings ago, as I was unloading my horse from the trailer, I watched a sage grouse hen and her chicks as they scurried to the cover of sagebrush on the edge of the meadow complex that had been grazed by cattle in the preceding weeks. The chicks were no doubt enjoying the abundance of insects that thrive in the manure of the cattle. With the extremely dry conditions we are all experiencing in Nevada, the wildlife populations are concentrated greatly on private property due to the fact that so much of our dependable water is on private ground. Now I know we have about beat this poor old rubbery bird to death in recent publications, but we just can’t seem to get away from the onslaught of proposed regulations, negative press, and rhetoric about the species.

I quickly gathered the pairs from the meadow and pointed them toward our destination. As I rode along across miles of a sagebrush covered flat that hadn’t burned in the last two decades for sure, I couldn’t help but think about what is really going on with the sage grouse issue. It isn’t about the bird, it’s about the sagebrush.

So, now that we have been told by federal agencies that it is habitat, not a base population they are concerned about, we need to turn our attention toward addressing the issues affecting our sagebrush landscapes. What are the major threats that need to be addressed in NEVADA? The top two threats to habitat are fire and invasive species. Those of us that have been in the Great Basin for generations could have and have been telling the federal agencies that for years. When we get a hot burning fire, and we kill the native species of grasses, what is the first thing to come into the burned area? The invasive species of cheatgrass. So we “rest” the burned area to allow at least two growing seasons for rehabilitation. This gives the cheatgrass a good foothold and with the right moisture and temperatures, a successful monocolony of highly flammable fuel is now waving in the breeze where sagebrush and native grasses used to be.

Now we can all deduce that what is present after a fire looks a lot differwww.progressiverancher.com

in them raising cattle. The next question was, “Cattle?” So John explained it in terms of hamburgers and steaks. That was what this woman recognized as “cattle.” After answering John’s quiz on what kind of meat she liked to eat, and how often, I could sense that the woman was still confused about something. This is where I felt obliged to step in and see if I could clear up her confusion.

I asked the woman if she understood what we meant by raising cattle, and she nodded her head, looked me right in the eye and said, “Please don’t raise it anymore. It is too high now and I can barely afford it.” Of course the first reaction of both John and I was to laugh, but I then realized she was serious. This woman had no concept what “raising” cattle meant. We did a quick 30 second lesson on calf equals baby and “raising” meant growing that baby up so it could eventually be a healthy nutritious part of her diet. She again nodded and this time walked away.

This woman had no idea that the prior four days I had spent in Washington were spent arguing our side of many issues that impact how much she is paying for her food. It is amazing to me that a woman 5 minutes from the very location where most of these decisions are made, had no idea how they impacted her. How can we expect people living in Las Vegas, New York City, or Chicago to understand why they are paying more at the store? Agriculture is being asked to double its production to feed the world. All the while, agencies are making rules that retard the expansion of agriculture. Most recently Congress has joined the assault on agriculture with a proposed law that will regulate, by a Congressional Act, the size of a cage for laying hens. What will this do to the cost of eggs? I would imagine that very soon a waitress may be asking egg producers to stop raising the price on eggs they produce also.

It is clearer to me now than it has been in the last few years. We not only have a major disconnect with lawmakers and policy makers, but agriculture is no longer understood on a fundamental basis by the people electing politicians, who in turn, appoint agency heads. The majority of people in America believe what they read on a blog or in an internet posting. If it says we need to expand cage size for hens, then we must expand cage size by law. Never ————————— Continued: See “Washington” on page 9

ent than what was there before. Think about how this affects the Sage Grouse now.

For years the bird had been using the sagebrush for cover from predators, moving her young from nesting areas to greener and wetter habitat where succulent regrowth of grasses and forbs along with insects provide food for the growing birds. When there is no cover of sagebrush to hide and rest in, when there is no manure to pick for insects in, when there is only a sea of yellow and red cheatgrass with sparse pockets of sagebrush for cover, most chicks won’t survive the journey from nest to brood rearing habitat. Who or what is to blame for the loss of this necessary habitat? It isn’t the cow. She was turning the native grasses into protein for the world all the while leaving small flat, nonflammable cow pies of “by product” for bugs to live in. The cow takes fuel (which ranchers call feed) and creates one hell of a fire break. So why are we not focused on using this as a tool for protecting habitat? I can tell you that I am damn focused on just that.

Many of you have recently heard that Nevada is “copying” the Wyoming Sage Grouse Plan. This isn’t true. The Governor’s Sage Grouse Committee is working closely with representatives from Wyoming to draft a plan that works for Nevada. The major impacts to habitat in Wyoming are completely different from those in Nevada. Wyoming had to address the fragmentation of habitat due to oil and gas development for example. Those were the threats stated for their region by USFWS and others. That state chose to limit surface disturbance within core areas in order to address the issues. In Nevada, we must address our own major threats to habitat, those again being fire and invasive species.

How many of you remember how it used to be when we saw smoke in the summer? We left the hay fields, stopped working on fences, stopped moving cows, and we all went to fight fire. We took whatever we had from shovels to dozer. We took horses to move threatened cattle, whether our’s or ————————— Continued: See “Sage Grouse” on page 9

The Progressive Rancher

UPDATE UPDATE

s I sat down to write my monthly article, I realized that I would soon be traveling to Washington D.C. to attend a dozen or more meetings with elected officials, agency leads, lobbyists, ranching industry representatives from all across the country, and anyone else who we could convince to stop and talk a while. I made the decision to delay writing my article, so as to be able to share with everyone the vast amount of knowledge I would have gained, and to report on the huge successes the industry had while back in our nation’s capitol. After the fourth day in D.C., I came to the following conclusion…….We are pretty much fighting the same fights, arguing the same arguments, and beating our heads into the same walls we have been for 40 plus years.

Now granted, the people we are arguing with have changed, the color of the wall we are using as a head rest has changed, but the issues are in most cases, the same.

We are continuing to battle to protect the way of life we enjoy, and to protect a vital component to feeding our nation and the world. The issues with water rights, wild horses, endangered species, water regulations, dust regulations, marketing, exporting, feeding, etc. are all still here. I must admit that I was feeling like I was staring at a never ending mountain and trying to climb to the top with a broken leg. It was on the evening of the forth day in Washington that something happened that made me think a little differently about what we are facing and why. It is an example of a society that has lost touch with where its food comes from, and who is responsible for that food.

Then again, maybe it is an example of where we as agriculturists need to do a better job of communicating with the other 98 percent of America.

The evening was winding down like the three before it. A group of cattlemen was slowly starting to amass in the small lounge in the lobby of the hotel where the legislative conference was headquartered. As John Falen and I sat at a small table waiting for a couple more of our Nevada delegation to arrive before we went to eat, our waitress delivered the drinks to our table and then asked, “What are those hats you are all wearing”? Now any of you who know John Falen know that the best thing in this situation to do is sit back and watch John explain his hat. Did I mention that our waitress was most likely not native to the United States as evidenced by her accent? Well John quickly explained that we wear our hats EVERYDAY because we work

J.J.

G oicoechea DVM

Nevada Cattlemen’s Association President

June | July 2012 3

Nevada Cattlemen’s Association

By Desiree Seal, Nevada Cattlemen’s Association Executive Director

I

Spring Cleaning

t’s that time of year again, spring cleaning. Just like everyone else, we whipped out the elbow grease and took on some major projects in the office. We have been organizing and archiving files, preparing for Convention, rearranging our offices and….we’ve been updating our website! A long process, yes, but we have made much progress to what we had available on the website!

I would like to draw your attention to a few areas that will be very helpful to you, the NCA Policy/Committees section. Each year, proposed policies are introduced at the respective committee meeting of NCA Annual Convention. Co-chairs of each committee and members in attendance vote on proposed resolutions. Once a majority vote is achieved at the committee meeting, the resolution is presented at Final Session of Convention for a vote to become policy. Policies are reviewed every 3 years following implementation. We have now made available to you via online the NCA Policy and Resolutions Book. Full resolutions are not in the yearly Policy Book but please feel free to contact the NCA office and request any full resolution which you are interested in.

By the time you read this article, I will be attending the BQA State Coordinator Meeting in Denver, CO, meaning, once I return; I will be the State BQA Coordinator. As part of our website revamping, we have added the information for the BQA Program and NCA BQA Committee to the website. Found under the NCA Policy/Committee’s tab> BQA Committee, you can find the State BQA Manual, Youth BQA video clips, and BQA Quiz online. For more information on the State BQA Program, please contact the NCA office or your BQA Committee Chair, Ron Torell. If you would like to complete the BQA Training online, please print the BQA Quiz and send your completed quiz to: Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, P.O.

Box 310, Elko, NV 89801.

With Convention just around the corner, (yes, I know, its late fall but it will be here before you know it), we have also added our Sponsorship and Trade Show forms to the website.

For a full list of Sponsorship opportunities and details to be a Trade Show Exhibitor, please refer to the Convention page. Registration forms will be made available later this summer so check back for more details.

Another area of the website we are trying to complete is the History of NCA. The good news is we have meeting minutes from the start of the Association. The bad news is, I get side tracked in reading them and have not gotten the History portion completed yet. I do, however, welcome any photos from all of our membership for the website and for our office and I hope you will check our website periodically for any updates.

These are just a few areas we have been working on that I would like you to know about.

Feel free to check out our Events pages, hear from your past presidents, and learn more about our membership opportunities.

Also, trying to stay current with the technology of the world, we have updated our Facebook page! Find us on Facebook by searching for Nevada Cattlemen’s Association! Keep up to date on issues facing the ranching industry and what is going on with NCA through our Facebook. As part of our Facebook, we will be featuring our members and ranching families across Nevada! We are very thankful for our dedicated members and hope you will enjoy the stories and pictures about our members.

I won’t bore you with the details of our organizing and rearranging but I invite you to take a break from your spring cleaning and come check it out!

NCA Attends PLC/NCBA Legislative Conference in Washington DC

I

keep being told, “Once summer comes, things will slow down at the office.” This month marks my fifth month working for Nevada Cattlemen’s and we’re still as busy as day 1. Working for the ranching industry, I should have known better. Summer isn’t when the work slows down…. Work is just getting started!

This month brought our Public Lands Council/National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (PLC/NCBA) Annual Legislative Conference in Washington DC. Members of NCA gathered at our nation’s capital to meet with state leadership and federal land management agencies to discuss current issues and bring awareness to concerns of the ranching industry. This Conference serves as an important part of the year for every State’s Cattlemen’s Association and affiliates to meet with state delegations and address the unique issues and circumstances that face the cattle industry around the nation.

As over 90% of Nevada is public lands, many of the presentations from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service addressed concerns of NCA. Presentations included the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Division, BLM employees of the Rangeland, Riparian and Plant Conservation Division and the U.S. Forest Service Rangeland Management Division. PLC Legislative Conference also presented updates from Affiliates of the beef industry. Affiliate updates were presented by the Association of National Grasslands, the American Sheep Industry Association and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The Conference also featured a presentation from Rep. Lucus (R-OK) in regards to the House Agriculture Committee and the Farm Bill 2012. With discussion of the Election 2012 NCBA also presented a political analyst who discussed the

current races by state and nationally.

Further into the week began meetings “on the Hill” with congressional representatives and agency leadership.

Members of NCA met with Senator Reid, Senator Heller, Congresswoman Berkeley and Congressman Amodei and congressional staff members. Meetings with agency leadership included; Director Bob Abbey (BLM), Chief Tom Tidwell (USFS), and Chief Dave White (NRCS) as well as several Division Chairs. Our meetings proved to be productive and NCA was able to address a variety of legislative issues affecting Nevada producers. Current legislation that NCA discussed with leadership included the support of the Grazing Improvement Act, controversial U.S. Forest Service water rights, revision of the Endangered Species Act, repeal of the Estate Tax, and the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

The Grazing Improvement Act has been introduced

by Senator Barrasso (R-WY). This Act will codify the language of the appropriations bill that assures grazing permits are renewed in a timely manner. This bill will prove to be more cost effective for land management agencies by extending the life of grazing permits and make crossing and trailing permits of livestock, exempt from NEPA review.

The original intent of the Endangered Species Act was to prevent the extinction of species by recovering and removing them from the threatened or endangered species list. Despite this worthy goal, the Act has had an extremely low success rate having only declared less than two percent of listed species, recovered. Recommendations for ESA reform have been submitted to the House Natural Resource Committee by the livestock industry.

The Estate Tax (also known as the Death Tax) significantly impacts multi-generation farms and ranches that are essentially asset-rich and cash-poor family businesses.

In December 2010, Congress passed temporary estate tax relief effective through December 31, 2012. The Death Tax Permanency Repeal Act has been introduced in the House

by Rep. Brady (R-TX) and in the Senate by Senator Thune (R-SD).

The Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 significantly affects the lives of many Nevada producers. By not abiding by the Act, Bureau of Land Management has not achieved appropriate management levels to sustain a viable wild horse population and maintain healthy rangelands. Because of budgetary concerns and the continued adjustments to management of wild horses, discussion of revisions to the Act were presented by BLM leadership and discussed by NCA with congressional and BLM leadership.

A continued controversial discussion, the ownership of water rights in the State of Nevada by the federal government, was once again debated. The USFS has been refusing to provide funding for maintaining or developing new water developments for private water rights on public land unless partially partial ownership is granted to the agency. USFS has been implementing new policy to deny renewal of grazing permits to try to enforce the agencies need to own these private water rights. NCA stressed our concern with this issue to congressional representatives and USFS leadership.

Much like all of you, the work has just begun for the NCA office and officers. Although we had a great week and many productive meetings in Washington DC, it was clear to me, as always, we have our work cut out for us.

If you are not currently a member of Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, we encourage you to join. Become part of an Association that is working to protect the future of ranching in Nevada. To learn more about the Association or to become a member, please call the office at 1-775-738-9214 or visit our webpage www.nevadacattlemen.org. We look forward to hearing from you! If you are currently a member, thank you for your continued support. Without your membership, the Association’s voice could not be as strong as it is today.

4 June | July 2012

The Progressive Rancher

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COW CAMP

Chatter

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he structure and function of a cow’s uterus is fascinating. It accepts the calf, a substance that is completely foreign to it, while blocking the body’s normal defense mechanism designed to destroy foreign invaders. The uterus nourishes, protects, and sustains the developing calf while growing up to 24 inches or more in diameter. When the time is right, the uterus receives a signal from the calf and transforms itself into a delivery system forcibly expelling the calf. It then begins the amazing process of preparing itself for a repeat of the whole cycle. The recovery process for a cow between calving and her next pregnancy is critical to a profitable beef enterprise and is quite frequently misunderstood.

The stage of reproductive inactivity in a cow between the breeding cycle which immediately follows calving is known as the anestrus period. The amount of time that the cow remains in anestrus until her first estrus cycle is the postpartum interval. The rate of involution, a term that encompasses uterine shrinkage, fluid loss, and tissue repair following calving, is largely determined by nutrition, lactation rate, age, health and flesh condition of the cow. During the anestrus period the cow’s reproductive abilities are put on hold while uterine involution occurs and her body builds up enough energy reserves to allow her to become reproductively active again.

Reducing the length of the postpartum anestrus period is the first basic principal of reproductive management. This can be accomplished by incorporating better management practices.

The postpartum anestrus period is the highest nutrient demanding phase of the cow. By banking fat reserves during the lower nutritional demanding stages of her biological cycle, the cow then has a nutrient source of energy to draw from during the higher energy demanding periods in both the last trimester and the anestrus period.

Nutritional and body reserve deficiencies are the first place to look when non-cycling cows are encountered as a result of an extended postpartum anestrus period. Chances are it could take months for a cow to rebreed if she is in poor condition and lactating. If she is a two or three year old cow, large-framed or heavy-milking, she may not breed back at all. It is im-

The Postpartum Anestrus Period

portant to note that reproductive diseases and bull fertility may also play a role in open cows.

If the goal is to have a cow calve at the same time next year, the postpartum anestrus period should not exceed 83 days. In order for this to happen, management of the anestrus period needs to be a twelve-month effort. This can be done by managing the body condition of the cow.

Adequately addressing the nutritional needs of the cow and using body condition score (BCS) as a management tool will help the cow prevail over anestrus. Consider BCS management to monitor the condition of cattle particularly in the fall after weaning and a few months before calving. Generally scores from one to nine are assigned to cows with the thinnest possible score being one and the fleshiest possible being nine. Having a BCS of five is considered to be the optimum breeding condition for mature cows while a BCS of a five or six is suggested for first-calf heifers. If you do not have these body reserves at the minimal level your cows may not reproduce.

Evaluating body condition is not enough. You need to take action on your assessment.

On dry years and as body condition is reduced below a five, management changes must be made such as supplementation, weaning, or moving cattle to better feed. If you do not act on a group of cattle that are low in body condition they will continue to lose weight. It is easier and cheaper to preserve body condition than it is to bring a thin cow back into condition.

Cows that experience difficulty during calving often have more difficulty overcoming the effects of anestrus and take longer to rebreed. The cervix acts as a valve that seals the uterine interior from the outside environment and opens wide at calving to allow the calf to pass. This open valve may lead to a contaminated uterus when human assistance is required at the time of calving by admitting whatever bugs are in the neighborhood. Subsequently the cow may develop a uterine infection. Minimizing calving difficulty and employing sanitary practices when assisting births in a timely manner may help to save more calves and attain higher rebreeding rates the following breeding season.

Additional management practices that may help reduce the anestrus period include calving heifers prior to the mature cows, utilizing certain estrus synchronization protocols, employing teaser bulls during the anestrus period, implementing strategic weaning methods, grazing or winter feeding classes of cattle separately, and feeding energy pre- and postpartum. When all is said and done, never underestimate the power of genetics. Selecting bulls for high reproductive efficiency and those who are of moderate frame and milk is an additional long-term aid to decreasing the anestrus period.

That’s enough for this month. A special thanks to my wife Jackie for her part in writing Cow Camp Chatter. As always, if you would like to discuss this article or simply want to talk cows, do not hesitate to contact me at 775-385-7665 or rtbulls@frontier.com.

RT Range-ready A.I. Sired Angus Bulls, Accelerated Genetics Semen, Custom Artificial Insemination & Ranch Management Consulting Ron & Jackie Torell ♦ 775-385-7665 ♦ rtbulls@frontier.com www.progressiverancher.com

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 5

COW CAMP R on

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s we enter the rebuilding phase of our national brood cow herd market analyzers are predicting high demand and record prices for bred females.

Last year we saw commercial bred heifers sell anywhere from $1200 to $1800. These pay outs were disappointing given the record high prices paid for calves, yearlings and market ready cows. It is anticipated that bred female prices will adjust in 2012 and trade in the range of $1500 to $2300. So why the disparity and huge price range associated with this class of cattle? Could it be that some sellers are producing what the buyer wants?

Genetic quality and uniformity are undoubtedly the top two factors to consider when determining the value of bred heifers. To bring top dollar in the bred heifer market start with quality heifer calves that are uniform in age, frame size, muscle, color and weight. The majority of sellers keep the best and sell the rest. Buyers know this and bid accordingly. Don’t expect to receive top dollar when using the bottom end of heifer calves to put together a load of bred heifers.

Uniformity of the entire load cannot be overemphasized. Do not try to slide late calving heifers, one or two reds with a load of blacks, or a few young and smaller framed heifers with the opposite. This takes away from the value of the load. Pull the outliers even if this results in a lighter load with freight adjustment.

Minimum base weights for heifers of 1000 lbs. seem to sell the best. This heavier weight

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suggests that the heifers are properly developed and have growth potential. There is a market for smaller framed heifers that weigh 900 lbs. provided the heifer has a body condition of six. This signifies that the heifer is developed for her genetically smaller frame.

Having extra heifers to pick from is a great option for adding value. If a seller describes 50 heifers with a base weight of 1000 lbs. and can offer the buyer his/her pick from sixty or even a hundred head, value is added.

Vaccinations and health protocol is clear-cut. Heifers should be vaccinated according to label with a minimum of a MLV 4–way, two shots of Trichomoniasis (in the western states), vibriosis, leptospirosis, two shots of 7 or 8–way, and dewormed. Certain lots of bred heifers are sold guaranteed BVD free. This has the potential to add value. Bangs vaccination and visible USDA tags are imperative to enter many western states.

Bred heifer sellers who have a reputation for buying and using top-end bulls do reasonably well in the bred heifer market. Using artificial insemination to name recognizable high accuracy calving-ease bulls will demand top dollar provided all other value-added criteria are met. Keep in mind that A.I. programs carry additional input costs which may or may not surpass any added value.

Strategic timing is key when selling. Listing the lot too early will remove potential buyers that have not yet assessed their replacement needs after pregnancy testing. Listing too late may remove those buyers that have already filled their replacement requirements. In many areas a 45-day calving interval starting in late February to early March commands the best price. Spring calving bred heifers delivered December 1 or later seem to be in higher demand than heifers delivered at an earlier date. This is primarily due to the associated winter feeding costs up to calving. It’s important to note that there are those producers who calve heifers in April while in other areas of the country fall calving is the primary market.

When selling there is no guarantee that all inputs will result in a return on your investment. Pelvic measurements, ultrasound pregnancy testing, sexed fetuses, and age and source verification are management practices that have the potential of adding value but also may add unrecoverable input costs. One iron cattle that are hip branded only, cattle having no waddles or ear marks, and good disposition cattle generally have a tendency to add value to the load.

Most buyers take into consideration the reputation and integrity of a seller in their dealings. It takes just one unpleasant or misleading deal to brand you with a bad reputation.

When selling it is paramount to represent cattle accurately in their sale description. There should be no surprises come delivery time. Be honest in the portrayal of your cattle and live up to the terms of the agreement. A reputation built upon honesty, reliability, ethics, morals and principles will serve you well.

That’s enough for this month. A special thanks to my wife Jackie for her part in writing Cow Camp Chatter. As always, if you would like to discuss this article or simply want to talk cows, do not hesitate to contact me at 775-385-7665 or rtbulls@frontier.com.

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OFFICE: 775-423-7760 JACK PAYNE

Cell: 775-217-9273 Alt: 775-225-8889

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Full-Service Cattle Sales & Marketing serving the Fallon, Nevada and Outlying Areas.

Sales Results from May 16, 2012 Regular Butcher Cow, Bull, Bred Cow and Feeder Sale Seller

City

Mark Damale Eureka Mark Damale Eureka Duck Flat Ranch Cedarville Susan & David Kern Paradise Valley Peraldo Brothers Fallon Lazy D Livestock Pioche Robert Adamson Reno Mel & Debbie Hummel Winnemucca Ruth Martin Ranches Eureka Jersey Valley Cattle Co LLC Winnemucca Ernest Angeles Yerington Duck Flat Ranch Cedarville Virgil Larios Winnemucca Lazy D Livestock Pioche Susan & David Kern Paradise Valley Ruth Martin Ranches Eureka Peraldo Brothers Fallon Heise Ranch Gardnerville Tyra Lytle Caliente Mel & Debbie Hummel Winnemucca John & Terry Cooper Oakdale Julian Cattle Company Fallon Michael & Marian Gottschalk Lovelock Michael & Marian Gottschalk Lovelock Michael & Marian Gottschalk Lovelock James Damale Eureka Mark Damale Eureka Pitchfork Ranch Yerington Pitchfork Ranch Yerington Pitchfork Ranch Yerington Harold Rother Farms Inc Spring Creek Harold Rother Farms Inc Spring Creek Jersey Valley Cattle Co LLC Winnemucca Park Livestock Topaz Park Livestock Topaz Dreyer Ranches Minden Dreyer Ranches Minden Dreyer Ranches Minden John & Terry Cooper Oakdale Juanita Heinzen/ Fernley Cheryl Fogarty Will & Katie Delong Winnemucca Will & Katie Delong Winnemucca Will & Katie Delong Winnemucca Delong Ranches Inc Winnemucca Delong Ranches Inc Winnemucca Delong Ranches Inc Winnemucca Silver State Beefmasters Inc Fallon Silver State Beefmasters Inc Fallon Mel & Debbie Hummel Winnemucca Willowstay Ranch Minden Willowstay Ranch Minden Mandy Glazier Schurz Daniel Shehady Wellington

# Head

Desc.

Type

Weight

Price CWT

1/1 1 12 16 5 27 1 2 2 10 3 13 8 21 4 2 5 12 1 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

BLK BBF MIX MIX BLK MIX BBF RD MIX BLK BLK MIX MIX MIX MIX MIX BLK WF BLK MIX BLK BLK WF BLK RBF BLK BLK BLK BLK BLK RD RD BLK WF WF RD WF WF BLK

Cow/Calf Bred Cow STR STR STR STR STR STR STR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFR HFRTT HFRTT COW HFRTT HFRTT COW HFRTT COW HFRTT COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW

1325 1185 475 455 690 704 475 848 775 521 522 432 648 689 428 657 848 641 535 750 726 840 1155 1190 1040 1065 1125 1155 1045 1475 1035 1005 1280 1500 1440 1300 1280 1390 1035

$1,250/hd $1,160/hd $158.50 $152.50 $141.00 $139.10 $137.00 $132.00 $126.00 $139.25 $136.00 $133.00 $131.25 $129.00 $126.50 $122.00 $121.00 $120.00 $120.00 $119.50 $118.00 $116.50 $92.50 $83.50 $75.50 $90.00 $89.50 $88.50 $80.00 $79.75 $85.50 $81.50 $81.50 $80.75 $79.00 $79.00 $75.00 $72.00 $79.00

1

RD

COW

1340

$79.00

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

RD RBF RBF RBF RD RBF RD RD RBF BLK BLK RD LHNX

COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW

1485 1175 1310 1510 1380 1280 1385 990 1105 1380 1285 1030 990

$77.50 $76.50 $75.50 $77.00 $74.50 $74.50 $76.50 $71.00 $75.50 $75.50 $75.25 $75.25 $74.75

Regular Sale Every Wednesday Small Barn at 10:30 am Cows at 11:30 am Feeder Cattle at 1:00 pm

CafĂŠ

Open on Sale Days Stop by and have a Homestyle Burger

SaleS Check our Website for Upcoming Feeder Sale Dates www.nevadalivestock.us

No Sale on July 4 We have four cattle trains available for your cattle hauling needs.

We can haul approx. 80,000# of cattle per load either to our sale or in the country. Give us a call for pricing.

Thank You to all of our Consignors & Buyers

Sales Results from May 16, 2012 Regular Butcher Cow, Bull, Bred Cow and Feeder Sale Seller

City

# Head

Desc.

Type

Weight

Price CWT

Daniel Shehady Truckee River Ranch LLC Truckee River Ranch LLC Truckee River Ranch LLC Corkill Bros Inc Jerry Johnston Jerry Johnston Troy Wilson Troy Wilson Leon & Mary Frey Leon & Mary Frey Leon & Mary Frey Brandon Quintero Phillip or Carla Pomeroy Phillip or Carla Pomeroy Christie Hicks Peraldo Brothers David Holmgren Jessica Miles Sheryl Hicks Sage Hill Dairy Sage Hill Dairy Sage Hill Dairy Sandhill Dairy Phil Regli Phil Regli Hi-Test Products LLC Hi-Test Products LLC Hi-Test Products LLC Mateo Muniz Sunrise Ranch LLC Margaret Jernigan Margaret Jernigan Margaret Jernigan Hillside Dairy Hillside Dairy Hillside Dairy Oasis Dairy LLC Oasis Dairy LLC Jessie Rose Dairy Jessie Rose Dairy Jessie Rose Dairy Sandhill Dairy Lacas Vacas Lacas Vacas Jeff Whitaker Willowstay Ranch Park Livestock Park Livestock Corkill Bros Inc Harold Rother Farms Inc Jersey Valley Cattle Co LLC Phil Regli Oasis Dairy LLC

Wellington Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Alamo Alamo Yerington Yerington Winnemucca Winnemucca Winnemucca Schurz Fallon Fallon Schurz Fallon Luning Schurz Schurz Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Yerington Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Fallon Minden Topaz Topaz Fallon Spring Creek Winnemucca Fallon Fallon

1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

LHNX BLK BLK BLK BLK CHAR BBF BLK BBF SIM SIM SIM MIX BLK BLK RBF RD LHNX RD BRDL JER JER JER JER HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN BLK WF BLK BLK RD BLK HOLSTEIN HOLSTEIN

COW COW COW HFRTT COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW HFRTT HFRTT HFRTT COW COW COW HFRTT HFRTT COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW COW BULL BULL BULL BULL BULL BULL BULL BULL

995 1695 1270 1162 1525 1130 810 980 855 1130 1320 975 985 1590 1830 920 1160 705 900 700 705 1515 955 1015 1245 1395 1180 1290 1650 1650 1230 1105 810 850 1530 1670 1680 970 1820 1330 1190 1510 1955 1350 1550 1370 2105 2075 1935 1620 1375 1425 2025 1560

$74.00 $74.00 $73.00 $72.00 $72.50 $71.25 $71.00 $71.00 $63.50 $70.50 $65.00 $64.50 $69.25 $68.50 $65.00 $67.00 $65.00 $63.00 $63.00 $61.00 $71.00 $66.00 $64.00 $65.25 $86.00 $82.00 $85.00 $77.50 $74.75 $80.00 $80.00 $78.00 $77.00 $71.00 $75.25 $72.00 $71.00 $73.50 $71.25 $72.00 $70.00 $70.00 $71.00 $69.00 $67.75 $68.00 $92.00 $90.25 $90.25 $88.25 $87.00 $85.00 $90.00 $83.00

Look for Weekly Market Reports at www.nevadalivestock.us www.progressiverancher.com

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 7

By Joe Guild

Y

ou would think with all of the threats, issues, news items, congressional and state legislative initiatives, proposals from the White House, weather foibles, market uncertainties and judicial decisions affecting the ranching industry, there would be no lack of things to write in a column, and you would be right.

A skim of a couple of weeks’ worth of livestock industry publications quickly reveals any number of subjects which could become topics for a columnist. The President has proposed a one dollar increase in the grazing fee in his budget; emotion trumps science in the latest attack on the beef industry in the controversy over lean finely textured beef added to ground beef to make it more inexpensive to consumers ( I will not use the colloquial phrase attached to this issue by the 24-hour media); we worry whether the controversy over the potential listing of the sage grouse as an endangered species will be driven by practical solutions and scientific evidence or the lies perpetrated and perpetuated by the enemies of public land livestock grazing; will common sense prevail and the estate tax be permanently repealed; will the drought persist and spread; will record-high commodity prices continue; will the cow herd expand; will my son graduate from college in a reasonable amount of time? You get the point. I could sit here, pick one of those subjects and probably churn out a column in a few hours. The trouble is, I don’t want to. I’m actually overwhelmed by all of these negatives.

Recently, I spent a long day in the truck driving to the first calf heifer pasture where I spent a couple of hours walking through the new mommas and their baby calves. Later, I drove down to the winter range and looked closely at the sheep nearly ready to be shorn and then to lamb.

It was one of those warm, open days we had a bunch of this winter and spring. There was a gentle breeze but it wasn’t cold at all. High cirrus clouds foretold some weather coming in later that week, but this day was one of those great mountain west spring days. The high peaks had some snow, a lot further up than was comforting for this time of year which caused some worry about summer irrigating, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin my mood.

There is nothing quite like the view of contented cows and weeks-old calves lying in the warm spring sun to kick start any good mood. A few of the calves were up exploring together what must have seemed to them, far away from their mothers. Occasionally, a small bunch would start that collective run together and charge around with no destination other than eventual sleep and rest for another meal and run. It always makes me smile and reminds me of the good things ranchers do to take care of their animals, land and the food needs of a nation.

I had my eye out, as I always do, for some stand-out heifer calves and I wasn’t disappointed in seeing some future first-calf heifers. I also saw some big heavy steers come shipping time. I thought if I could just show some of the critics what I am seeing and explain

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8 June | July 2012

what I am thinking maybe I could change a few minds. If I could let them see the young cowboy in whose pasture behind his house these cattle were so contentedly sunning, as he made the midnight round out here in a snowstorm a few weeks ago to check on that heavy heifer he saw at sunset, maybe they would understand the care and concern which is a major part of raising livestock. Of course, no one buying a double cheeseburger or a couple of Saturday night steaks in a big city thinks of these things but that is the message we need them to see.

Even committed vegetarians would be impressed at the attempts all over cattle country to save calves and the efforts to care for cows all year long. My walk wasn’t just to look at how the calves were doing I was also looking for any signs of distress in heifers or calves.

People out there who are not of this industry should know we never stop husbanding.

We all drive distances out here that are incomprehensible to people who live in cities and suburbs. There are commuters, I will admit, especially in the West in places like southern California or the San Francisco Bay Area who have long commutes, sometimes reaching several hours a day. But back east, I have friends who still can’t wrap their minds around a ranch family who lives 80 miles from the nearest grocery store or a rancher who may drive a roundtrip of 450 miles in one day just to go to an important meeting.

My drive to the winter sheep range this day was a round trip of over 200 miles. I do not mind driving in the Great Basin. There is always something interesting to see or think about, whatever the season. This day, the ground was drier than I like to see this time of year and there wasn’t much of a snow pack in the high mountains – pretty much the same look as at the headquarters ranch. There was no evidence of any weather coming in the further south I drove. It was also noticeably warmer. It can be a raging blizzard at the headquarters ranch and shirtsleeve weather where the sheep winter.

I stopped at the shearing pens where the sheep were to be shorn in about ten days.

A couple of men were repairing some fence to make sure we had no wrecks when all the sheep were crowded into this relatively small space after spending so many months roaming outside. We exchanged pleasantries; weather, feed condition, predators, the remarkable survival of a few early lambs, all of the usual things ranch people talk about when they haven’t seen on another for a few weeks.

It was windless that day and as I turned the motor off and greeted the guard dogs with a fond hello, when they stopped barking it was utterly silent. The sheep were about 300 yards away and they were quietly grazing in a large spread out band. I was too far away to even hear their movementthrough the brush as their wool touched the thick bushes they were browsing and their hooves stirred up the dust and scraped against the rocks. Every so often a bell would ring, but that was it.

The sheep were in fine condition from abundant feed which had grown last year in an unusually wet year. The wool was thick, uniform and greasy, indicating healthy animals.

The herder and the herding dogs greeted me warmly; the guard dogs remained at their posts around the band some distance from the sheep. We conversed in my broken Spanish, me commenting on how good the sheep looked and he attributing it to the fine weather and abundant feed. I knew better. Those things are important, but it also takes human care, concern and daily involvement to have healthy, contented animals. This herder took great pains to protect and watch over his charges.

As I walked back to the truck, I thought again if only the critics of what we do could spend a day with this man and watch how he moves with his sheep, how he treats his horse and his dogs and how neat his camp is, maybe they would be a little more appreciative of the abundant, safe food they eat and the warm clothing they have on their bodies.

I also thought what I was seeing could not be much different than what I might see 5000 years ago – a man by himself, in a vast country, helped only by dogs herding hundreds of animals which would provide food and fiber for needy people who were doing other things than raising food – maybe tending a temple, selling wool in a market or preparing food in a tent or a hut surrounded by hundreds of other dwellings.

Not much had changed but everything has changed, except for the good days one can experience like this one was for me.

I’ll see you soon.

The Progressive Rancher

www.progressiverancher.com

UPDATE continued WASHINGTON Continued from page 3————————— mind what the egg producing industry has done on its own for the past 50 years. If that same public reads that cattle must be removed from the vast wide open spaces of public land grazing states, then we must remove cattle from public land grazing. Do these people not see the hypocritical nature of their own actions? How can we mandate that one animal be given more room and at the same time restrict the use of wide open spaces by another?

The waitress in the Washington D.C. bar brought to light the real impact we must focus on, the cost of living. When the American public is paying the same amount for food that our counterparts across the pond in Europe are paying, maybe someone will realize agriculture is in fact crucial to the survivability of our country. Why don’t we ask the Europeans how well the hog industry is doing in Europe after government mandated farrowing crate size restrictions where put in place? That industry is all but gone from Europe.

I hope that we as an industry can somehow find a way to educate our friends, neighbors, city cousins, lawmakers, and everyone else comprising the 98 percent of America that is not actively engaged in production agriculture. If we do not somehow correlate what we are doing every day with what millions of people sit down and eat every night, John may soon be telling a waitress, “we wear these hats everyday to remind us of the cattle we used to raise.”

Until next month, take the time to engage a stranger on the street, someone next to you on a plane, or the mother in the grocery store trying to feed a family on a budget. Tell our side of the story. We can feed the world, care for the environment, and secure a way of live for future generations, but only if we are allowed to by lawmakers and regulatory agencies.

The power of the people will be what protects agriculture in America.

SAGE GROUSE Continued from page 3————————— not, and we took our water trucks and anything else we had. Ranchers and the volunteer fire departments most of us belong to, stopped a lot of fires in the initial attack phase. Why aren’t we doing that anymore? The answer is simple, fire became big business. It is another government supported work force that depends upon fire to make a living. Restrictions and regulations were put in place requiring ranch hands and others to be trained and certified by a government agency before being allowed in a fire. The concept of voluntarily placing oneself at risk versus being placed at risk by someone else was lost. None of us responding to a wildland fire are being forced to do so. We all do it because we have seen the devastation that follows a fire and want to protect our resources. We, as stewards of the land, want to protect that sagebrush flat; we want to protect the habitat from fire.

Many in our state are concerned about the validity of the Warranted and Precluded listing of the species in the first place. The argument is being made that the minimum population needed to prevent extinction is exponentialy less than what we currently have for populations in Nevada alone. I understand the concept behind the “population needed to prevent extinction theory”. The problem is, that argument should have been made in court when the USFWS was instructed to go back and re-evaluate their original decision that the species was not warranted for protection. I agree that the ESA is a flawed act. It has terrible success rate and needs to be severely overhauled, but that process must occur outside the process we are currently challenged with. At this point, the best thing for ALL of us stakeholders to do is work toward addressing the major threats to habitat.

In part due to the frustration of not receiving requested information, I want to say that I am hopeful the agencies that have data on populations of sage grouse, data on harvesting of sage grouse, and data on habitat lost due to fire and invasive species, will share that information with those of us working on a plan to prevent the listing of the bird. If we know what areas are most critical to the populations of sage grouse in the state, we know what areas to recommend more flexibility in grazing to reduce fuel loads; we know what areas to concentrate our fire suppression efforts through LOCAL AND VOLUNTEER support first.

I am sure that less top down control is not what some agencies care to have, but in order to make successful things happen on the ground, the folks at that level must be involved and feel that they are a part of the program. Stonewalling by agencies charged with cooperating with stakeholders will only further hinder a positive outcome.

The Governor’s Sage Grouse Committee will have recommendations to protect our State’s resources. Those recommendations will not be those made by Wyoming. We can protect our sagebrush ecosystems from the major threats by going back to doing a lot of what we used to do before government created the restrictions that led us to the point we are at now.

In closing, on the Utah news last night I heard a representative form the Utah Department of Wildlife make a comment when talking about helping the now recovered population of falcons in the State. I want to share what he said with everyone because it really sums up what can happen. “Were we to intervene.....I would be willing to bet we would make a huge mess”. Well said Mr. Wildlife Officer, well said. Let’s put the protection of the resources back into the hands of those at the local level. Who best knows what to do than those who live, work, and fight to protect said resources? www.progressiverancher.com

Upcoming Sales

Thursday, June 7th Shasta Livestock

Monday thru Thursday, July 9th-12th Silver Legacy, Reno, NV Catalog Deadline: Thursday, June 21st Hotel Reservations: 800-687-8733, ask for WVM Reservation code WVM 712

WATCH & LISTEN TO THE SALE on the Web at:

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 9

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2/21/12

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10 June | July 2012

The Progressive Rancher

www.progressiverancher.com

MARKET REPORT

Ship ’Em To

LLON A F

May 15, 2012

Weight

TOP OFFERINGS Steer

Heifer

300-400 140.00-171.00 131.75-160.00 400-500 138.00-161.00 147.00-169.00 500-600 138.00-160.00 115.00-139.00 600-700 145.00-159.00 124.00-146.00 700-800 110.00-131.50 110.00-125.00 800 & Over 107.00-125.00 100.00-114.00 Lite Holstein (under 600#) 75.00-93.00 Heavy Holstein (over 600#) 80.00-97.00 Single, Small Framed or Plainer Cattle 15.00 to 20.00 less than top offerings

BUTCHER COWS & BULLS

Livestock Exchange, Inc. Sale Every Tuesday at 11:00 am Selling All Classes of Livestock: • Cattle • Horses • Sheep • Goats • Pigs

NO SALE TUESDAY, July 3, 2012

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July week filled with fun and joy.

Next sale will be July 10th, 2012

Breakers (Fat Cows) 70.00-75.00 Boners (Med Flesh) 73.00-88.50 Cutters (Lean) 67.00-70.00 Holstein Cows 65.50-82.00 Butcher Bulls 80.00-90.50 Shelly (Thin) Bulls 40.00-52.00 Shelly Cutters (Thin) 20.00-40.00 Young Feeder Cows 50.00-65.00 Heiferettes 80.00-90.00 Holstein Heiferettes 80.00-93.00 Holstein Bulls 70.00-84.00 Feeder Bulls 60.00-65.00 Cutting Bulls 80.00-95.00 Preg Tested Cows (3-4-5 yr. old solid mouth) NT Pairs (solid mouth) 3-6 yrs 1225.00-1275.00 Pairs (broken mouth) 1025.00-1135.00

TODAY’S COWS Top Cow Top 10 Cows Top 50 Cows Top 100 Cows Top Butcher Bull Top Holstein Cow Top 10 Holstein Cows

Avg. Wt 1240 1590 1280 1296 2040 1600 1180

Avg. Cost 87.50 80.00 80.93 77.79 90.50 82.00 73.62

CALVES-SHEEP-GOATS-PIGS-HORSES Beef Calves (HD) Dairy Calves Feeder Lambs Fat Lambs Ewes (CWT) Bucks (CWT) Small Goats (under 65 lbs.) (HD) Large Goats (over 70 lbs.) (HD) Weaner Pigs Feeder Pigs Top Hogs Butcher Sows Horses (under 1100 lbs.)

Horses (over 1100 lbs.)

60.00-310.00 2.00-35.00 160.00-178.00 140.00-165.00 35.00-71.00 45.00-68.00 20.00-110.00 95.00-220.00 45.00-80.00 60.00-130.00 55.00-60.00 20.00-40.00 10.00-20.00 25.00-43.00

MARKET TRENDS:

We would like to say thank you to all of our consignors and buyers, for your continued support.

Feeder Cattle sold steady with active buyer demand on same kind and quality, and depending on fill. Butcher cows sold steady.

Reminder: We have trucks available for your hauling needs. Pasture to pasture or here to the sale yard.

Call us with your consignments, it pays.

Fallon Livestock Exchange, Inc.

For more marketing information, or to arrange trucking needs: Call Monte Bruck, Manager at

775-867-2020

775-426-8279

2055 Trento Lane • Fallon, Nevada 89406

See you and your Friends at Ringside Soon! www.progressiverancher.com

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 11

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12 June | July 2012

The Progressive Rancher

www.progressiverancher.com

H

Horse Snorts

ave you ever seen such a dry spring??!!!! Stock water will be short by June and the mines are drowning in water, pumping it into useless ponds, drying up irrigation wells. The fires have already started. I again advocate reducing the fuel load to reduce the longevity and intensity of range fires. In order to do this, we would have to mow the grass, apply ground sterilizer to kill all weeds and living things (same as a fire, only chemically) or heaven forbid, let four-legged creatures harvest it and in turn, harvest the four legged creatures.

That’s way too simple and would take far less man power to monitor the computer printouts! Less man power means less government jobs. Wonder how many people realize now we have more people working for some sort of government than in the private sector.

That means less and less people are supporting more and more families with fewer tax dollars. When we run out of private employers, then what? Stir the pot and add more government jobs? Tax dollars will have to stretch further and further. Eventually, the goose will give up and quit producing. Then what? Who will lay the eggs?

Really think about these things, come Election Day! If half the stuff coming over the internet is true about the present administration, it makes sense to burn the whole barrel and start over!! Begin by making congress abide by the rules they set for the commoners to follow!! Next to impossible when congress makes the rules and sets forth their own set to follow. How to change that? Who’s going to vote a salary cut for their big dollars? Vote’em out!!!!

——— ❁ ——— But on the bright side, no rain means fewer weeds to contend with! Guess we need a bright spot somewhere.

We’ve been branding about the country and run into some interesting stories.

Helped Filippinis brand a few days and those kids are always good for some stories.

Quade told his mother he thought as PINENUT LIVESTOCK Suzann’s chaps were skin colored she was SUPPLY INC. naked from her shirt on down! He was already to be embarrassed.

This same little guy had just received is pleased to announce information on the definition of a “mutt” dog, as in one of no real pedigree. Not long the opening of their after that, while in Salt Lake they were riding in an elevator to their hotel room when an extremely well dressed lady stepped on holding a regular “Fifi”! Powdered and at coiffed, ribboned and clipped miniature poodle, probably with papers three pages long!

As the Fillipinis unloaded from the Reno Highway across from elevator car, with the door not yet closed, Quade remarks, “Now that’s a mutt if I ever A&K Earth Movers saw one!”

Can you imagine the horror to the fancy woman???

Stop by and ——— ❁ ——— see our new place, Quill, being the only girl in the family we look forward and the youngest and just cute as she can possibly be, of course, is naturally very to seeing you! outspoken. Grandparents were visiting for a short while and came in handy while the long days of branding were upon them. Back home for dinner, Grandma relates this story PHONE: 775-423-5338 on Quill. john@pinenutlivestocksupply.com Grandma has just eaten part of a yogurt

and set it on the counter to tie a shoe or some thing just away a bit. She came back to finish the snack to find the container empty. “Quill, you ate all my yogurt!”

“Say now, Grandma, don’t be evil!”

This little girl is very articulate!!

——— ❁ ——— Emma has take a fancy to one of my horses so as we were messing about the barn one day, I put her up on his bareback and she took off about the haystack and shop. After awhile I was watching her mother work with a colt when we heard screams! Stepping out the barn door, here come the yellow streak back to the barn with a little cocklebur crouched on his back! She was stuck tighter than a jockey on the horses back! I yelled to hang on!

She yells back, “I’m tryin’!” She stays right there until he stops at the fence and she rolls off on her feet and then rolls a bit, both her and the horse coming to a stop at the same time! Her screaming scared the horse, his galloping scared her and all of it scared Mom and Grandma! Now, she will probably be able to ride the stop, knowing its coming! She had no problem sticking to the horse, just like a noisy growth up there! She was going to go to a carnival later that evening. She stated she might not go on any rides as she had already had her carnival and probably faster than any rides there!

She rides quite a bit bareback, just not that fast! Was impressive!

——— ❁ ——— Jette and Kole Black are fun little girls to be around and handy help! Jette can tell you where all the allotments are, who is where all around them, and the names off all the canyons! There is something to be said for home schooling! Not all of it comes from text books.

That’s enough of my rambling on for now so until next time take care and hope you get good and drenched in the next rain!!

AND

Cow Bawls

by Jeanne King

new Fallon location 263 Dorral Way

www.progressiverancher.com

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 13

LookUP

by Pastor Diana Gonzalez

W

ebster’s defines fruit as “often sweet containing seeds; the result of any action”.

Summertime is the time for fresh fruit. Makes your mouth water just thinking about fresh cherries and strawberries, doesn’t it?

We have a young lady in our home church who enjoys fresh cherries so much that we try to remember to get her some when they are in season. There isn’t an abundance of fruit trees in Nevada is there? Not as you might see in some other states. And the ones you do see seem to bear fruit grudgingly. A Nevada Spring with frost and wind can be hard on fruit trees that try to bloom and bear fruit. However, the blooms that survive produce a very sweet fruit. Although the fruit may not be very large and flamboyant, it is usually sweet.

We as Christians should bear fruit also. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them”. We need to realize that our lives affect people either in a positive way or a negative way. If we are Christians, we should want to affect people in a good way, thereby bringing glory to our God. Our actions, or works, are better indicators of our hearts and motives that are flamboyant appearances and claims. Actions speak louder than words, right? As my daughter says, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words”.

We are not saved by works, but we are saved by grace (unmerited favor), through faith (trusting and believing) in Jesus – Ephesians 2:8. However, James said in chapter 2, verse 17, that faith without works is dead. So we should bear fruit, but we should do it with Godly wisdom, not worldly wisdom.

In James 3:13-18, James compares worldly wisdom (unspiritual) to heavenly (Godly) wisdom. Both produce fruit of one kind or another.

James 3:13-18: Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above (heavenly), but is earthly, natural (unspiritual), demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wis-

Time for Fruit

dom from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by these who make peace. NAS If we are born again believers, we should be yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit inside of us. He will teach us discernment between carnal living and Godly living. He teaches us as we progress and grow in the Lord through the reading and teaching of the Word. As we grow in the Word, we learn to walk with and abide in His (Holy Spirit) presence. And the more we walk in His presence, the more we’ll learn to walk in love toward one another, and operate with the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-25: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Walk in love and you will effectively disarm your enemy.) And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live (abide) in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit (love). NKJV Strong’s dictionary, word #5544, defines kindness as “goodness in action, sweetness of disposition, gentleness in dealing with others, benevolence, affability; the ability to act for the welfare of those taxing your patience.” Sounds like my husband, Tom. If we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will not only walk with the power of Jesus, but we will also walk with the character of Jesus, and thereby produce fruit as He bore fruit.

So let’s make sure we are grafted into the Tree of Life; then let’s bear the sweet fruit of the Spirit. It’s time.

Read: Galatians 5:16-26 (good and bad fruit)

James chapters 3 and 4

I Corinthians chapter 13 Happy Mother’s Day! Happy Father’s Day! Have a great summer!

Happy trails. May God richly bless you. We love you and would love to hear from you.

If you would like someone to pray with, or just have a question, please give us a call at (775) 867-3100. ‘Til next time….

What Are You Laughing At?

B

oy, there’s nothing more pleasurable in cow country than a beautiful spring morning, is there? Spring flowers, spring calves, green grass, fresh air — they minister joy to us. New life, new beginnings, fresh starts – makes your heart want to sing, doesn’t it?

Psalm 30:5 says joy comes in the morning. But so many of us go throughout the day dragging our noses through the dirt and never stopping to look up and appreciate the good

You are invited to COWBOY CHURCH!

Are you having a Rodeo or Livestock event?

Give us a call.

1st Saturday of every month Standish, CA @ 6:00 p.m.

Hwy. 395 /A3 — Standish 4-H Hall

We would love to come to your event or ranch and host Cowboy Church for you.

Harmony Ranch Ministry 3767 Keyes Way Fallon, NV 89406

Tom J. Gonzalez Diana J. Gonzalez, Pastor

14 June | July 2012

threecrossls@cccomm.net

(775) 867-3100 Cell (775) 426-1107

things that are all around us. The care of the day and the world sometimes takes first place in our thoughts. In our minds, we sometimes feel we must have this or that in order to be happy.

“I’ll be happy when I get that new pickup with all the bells and whistles.” Then the payments come due! Have some of you gals ever said, “I’ll be happy when that good looking cowboy asks me out?” Then you marry him and his lifestyle and his bills. Then you must work to make the new pickup and trailer payments and buy that new saddle he just has to have. Then, guess what, all the other cowgirls think he’s cute too – another whole problem.

You know sometimes we just need to slow down and count the blessings we do have, and be happy where we are right now, today. We should be grateful we live in the best country in the world. We should be thanking God for that instead of worrying about what’s on the news all the time. Worrying never changes anything anyway, and it shows a lack of faith on our part.

We should be full of joy, with laughter in our hearts, because we are able to live the lifestyle we enjoy with our families. Fat cattle and good horses are some things to be grateful for. Let your heart be filled with joy this time of year and don’t take God’s beauty and blessings for granted. Learn to be happy with what you do have, not unhappy about what you don’t have.

Proverbs 17:22 — A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. NKJV A joyful heart is good medicine (causes good healing). NAS Here the Bible comments on, and praises one’s ability to laugh.

Proverbs 18:14-15 — The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit? The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge and

The Progressive Rancher

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the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. NKJV What kind of knowledge are you seeking? What is your ear listening to? Are you seeking Godly wisdom or are your ears listening to trash on TV? Are you listening to and reading the Word of God and Godly teachings? One will build you up, and one will tear you down and cause your heart (spirit) to be sick.

We should ask ourselves what are we laughing at. Are we laughing with a heart full of joy, or laughing at foolishness on TV and movies? Are we laughing at other peoples misfortunes or are we laughing with them and sharing their joy? Those are important questions to ask ourselves. They will reveal to us what’s in our hearts.

So let’s purpose in our hearts to seek God and His grace and mercy. Let’s seek Kingdom knowledge and Godly wisdom and guidance, but let’s also purpose in our hearts to be happy and joyful and appreciate the good things of life wherever we find them.

Psalm 107:31 – Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

Psalm 107:38-43 – He also blesses them and they multiply greatly; and He does not let their cattle decrease. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes (God rebukes the powers of darkness for us!) and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way; yet He sets the poor (humble) on high, far from affliction and makes their families like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth (must be still). Whoever is wise will observe these things and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. NKJV Psalm 16:11 – You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is full-

ness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. NKJV You may say it’s hard to be joyful and happy while the devil is oppressing, afflicting and stealing from me. Well, praise God, if you have Christ in you, you have all authority over the power of the devil (Luke 10:19). The only time the devil can legally take from you is when you give him territory in your life.

No, if Jesus is our Lord then the greater one lives in us.

I John 4:4 – Greater is He (Jesus) who is in you than he (devil) who is in the world. NAS The greater one lives in me!

John 16:33 – Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer (happy, joyful), I (Jesus) have overcome the world.” NAS John 16:24 – Jesus said, “In My name, ask and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” NAS So push your hat back on your head, look the devil straight in the face and laugh out loud at him. Then tell him to take his hands off you, your family, your money, your land, your house, your livestock, your vehicles, your church, your country, and get out of your life in the name of Jesus. Then bring joy to God by being happy; it’s your choice.

Nehemiah 8:10 – The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Read John chapters 14, 15 and 16.

Read 1 chapter in Proverbs every day.

Happy trails. May God richly bless you. We love you and would love to hear from you.

If you would like someone to pray with, or just have a question, please give us a call at (775) 867-3100. ‘Til next time….

BEEF CHECKOFF NEWS

News From the Nevada Beef Council: CHECKING-IN ON YOUR BEEF CHECKOFF

Social Media The Nevada Beef Council (NBC) is now on Facebook! Visit the page and Like us at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nevada-Beef-Council/145074935622988. We are also on Twitter @NVBeef. The NBC is working to build traffic at both those sites. Join in and follow the conversation!

New Board Members Ray Callahan and Susan Imswiler Agee were recently selected as board members to serve on the Nevada Beef Council. Callahan is a fourth generation rancher from Nevada.

He was raised in the Galena Creek area outside of Reno on the family ranch and began building his own herd as a young man. Retired from firefighting in 2004, Callahan dedicated himself to building his numbers and now runs 300 pair and 200 yearlings of commercial Angus and Angus cross cattle. With the subdivision of the family ranch, Callahan currently has a land lease operation. He summers in Northern Nevada in the Winnemucca Ranch area and winters in Clements, Calif. Callahan is a retired captain from the Nevada Division of Forestry, a former president of the Reno Rodeo and is an avid competitor in ranch sorting.

Callahan lives with his wife, Amy, on property that used to be part of the old family ranch.

Susan Imswiler Agee was born in Pennsylvania. When she was young, her father’s geology career brought the family West where she has been a resident of Nevada for most of her life. Agee has taught history at community college for about twenty years and continues to teach online in Nevada. Her life in agriculture began eight years ago when her husband, Travis, moved back to the family’s Sand Springs Ranch in Lincoln County. She actively engaged in learning the industry, although the learning curve was steep. Agee and her family operate the Tempiute Grazing Association and farm 500 acres in alfalfa. Agee also has a son who operates heavy equipment and a daughter who produces TV news, both in Nevada.

Food and Nutrition Outreach The Nevada Dieticians Association (NDA) annual conference was held in Las Vegas, NV on April 27-28, 2012. Each year the NDA holds an annual meeting in the form of a two-day conference and exhibition. Over 200 nutrition professionals were in attendance this year. These registered dietitians and diet technicians are the key influencers of the www.progressiverancher.com

health-conscious consumers in this state, thus making them a target audience when learning about the nutritional benefits of beef.

The NBC sponsored the keynote speaker, Mary Lee Chin, MS, RD, who is on the advisory board for the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, Denver. She spoke on behalf of the NBC as she presented on “The Sustainable American Dinner Plate,” with an emphasis on how beef fits into a healthy diet. In her talk, Chin discussed what the beef community is currently doing to produce healthy, affordable food for consumers. She also compared the claims versus the realities of today’s food production methods both locally and globally. The information she provided to the dietitians and other nutrition professionals in attendance was well-received and was helpful in dispelling some of the myths of food availability and sustainability.

Upcoming Retail Promotions The NBC conducted two retail promotions in the Las Vegas area during the month of May. From May 2-15, the NBC partnered with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets to promote beef through a two-week radio promotion in the Las Vegas media market. A twoweek radio promotion was also conducted with Albertsons from May 16-29. Both promotions included two radio station store level remotes where beef-themed prize packages were given away to ten lucky customers. Prize packages included a “Beef It’s What’s for Dinner.” apron, beef recipe brochures and a $50 gift card for beef.

Protecting the Image of Beef In concert with the national outreach efforts of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the NBC proactively monitored and responded to recent traditional and social media reports about lean finely textured beef (LFTB). A letter was developed and sent to the Director of the Nutrition Services Division of the Nevada Department of Education encouraging her to contact the NBC for assistance in discerning the facts from the misinformation with regard to LFTB. Additional resources were also offered about the nutritional value and safety of beef.

In response to the letter, the Nutrition Services Director reported that no contact had been made with the Nevada Department of Education regarding concern for LFTB. The NBC continues to monitor and address media coverage of this issue, as well as other issues that might negatively affect beef demand.

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 15

Letters to the Editor Note: The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author. The Progressive Rancher neither seeks or endorses these submissions, but allows all to voice their views.

Fumes From The Farm

by Hank Vogler

WOW!!!!!! Once again my eyes popped open this morning and no long flowing robes or harp music or life is terminal I can laugh as long as I like. I am not sure that all of this isn’t just part of the aging process and not just my having escaped the grim reapers grip for the time being.

My reflections are not on the total premise that luck or skill has anything to do with moving along on your chosen path.

It is just completely a comical situation if you so choose.

The naysayers and the pessimists are harder and harder to stomach. They must cry every morning when they wake up.

We are in the process of moving off of the BL and M with the cows and sheep. It is a month early for the cows. It looks like we are in a record drought situation. We received a glowing letter from both the Elko district and the Ely district BL and M offices telling us about the drought. There was hope at first as it rained for two days after receiving the letters. Problem is, it hasn’t rained since and the letters came in February. I guess the folks think ranchers just fell off the turnip truck from Kansas yesterday. I began making contingency plans before the letter. We stayed hopeful but;

prepared for the worst. Ranchers have skin in the game. If ranchers don’t take care of their range, they are the first to suffer. No one else will lose their life’s work or lack retirement benefits faster than a family rancher. It appears that most of the doomsayer’s are salaried and no matter what the outcome, they can stand around like a deer in the headlights and tell you that they feel your pain. No they don’t. They haven’t a clue. As long as people have no consequences to their actions, then they can never adapt to the situation like a rancher. My question is, did the feral horse advocates get the same letter? Will anyone force a removal or hopefully get the feral horses to AML as promised years ago. Is there anyone besides the rancher that really wants to preserve and protect the range? Now that the elk herds have grown in our area with little or no habitat improvement, will the number of elk tags increase? They are going to increase the deer tags by a bunch. Not a problem here. Unless the deer around here, in the absence of winter decided to migrate north to cooler climates for the winter, there won’t be anything to shoot at but beer cans. If I went to mother Ray at the PCA

and told him that I was going to shoot my breeding herd so I could increase my herd, he would once again drop kick me across the street for being an idiot. Deer, cattle, sheep and sage hens all peaked at the same time. What part of stupid don’t some people understand? If you want to see a deer, try Utah. They have got off the Kool Aid over there and are going to spend big bucks on predator control so they can have big bucks once again roaming the mountains and not a bunch of bucks going into fact less scientist’s pockets. We hope to have the sheep off a couple of weeks early. It is so hot and dry for this time of the year, I saw a coyote chasing a ewe of mine and they both were walking. The lizards are drinking all the moisture out of the rocks to quench their thirst. The good news, there are no mosquitoes. With four dollar gas and dusty roads, one of my bright ideas was to get a trail permit to the state highway I must submit an application to the BL and M to trail. It is across my permit. There is little live water in this permit. I haul truckloads of bottled water to my animals. One of the positive things about this permit is the feral horses must leave in order to get water so

Veterans, Seniors, and Bugs

by Karen Budd-Falen, Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC

It is impossible to compare the contributions to America between our military veterans, our senior citizens, and bugs. Our veterans fought for our freedom; our seniors worked long and hard to make America economically independent; they were to be rewarded by the Social Security system that was designed to provide economic security to protect these hard working Americans from disasters they had endured such as the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Then there are bugs, worms, mold, beetles and plants.

A better comparison can be made between those engaged in the legal profession. The vast majority of attorneys have earned an undergraduate degree and an additional three- year law degree which makes them able to take the bar examination. Passage of a bar examination allows the attorney the ability to practice law before various state and federal courts. It matters not what area of the law a person practices, the requirements are the same.

So rather than comparing the contributions to America by veterans, seniors and bugs, compare what the federal government pays the attorneys representing veterans, seniors and bugs to protect them.

— Attorney hourly fees for work for Veterans According to a Westlaw research project for the last 15 veteran’s attorneys fees reported cases, the average hourly fee awarded to an attorney who represents a veteran in a suit against the federal government is $172.74 per hour. The highest hourly fee award in that time period was $180.26 and the lowest was $166.72. These cases were all brought against United States Department of Veterans Affairs to secure benefits to individual veterans. The average total awarded fees to attorneys fighting for our veterans was $12,046.90.

— Attorney hourly fees for work for Seniors The same research parameters were used to look at

16 June | July 2012

cases brought on behalf of Social Security beneficiaries who had to sue the Social Security Commission to get their federal benefits. According to the research, the average hourly attorney fee award to attorneys fighting for our Seniors was $171.93 per hour, with the highest award being $182.97 and the lowest being $125.00. The average total fee awarded was $6,154.97.

— Attorney hourly fees for work for bugs Compare that to the litigation brought by environmental attorneys, the majority of whom claims that they work for “non-profit law firms.” Using the same research parameters in Westlaw for Endangered Species Act cases, the average hourly attorney fee paid was $490.73. The highest hourly fee charged was $775.00 per hour and the lowest was $350.00. The average total award of attorneys fees for a single case was $645,711.00. Note this money does not go to on the ground protection for bugs, worms and plants; this is just for litigating cases.

And while it may not be an equal comparison between the statutes protecting veterans, seniors and bugs, it is interesting to note that the number of pages of federal regulations protecting veterans is 2,100; the number of pages of regulations relating to Social Security is 1,950, and the number of pages of regulations under the Endangered Species Act is 350—yet attorneys who litigate regarding the interpretation and implementation of those 350 pages relating to the ESA receives an average of $490.73 per hour while attorneys who litigate regarding the interpretation and implementation of the 2,100 pages of regulations for veterans and 1,950 pages of regulations for seniors get $172.74 and $171.93 per hour respectively.

Put another way, environmental attorneys are paid almost 20 times MORE per page of regulations than veterans and social security attorneys.

The original purpose of the Equal Access to Justice The Progressive Rancher

Act (“EAJA”) was to protect individuals and small businesses from an overzealous application of law by federal agencies. According to testimony offered by members of the House of Representatives in support of EAJA, the purpose of the bill was to “equal the playing field” when American citizens had to file litigation against the federal government. For example, Congresswoman Chisholm (D-NY) testified that the bill encouraged an “affirmative action approach” to bring in those who had been “locked out of the decision making process by virtue of their income, their race, their economic scale or their educational limitations.” Representative Joseph McDade R-PA stated that the bill would help to improve citizen’s perceptions of his relationships with the federal government because it would require federal agencies to justify their actions and to compensate the individual or small business owner when the government is wrong. The intent of EAJA was to curb unreasonable and excessive bureaucratic application of regulations. If that is the case, why does the federal government pay a significantly greater amount per hour to an attorney who is representing a bug than to one who is representing a veteran?

I have heard a lot of excitement about the recent FOX news story Environmental groups collecting millions from federal agencies they sue, studies show, as well as the Press Release from Congresswoman Lummis and Senator Barrasso describing Two New Studies Identify Major Flaws in the Equal Access to Justice Act: To support the nation’s veterans, seniors and small business, Lummis and Barrasso call for swift passage of Government Litigation Savings Act. These numbers support that premise. Call your Congressmen and Senators. It is time to show our veterans and seniors that they are more important to the federal government and the to tax paying citizens than bugs. www.progressiverancher.com

they actually rotate out of this area as I do. My idea did not have a hidden agenda what so ever. In fact it was kind of touchy feely. The miners are looking for gold in the area. Compared to Las Vegas Boulevard the traffic is not that thick, but my water truck fleet which we have updated to an average age of 1972, plus mine trucks plus Peruvians that think of mechanization as a wheel barrow, it just seemed logical to trail twenty miles around the valley to avoid the dust, the traffic, and last but not least, hopefully make a better situation for the little lambs and their mommies. The lambs would be freshly docked and sore. I put down an estimate of five days. If it gets hot or the babies are sore, it can be rough. It seemed like a no brainer. Everybody wins, wrong. Phone call comes; BL and M man says his boss can’t live with five days. I guess if a sheep eats feed, it never comes back? It’s better to leave it for the feral horses? Fixing all the fences and hauling water and protecting the range with due diligence causes indigestion? I can’t believe what is happening. We have been told for years, the good stewards will be helped. Cooperation, coordination consideration will bring you high fives and kudos. My dumb, I should have known better. Twenty years ago a letter was sent to me telling that it was good to have me on board in the Badlands and Goshute Mountain allotments as all the trends had turned positive since my purchasing the permit.

They were my first purchases of permits since my arrival in Nevada. I felt great. It is real easy to please me. A little sugar is always easier to swallow than vinegar. A week later the same BL and M man sent me a letter telling me that he was going to cut my permit by thirty percent. My mouth fell open so wide a Canadian goose built a nest and hatched ten goslings.

What a reward for doing things right. Many an area has been reduced to Halogeton near water by the feral horses but; Mr. Cooperator just got the cost of his doing business driven up by thirty percent. I brought this oxymoron to the attention of the BL and M fellow. Boy, I fixed him good I did. He hasn’t said one positive thing since. Again, me, the idiot, now knows that the name of the game is not to let them see you sweat. You at all times must use darting eyes, evasive answers, and a nervous tick will help. Never try and befriend these folks as they are trained professionals in spotting devious ranchers with their agendas to rape, pillage, and plunder the public domain for fun and, God help us all, to make a profit so we can pay our bills, feed our kids, and educate them to get a job off the farm as food production by family farms must go.

After having all this fun, the only thing to do was to borrow some more money. It is always mentally stimulating to see if I can get in and out of Mother Rays PCA building without getting thrown through a door. My approach was to waft philosophically about the European debt crisis. The real money would be in buying Greek bonds as they were yielding thirty percent. How could you go wrong? The next thing to impress mother Ray is throw in the new record low for the German bond, the impending collapse of the Chinese market and the looming inflation of the American dollar. Now you go for the juggler. Tell him that in your expert opinion, the American dollar is rallying and the bond rates on a treasury is still falling all due to the fact that the American dollar metaphorically speaking of course is the best looking horse at the slaughter house. You look him right in the eye and say let’s see what money is costing today. Now like it or not the PCA has to make money. Giving away toasters is not where the big money is at. I own one share of stock so much to his chagrin; he has to talk to me. By now some real customers are in waiting. The proverbial rock and a hard place is developing. BAM you hit him with locking in the rates for say thirty years and rolling all the short term revolving line of credit over into long term and all will be well. Mother Ray is so happy to get you out of his office and by now the paying customers are getting restless and banging my head once more off a door is now out of the question, wouldn’t be damaging a vital organ anyhow. Jesse James used a gun and people shot back at him. My weapon of choice is an ink pen. The only thing is the closest I will get to retiring will be putting new tires on my pick up. The good news is that I only have to live to be ninety three to pay the loans back. HMMMM, wonder if you can get a forty year note, or Hometown Solutions_EighthPageAd_sans.pdf 1 7/21/11 2:21 PM may be fifty years would be better? Hang and rattle. Hank

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www.elkocountyfair.com The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 17

SOCIETY FOR RANGE MANAGEMENT Toads, Humans, Sage Grouse and the Endangered Species Act

By David Spicer, Rancher and Miner from Beatty, Nevada INTRODUCTION Following is Part Two of a three part interview with David Spicer, a rancher from Beatty Nevada, who speaks of his experiences and actions when he faced the potential listing of an amphibian in his valley under the Endangered Species Act. He also owns and operates a mining company and formed the non-profit, STORM-OV, which is dedicated to keeping species from becoming endangered through cooperative programs and educational approaches. It stands for Saving Toads through Offroad racing, Ranching, and Mining in Oasis Valley. You can find out more on the web-site www.STORM-OV.org.

and that it hadn’t been for a long time. No longer were there fires burning off the excess vegetation, no native Indians or ranchers engaging the springs, cleaning them to get a drink, no calamitous floods to gorge out the river bottom creating breeding ponds. The energy required to do these things, seemingly doesn’t exist here anymore, in this part of the world. We were simply, replacing the lost energies of previous natural processes with mechanical ones.

We began forming our non-profit STORM-OV, Inc. in Sept, 2008, and officially filed our Articles of Incorporation in February, 2009. As the process of habitat reconstruction moved forward, so too, did the number of participants in this action.

Some of the agencies told us that there were grants and funding available and that HOW DID YOU PROCEED? DID YOU SEE ANYthey wanted to help. Many other industries made important donations. We realized THING BEGIN TO CHANGE? We started out here on the ranch demonstrating that our occupancy and use of it that we had not only increased the population of the Amargosa toad, but had also benefitted the toad. You have to remember that at first….grazing cattle, over-farming created a compelling force that everyone wanted to join and participate in. This has truly been the accomplishment, bringing the public, private sector, environmental and over use of fertilizers and pesticides, mining, recregroups, county, state, and federal agencies together; a task ational driving and certainly off-road racing were at the top not easily done in the litigious atmosphere of the Endanof the list as to why the toad was endangered. gered Species Act. “We knew we stood We went straight ahead with our mining machinery, We started our non-profit STORM-OV (saving toads digging out and improving old springs that for centuries wrongly accused.

This was through off-road racing, ranching, and mining, in Oasis have been filling in with debris. After cleaning these waValley), after many years of on- going individual efforts. terways we restored their ability to produce clean water, a challenge to take on, a We modeled our ranch and its resources into a “Toad Farm”. basically forever.

We knew to answer the requirements of ESA we needed to After digging all the muck out, we backfilled them with wrong that needed to be increase the population of toads. Who better to do this than crushed native stone, installed a drain system manifold, a farmer or rancher.

We can make anything grow, anywhere. sealed the top with HDPE, established a water distribution righted. So we set to it.”

Just look at our existence in this desert we live in. We pipeline to fill newly constructed breeding ponds, backfilled proudly told every official that we didn’t need the govern—Dave Spicer with native dirt, raked it out and grew toads. ment’s fist telling us what to do....we were capable of doing All of this produced direct increases in the Amargosa what was necessary ourselves.

We demonstrated increased toads’ habitat and more importantly, their population. Here water through spring reconstructions.

Ran pipelines out to in the tri-property study, known as the Spicer, Mullin, and Torrance Ranches, we’ve critical areas.

Provided exclusionary fencing so livestock could be rotated in and out. had an 86% increase documented during the bi-annual cooperative “Toad Count”, Built new reservoirs, created new habitat and “directly increased the population of through 2009. And for 2010, continued increases again were documented; further the Amargosa toads”.

All of it out of our own pockets, all on our own land. demonstrations of our procedures being successful.

We realized that our progress had to be up-scaled, enlarged, shared, if you will.

I was doing most of this work out of my own pocket to begin with. By this good All of our success had been on our own ranch, our own land. It was spectacular, no faith act, individuals and agencies began to slowly realize that the actions we were one denied that. But it was our success, driven by us, managed by us. And it was taking were necessary. The violent excavation, the trucks rolling that were hauling subject to our whims and desires. I was reminded of this one day by my good friend all the muck away, the loaders digging….was hard to take, but when they saw tadBrad while we were patting ourselves on our backs. He said, “Dave, we’re winning poles and toadlets, they became believers, and in some cases, advocates. All parties the battle against the environmentalists trying to list our toads, but no matter what began to put emotions aside and look at reality. The reality was that the environment we do, it’s still on our land, we could sell it and it could become a Wal-Mart parking here no longer was producing the “cleansing” actions to keep the water sources open lot tomorrow. We’ve impressed ourselves and those close to us but have we affected the lawsuit?”

All of us are living under the threat of the environmental lawsuit every day. We USFWS Photo. have to remember the government, not us, gets sued for failure to protect the species that live mostly on our land. And the proof of whether or not its listing is warranted falls squarely on the back of the government. They have to gather the data, study the habits, evaluate the threats and do species counts during the evaluation process.

This process can take decades; all on our land, all at the expense of us taxpayers without the benefit of the accusers’ participation. Nowhere else in our judicial system does something like this exist. Only the ESA allows the plaintiff (accuser) to make

18 June | July 2012

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its accusations as its only contribution to a lawsuit, then sit back in full enjoyment some peace but also relief to the government from the lawsuits it faces. All of us while the defendant (that’s us taxpayers), bear the full costs and proof of burden. together have to do this. Gather around the idea that it can be done.

We the people are funding the government to defend itself against lawsuits wherein The payoff is watching the divide that exists between us crumble. Changing the it created laws allowing itself to get sued, that if it loses, it enforces against us. Us idea that we land owners and users and our relationship to other species does not exist landowners, us taxpayers, us citizens. What the hell have we done to ourselves? as Violator and Victim. To have brought opposite sides together, on the one side farmAs insane as this sounds, so it must have appeared to some within the govern- ers, ranchers, miners, racers – America’s Land Users; on the other, environmental ment. From our entry point into our struggle in 1994, things groups and their law firms. And last but not least, the target have changed. At first, all we heard was what we were going of petitions and legal actions....the U.S. government and to have to do, or how we’d have to manage our land, once many of its agencies, all brought together into a joint effort.

Society for Range Management the toad was listed; there weren’t many tools in the box usOne that we land owners are at the center of, demonstrating literally wrote the book able or palatable to us landowners. The big one we choked that further diversification of our land and resources benefits on Coordinated Resource on was where you sold your farm to the government, you all creatures. That a hands off approach does not work. To could live there the rest of your life with little change, but replace accusations and blame with praise and reward. To Management (CRM) back in 1993. when you died they got it, not your family or children. We find a solution to the problem of us landowners taking the Today the groups that meet were told this was a good way to protect your property, that full brunt of the responsibility. Awakening everyone to this voluntarily to solve problems for this process and similar ones were what was needed to demfact and getting cooperative efforts occurring. Ultimately onstrate our willingness to protect our endangered species. to maintain freedom on the land we own and use, making it resource management issues are Or we could start a fund by charging any landowner a fee financially and environmentally productive. called collaborative, which is a for new disturbances which then could be used for habitat By committing and improving parts of our land, then stakeholder consensus decisionenhancement at some undisclosed place or time. Needless getting involved in partnership agreements, land incentive to say, none of this stimulated anyone to do anything. Our programs, USDA farm bills, and other state and federal making process. Stakeholders are meetings began to deteriorate into frustrating experiences programs, we’ve kept the Wolf away. In these programs, the any interest with a stake in the of increasing numbers of government specialists and dimingrants and funding that they’ve provided have gone a long consequences of the decision. ishing numbers of landowners. All of us just wanted to make way in adding to the productivity of our practices as well as a living from our land like our fathers and grandfathers adding important wildlife increases. One could say this is an In this process, the stakeholders before us. important revenue stream for farm and ranch improvements make decisions by consensus, Somewhere in that time, things like the Partners Prowe could not otherwise afford. Our work also stimulated rather than by traditional gram, the Landowners Incentive Program, the Noxious and other industries to commit time, money, and energy into the Invasive Weed Program, and adaptations of Farm Bills’ message of the voice we now have. voting and majority rule. aid to assist in protection of potentially endangered species The people I have worked with within the government The original “CRM Guidelines” by began to show up. A movement away from instant and final as well as other environmental non-profits have become Rex Cleary and Dennis Phillippi enforcement was occurring. A desire to mitigate the plight my friends and they have my respect for working as hard state, “It is also our belief that of the landowner was apparent. New faces began to show up, as I have in keeping things off the endangered list. Many friendly ones without guns and badges. They were carrying long nights in the wind and rain have been spent away from these thrusts must be done first potential funding deals with them. Deals that could help us home with volunteers they managed to motivate, counting at the local level. Local response on our ranches, making them more productive as long as we our toads, catching them, tagging them, measuring them.... to changing times and conditions could “demonstrate” how this helps the environment. It was much of it on their own time. All of this done to keep a lawup to us to figure this out. Draft and design up an idea, do suit away from us. To keep themselves and us from becommust occur before anything some engineering, follow it with a cost analysis——-show ing targeted as a failure to take care of the world we live in; substantial and enduring can be its value. Add in some matching funds....and wah-la you’re putting sense and meaning into all of our efforts. accomplished. In other words, saving something. The only commitment required was that It does not escape me that if these efforts are not you maintain the enhancement for 5-10 years or so. At the genuine and productive, we fall back under the looking ‘if the local people don’t agree, end of it, your commitment is over; you still own the land.... glass. That the power of the Endangered Species Act has then you have a conflict and/ no sneaky stuff. A whole new way of thinking. A much not diminished and our relationship with our government or a stalemate’ in the making.” needed and necessary change in the way landowners were can quickly slide from the cooperation we have now into an treated. Respect had been re-established. Recognition of enforcement action for the ESA. Really, this is no different land owners’ rights was being practiced. We celebrated than the democracy we live in and the freedom it affords us. these new approaches, jumped at the opportunities, and worked to cause them to hap- The price of it is constant vigilance. pen. My relationship with my government now was meaningful, not confrontational.

We had created trust between us. A willingness to commit and cooperate grew on all sides. How could we not get involved? These deals were not with The Devil USFWS Photo. anymore, we weren’t selling our souls. We were saving our lifestyles, our right to ranch, preserving our futures, and protecting the environment we live in. Making the differences between the environmentalist and ourselves dissolve by creating these partnerships and conservation actions on our properties. Giving not only ourselves

The Society for Range Management (SRM) is “the professional society dedicated to supporting persons who work with rangelands and have a commitment to their sustainable use.” SRM’s members are ranchers, land managers, scientists, educators, students, conservationists – a diverse membership guided by a professional code of ethics and unified by a strong land ethic. This series of articles is dedicated to connecting the science of range management with the art, by applied science on the ground in Nevada. Articles are the opinion of the author and may not be an official position of SRM. Further information and a link to submit suggestions or questions are available at the Nevada Section website at http://nevada.rangelands.org/.

SRM’s main webpage is www.rangelands.org. We welcome your comments.

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June | July 2012 19

The Greater Sage-Grouse Does Not Warrant Listing Under the Endangered Species Act A White Paper prepared for the Elko County Commissioners by Western Range Service on May 12, 2012 Introduction Numerous petitions to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requesting that the greater sage-grouse be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)1 brought one question to the forefront, should the greater sage-grouse be listed as endangered or threatened?

Many believe that the answer is a settled “Yes” based upon the March 23, 2010 FWS Findings2 which concluded that “listing the greater sage-grouse (rangewide) is warranted, but precluded by higher priority listing actions.” See FWS Findings2, page 13910.

However, a thorough review of all the information presented in the FWS Findings demonstrates that the FWS conclusion that the greater sage-grouse is warranted for listing is not supported by the best scientific and commercial data that was considered in their analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the question in light of all of the data that was presented in the March 23, 2010 FWS Findings.

Should the greater sage-grouse be listed as endangered or threatened?

Any answer to this question must be consistent with the primary purposes of the ESA and its definitions of endangered and threatened species. The ESA states that the primary purposes of the Act are to: 1] “provide a means whereby ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved” and, 2] “provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species” (see ESA, Sec. 2(b) Purposes).1 Since these purposes apply specifically to “endangered species and threatened species” a finding that a species is either endangered or threatened must occur before a species, or the ecosystem (habitat) upon which it depends, falls under the purview of the Act. By definition under the ESA, an “endangered species” is “any species which is in

danger of extinction” and a “threatened species” is “any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future” (see ESA, Definitions, Secs. 3(6) and 3(20)).1 Thus, under the ESA, a species can only be listed as endangered if it faces imminent extinction, or as threatened if it is at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future.

Given the different definitions for an endangered species and a threatened species under the ESA, the initial question (Should the greater sage-grouse be listed as endangered or threatened?) becomes two distinct questions. First, does the greater sage-grouse face imminent extinction and therefore warrant listing as an endangered species? Second, is the greater sage-grouse at risk for extinction in the foreseeable future and therefore warrant listing as a threatened species?

Does the greater sage-grouse face imminent extinction and therefore warrant listing as an endangered species?

In order to address this question, it is necessary to know the minimum effective population of greater sage-grouse needed to maintain long-term genetic diversity and safeguard the species from the risk of imminent extinction. The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s analysis in their March 23, 2010 FWS Findings identified geographically isolated greater sage-grouse populations of fewer than 50 breeding adults as being at short-term risk of extinction, and identified geographically isolated sage-grouse populations of fewer than 500 breeding adults as being at long-term risk of extinction (see FWS Findings, page 13959).2 The FWS Findings further reported “a minimum effective population size must be 5,000 individuals to maintain evolutionary minimal viable populations of wildlife” (see FWS Findings, page 13959).2 With respect to greater sage-grouse in particular, the FWS

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Findings reported “up to 5,000 individual sage-grouse may be necessary to maintain an effective population size of 500 birds” because of comparatively low reproductive rates, a highly polygamous mating system, individual male breeding success, and juvenile death rates (see FWS Findings, page 13985).2 The current estimated population for greater sage-grouse exceeds 535,000 birds (see FWS Findings, Table 4, page 13921),2 which is 107 times greater than a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds. The FWS Findings express concern that many greater sage-grouse populations have already fallen well below a population of 5,000 birds, potentially compromising their genetic diversity (see FWS Findings, page 13985).2 However, for purposes of determining if greater sage-grouse are endangered, the question is not if there are any geographically isolated populations that fall below 5,000 birds, but rather if there is a geographically connected population (to allow the free exchange of genetic information) that exceeds a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds. If a single geographically connected population exceeding 5,000 birds exists, the species as a whole does not face imminent extinction, and thus does not legally qualify as “endangered” under the ESA. The FWS Findings identified two strongholds of contiguous sagebrush habitat for greater sage-grouse, the southwest Wyoming Basin (southwest Wyoming and northwest Colorado) and the Great Basin (straddling Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada) (see FWS Findings, pages 13950 and 13962).2 These stronghold areas contain high densities of breeding males and sizeable greater sage-grouse populations that have been maintained even under the alleged existing threat factors, and these are expected to remain strongholds in fifty years (see FWS Findings, pages 13962, 13986, 14008, and 14009).2 These stronghold areas are each projected to currently support greater sage-grouse populations that are at least 10 times larger than a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds, and are each projected to maintain populations that are at least 5 times larger than the minimum effective population in thirty years if existing and anticipated threat factors continue without constraint. Thus, there are at least two discrete greater sage-grouse populations that currently greatly exceed a minimum effective population of 5,000 interbreeding birds, and they are expected to continue to greatly exceed such a minimum effective population over the next thirty years, so the species does not face imminent extinction and does not legally qualify as “endangered” under the ESA.

Is the greater sage-grouse at risk for extinction in the foreseeable future and therefore warrant listing as a threatened species?

The FWS Findings reported contemporary rates of decline for greater sage-grouse estimated by several sources. Connelly et al. 2004 estimated the rate of decline from 1986 to 2003 to average 0.37% per year, and reported that some populations actually increased during that period (see FWS Findings, page 13922).2 At that rate of decline, it would take more than 1,260 years for the estimated current greater sage-grouse population to dwindle to a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds rangewide, and it would take more than 1,060 years for each of the stronghold areas to fall below a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds. In contrast, WAFWA 2008 estimated the rate of decline from 1985 to 2007 to be 1.4% per year (see FWS Findings, page 13922).2 At that rate of decline, it would take more than 330 years for the estimated current greater sage-grouse population to dwindle to a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds rangewide, and it would take more than 280 years for each of the stronghold areas to fall below a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds.

Speculating about what might occur 280 to 1,260 years from now reaches into the remote future, well beyond the foreseeable future. The greater sage-grouse is not at risk for extinction in the foreseeable future, so is not legally qualified to be listed as “threatened” under the ESA.

The greater sage-grouse is not warranted for listing as endangered or threatened.

As discussed above, the greater sage-grouse is not faced with imminent extinction and is not at risk for extinction in the foreseeable future, so is not legally qualified to be listed as either “endangered” or “threatened” under the ESA. The FWS Findings’ conclusion to the contrary (finding that the greater sage-grouse is warranted for listing rangewide) is not supported by the best scientific and commercial information disclosed therein. The conclusion that listing is warranted also conflicts with subsequent estimates that such a listing would require ESA restrictions to be imposed within the 75% breeding density area which accounts for approximately 400,000 birds within 27% (50 million acres) of the currently occupied greater sage-grouse range (186 million acres) (see Doherty et al. 2010, page 2).3 If the greater sage-grouse were really rare enough to warrant listing under the ESA, it is unconceivable that its population could be so numerous and widespread that the listing would require protection of more than 400,000 individual birds across a swath of land covering over 50 million acres. Given that greater sage-grouse are so numerous and well www.progressiverancher.com

distributed, and are projected to persist so far into the future under existing circumstances, it is nonsensical to classify the species as endangered or threatened.

Other Concerns The FWS Findings attempt to justify their warranted but precluded finding based upon several other concerns, including population trends, habitat fragmentation (primarily due to oil and gas development in the Wyoming Basin and interrelated wildfire and spreading invasive plant communities in the Great Basin), and adequacy of regulatory mechanisms to protect greater sage-grouse. However, the cumulative impact of all of these concerns is addressed in the above described analysis regarding the minimum effective population needed to safeguard the greater sage-grouse from imminent extinction and the risk of extinction in the foreseeable future.

Thus, regardless of the seriousness of these concerns, they do not rise to the level, singularly or in combination, to result in a need to list the greater sage-grouse under the ESA. Since the greater sage-grouse is not legally qualified to be listed as either “endangered” or “threatened” under the ESA, any perceived need to address these concerns regarding sagegrouse management cannot be compelled under the color of the ESA.

Population Trends The FWS Findings admit that greater sage-grouse “numbers are difficult to estimate due to the large range of the species, physical difficulty in accessing some areas of habitat, the cryptic coloration and behavior of hens (Garton et al. in press, p. 6), and survey protocols” and ultimately conclude “since neither presettlement nor current numbers of sage-grouse are accurately known, the actual rate and magnitude of decline since presettlement times is uncertain.” See FWS Findings,2 pages 13921 and 13923.

Despite the recognition that the rate and magnitude of change in greater sage-grouse populations over time is uncertain, the FWS Findings assume that greater sage-grouse populations have significantly declined from pre-settlement populations based primarily upon conclusions from several sources indicating that “sage-grouse population numbers in the late 1960s and early 1970s were likely two to three times greater than current numbers”. See FWS Findings,2 page 13922. Note that the cited high populations in the late 1960s and early 1970s tell us nothing about pre-settlement numbers. The FWS Findings report that “three groups of researchers using different statistical methods (but the same lek count data) concluded that rangewide greater sage-grouse have experienced long-term population declines in the past 43 years, with that decline lessening in the past 22 years.” See FWS Findings,2 page 13923. These recent historical observations are consistent with testimony of Nevada residents that have first-hand memories dating back that long ago, or earlier, some as far back as the 1930s. But again, looking back 43 years, or even 80 years, tells us nothing about pre-settlement greater sage-grouse numbers.

The FWS Findings ultimately conclude “(a)lthough the declining population trends have moderated over the past several years, low population sizes and relative lack of any sign of recovery across numerous populations is troubling.” See FWS Findings,2 page 13987. But this conclusion is based primarily upon the observed greater sage-grouse population declines from the high numbers in the 1960s to today, which cannot be used to establish how current greater sage-grouse populations compare to pre-settlement populations. Yet, based primarily upon estimated populations at these two points in history, the FWS Findings assume a relatively linear trend line for sage-grouse populations, and thus presume that pre-settlement greater sage-grouse populations were abundant.

The FWS Findings claim that “(e)arly reports suggested the birds were abundant throughout their range” and estimate that historical populations ranged from 1.6 million to 16 million birds. See FWS Findings,2 pages 13920 and 13921. They then look forward in time and forecast that without regulatory intervention, a persistent downward trend will continue into the future, and sage-grouse populations will eventually reach levels near or below the minimum effective population, putting the species at risk for eventual extinction.

They seem oblivious to the fact that at the maximum estimated contemporary (1985 to 2007) rate of decline of 1.4% annually (see FWS Findings, page 13922)2 it would take over 330 years for the estimated current greater sage-grouse population to dwindle to the minimum effective population of 5,000 birds, a time frame that reaches way past the foreseeable future.

The greater sage-grouse population trend assumed by the FWS Findings is depicted graphically by the dashed grey trend line in Figure 1 on page 11 [Progressive Rancher page 22] herein. The downward trend between the 1960s and today is assumed to be relatively steep due to rapid agricultural conversion of sagebrush habitat starting in the late 1960s.

Except for a period of accelerated decline associated with commercial hunting in the 1930s, the downward trend in greater sage-grouse populations is projected to extend back in time prior to the 1960s at a somewhat slower rate of decline.

Likewise, the downward trend in greater sage-grouse populations is forecast to continue into the foreseeable future, at a slightly slower rate. This forecast leads to the conclusion that greater sage-grouse populations will eventually reach levels near or below the minimum effective population (as high as 5,000 breeding adults), putting the species at risk for eventual

The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 21

the growth never so dense as to seriously obstruct the way, but very uniform over large surfaces, very rarely reaching to the saddle-height of a mule, and ordinarily but half that altitude.”

The forecast that greater sage-grouse populations will continue to significantly decline into the foreseeable future also appears to be wrong based upon recent studies within the Great Basin. Nevada Department of Wildlife Studies report that greater sage-grouse populations increased within the state from 2008 through 2010. A complete picture of Great Basin greater sage-grouse numbers since written records began indicates: 1] pre-settlement populations were low, far less than today, but well scattered; 2] populations dramatically increased between the late 1800s and early 1900s; 3] populations peaked in about 1930 and remained high through the 1960s (perhaps interrupted by a moderate dip due to commercial hunting); 4] populations declined rapidly from the 1970s through about 2000; and, 5] populations declined more slowly from 2000 through 2010, and have even increased during the last part of this period in certain locations.

Figure 1 on page 11 [Progressive Rancher page 22] herein displays these circumstances graphically. All available information regarding estimated Great Basin greater sage-grouse numbers from the early 1800s to present is shown as triangular data points in Figure 1, connected by a smoothed black line. To determine the overall direction of change in Great Basin greater sage-grouse populations over time, a linear trend line5 for the Great Basin data is depicted in Figure 1 as a solid grey line, which increased over time. This is the exact opposite of the assumed downward trend predicted by the FWS Findings based upon the period between the 1960s and the present. It is unreasonable to base conclusions regarding long-term population trends only upon knowledge regarding population levels at two points in history, 1960 and today, when we have knowledge regarding sage-grouse populations at other times.

When interpreting graphic representations of data like that presented in Figure 1 on page 11 herein, it is helpful to develop biologically relevant explanations for the points where the population curve significantly changes slope or reverses direction. The population trend explanations suggested by the FWS Findings have the potential to explain only two of the deflections shown in Figure 1 for Great Basin greater sage-grouse populations. Commercial hunting could explain the population decline depicted in the 1930s, and agricultural conversions may partially explain the alleged “rapid” population decline beginning in about 1970.

AYearly 12, 2012 However, agricultural conversions were taking placeMas as the turn of the century, PAGE 11 OF 11

extinction. See the dashed grey trend line depicted in Figure 1, pg. 11 [Progressive Rancher page 22] herein.

However, we know from documented sources that the assumed higher greater sagegrouse population levels in the early and mid 1800s depicted by the dashed grey trend line are simply wrong, at least with respect to known greater sage-grouse population levels at various points in the recorded history of the Great Basin. Greater sage-grouse within the Western Region, particularly the Great Basin, were scarce during the pre-settlement period, much less abundant than today. Ira Hansen, Nevada State Assemblyman, prepared a report (available from Western Range Service upon request) regarding pre-settlement greater sagegrouse populations throughout Nevada and the Great Basin based upon written accounts of early explorers in the region. Those early written accounts indicate that between about 1820 and 1850, greater sage-grouse were uncommon, being observed only rarely by the explorers, and were seldom included in the diets of the Native Americans due to the scarceness of the bird.

Similarly, in Part III of the King Exploration Report (King)4 based upon field-work from June 1867 to August 1869, Ornithologist Robert Ridgway reported “birds characteristic of the sage-brush are not numerous, either as to species or individuals, but several of them are peculiar to these districts;” including Centrocercus urophasianus (greater sage-grouse).

See King,4 page 324, underlined emphasis added. Regarding greater sage-grouse, Ridgway reported “(a)lthough this large and well-known Grouse was met with throughout the sagebrush country between the Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch (sic), we saw it so seldom that little was learned of its habits, particularly during the breeding-season.” See King,4 page 600, underlined emphasis added.

Lest anyone assume that sage-grouse were seldom seen during these explorations because the vegetative cover was significantly heavier than it is today, and thus allowed the birds to better hide themselves, consider Ridgway’s following characterization of the sagebrush communities under the section titled Birds of the sage-brush (see King, page 323).4 The term “sage-brush” is the western vernacular for that shrubby growth which prevails over the valleys, mesas, and desert mountain slopes of the Great Basin to the utter exclusion of all other vegetation, except in isolated and extremely restricted places. One species, the “everlasting sage-brush” (Artemisia tridentata), composes by far the larger part of that growth, “coverWESTERN RANGE SERVICE ing valleys and foot-hills in broad stretches farther than the eye can reach, THE GREATER SAGE-GROUSE DOES NOT WARRANT LISTING

Figure 1. Historic Greater Sage-Grouse Population Trends Great Basin

Range-Wide

Estimated Sage-Grouse Population

2,000,000

Commercial Hunting

1,750,000

Agricultural Conversions

1,500,000 1,250,000

Projected Trend under a Return to Effective Management: Increase Grazing to Reduce Fuel Loads and Reduce Fire; Increase Predator Control

1,000,000 750,000 500,000 High Sheep & Cattle Density; Few Large Fires; Concerted Predator Control

250,000

Linear Trend Based on All Historic Great Basin Population Estimates

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Linear (Great Basin)

0 1800

1850

1900

1950

Livestock Reduced; Many Fires; Restricted Predator Control

2000

2050

Trend Line Assumed by FWS Findings, Predominately Based on 1960s & Current Range-Wide Population Estimates

Year The Progressive Rancher

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June | July 2012 23

and Great Basin greater sage-grouse populations were significantly increasing at that time, rather than decreasing. Thus, while agricultural conversions may help explain the population decline beginning in about 1970, they are counter-intuitive when trying to explain the rapid population increases that occurred at the turn of the century.

Indeed, human disturbances of all sorts, roads, railways, fences, reservoirs, towns, homesteads, farms, mines, etc. flourished in the early to mid 1900s, and so did the sagegrouse. The mere presence of human activity seems to have little biologically relevant connection to sage-grouse population trends. However, specific human activities appear to correlate positively with greater sage-grouse population trends. Livestock grazing management, with its associated intensive development of meadows, hayfields, and surface water sources increased markedly in the Great Basin in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and greater sage-grouse populations boomed.

During this period, high livestock densities (both sheep and cattle) reduced fine wildfire fuel loads across the Great Basin, and wildfires were relatively rare and small. Higher densities of livestock dung also supplied an abundance of insect activity, particularly in closely grazed meadows and riparian areas, and the close grazing stimulated succulent new herbaceous growth and increased the forb component in these meadows and riparian areas, thereby increasing the quantity and quality of the forage supply for sage-grouse. At the same time, concerted predator control was practiced. In fact, predator control was encouraged, subsidized, and implemented on a vast scale by Federal, State, and County governments, and was conducted by individuals throughout the west.

By the mid 1900s, Federal and State regulations were implemented and all of the grazing management practices discussed above were controlled and moderated. The greater sage-grouse population boom moderated at about the same time. By the late 1960s, livestock numbers and grazing levels were significantly scaled back across the west, and predator control programs were largely curtailed. Fire fuel levels increased, and the incidence of large-scale wildfires rose exponentially. Greater sage-grouse population trends reversed and started to rapidly decline.

Thus, intensive livestock management which diminished the frequency and size of wildfires, and concerted predator control which greatly reduced greater sage-grouse loses to these killers, are management actions in the Great Basin that seem to be highly relevant to the biology of the greater sage-grouse and help explain the trajectory of their populations over time. As shown in Figure 1 on page 11 [Progressive Rancher page 22] herein, it is reasonable to assume that a return to effective management to increase livestock grazing levels, reduce fire fuel loads and wildfire impacts, and increase predator control would result in another significant upward trend in greater sage-grouse populations.

Habitat Fragmentation Proposed greater sage-grouse conservation measures to provide heavier cover levels through further livestock grazing reductions, and the lack of conservation measures to address ever increasing predation levels, are a prescription to assure that greater sage-grouse populations ultimately decline. Heavier cover for greater sage-grouse translates to higher fire fuel loads across the landscape, and substantial fuel loads make large-scale wildfires inevitable in many sagebrush communities, particularly within the Great Basin area. Repeat burns increase the conversion of plant communities to cheatgrass, which increases wildfire frequency and limits the ability of sagebrush communities to re¬establish, thereby increasing the fragmentation of greater sage-grouse habitat.

Thus, conservation measures that intend to benefit greater sage-grouse by providing them with more hiding cover will ultimately harm the species by converting significant swaths of existing habitat to annual grasslands that provide no habitat value for greater sagegrouse. This will concentrate the remaining birds in an ever shrinking area, making them more vulnerable to poorly controlled predator populations.

In contrast, returning to the management practices discussed above under the heading “Population Trends” will reduce the risk of large-scale wildfires. This will prevent the habitat fragmentation the occurs as a result of such fires, particularly within the Great Basin area.

Adequacy of Regulatory Mechanisms The FWS Findings cited a perceived inadequacy of regulatory mechanisms as an important factor in their finding that the greater sage-grouse is warranted for listing under the ESA. However, their analysis completely failed to recognize or discuss the fact that many of the regulatory mechanisms that are thought to benefit greater sage-grouse have already been imposed in the Nation’s Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, and National Conservation Areas.

Less than 1% of the current greater sage-grouse breeding population needs to be conserved to support a minimum effective population as high as 5,000 birds. Because the species is heavily concentrated in high-quality portions of its occupied range (see Doherty, page 2),3 less than 0.15% of the total acreage in the highest breeding density portions of the occupied range needs to be conserved to support the minimum effective population.6

24 June | July 2012

Likely, far more than 5,000 greater sage-grouse, and more than 0.15% of the species high quality breeding habitat, are located within existing Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, and National Conservation Areas. Thus, these nationally designated areas likely already support more greater sage-grouse than the minimum effective population needed to safeguard the species from extinction. Further, these nationally designated areas are already managed under special regulatory mechanisms that in many instances mirror the proposed mechanisms that current sage-grouse planning strategies recommend for conservation of the species and its habitat.

Such nationally designated areas have the potential to protect a minimum effective population of greater sage-grouse under the type of regulatory mechanisms that the FWS claims will provide them with sufficient protection from human disturbances and development. Thus, analysis of the status of the greater sage-grouse needs to include evaluation of its populations and trends in these nationally designated areas to determine how many greater sage-grouse they contain, and the extent to which their habitats are sufficient to sustain a minimum effective population of 5,000 birds under the regulatory mechanisms that are already in place.

If analysis of these nationally designated areas confirms that they currently support more than 5,000 greater sage-grouse, and demonstrates that their populations have been maintained or have increased under the regulatory mechanisms already implemented, then there is no need or justification, legally or biologically, to implement additional conservation measures anywhere else in the bird’s occupied range. In such case, the greater sage-grouse does not need to be listed under the ESA because its existence and trend in these nationally designated areas alone is sufficient to safeguard it from extinction.

In contrast, if analysis demonstrates that greater sage-grouse population trends in these nationally designated areas have declined, then the entire line of reasoning regarding the factors responsible for observed greater sage-grouse population trends must be reevaluated.

If greater sage-grouse population declines have occurred in these nationally designated areas that received such recognition because of their expansive, wild, undisturbed characteristics, and have been largely protected from human disturbance and development since their designation, then factors other than habitat loss, destruction, and fragmentation due to man’s activities must be responsible for the greater sage-grouse population declines. Likewise, if greater sage-grouse populations have declined in these nationally designated areas despite the regulatory/policy mechanisms that constrain their use, all recommendations to implement similar regulatory restrictions across vast additional acreages of the greater sagegrouse range must be rejected entirely.

If regulatory/policy controls to minimize human disturbance have failed to allow greater sage-grouse populations to flourish within the vast wilderness areas and other nationally designated conservation areas, then it is unreasonable to apply such draconian control measures to broad landscapes beyond the boundaries of these areas in the vain hope that such regulations will somehow achieve in other locations what they failed to achieve in areas that are already protected. To implement regulatory mechanisms that are certain to severely interfere with other valid existing uses of the landscape and negatively impact local and regional economies in the face of evidence that such mechanisms did not improve the plight of the greater sage-grouse in these nationally designated areas would be unreasonable, irrational, and counter-productive. Instead, if the minimum effective population of greater sage-grouse necessary to protect the species from extinction cannot be supported within such nationally designated areas, then management practices that were in place when greater sage-grouse populations dramatically increased from the mid 1800s to early 1900s need to be identified and implemented again in other areas, including increased livestock grazing to reduce wildfire fuel loads, and concerted predator control practices.

WESTERN RANGE SERVICE, May 12, 2012 Al Steninger, President Quinton J. Barr, Range Consultant 1 ESA: The Endangered Species Act of 1973. See www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Communications_Directorate/legislation.Par.93179.File.dat/e saall.pdf.

2 FWS Findings: Fish and Wildlife Service, 50 CFR Part 17. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Findings for Petitions to List the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as Threatened or Endangered. Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 55 / Tuesday, March 23, 2010 / Proposed Rules. See www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-03-23/pdf/2010-5132.pdf.

3 Doherty: Doherty et. al., September 24, 2010, Mapping breeding densities of greater sage-grouse: A tool for range-wide conservation planning, 24 September 2010. See www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/ blm/wo/Communications_Directorate/public_affairs.Par.46599.File.tmp/ GRSG%20Rangewide%20 Breeding%20Density.pdf.

4 King (King Exploration Report): United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Clarence King, Geologist-in-charge. Part III. Ornithology. By Robert Ridgway. November 18, 1876. See www.archive.org/details/cu31924000092373 5 The only purpose for fitting this linear trend line to non-linear data was to determine whether the overall direction of change over time was upward or downward. A calculated linear trend based upon nonlinear data is not very useful for any other purpose.

6 Calculations: 5,000 effective pop. ÷ 535,000 current pop. * 100 = 0.93% of population needed; 3.9% area ÷ (25% / 0.93%) = 0.15% area needed (see Doherty, page 2 which reports that 25% of the known breeding population resides in 3.9% of its occupied range)3.

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June | July 2012 25

“2012” DeBruycker Charolais Bull Sale Results HIGH SELLING BULLS Lot

Sire

13

$45,000.00

ZEUS Syndication

Wheatland, WY

JDJ True Mark T39 P

467

$10,000.00

Rambur Charolais

Sidney, MT

CJC Newtrend L1632

281

$8,750.00

Harlan Charolais

Austin, TX

CJC Mr President T122 P

282

$8,000.00

Effertz Key

Velva, ND

CJC Mr President T122 P

403

$7,250.00

Wade Beck

Lang, SK Canada

LHD Distinctive T760 P

48

$7,250.00

Robert Wellman

Valier, MT

BHD Reality T3136 P

VOLUME BUYERS 100 Bulls Dragging Y Cattle Co Dillon, MT 28 Bulls Cervi Cattle Greeley, CO 23 Bulls Tim Delong Imlay, NV 22 Bulls Ensign Ranches Henefer, UT 20 Bulls Bill Sarver Lewisburg,WV 20 Bulls Silver Spur Ranches Encampment, WY Bulls Sold To 14 States & Canada: CO, ID, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WY, & Canada 255 BULLS TO 54 MONTANA BUYERS 50 Long Yearling Bulls @ $5,165.00 447 Yearling Bulls @ $3,602.40 Overall @ 497 Bulls @ $3,759.61

26 June | July 2012

The Progressive Rancher

TOP SELLING SIRE GROUPS 13 JDJ TRUE MARK T39 2 CJC Newtrend L1632 6 CJC Infantry R2053 4 MD Rendition U648 12 CJC Cigar Son U3080 2 JDJ Mr Trademark U3059 5 BHD Rock U827 19 CJC Mr President T122 P 12 BHD Reality T3136 P 11 JDJ Taurus W65 P/S 42 CJC Trademark H45

@ $7,076.92 @ $6,625.00 @ $4,916.67 @ $4,625.00 @ $4,520.83 @ $4,500.00 @ $4,410.00 @ $4,368.42 @ $4,250.00 @ $4,250.00 @ $4,107.14

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Malson Angus and Herefords “Quality Comes First” Bull Sale March 19, 2012

The family of Mark & Carla Malson welcomed a great crowd for the first spring bull sale at Malson Angus and Herefords, near Parma, Idaho. It was a beautiful day for buyers and guests to look through the cattle at the new sale facility on the family’s ranch.

The high-selling bull was Malsons Hammer 203X, a September son of Pine Ridge Hammer S322. He sold to LaMar Roche of Parma, Idaho, for $7,750. Additional top-sellers included: Angus: Lot 45-Malsons Pow-Wow 90Y, a March son of WK Pow-Wow, sold to Ron Jones, Ontario, Ore., for $5,000.

Lot 14-Malsons Hammer 196Y, a February son of Pine Ridge Hammer S322, sold to Duane Whitted, Grandview, Idaho, for $4,750.

Lot 13-Malsons Hammer 195Y, a February son of Pine Ridge Hammer S322, sold to Steve Acarregui, Mountain Home, Idaho, for $4,500.

Lot 19-Malsons Upward 6Y, a February son of Sitz Upward 307R, sold to Larry Church, Fruitland, Idaho, for $4,200.

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eptember 15 Saturday, S oo Breakfast

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Elko County Fairgrounds Elko, Nevada

Live Webcast of Preview and Sale by HorseAuctionsLive.com Absentee bidding via phone and internet

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Hereford: Lot 51-Malsons Outcross 74X ET, a March son of Golden Oak Outcross 18U, sold to M Cross Cattle Co., Parma, Idaho.

44 Lots 42 Angus Bulls-$3,361 2 Hereford Bulls-$2,375 Sale Average: $3,300

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The Progressive Rancher

June | July 2012 27

Wells FFA Success at State

The Wells FFA chapter enjoyed its annual success at the 2011-2012 state convention held at the University of Nevada, Reno. The chapter brought home eight first places (golds), five second places (silvers), and three third places (bronzes). Wells FFA also brought home the 2012-2013 State President, Margaret Wright.

The adventure began at noon on Tuesday March 20th when the bus pulled away from the Ag room. A six hour bus ride is a last chance study opportunity that the members were more than willing to take.

On Wednesday, all tests were taken and a few contests were completed. At eight in the evening the first general session began. The convention was introduced to its 2012-2013 state officer candidates. Cain Thurmond, a National officer spoke to us about opportunities in life and in the FFA. Finally Career development event results were announced. Wells FFA placed first in the Range evaluation competition, which was held in Minden, NV during the fall. Clarissa Johnson was the 1st high individual, Margaret Wright placed second, and Josie Boyer came in third. Also in this session Wells was announced as the second high team in Soil evaluation, in which Drew Kelly, sophomore placed 3rd.

Thursday brought more competitions. Wells FFA teams competed in Nursery Landscape, Junior (freshmen) and Senior Parliamentary procedure, Meats Evaluation and Agriculture Sales. In the second general session, a speaker educated us about the University’s College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources and the changes it’s undergone. Kristina White got the award for the State High chapter Treasurers book. Finally, CDE results were announced. Clarissa Johnson was the 1st place winner in prepared public speaking, and the chapter won 1st high

team in Best Informed Greenhand, a contest that tests the freshmen’s knowledge of Agriculture and the FFA. The 1st high individual was Jessica Solis, 2nd high Rachel Johnny and tied for third was Kacey Franco and Tessa Hubert. In Junior Farm business management Clarissa Johnson scored 1st high individual, Drew Kelly came in 2nd, and McCrae Myers, third, landing Wells FFA with another first place win. In Senior FBM, the first high team, Breanna Shelley was the 1st high individual, and senior, Margaret Wright earned third, continuing Wells FFA’s reign over the Farm Business Management contest. After the session, the whole state bussed over to Roller Kingdom for an exciting night of skating. Loud music, crazy neon outfits and junk food ON SKATES made for a fun filled night.

Friday morning came early for those competing in Floriculture, Environmental Natural Resources and Ag Mechanics, all beginning at 7:00 a.m. At 2:30 p.m. the third general session began. Our very own Clarissa Johnson kicked it off by giving her prepared speech about proper land usage, grazing and wildfires. The state officers recognized those who made the convention possible and the CDE results were announced. Wells was the 1st high team in Marketing Plan and in Poultry Evaluation. Lindsay Hartman was the 1st high individual, and Kayla Ryan placed 3rd.

After smiling big for the State photo and a speedy Dairy Queen run, the fourth session began. We were greeted by Jim Barbee, of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, and given a financial report by the Nevada FFA foundation President. Scholarships were granted and Honorary State degrees were presented and then to end with, contest results. Wells FFA placed 2nd in Ag Sales as well as in Nursery Landscape. Breanna Shelley (junior), placed 1st

high, and Cameron Huff close behind as 3rd. Drew Kelly was the 2nd high individual in Meats Evaluation and McCrae Myers was 3rd, putting Wells in 2nd place for the first time in 11 years. In freshmen Parliamentary procedure the team placed 3rd; Kacey Mae Franco was honored as the High Chairperson and presented with a gavel of her own.

The Senior Parliamentary procedure team placed 2nd.

Saturday morning began with a lot of laughs, as several members were hypnotized by well-known hypnotist Brian Imbus, when the session began, we were greeted by the new state advisor, Sue Hoffman. Then Dakota Adkins, Colleen Fitzgerald, Rae Garrett, Cameron Huff, Whitney McIntyre, Breanna Shelley and Kristina White received their Silver State FFA degree. Our bodies were shaking as the final CDE results began. Wells came in 3rd in Floriculture; Kayla Ryan was the 1st high individual, while Colleen Fitzgerald came in as 2nd. Also as a 3rd high team was Environmental Natural Resources.

Finally, the moment we’d all been waiting for: the installation of the 2012-2013 State officers. Silver Sage FFA’s Cory Shrecengost as Sentinel, Kylen Flannigan; from Carson Valley as Reporter, Kyndra Smith as Treasurer, from Duck Valley FFA, Shelby Downs; from Silver Sage FFA as Secretary, Lynn Dodge from Silver Sage FFA as Vice President and our very own Margaret Wright as 2012-2013 Nevada State President.

The 2011-2012 FFA state convention was full of excitement, emotion and above all success. Thank you to all our members who worked hard in their contests, and good luck representing Nevada at the National convention in October.

We’d also like to thank Mr. Noorda and Garrett Hylton for all their hard work and dedication to us and the FFA.

Financial Focus Presented by Sonny Davidson and Jason Land, Financial Advisors, Edward Jones in Elko, Nevada 2213 North 5th Street, Suite A | 775-738-8811

Plan for the Expected — But Prepare for the Unexpected

T

o enjoy a comfortable retirement lifestyle, you’ll need to have adequate financial resources in place. And that means you must plan for the expected — but prepare for the unexpected.

In planning for the “expected” aspects of your retirement, consider these factors: • Your vision of your retirement lifestyle — What do you want to do during your retirement years? Spend more time with your family? Volunteer? Open your own business? Your expectations of your retirement lifestyle will dictate, to a large extent, your savings and investment strategies.

• Your expenses — Once you’ve established a vision for your retirement lifestyle, you can begin to estimate the expenses you expect to incur during your retirement years.

• Your income — You can expect to receive income from a variety of sources: Social Security, pensions, part-time employment and investments, such as your IRA, 401(k) and any taxable investment accounts you may have. You’ll need to estimate about how much income all these sources could provide.

• Your withdrawal rate — If your investments are going to provide a significant part of your retirement income, you need to carefully manage annual withdrawals from your portfolio. Your withdrawal rate is key in helping to ensure your portfolio provides for your needs as long as you need it.

• Your portfolio reliance rate — Related to your portfolio withdrawal rate is your portfolio reliance rate — how much you rely on your portfolio to provide income. For instance, if you will need $50,000 per year in retirement, and $30,000 will come from your portfolio, your reliance rate will be 60% ($30,000 divided by $50,000). Your reliance rate will help de-

28 June | July 2012

termine how sensitive your strategy might be to outside events, such as market fluctuations.

While you need to be familiar with these expected elements of your retirement, you also must be prepared for the unexpected aspects, such as these: • Living longer than you expect — How long you can expect to live is somewhat of a mystery. If you were to live longer than you anticipate, would you be financially prepared?

To help make sure your money lasts throughout your lifetime, you may need to consider investments that can provide you with a lifetime income stream. And your longevity will obviously also affect your annual portfolio withdrawal rate.

• Inflation — At an average inflation rate of three percent, your cost of living will double in about 24 years. That’s why, even in retirement, you will need some growth-oriented investments, such as quality stocks to ensure you can maintain your desired retirement lifestyle. But if the unexpected happens, and inflation takes off at a much higher than average level, you may need to consider a greater amount of investments that offer the potential for rising income.• Health care — Even after you’re on Medicare, which won’t cover everything, you need to prepare for the unexpected, such as a lengthy illness or the need for some type of long-term care. You may also wish to “self-insure” to a certain extent by setting aside funds in a liquid, stable account.

By positioning your investment portfolio for both the expected and the unexpected, you can go a long way toward enjoying the retirement lifestyle you seek. So plan ahead — and make the necessary adjustments as time goes by.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

The Progressive Rancher

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Prison-Trained Wild Horse Adoption a Success in Carson City

Carson City, Nev. - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Nevada Department of Corrections on Saturday, May 19, hosted the second of three annual saddle-trained horse adoption events at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) in Carson City.

Twelve wild horses, gathered from herd management areas within administered public lands in Nevada and California were saddle-trained for four months by inmate-trainers in the NNCC program, and offered during a spirited competitive bid adoption.

Successful bidders from the crowd of over 150 people paid a total of $13,375 for the animals.

All twelve offered horses were adopted after starting bids of $150. The event’s top bid of $2,350 went for a five-year old brown

gelding named “Three Socks.” The average bidding price for each horse was $1,130.00.

The successful bidders officially adopted their new horse and they must show diligent care of each animal for a year before they can apply to BLM to receive a title of ownership. Since 1973, the BLM has placed more than 220,000 horses and burros into private ownership through the adoption program.

The next saddle-trained horse adoption and competitive auction event will be the Wild Horse and Burro Expo at the Reno Livestock Event Center held in Reno on Saturday, August 18, 2012.

More information about these special adoption events is available at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/carson_city_field/ blm_programs/wild_horse_and_burro.html

BLM Selects Proposed Wild Horse Ecosanctuary on Private and Public Land in Nevada for Environmental Analysis

The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it has selected for environmental analysis a public-private land wild horse ecosanctuary proposal submitted by Saving America’s Mustangs (SAM), a non-profit organization formed by Madeleine Pickens. The BLM will conduct an environmental analysis of the proposal under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 to assess the environmental, economic, social, and other effects of the proposed ecosanctuary. The BLM expects its NEPA analysis – which will include extensive public input – to be completed in approximately two years, after which the agency will make a decision about whether to enter into a formal partnership with SAM. SAM’s proposed non-reproductive, 900-head ecosanctuary would help the BLM care for the horses while ensuring healthy rangeland conditions. Under the proposal, SAM would improve and maintain fencing and water wells and oversee management of the ecosanctuary horses, which would remain under Federal ownership. SAM would also provide Western history- and wild horse-related education and promote ecotourism. The BLM-managed

public lands that would be part of the proposed ecosanctuary – 530,000 acres known as the Spruce grazing allotment – would continue to be publicly accessible for a variety of outdoor activities, such as big game hunting. The proposed ecosanctuary also includes SAM’s private land, approximately 14,000 acres located in northeastern Nevada (south of Wells), that serves as “base property” for the Spruce grazing allotment, which overlays portions of three wild horse Herd Management Areas. (Base property is private land to which preference for obtaining a BLM grazing permit is attached; the base property is required for a permit, which authorizes grazing on public land.)

SAM holds the allotment’s livestock grazing privileges, which it would relinquish to the BLM for intended use by wild horses. SAM was the only party that submitted a potentially viable proposal to the BLM in response to the agency’s Request for Applications posted on www.grants. gov on March 25, 2011. Other proposals were not selected for environmental review because they did not meet the BLM’s minimum requirements, including ownership or control of the necessary private land and a proven ability to provide humane care for

at least 200 wild horses. If a partnership agreement with SAM were to be finalized, the BLM would sponsor the ecosanctuary with funding sufficient to cover the cost of managing the horses – an expense that is anticipated to be less than the BLM’s existing cost for holding horses in longterm pastures in the Midwest. The potential partnership agreement for the ecosanctuary envisions a fundraising role by SAM to cover educational and tourist-related costs.

“The selection of SAM’s proposal for environmental analysis furthers our overall effort to improve management and control costs of the Wild Horse and Burro Program,” said BLM Director Bob Abbey, who noted that the BLM is preparing to publish a new wild horse and burro management strategy in the coming weeks. The strategy, among other things, calls for the establishment of ecosanctuary partnerships.

The decision to begin NEPA analysis of SAM’s proposal follows the agency’s February 24 announcement of its selection of a Wyoming-based, private land-only sanctuary proposal for environmental review. The BLM plans to announce another Request for Applications for more private land-only ecosanctuaries.

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Butte Valley Cattle and sheep ranch combination. Over 7,000 deeded acres plus a 1,000,000+ acres Public Grazing Allotments. Plenty of water and feed.

Paradise Valley Cattle and hay ranch. 2,395 deeded acres plus BLM and USFS grazing allotments. Plenty of water. Location, location, location.

Further info for both of these durable investments at;

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Allie Bear Real Estate

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4851 deeded acres, of which 600 acres are hayable meadows & 410 irrigated pasture meadows from year-round springs. 3820 acres of native grazing lands) will run 830 head of cattle. Family owned for generations. 807,954 BLM acres out the gate for spring, summer & winter grazing. Also, 134,865 acres summer Forest grazing. $3,500,000.

Thompson Farm

Productive farm south of Winnemucca. 2 pivots run by one good well. New stands of alfalfa with high yields. Shop, scale, nice manufactured home & older second home.

320 acres with 245 acres water righted. $879,000.

616 Acre Farm

Very productive alfalfa farm, with 3 wells & 4 pivots south of Winnemucca. Mobile home, Nice shop, new equipment shed.

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Flying M Ranch

Great ranch, Just minutes from I-80 (Imlay, NV) & not far from Winnemucca. Approx.

23,000 acres of deeded ground with over 23 miles on the river. Winter outside-no feeding. $15,000,000

Wildhorse Ranch

Approximately 4,500 deeded acres north of Elko, Nevada. 2,123 accepted water-righted acres. Borders the forest & Wildhorse Resevoir.

Beautiful Paradise Valley Ranch

With BLM permit. 915 deeded acres.

Property is right in beautiful Paradise with 10 parcels all together. $1,500,000.

Bertolino-Hamblin Ranch

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June | July 2012 29

lund pioneer days Lund, Nevada

July

19, Saturday - June 9

20, 2

1,

• 4:00 Queen/Princess Contest - Contact Jalyn Bundy, (775) 238-0547

Thursday – July 19 • Ranch Rodeo Style Branding & Cutting/Corraling – 9:00 am (full day) - Added Money - Contact Denny Larsen (775) 238-0234 for information - Contact Kathy Neal (775) 761-4933 for entries - Entries close July 16 for Ranch and Rodeo

Friday – July 20 • Gymkhana 8:00 Signups at 7:30 • Stake Race, Balloon Race, Quadrangle Poles, Pole Bending, Water Race, Rescue Race, Ribbon Race, NEW- Mutton Bustin 8yrs & under, 65# weight limit (top 20 compete in the rodeo) - Age groups 7& under, 8-10, 11-14, 15-18, 18 & over • Rodeo 5:00 - Call Mindy Seal (775)293-1947 for entries - Bull Riding (added money), Steer Stopping, Sr. Barrels, Jr. Barrels, Team Roping, Saddle Bronc (added money), Ranch Bronc (added money), Calf Roping, Steer Riding 10-15yrs, Mutton Bustin (top ten each day from Gymkhana) • Western Dance 9:00 - Firehouse - Live music and DJ

30 June | July 2012

2012

Saturday July 21

• Theme “Traditions Old and New” • 6:30 am - 5K Run Contact Heather Sabaitis (775) 238-5315 • 9:30 - Parade – sign up at 8:30 • 11:00 - Pioneer Program – Old Grade School • Noon - Bar-B-Que • 1:00 - Children’s Games and Horseshoes • 1:00 - Cow Pasture Golf Contact Norris Hendrix (775)238-5234 • Vendor Booths at the square – contact Heather Sabaitis • 5:00 - Rodeo • Dark - Fireworks

Qualifying Team Roping • Lanes 318 Arena; July 19-20, at 9:00 - Contact Ben Noyes @ (435) 691-2536

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June | July 2012 31

A Colt With Some Heart:

Merv Takacs

By Carolyn Dufurrena

Old School Cowboy:

Thunderheads drifted through the summer afternoon, their shadows darkening the ridges of the Pine Forest Range. Peggy sat at the kitchen counter, coffee and a cigarette in front of her. Two four-year-old boys, my son and her grandson, played in the shallow ditch just outside the window, building endless mud pies. I watched while Peggy folded laundry. We talked and talked the hours away, as she broke an egg into a bowl of flour, stirring up a batch of rolls for dinner. She set them on the pilot light to rise and put the laundry away. We had another cup of coffee. Merv was only a little late. It wasn’t time to get worried. Still, her blue eyes scanned the ridge every few minutes.

Merv snaked the big bay colt down over the rocky, brushchoked trail, through the lightning-blackened pines rimming the cirque’s headwall ridge, down slopes thickly masked by mountain mahogany and aspen. The trail had led him from the headquarters west, up a rocky canyon, across a big high meadow-a little soggy even this late in summer-and up again, out of the sagebrush and into the pines. He had a pretty good scatter on the cattle: fifty head each in the several little basins on the eastern side, fifty head over the ridge. There was room on the top of this mountain for a lot of cows. It was a great place to start a young horse, and he was happy with this one.

The glacial lake was dark green at midday, and mossy light brocaded the jumble of granite boulders beneath the surface. He stepped off in a grassy place near the icy water and cautiously slipped the hobbles around the colt’s (front feet). He stood, and stretched. He walked to the shore through a skiff of pine needles over fine sand.

Swifts skimmed the wavelets, hunting the afternoon hatch.

The wind freshened. The grizzled cowboy breathed, lifting the terrible old used-to-be-white hat off his forehead.

A couple of fishermen eyed him curiously, a figure out of a Western novel riding into the twentieth century. The fishing population has changed here since the government declared the top of this mountain a wilderness. Not many locals now chose to hike the jeep trail they’d driven over in years past, and these men were from someplace else. One of them came over.

“How’s the fishin’?” Marv inquired politely, fishing his own can of Copenhagen out of a blue shirt pocket. They discussed the merits of angling in the middle of the day, dubious at best, and shot the breeze for awhile. The fisherman said he’d better work his way around the backside.

He eyed the bay, half-asleep in the warm sun as he passed by. “What’s your horse’s name?”

“Roller.”

Merv did not explain how the horse had earned his name.

The colt loved his life, loved his work. He loved to chase cows, and worked up a pretty good sweat doing it. When the saddle came off at the end of the day, he would roll and roll in the pasture, as many as six or seven times.

“Nice horse,” the fisherman commented, walked past, and smacked him on the rump.

Merv’s eyes widened as Roller—still hobbled—came out of his doze with a snort. He took one, then two sideways jumped toward the lake. Merv moved as carefully as he could toward the colt’s head, but Roller was panicked, and too quick. Every yank on those hobbles scared him worse. Next thing Merv knew, Roller had bucked himself, saddle, snaffle bit, hobbles and all, into the icy water.

Glaciers carve a steep profile, and the water is deep close to shore. The terrified horse lunged, struggling for his life. The

32 June | July 2012

Merv Takacs

M

by Carolyn Dufurrena

erv Takacs was born into a family of farmers in Tule Lake, California. In 1923, his mother entered him in a Beautiful Baby contest. “He’s the prettiest baby in Klamath Falls, and I’ve got the papers to prove it,” she crowed. His blue eyes had more than a hint of the devil in them, though, and maybe that’s why his parents sent him to Catholic boarding school in Sacramento. That experience shaped his mind and his sense of humor, and the next several years, when he rode the rough string for the MC Ranch in Adel,OR, shaped his character.

It seems like every cowboy in this part of the world worked for Merv Takacs at one time or another. “You could tell what kind of a cowboy they were by how long they stuck it out, too,” said T.J. Thompson, who stuck it out for several years with Merv and eventually married his granddaughter Lacey.

Rich Temoke worked for Merv on and off for eighteen years. He was cowboying at the TS with Merv’s son Gary, who told him, ‘You know, you oughta go work for my dad.’ A couple of years later, Merv strolled over to Rich at the Elko Fair and said, “Hey, do you need a job?” Rich was running heifers in Ruby Valley, and told him, “Not till October.”

“Just quit right now,” Merv said.

Rich remembers, “I didn’t quit then, but in October when I finished up with the heifers, I drove out to Squaw Valley to check it out. I knew better, but I needed to go out there and find out about cranky horses. I got out there and Merv said, ‘Unload your saddle, we need to go around this fence.’ Well, this horse started bucking. I got him calmed down, but every little thing, a brush, a rock, crossing a little creek, would set him off, and he’d go to bucking. I tried everything to settle him down, checked the cinches, reset my saddle, everything, but that horse never stopped bucking all afternoon. We went—I don’t know how many miles we went—and I finally asked Merv, ‘What the hell is wrong with this horse?’ Merv responded, “Oh nothing. He’s just like that.” It was Merv’s version of a job interview.

Rich never rode that particular horse again, but he rode many others.

“We probably had between two and three hundred head of horses there. Stanley (Ellison) found this goofy stud someplace, and the mares ran like mustangs. They’d dig for their feed instead of coming to the feed ground. We had a spring cavvy, a summer cavvy, a fall cavvy. In the first couple of years, the ‘colts’ we started were between seven and nine years old. We each had 15 or 18 of them, and it took all winter to get them started. The next year, we went on to the four-to six- year olds, and they were a lot easier. By the time we got ready for the two- and three- year-olds, Merv had somebody else hired, and he let the new guys start them.”

Fortunately, Merv didn’t want those horses to do anything fancy. “All I want ’em to do is trot and

Merv Takacs roping at Big Creek in 1984.

Linda Dufurrena photo.

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hobbles kept the colt’s front hocks together: handcuffs. Waves surged from his shoulders as he heaved against the weight of the soaked saddle and blankets, the split reins tangling around his feet. Easy enough for him to tip over and drown. Merv could only stand helplessly on the shore, watching. “Goddammit, Roller…” he cursed, or perhaps it was closer to prayer.

The colt’s eyes showed white. He snorted and coughed, kicked and kicked at the hobbles.

Finally, somehow, he broke free. Still hauling the heavy blankets, the soaking wet saddle, he lunged through the hidden underwater boulders toward shore. Power doubled, he clawed his way back up through the rocks until with one final desperate heave, he stood, dripping and quivering on the grass.

Merv reached out slowly, took the reins, eased off the cinch and slid the sopping saddle to the ground.

For awhile he didn’t say anything. Then, “Well, hell, Roller. Might as well have a little siesta while these blankets dry, and then ease on home.” He looked at the trail leading up the headwall ridge, seeing the trip back across the big meadow, across the far side of the mountain toward home, and sighed. Roller shook his massive shoulders like a dog, and sighed too. He dropped his head to the grass. He was hungry.

The sun had left Peggy’s lawn, and the children played horses on the living room rug. Peggy took one big breath as she saw Merv and the big bay colt emerge from the shadows of the rocky canyon. She poured her coffee down the sink and turned the dough out to punch down into rolls for his dinner.

Merv shook his head as he finished telling his wife the story of his day. “That old Roller. I thought I was gonna lose him, by God. By God colt’s got some by God heart to him, don’t he.”

Merv didn’t stay at Big Creek for long. He had to get back to Squaw Valley, and Roller went with him. The seemingly inexhaustible horse worked for Merv from the mid-Eighties until Merv retired, weaning calves, gathering cattle, branding. Roller went to work for Merv’s son Gary, who ran mustangs on him for several years. Gary’s daughter Lacey Thompson had him for awhile after that. Roller finally retired with some team penners, who had less demanding work to do in California. He would have been thirty last year.

Adapted from Unbridled: the Western Horse in Fiction and Nonfiction, Lyons Press, 2005.

Michael Englehard, editor

Merv Takacs 2009.

Chandra Cahill photo.

go in a straight line,” he’d say.

“We had 8- or 9,000 head of mother cows,” Rich explains. “It was just me and another guy and Merv at first. After awhile, Roger Fisher showed up, and it was the three of us for fall branding. We held rodeer, and Merv worked everything.”

“After awhile, Merv started raising his own horses. They were way nicer than anything anybody else had to ride. Those buckaroo colts, you’d have to start over with them every day. Kick, bite, strike at you. But then Merv would say, ‘Well, I think I’ll start my colt today.’ And in 15 minutes he’d have that colt following him around. ‘What’s wrong, Ricky?’ he’d say to me. ‘What’s wrong?’”

Cowboys would get mad at Merv and quit, and he’d get mad at them. Sometimes he’d fire the whole crew, but the next morning it was always a new day. Sometimes it didn’t take a sunset to make Merv change his mind. Luke Baumeister recalled the day Merv fired Ed Grusevich. “ Ed didn’t have a ride off the ranch. So he was standing there by the corral watching with his saddle on the ground next to him, looking kinda sad, waiting for his ride, and Merv came riding over. ‘Oh hell, just go catch your horse.’” Ed was back on the payroll.

Squaw Valley was its own world. Cowboys worked six and a half days a week, and they trotted everywhere: 10, 12, 15 miles to get somewhere, work cows, brand, take the cows and branded calves somewhere, go change horses, and then go do something else.

It was not unusual for the crew to put in 25 miles a day.

After he retired, Rich asked Merv, “How the hell did we do all that?”

Merv said, “We trotted.”

Merv was never one to coddle the help, and he never asked for it back. “You’re lookin’ for sympathy?” His sarcasm would curl around him like a whiff of smoke before a fire. “I’ll tell you where to find sympathy. It’s in the dictionary, right between sh*t and syphilis.”

After he retired, he day-worked for his son Gary and helped everybody in the country when branding time came around. Being horseback made him feel, well…One old cowboy asked him at an Adel branding, “How do you feel? And Merv responded, “I feel 72.” Then he got on his horse and said, “But now I feel 22.”

Author’s Note: This is in no way a complete story of Merv Takacs. There are many cowboys who have great stories of Merv and his exploits; this is just the beginning. www.progressiverancher.com

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June | July 2012 33

Here is another Nevada Historical Essay Competition entry written by Chad McDermott in 1983 when he was a seventh grade student at Independence Valley School near Tuscarora, NV. This piece along with those of several other students was recently retrieved from the school archives. Please enjoy! —Linda Bunch

My French Connection Chad McDermott

I have often stood in my Grandma LuLu’s bedroom looking at all of the pictures.

My eyes rest on the picture of my grandparents and then move to a photo of my rather small dark-eyed great-grandmother standing against my great grandfather who stood quite tall with a rather dark complexion. Although when I look in the mirror, I cannot see any resemblance to my blonde hair and blue eyes, I feel a strong connection to these great-grandparents, Pete and Marie Chevallier.

Pete, my great grandfather, was born in 1881 in Orcieres, France. He came to the United States when he was twenty-four which was in 1905. He went to California and started herding sheep.

Marie, who I always called Other Grandma, was born on July 25, 1893, in Orcieres, France. In her early childhood, she herded sheep, milked goats in the day and made cheese at night. When she got older she cooked for rich people at Chateau de la Pessequire and the Patit Chateau which were both in the city of Marseille. She attended school until seventh grade.

Pete sent money for my great grandma to come to Elko. When he left France she was twelve years old. Marie left her family and her comfortable job to come to America, not knowing what she was getting into except that she was going to marry this man whom she hadn’t seen since she was twelve. She was now twenty-two. They were married in Elko by the Justice of the Peace on July 3, 1916. As Marie was a very strong Catholic, she didn’t consider herself married until married in the Catholic Church. Since there was no Catholic church in Elko at that time, they were remarried in Notre Dame de Victoria in San Francisco the following October.

They first lived in Deeth, Nevada, where Pete worked for the Union Land and Livestock Company which ran around 10,000 sheep. With Marie’s help, Pete would take the sheep to the desert near Ely. Marie did not like to be left alone because she had never seen Indians in her native country, and she feared them greatly. The old Indian ladies would sit out on their porches and smoke their pipes, and Marie was terrified.

Every time a train went by, she would start to cry because it reminded her so much of France. Pete and Marie returned to France for a visit where their daughter Marie(Aunt Nu Nu) was born on June 27, 1923.

They later homesteaded at Coyote Lake which is in the Charleston area north of Elko. They ran sheep of their own from Charleston to Dolly Varden which is near Ely. On their way to Dolly Varden, they went from Coyote Lake to Cottonwood Canyon, to Deeth, to Pole Canyon, and from there to Dolly Varden. They made this trek twice a year in the fall and in the spring.

In 927, Pete and Marie purchased a 160-acre ranch at Fort Halleck from Phil Harney. They later bought the Pete Anderson, Kennedy, Nels Anderson, and Ben Pearson homesteads. They also bought “the Fort” and the “29” Field from his brother John and eventually ended up with 3,180 acres.

By this time, Pete and Marie had another daughter, Louise(LuLu), who is my grandma. Grandma was born on September 3, 1926.

Pete, his brother John, and Marie would start to trail the sheep to the desert in October. My Grandma LuLu had to board with Sim and Edna Scott whose ranch adjoined their ranch at that time. Aunt Nu Nu was in St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake. They didn’t know what was the matter with her for sure, but it was something like polio. She had

34 June | July 2012

to stay in the hospital for two years!

My grandma tells of a time when my great grandma tied Aunt Nu Nu to a tree because she had to go help a neighbor in need and couldn’t take her with her. It seems that Aunt Nu Nu always ran away. My great grandma was a very interesting lady. She didn’t think anything of tying Aunt Nu Nu to a tree. I guess she decided if she could tie goats to a tree to keep them from running away, she could tie her kids to a tree, too. When Pete found out about this, he told her that tying human kids to a tree was not the thing to do!

During the hard winter of 1931-32, they lost most of their sheep. In fact they only brought 500 head back to the ranch that spring. In later years they continued to run sheep and about 125 head of cattle.

Marie raised turkeys on the ranch and at Thanksgiving, she would sell them from house to house in Elko. With the money that she got from the turkeys, she would buy the winter’s supply of groceries and would not go back for groceries until April.

During the Depression, they had a real hard time saving enough money to make the payments and pay the taxes, but they held out, and after the Depression things started to get back to normal. On November 4, 1947, Pete died of a heart attack at his daughter’s home in Elko. They had come to town that day and had just made the last payment on the ranch! After Pete’s death, Louise and her husband Bill McDermott moved to the ranch.(ed note: Louise still lives at the ranch in May, 2012).

My Grandma LuLu has told me that Other Grandma wasn’t afraid of anything after she matured. When my grandma was a little girl, a robber came to the house. He told Other Grandma to turn on the radio to see if he was on the news and if anyone was after him. Grandma was really scared, but Other Grandma wasn’t. She showed him her usual hospitality and fed him dinner. In return he left them unharmed.

As Marie grew older she would spend half of her time with her daughter Marie and half of the time with Grandma LuLu at the ranch. When she became ill until her death, she spent all of her time in Elko.

Marie’s hobby was collecting bottles. In fact, she had a whole shed full of them.

Her other hobbies were gardening and yard work.

I can remember Other Grandma singing songs to me in French. When she talked to me in English, I had trouble understanding her because she had a strong French accent.

Marie died on August 17, 1980, after a long siege with cancer.

I am awakened from my daydream by my Grandma LuLu’s call to come and eat.

My grandparents, Bill and Louise McDermott, still have the ranch that my great grandparents worked so hard to make. As I turn to go, I take one last look at the photograph on the wall. I am grateful for my connection with them and for their giving me the opportunity to enjoy this ranch.

(Ed. Note: Chad McDermott is the oldest son of Steve and Linda O’Carroll McDermott. He now lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife Jamie (Ardans) and their children, Seth, Mitchell, and Lyndsie. He attended all eight grades at Independence Valley School near Tuscarora, graduated from Elko High School, attended College of Southern Idaho, and UNLV, and recently attained a degree in civil engineering. He is employed by HDR, a municipal consulting and project development concern. His parents Steve and Linda and grandmother Louise Chevallier McDermott(LuLu) live on the Chevallier Ranch on Soldier Creek on the site of historic Fort Halleck at the foot of the Ruby Mountains near Secret Pass.)

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West

”

Clover Valley Farm: 160 acres with a new center pivot.

ING Price: $250,000.

PEND

Clover Valley Farm No. 2: 242 Acres of which 160 are water righted. Two irrigation wells and a stock well plus the main residential well. Nice newer manufactured home , a 5 car detached garage, a 5000 sq. ft metal building with concrete floor, a 2400 sq. ft pole barn with gravel floor, green house. Priced to sell at $500.000.

Antelope Peak Ranch-Elko Co. Over 5,000 deeded acres plus two adjoining BLM permits. Priced at $2,800,000.

Including equipment. Ranch has 5 pivots and two irrigation wells plus large spring . Being managed to run 600 head.

Nice setting at foot of Mtn. plus several ponds with fish.

SOLD

Over 650 deeded acres on the Humboldt River near Elko and adjoining the new Port of Elko Industrial Park. Over 300 acres of Surface water rights out of the Humboldt River, lots of sand and gravel, adjoins I-80 and has access at Exit. Price: $1,200,000. May be a good fit with the Elko Co. 10,705 deeded acres with BLM permit offered below.

Office: (775) 738-2677 Fax: (775) 738-2367

www.bosstanks.com 7861 E. Idaho St. • P.O. Box 70, Elko, NV 89803

For more information: Dan Carter, GRC President, (208) 731-1655 or Rob Schutte, GRC VP, (208) 250-5568

Elko County 10,705 Deeded acres with BLM permit and 50% of the mineral rights. Only $1,391,650. Existing income from minerals lease and grazing lease. This may be the best 401K ever and an excellent target for a 1031 Exchange!

Mason Mountain Ranch-Great summer ranch with 3782 deeded acres plus small BLM permit Plus two (2) landowner Elk Tags. Located approx. 75 miles North of Elko. Runs approx. 300 pair for the summer. Approx. 89 acres of meadows irrigated with water stored in Reservoir/ fishing hole which also acts as Red Band Trout hatchery.

Home and outbuildings for a good cow camp. Phone but no power. Price: $1,595,000.

Z Bar Ranch: Clover Valley Ranch: Offering is changed to include most of the irrigated lands and one home for the reduced price of $1,513,750. One of those ranches at the foot of the Mountains that everyone would love to own is now available. This ranch consists of 2,490 deeded acres of which approx. 557 acres are irrigated. Creek water to run one pivot and several wheel-lines plus flood water. An irrigation well supplies another pivot and a 50 acre grain field. With this option the ranch has 1 home and a calving barn and seller will allow joint use of some other improvements until other facilities can be built.

SOLD

Steptoe Valley Farm: Nice Alfalfa and Grass Hay Farm in beautiful country! Approx. 1000 acres with around 700 acres of water rights. Six wells pump water to 5 center pivots and a field flooded or ready for wheel-line hookup.

Nice manufactured home for a residence. $3,000,000.

Price Reduced to $2,750,000. Can add grazing land!

Tent Mountain Ranch, Starr Valley, Nevada. Price reduced by $700,000! 3435 Deeded acres at the foot of the majestic East Humboldt Range the Northern extension of the Ruby Mountains. Several perennial Streams flow through the ranch and wildlife are a daily part of the scenery. Improvements are good with a large home approx.

5,000. sq.ft, plus a second modular home and beautiful Mountain Cabin. Barn with water, hay barn, and other storage. Access onto paved road. Actually 18 legal parcels and parcel pricing would start at $1,200 AC. Price: $3,800,000.

Indian Creek Ranch: White Pine County , Nevada Super hunting property surrounded by Public lands and has plentiful Mule Deer, Antelope and Elk. There is a large Spring arising on high ground that could provide pressure for hydro power, or gravity flow domestic or irrigation water.

Price- $395,000.

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Work: 775-752-3040

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1222 6th St., P.O. Box 368 Wells, NV 89835 www.progressiverancher.com

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www.bottarirealty.com June | July 2012 35

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit # 3280 Salt Lake City, UT

80

The Fort Ranch welcomes TED ROBINSON 7 Time NRCHA World Champion

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Buckskins, Red Duns, Blacks, Roans, Palominos, Grullas, Sorrels, and Bays with Plenty of Chrome Sale Terms: 1/3 down payment with balance to be paid in September when foals are weaned and picked up by their new owners. Foal Guaranteed to be alive and sound or your down payment will be refunded.

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Eric Duarte - Auctioneer 541-533-2105 www.duartesales.com

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36 June | July 2012

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FOR INFORMATION & CATALOG CONTACT: Rick Ellis 208-681-9829 435-471-7411 Brian Anderson - Trainer

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