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Wyoming Livestock Roundup
In 1994, Frank Robbins moved just outside of Thermopolis after purchasing the High Island Ranch, with the goal of building a successful cattle ranch. “High Island was a dude ranch back then,” says Josh Longwell, Robbins’ son-inlaw, who operates the ranch today. “It was a dude ranch for several years, but later, we stopped the guest business. Due to actions by the federal government, we were not longer able to operate the
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guest business.” Since the purchase of the first property, Hay Creek Land and Cattle has continued to grow, and the family continues to work toward growing their business. Growing the property While the operation started with one ranch, Robbins purchased the HD Ranch in 2000, where they built the ranch headquarters. “Then, he bought a third ranch in 2001,” explains Longwell. “The third ranch really
was important. It wasn’t big, but it had two parcels that tied the rest of the ranch together. We’re one contiguous ranch that runs from high desert winter country to summer mountain ground.” Longwell married Robbins’ daughter Hollie in 2001. Today, the couple raises their four children, Jase, 13, McCoy, 12, Jhett, 10, and Mesa, 8, on the ranch. After some trouble with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the late 1990s, the
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family lost their BLM grazing permits, so they made some changes in the operation. “We sold most of the cows and just kept what we could run on the private property,” he says. “Over the next few years, we built back our cows and continued to deal with BLM.” The family fenced their private property and utilized herders to keep cattle on the private property and off BLM lands. Adding sheep In the last 10 years, Longwell says he has begun to work with BLM to restore their permits. “We sat down with BLM, and they said they were going to work toward reissuing permits,” he says. “We’ll likely have the permits to the lower ground back by the end of this year,” he says. “It’s been a long process.” At the same time, Longwell has worked to build their relationship with BLM employees to develop an active, working partnership. However, without their upper permits for cattle, the family decided that sheep would allow them to utilize their private property and harvest the grass from the mountain land effectively. “If we were going to continue to ranch, we had to do something, so we bought sheep,” he says. With no experience raising sheep, Hay Creek Land and Cattle purchased the highest quality sheep they could find. “We bought 500 sheep,” Longwell comments, adding that the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation expressed concern with the move. A Bighorn sheep herd resides at the top of Washakie Needle, which posed concerns for commingling between the Bighorn herd and domestic sheep. However, Longwell notes that their sheep aren’t in the same proximity as the Bighorn sheep. “When we’re up there, the Bighorns are up really high,” he says, “and our sheep don’t even graze in the top-most pastures to create a buffer between the Bighorn and domestic sheep. The Bighorn sheep don’t come down
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country at 11,000 to 12,000 feet down to the low desert country near Kirby. The cattle spend their winters on the range, along with the sheep. “We feed hay to our calves, yearlings and the ewe lambs that we hold over,” Longwell explains. During the year, the cattle and sheep never see a truck, except for when they are sold. “We trail everything back and forth to the desert,” he continues. “They never see a truck because our property is contiguous.” Because the ranch is contiguous, Longwell says they try to operate as naturally as possible, mimicking wildlife movements. “We try to manage the grass like it should be managed,” he explains. “Our cattle go to the mountains in the summer as the snow melts off, and they go all the way down to the desert in the winter as the grass gets less available.” The system allows them to effectively manage their grass. Challenges While they continue to ranch, Longwell mentions that raising cattle and sheep is anything but easy on the property. “We face wolves and bears that kill a significant number of our livestock each year,” Longwell says. “There’s nothing we can do about it, either.” He also mentions that he is working to mend broken relationships with federal agencies and continues to strive to carry on their ranch into the next generation. “This is a family affair,” Longwell comments. “Ranching is a good way to raise kids and teach them.” He also notes that the ranch provides a good honest living. Longwell comments, “Raising the animals, seeing the babies grow and seeing our finished product gives us a sense of accomplishment.” Longwell adds, “I love this lifestyle, and I love the ranch. We’re doing all we can to keep it together.” Saige Albert is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at saige@wylr.net.
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to where our sheep are, especially in July and August when we’re there.” The last two years, the ranch has established a working relationship with the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation to cooperatively graze sheep and make improvements on lower parts of the ranch to create a bigger buffer. The sheep are a Rambouillet-Targhee cross. “When the Meike brothers of Kaycee decided to sell, we bought all of their yearling ewe lambs,” Longwell says. “We didn’t know anything about sheep, but we’ve been learning as we go. We’re working our way through it.” Cattle operation While they’ve recently added the sheep, Longwell says that cattle are where they got their start. “We have a cow/calf operation,” he says. “We hold our yearlings over, as well. We run the sheep right alongside the cattle.” Their cattle are largely Black Angus, and they run a few Hereford bulls. “We like the F-1 baldy cross,” Longwell explains. “It’s a good cross, but we also recently started running some Chianina-Angus cross cattle.” As the Angus breed has developed, Longwell mentions that the cattle have gotten smaller. “We like the little bit of Chianina to add some size,” he explains. “Because they travel so much, they need to be fairly moderate sized so they can withstand the rugged terrain.” They strive for a cow that can support herself nutritionally on the range but also raise a big calf. They begin calving in March and finish up by May. After a summer on the mountain, Longwell notes that they sell yearlings in October at between 930 and 950 pounds. “We hold all of our calves over and raise our replacements,” Longwell explains. “Sometimes we sell pairs or bred cows. We try to keep things flexible.” Overall, Hay Creek Land and Cattle strives for a young bunch of cows that is able to perform on their ranch. A natural cycle Cattle run from the high
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