Northeast Wyoming is experiencing another
round with old man winter, this time in form of snowstorm they are calling Ezekiel. Ezekiel is forecast to deliver anywhere from
7 to 14 inches of snow, white out conditions and winds as high as 60 to 70 miles an hour
across the area. This storm is supposed to last until Sunday
night and I can guarantee you we will be digging out by Monday. Normally, I would be cursing a storm like
this, especially on a holiday weekend, but its actually pretty good timing, considering
what we have going on and planned for todays video. I’ll get to that but first let me tell you
about our email. I read every email that comes into us, I may
not get to answer every one, but I do read them. Sometimes I don’t answer an email because
I have a video coming up that might answer someones question, or at least I have a video
in my mind. I searched my email today, for the terms,
“ how to” and “rancher”, over the past couple of years I have received thousands
of emails, with the question, how do I become a rancher, or sometimes cattle farmer? So today I set out to answer that question. I figured if thousands are email me to ask
me, there there are many more who are not asking the question, but are thinking it and
you all deserve an answer. Theres and old joke, well I’m not sure if
it’s a joke but it goes, how to I become a farmer? The answer, marry a farmers daughter. Which is kind of what I did in a round about
way. Of course when Erin and I got married we had
no intentions of having anything to do with her step fathers ranch, in fact, her mom and
Gilbert got married while she was in college, so she had little to nothing to do with the
ranch up until the day we moved here. So, for me, it was just dumb luck, and really
when we came here, neither of us thought we would be here longer than a few months, just
long enough to help family get back on its feet. But life finds a way, and the best thing about
everyone’s journey is that its going to be different. We all have different goals, and the path
to reach those goals, for some may be harder, and for others, it may be as easy as taking
a phone call. So when I set out to make a video to answer
the question, how do I become a rancher. I knew I could’nt do it in just one video. So today marks the beginning of a series of
videos, all about how to become a rancher or cattle farmer. Every couple weeks a new segment will be released
and we are going to be taking a look at the different kinds of ranches, from hobby farms,
to feed lots, cow calf operations, to backgrounders. We are also going to explore the types of
land, and how much is required and how different regions can drastically change your ranch,
we are going to look at the animals, the equipment and probably most importantly the financing. I also encourage you to comment and send me
the questions you would like this series to answer for you and I will do my best. Make sure that you subscribe, and follow along,
hit the bell button and turn on your notifications and come along with us as we explore the ranch
life and escape the ordinary. So when we start taking a look at ranching,
I think that before you spend a dime, or too much of your time even, you need to know what
you are getting into. You need to know what to expect. This is a question I didn’t ask, and if
I had, I might not have ever came here, but what I want to do is take a look at some of
the difficulties of ranching, but also look at what you have to gain, and trust me, its
not in the pocketbook. So lets head out to feed these cows this morning,
the weather may be a great crap sandwich, but the cows still need to eat, and it takes
us right into my first point. No matter where you ranch, the weather will
always beat you down. I call it the great equalizer, but its one
of those things that you can’t let it know you are afraid of it. Multiple aspects of your ranch will count
on you, no matter what the weather is doing. The weather will always be your biggest challenge. It doesn’t matter if its rain, or snow,
hurricanes or drought. The weather will put you on your knees occasionally. Just like here, most people don’t enjoy
working outside once winter comes around. Construction work shuts down and we rarely
see anyone working outside that doesn’t have to. Unfortunately as a rancher, there is no getting
around the weather. If you have animals, you are going to have
to make sure they are taken care of, they are your responsibility. It can be a miserable job, but someone has
to do it and on your ranch, you are the only one to do it. For some people that is a wonderful thought,
the isolation of the ranch life, being out in the middle of nowhere, where you cell phone
doesn’t even have a signal, and if it does, you can pretend it doesn’t. Some people live to be alone, with just their
thoughts, but others need that human contact almost constantly. If you check your phone because you haven’t
gotten a text in the last ten minutes, that might be you. There are days where I can not see another
person all day long, only when I come home at night and get a chance to sit down with
family will I know what I was missing. Having a family can be hard on a ranch, I
speak from experience on this one, and the stress of knowing that, if you work the ranch
yourself, that its all on your shoulders can be incredibly hard. Hopefully you are lucky you have a some help. Someone who is willing to help you from time
to time, and take on their own ventures to help support the ranch. Of course always Remember the phrase, I’m
sorry for the things I said while we were working cattle. You will be saying that a lot. No one told me what to expect from the ranch
life, but the amazing thing is that at some point you realize its not just a job that
you have, it’s a lifestyle and while the possibilities are endless, you are also going
to have to make sacrifices and deal with a number of things that the average person may
never have to see in their lives. Everybody now days works long hours, but your
day will never quite end, even when it feels like it has. Your phone may ring in the middle of the night
and you find yourself half asleep, talking to a sheriffs deputy who is telling you that
there are bunch of cows out on the road and when you hang up the phone, adrenaline hits
your system like a rifle blast, and you are out the door before you realize that you aren’t
sure what road they are on, or if they are even your cows. Someday, you are going to have come home and
tell your family that the first cow that you had on the ranch, has died. Hopefully before you found her suffering,
but more than likely, you are going to have to look her in the eye as you end it for her. Theres stress on how to pay the bills, there
is tedious and monetinous tasks that seem to take forever, and there’s the fact that
you are going to watch friends take weekend vacations, riding in the mountains, snowmobiling,
or travel from here to there. You however, are going to be stuck on the
ranch, because even though you have neighbors who you know would be happy to feed for you,
you aren’t going to ask them to do it, expect once or twice a year. And when you take that vacation, the whole
time you are gone, you are going to be wondering what is happening back home, and worrying
about your gardens, you horses or your cattle. Because you can be in Hawaii, and find yourself
missing a snowstorm, wanting to see the cows, the ranch, and missing your life, your ranch
life. Its not just a job, and its not just a ranch,
its land that you hope you will be able to pass down to further generations, land that
you can use to support your family in a way that very few ever get to. Land that your kids will grow up on, and their
kids will thrive on, long after you are gone. You might be a cattle farmer or rancher right
now watching this, or you might be someone who lives in the city, working a cubicle and
wants out. You might be a cop on patrol, or even door
to door salesman. But I can tell you this, ranching and farming
is something that I rarely see people choose to do. You may ask me how do I become a rancher,
when the real question might be as simple as how to I find my ranch. Because if you are meant to be a rancher or
farmer, its out there waiting for you. You may not know it, but when it grabs you
and chooses you, picks you to take care of it, its then that you know why you sacrifice
to do it. There are a bunch of romantic notions about
being someone who takes care of land. We all have heard the term being a good steward
of the land, but really a steward is just someone who’s job it is to manage or look
after the land or property of another person. Who is that other person? For me, it’s the future, the kids, their
kids. When I have to go out and work on a day like
today, that’s what keeps me going. None of it is bad, the death, the stress,
or the weather. You want to ranch? No matter the scale you want to do it on,
its about hard work, physically and emotionally, its about taking care of the land and animals
first, a place where your word is often the only thing you have that is worth a damn and
it’s a level of compassion that you rarely find anywhere else. It’s a special calling, and one that might
be calling you. Next up in our series, we will take a look
at the types of ranching you can do and trust me, not every ranch is thousands of acres,
and you’d be surprised to find out that some of the most successful ranches, are actually
the smallest. Again subscribe so that you don’t miss a
thing and I really look forward to taking this journey with you. Comment with your questions, help others out
in answering them and we will see you soon, until then have a great week and thanks for
joining us in our Wyoming life.
