Guy and Rachel Living in the Sagebrush Sea

Today we bring you from the Sagebrush Sea. Rachel and her family care for a herd of cows out in Southwestern Idaho.

You can find me at The Sagebrush Sea and Facebook.

I was raised on the Quarter Circle U Ranch on the Tongue River in South Eastern Montana, where my father’s family has been raising commercial cattle since the 1880s. My brother and I, split our time between Montana and Northeastern Wyoming, where our mother ran a herd of Registered Red Angus with her family.

When I reached high school I was fed up with cold weather and uncooperative animals, so I turned my attention to academics and polo ponies. When I left home to attend college, I thought I was escaping ranching for good. I graduated four years later; I couldn’t get back to the ranch quickly enough.

A few months later, I met my husband Guy, who was starting colts and cowboying in Wyoming. We’ve spent the last eleven years working for ranches in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Additionally, my brothers’ and I have a herd of our own cattle.

Currently, we are employed in Southwestern Idaho. My husband is the lead-off cowboy on the JS and TM ranches, owned by Simplot Land and Livestock. He is responsible for a cowboy crew of three, 1,800 head of mother cows, and a broodmare band. Our cattle travel nearly 60-miles from the winter range to the summer range and back again. So Guy spends most of the year at various cow camps along the way, while the kids and I visit over school breaks.

A commercial cow-calf operation is unique, because your responsibilities change from season-to-season. In the spring, we are calving heifers, feeding, and fencing, until the grass catches up with us. As the grass greens and the weather warms in the Summer, we finish up branding calves, watch our water closely, and ride often to prevent the cattle from damaging sensitive, riparian areas. As fall rolls in, the cattle reverse course and we begin weaning and shipping the calves. This is my favorite time of year. Not only is there a lot of horseback work to be done, I swear you can see those momma cows kick up their heels and celebrate as their calves are loaded on the truck. Winter is typically a slow time of year, with fewer responsibilities. If the weather isn't bad, we feed some hay and keep the water free of ice. Then the cycle begins again.

I am pleased that my children are a part of this lifestyle. I enjoy the interaction with animals; achieving a moment of perfect feel with your horse or witnessing the arrival of a new life into the world during calving. We ranchers measure time by the change of seasons and make a habit of watching the sky. Whether my kids continue to ranch is not important to me, but I want them to develop an appreciation for the lifestyle and its’ unique connection to the natural world.

Thank you Rachel for the feature!!! You can follow this cowboy family at The Sagebrush Sea and on Facebook!

How are you involved in agriculture? We need your story today! E-mail us at foafeature@gmail.com and learn how to become our next FOA!

Jessica Hedges - A Cowboy Poet

Today we're sharing the story of Sam & Jess Hedges, a cowboy-ing couple from the Great Basin! 

We're Sam & Jessica Hedges, from the beautiful, vast and wild area of the Great Basin known as SE Oregon, south of Burns, OR to be specific. 

We both grew up on ranches. Sam in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Jess in California and Nevada. Since getting married, we have ventured into Washington and Oregon. We both had a short stint in Elko, Nevada where we met while we were going to college, but quickly figured out that our lives were about cowboying and that's how we wanted to raise our someday family. 

We are both driven by the history, the tradition, the horsemanship, the sense of family that surrounds ranching. Its hard work, but it is honest and heartfelt.

Our favorite thing about living on a ranch is the freedom. 

"There is nothing like the feeling that you get down deep in side when you trot out in the morning and you're hired on to ride."~ Waddie Mitchell

Right now, Sam buckaroos for Tree Top Ranches, a cattle operation in SE Oregon and several other states. His day consists of anything that needs to be done, but mostly cowboying and duties directly related to keeping cow/calf pairs fed, watered, and otherwise cared for.

Jess use to ride on a daily basis when the couple lived in cow camp, but has recently hung up her spurs to be a full time mom to their 7 month old son, Quirt.

Outside of the normal day to day, Sam makes knives and braids rawhide. Jess is a nationally acclaimed cowboy poet and has started her own accessories line, The Buckarette Collection. 

A typical day for us is non-existent. You can walk out the door that day with a plan and have it all change. Sam can be on a horse, welding, putting out mineral, or any other number of things in a day. Jess can be on the road performing, running errands in town, training a dog or horse, or creating an original Buckarette Collection piece.

Jess gets to deal with a lot misconceptions and misunderstanding about cowboy life through her experiences as a cowboy poet. 

I (Jess) was talking to a group of grade schoolers in Durango, CO and you could hear them gasp as I explained that we only went town once a month. Walmart was 5 hours and was a once every couple of months trip.

Although we are no longer in cow camp, we had in the past lived 4 hours from town and had no cell service, no tv, there were times of the year that you couldn't get in or out. The idea that people are happy without technology and do this all for the sake of producing the nation's beef is unheard of. The remoteness and the lifestyle it takes to have a cheeseburger available when you hit the McDonald's drive thru is one of the biggest misconceptions.

You can learn more about Jess Hedges and her story by visiting her poetry website, her poetry Facebook page, and her Facebook page for the Buckarette Collection. She also has a personal Twitter account, and a Buckarette Collection twitter, as well as an Instagram. 

If you or someone you know is interested in sharing your story or agricultural experience, please contact us today! We are always looking for more features - YOU could be the next Face of Agriculture! 

Rose Cattle Company of Three Forks Montana

Today we feature Rose Cattle Company of Three Forks, Montana! Karoline Rose is a proud agvocate for agriculture and encourages producers to get involved in the beef industry!

Rose Cattle Company is located in Three Forks Montana, a beautiful small town in Montana where the three rivers meet to form the Missouri. We are a family operation 100% with the occasional day workers. John Rose, my father, is a cattle buyer/broker and we are in 7 different sale barns a week. Most of the cattle my father buys and resales are shipped to the Midwest and feed in feedlots there. Cattle buyers/ brokers are simply cattle traders. He is the middle man, buying from the families that raise cow calf pairs and selling to the feedlots.

We run a group of yearlings during the summer and my brother, Jacob and his wife Kelsey are in charge of the yearlings. My grandma Mary is a frequent visitor and helps Silvia our secretary in the office. Jackson, the baby of the family plays a huge role also. He is always there when we process calves or doctor yearlings. Processing calves involves giving them all the needed vaccinations, so we can maintain a healthy sellable product. I, Karoline Rose, raised pure bred Angus Cattle and help with both the office work and they daily feedings when I am not at school.

One of the best parts about being in the cattle industry is the fact that I get to work with my brothers and dad everyday. Not only do we spend time as a family supporting my brother, whether its watching Jackson play football or watching Jake ride in a ranch rodeo, we also get to function as a family business.

I wish people understood how much time and effort is put into a family business. It’s 24/7, waking up at 2 am to check for calves or feeding at 10pm after a football game. We do it together and learn to work through the challenges and be successful. The future is Ag is huge and there is tons of potential for everyone.

There is not one thing I would change about my life in the cattle community. I can’t wait until I get done at Montana State University so I can go back and work side by side with my family everyday.

Cattle aren’t our avenue in the agriculture industry. We raise stock dogs, and my dad puts on working dog clinics all over Montana. My brother Jacob graduated with a natural horsemanship degree from University of Montana-Western and he breaks and train horses on the side.

Working stock dog from the Rose Cattle Company

Please get involved with the industry, whether you like to write, speech or take photos we can use all of you! If your interested in cattle, dogs, horses or just to chat feel free to contact us! Follow us Facebook, Twitter or our Blog.

Thank you Karoline for a great feature!! Be sure to check out their Facebook, Twitter and Blog. You could be the next FOA feature!!! Check out our contact page - or e-mail us at foafeature@gmail.com to get started!

Jennifer and Travis - Nevada Ranching Family

Please welcome Jennifer and Travis to Faces of Agriculture. This Nevada ranch family is proud to be involved in agriculture and bring food to your table. (photo credits to Heidi Stevens.)

Hello, my name is Jennifer. My husband Travis, our 2 boys and I live on a ranch in the beautiful Ruby Mountains near Lamoille, Nevada. It is said that “Behind every successful cowboy is a wife with a good job in town!” We are no exception. Like many ranch wives, I have a job in town. I tried teaching High School Agriculture for a couple of years, but learned that I was better suited to older students and now teach Animal Science at Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada. I have a bachelor’s of Science in Agriculture Education from Montana State University.

I work alongside Travis for Maggie Creek Ranches. Travis is the foreman here on the Lamoille division. We take care of beef pairs but primarily run yearlings from May to October. Lamoille is arguably one of the prettiest places in Nevada and we are so blessed to live where we do. We have an apple orchard in our back yard and the gorgeous Ruby Mountains in our front yard. There is plenty of room for our boys to run and grow.

One of the best things about our job here is that Maggie Creek is a family ranch and we get to take our boys to work with us whenever we want to. This is very important to my husband and me. We both grew up on ranches working with our families. It is not uncommon to drive past one of our fields and see me leading one horse with one son and riding with a kid in front of me, or see my boys helping us rebuild fence, playing in a supplement trough while Travis and I doctor a yearling nearby. Most parents buy expensive playground equipment for their kids, we have trees to climb, antique farm equipment and miles of pasture for ours to play.

Maggie Creek is a cattle operation. We run cattle on range that isn’t adequate for any other type of crop, or suitable for living. It gives us a sense of pride to know that we are taking sunshine and grasses that are indigestible to humans and creating a healthy delicious food for people. We are committed to producing a safe and wholesome product for the world.

My parents ranch near Mountain City, Nevada. My great grandparents originally purchased the ranch in the 1930’s, and our family haslived on this ranch ever since. My great granddad brought the first Black Angus cows to Northeastern Nevada. They have run strictly Black Angus since then; my dad has worked really hard to make it one of the best herds in the state. I hope to one day go home to Mountain City to ranch, making my boys 5th generation ranchers in the area.

Travis and I come by ranching very naturally as you can tell. We have started our own herd of black cows and look forward to teaching our boys where their food comes from and the same lessons of hard work, determination, and perseverance our parents have taught us.

I love all aspects of raising cattle. I remember being 4 years old and my mom gathering up my little sister and me in the middle of the night to help my dad pull our first calf out of a Registered Angus cow our parents bought for us from Thomas Angus, making calving and winter one of my favorite times of the year. There is nothing cuter to me than watching a baby calf switching its tail as it nurses. I also love spring and branding. Then in the summer comes a lot of saddle time as we doctor yearlings and check on calves. Fall with the weather turning cooler comes shipping time- that bittersweet time of the year when we sell our calves and we can see what all our hard work was for.

We do this because we love this way of life and the livestock, and it gives us great satisfaction to know that maybe we made a difference somewhere. Maybe it was for the calf we saved from the creek, or the person who buys one of our steaks, but a difference none the less, and we enjoy our job!I always tell Travis a bad day cowboying beats a good day teaching!

Thank you Jennifer for the great feature and for sharing your story with us! You can keep up with this ranching family with her blog Ramblings from a Ranch Wife. 

If you would like to be the next Faces of Agriculture Feature - Contact us! We need your story today!

Lauren Chase

Meet Lauren Chase - she wasn't raised in an agricultural setting, but through an internship she found her way and is now a great advocate for agriculture!

I live in Helena, Montana – Big Sky Country, but I wasn’t raised as a Montana girl. I am originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and before any one starts asking me questions about the corn crop, I must point out that I didn’t grow up on a farm or have any involvement in agriculture. In fact, I couldn’t have told you the first thing about it. Looking back, I wish that wasn’t the case.

I went to school at the University of Iowa and received degrees in both Journalism and Anthropology with a minor in Spanish. All three of those are broad scopes and therefore, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. One summer, the Montana Stockgrowers Association had an internship opportunity for multimedia communications work. I thought that would be an interesting way to combine my majors so I headed out west, full of excitement about what would be on those ranches.

The first time I was on a ranch, I was invited to watch a branding. And boy, when you see that for the first time, it’s a stimulation overload!

During that summer, I learned the differences between a bull and a steer, where to stand while cattle are being worked, and why some cattle are black and some are red. But more importantly, I learned just how important agriculture is for everything we do and how wonderful the people are who raise the beef we eat.

After my internship, I returned to the university to finish my degrees, but knew that advocating for farmers and ranchers was something that I wanted to do and is extremely necessary.

MSGA created a full-time position for me upon graduation, with help from very generous sponsors, where I would use photographs, videos, blogs, social media, and print to give a voice to the ranchers and teach the consumers about where their beef comes from and who produces it.

Most of the time ranchers work all day long and are outside with their cattle. They have a hard time sitting down at night to write blog posts or upload images of the newborn calf, so it’s my job to help them tell their story and get rid of misinformation about agriculture. I love every second of this because I am constantly learning, my “family” grows larger every day, and I truly believe that my story-telling skill set helps those who need it.

What’s even better is that while I primarily photograph and interview Montana’s ranchers, I have been fortunate enough to travel around the country and meet America’s beef producers. And the same message holds true: Farmers and ranchers are the nicest people and work tirelessly to provide you and me with food for our tables.

Have questions about the food you eat? Just ask your local farmer or rancher. They really do want to teach you and will explain things in a way you’ll understand. Trust me. I’ve been there and they have done nothing but help me learn. You can always check out Twitter feeds like #agchat, #foodD, and #ranchlife for information straight from the farmers and ranchers and visit Montana beef producers on our Facebook page: Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Agriculture is the foundation of everything we do on this planet. It’s time more people figured that out.

Thanks Lauren for a great feature! If you would like to learn more about the producers Lauren is working with visit her blog, follow her on Twitter, and check out her other work with Young Producers Council!

We are proud to bring you stories about people involved in agriculture! We need your story to make this possible! Contact us about being a feature today!