Mentors

I have been helped along in my career by a few good men.  Some I knew first hand and others I have only read about.  One of these mentors of mine goes by the name of Tom Lasater of the Lasater Ranch of Colorado and founder of the beef breed known as Beefmaster.   Tom has passed away now and the ranch is still managed by his family.  

Tom Lasater was raised on a big Texas ranch his father owned until Ed, Tom's father, died when Tom was left to take over at the age of 20 in the year 1930.  Of course this was the time of the depression and the original cattle ranch was mostly destroyed.  For all practical purposes Tom started the ranch all over as a very young man with only a hand full of cows he was able to salvage.  The ranch grew to a substantial enterprise and eventually was moved to the state of Colorado.  Tom's ideas about ranching were not at all on par for that time in history.  It was these philosophies about how to ranch with livestock and the environment that has perked my interest in Tom Lasater for most of my life.  However, it has taken most of my life to realize what Tom was really talking about.  Even today, these philosophies are not at all very popular among the modern livestock producer.  But they have helped me build and direct my ranching practices and I am grateful to have crossed paths with Tom Lasater.

Tom's son Laurence, who now manages the ranch in Colorado, wrote a book about his dad, the ranch, and their philosophies, which I refer to quite often.  In this book Laurence explains in simple terms how his father built a cattle ranch using the natural methods of grazing, wildlife management, and good health of the animal through good natural nutrition instead of through the end of a syringe.  Like here at the Rockin H Ranch, the Lasaters do not vaccinate cattle either.  They also practice planned grazing and pasture rest and rotation.  Their concept of using nature to help manage better is in sharp contrast to modern methods.  At one time Tom declared never again would the wildlife be shot on sight at the ranch after years of eradicating prairie dogs.  One of the ranch hands commented that the grasses had gotten really bad since the prairie dogs were destroyed because the soils could no longer hold the rain water due to lack of thousands of holes and cavities in the ground that are now filled in because the prairie dogs were gone.  From that point forward, Tom set in motion a rule that all wildlife would be left alive on the ranch, even including rattlesnakes.   

Another very important issue I learned from my own experience and confirmed by Tom Lasater was the concept of livestock adaptation.  In modern times we treat animals as if they are furniture.  We load them up, sell them and ship them all over the country, and sometimes over many parts of the world.  Unlike humans, the cow has learned to survive, procreate, eat, and live 24/7 on a set piece of real estate where all of her food, family, nutrition, enjoyment, etc., are located.  She has no choice but to accept her fate.  She cannot tell us when she hurts or when the feed is not good enough; she can only endure.  These animals have evolved and have earned the ability to survive or not survive through a simple system of adaptation.  Each and every farm, no matter how close, how far away, or how different or similar the management may seem, is completely foreign to each cow, except for the one she was conceived, born and raised on.  People are now days used to being transferred for a different job, or a far away school to attend or whatever may come their way.  And this is usually a choice the human made and probably made certain adjustments ahead of time and during the transition to adapt.  The cow was not given such gentle conversation about moving across the country to her new home simply because one rancher decided to sell and another decided to purchase be it a cow or bull into a new herd on a new ranch.  This term of adaption, or better put, not having the ability to adapt, is monumental in the livestock industry at the ranch level.  We believe it takes about ten years or about three generations to make significant changes in the genetics of a cow herd and to get a cow to adapt to a move.  It has been my experience that by and large most cattle that are moved never do adapt in the first generation.  This is a huge expense for the rancher to absorb and most simply do not have the cash flow to be so generous.  

The answer to this dilemma, as at the Lasater Ranch and the Rockin H Ranch, is to never buy livestock off the ranch.  We raise all our own young cows and bulls from the herd we now have.  I can safely say now after over 40 years of ranching, no matter where or when I purchased bulls or cows, have I ever had a successful adaptation in that first generation.   In most cases we see the life span of a purchased bull only reach about one third the life span of a selected ranch raised bull.  This creates the need and the opportunity of line breeding and animal selection to make improvements from within a herd at the ranch.  This art of animal selection is not taught in today's livestock climate at a level that is sufficient to create improvement in the herd.  It is accepted practice to purchase unmatched bulls and cross them on one's own cows, no matter how far from home one must go, and then year after year keep purchasing more bulls to replace the ones that die or fall out of production.  It is safe to say that the bull selling business, in most cases, has completely replaced good animal husbandry and selection for herd improvement within a closed herd environment.  And Tom Lasater would verify that this carelessness in the industry would account for many of the failures we see today.  And I would certainly agree.