Dear HCN,
I read your paper with
interest, amusement and sometimes disgust. First, I want to inform
you that I am a 73-year-old cattleman as well as a staunch
environmentalist. Despite your beliefs to the contrary, a man can
be both and many are. I’m even in favor of the reintroduction of
wolves.
The majority of my life has been spent
with cows and horses, and darned if I don’t prefer them to people.
Over the years I have learned that undergrazing is just as harmful
as overgrazing. If the land were totally devoid of grazers it would
eventually revert to tap-rooted shrubbery plants with no
grass.
I notice most of the cow haters list a
city address. Perhaps their motivation is to have the public lands
as a playground uncontaminated by cow manure. On the range I am
involved with, we have made great strides in range improvement
through rotational grazing and only allowing the cattle on the
riparian areas for a short period of time in early summer. We are
working in harmony with the various government agencies and have
put quite a bit of money into range
improvements.
I work full time on the range and
attribute my longevity to good fat beef, black coffee and a little
whiskey now and then. Perhaps dialogue and understanding would go
much farther to cure the world’s ailments than the present
adversarial attitudes of ranchers and
environmentalists.
Ron
Hughes
Blackfoot,
Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Observations from a cattleman.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
