Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness

By Lisa M. Hamilton, Counterpoint Press. Posted June 8, 2009.

Virgil's predecessor at Ghost Ranch instituted an HRM approach in 1986, and when Virgil took over, he continued the process. Under his direction the llano has been divided into permanently fenced pastures of 400 to 3,500 acres, each grazed for two weeks at a time. The benefits are huge, Virgil says, particularly the reduction of labor. Traditional ranchers use the "Columbus method," which means turning the cows out in fall and then riding out to the far corners of the range in spring to "discover" them again. Should they want to check on the herd or give them supplemental feed in hard weather, the search can be arduous. At Ghost Ranch, ranchers know where their cattle are every day.

That is not to say the program was a hit from the start. "We had our socks laughed off when we put up the first electric fences," Virgil told me.

"Who laughed at you?"

"Pretty much everybody. They were just used to seeing the cattle all over the place, because that's the way it's always been."

"Have they changed their tune?"

"Oh yeah, of course. Big time. Now, in two hours they see all their cows rather than spending the whole day looking for them. In a way it's actually a mixed blessing, because I really want guys to spend more time out there. But what do you do after two hours? You're just sitting there watching them graze."

In a way, Virgil applies HRM to the ranchers as well. Under his direction, the grazing program will not simply board people's cattle; anyone who has his cattle there is required to be an active part of the system. Every two weeks throughout the season, everyone must make the drive to Ghost Ranch, get on their horses, ride out on the range and help move the cattle to new ground, even in the bitter cold.

Once the group of 40 riders is out there, the process takes 20 minutes tops. The truth is that one person could do it alone with a truck and some hay, just honk and the cows would come running into the new pasture for the feed.

"Sometimes I feel guilty," Virgil says, "like I'm wasting their time, gas, energy. But if I do it for them, they'll never show up again. That's the thing I worry about. They'll become less and less in tune with what's happening out there."

He says he also fears that the next generation is not out on the land and therefore not learning how to do all this -- or learning to want to do it in the first place. To him it's tragic that kids don't have grandparents showing them the way forward as his did. So he has put in place programs at Ghost Ranch that mandate it. There have been times that if a stockman wanted to increase the number of cattle he grazed there, for every new cow he had to also provide one for his child.

Skeptics could write off Virgil's enthusiasm for getting people of all ages involved as self-serving: the stronger the overall ranching community, the more there will be businesses to serve it and buyers drawn in to patronize it, and the more he will succeed. Probably there is an element of self-interest at play, but it's undeniable that Virgil is also serving something larger. You can hear it in his voice.

Virgil gets worked up telling the story of one boy who would excitedly make lunch the night before the biweekly ride at Ghost Ranch then wake his groaning father at 5 o'clock in the morning to be sure they arrived with their horses by 8.

"It's just one or two kids like that, but that's exactly what I wanted," he told me. "Who knows? It may be one of them who ends up taking my job when I decide to move on."

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Lisa M. Hamilton is the author of two books: Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness, and Farming to Create Heaven on Earth. Her work has also been published in The Nation, Harper's, National Geographic Traveler, Orion and Gastronomica. Visit her Web site here.

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