Hi I’m Mike, ranching, farming and agriculture
in general is a mystery.
48 percent of americans say they never seek
information about where their food was grown
or how it was produced.
Today we grapple with that, as we take a look
at a few agricultural questions, that may
just surprise you, on our Wyoming life.
Welcome back, Our Wyoming life is not only
about us here in our little corner of Wyoming.
We like to think that we are helping producers,
growers and consumers all over the world deal
with a question that some people care about
and some don’t.
Right off the bat I’m going to ask you a
favor, if you only share one video today,
this week or this month, I ask that it be
this one.
Watch it and decide for yourself but keep
it in mind.
The best comment that I can see on a video
or post that we make, and the ones that make
me smile the most, and no its not Mike you
are cute, are the comments where someone says
that they have no idea how they ended up watching
us, but they found something interesting that
opened their eyes to how food ends up at their
tables.
Its not only that, it’s the families behind
your food and if you are on the fence still,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button, come
along and experience the ranch life and escape
your ordinary.
Today, I am standing in what was the original
farm house here on the ranch.
The first part of it was built in the early
1920’s, that part is now the kitchen, and
I am remodeling this entire house.
I have been working on it for over a year,
for one reason, and that is to invite you
to come and stay on the ranch.
It’s a drastic measure, to invite strangers
to live next door, but we think its an important
part to bring people closer to agriculture.
When this house was built, people may have
been closer to agriculture in general, If
you live here for even a day, you gain a new
appreciation and you learn along the way,
but more of that later.
There is a thing called agricultural literacy,
it basically mean how much you know about
agriculture, and according to surveys, its
at an all time low.
And online survey commissioned by the Center
of US Dairy had some interesting results.
The most popular vegetables in the US, French
fries and potato chips, Orange juice was listed
as the most popular fruit and 40% of California
4th, 5th and 6th graders didn’t know that
hamburger comes from cows and speaking of
cows, 16 million people in the US think chocolate
milk comes from a brown cow.
I’d like to think that some of those responses
were a joke but I have also been reading comments
and emails for 3 years now that somehow make
me doubt that, and its not the kids fault,
but all of ours as a whole.
Americans spend about 10% of their income
on food, it’s the lowest of any country
on the planet so it makes sense that when
we spend more money on transportation or entertainment
or even health care that it doesn’t seem
as important.
After all there will always be food at the
grocery store.
So how do we raise awareness about agriculture?
You get people interested, check this out.
This is a trophy from 1916, where my father
in law, gilbert, his dad won a corn competition.
You heard me right, corn.
Not a sporting event of anykind, but corn.
1916 was a landmark year for agriculture,
it was the year that the farm population in
the US peaked at 32.5 million, or 32 percent
of the population were farmers.
Now, that number is at 2 percent only 6 million
500 and 44 thousand and while the population
has tripled since then the number of farmers
has been reduced by 80%.
If this house could talk I could only imagine
the stories that would come out of it.
But I think more importantly, I wish that
those that lived and died in this house could
hear the questions we hear today.
Why don’t all cows have horns?
Over 1000 breeds of cattle are recognized
world wide and most of those originally had
horns.
Those are called horned cattle, but there
are and have been plenty of cattle that don’t
have horns, or are polled cattle.
In cattle, horns are a recessive gene, much
like red hair, or a white face, because of
that a producer can take a herd of horned
cows and breed them to a bull without horns
and end up with an entire crop of polled calves.
But do cows need horns?
Cattle are a prey animal and looked upon as
dinner to many and because of that they have
a number of defenses, including speed, strong
kicking legs and in some cases horns that
can be used to protect themselves and their
young.
But over the years some breeds have had the
ability to grow horns bred out of them, Angus
for example, our herd never had horns, neither
the bulls or the cows, while other breeds
like Texas longhorns, highlands and white
park cattle are still known for their horns.
Horned cattle however can be dangerous to
work with, they can get them selves hung up
in gates and fences.
They can hurt each other and can even cause
damage to their environment.
This is why some farmers will actually disbud
cattle that will grow horns at a young age
to prevent the horns from growing, a process
the cauterizes and destroys the horn buds.
Dehorning, another procedure all together
of removing larger horns is normally performed
with local anesthesia or sedation by the vet
or a trained professional.
There is no denying however, a set of horns
makes a cow or a bull a bit more majestic,
but remember, horns or not, they are still
just as dangerous.
Not all cows are milk cows…
Cattle come in all kinds and breeds, just
like dogs and like dogs some are bred for
certain purposes.
A chihuahua may have enough attitude to act
like a police dog but when it comes to chasing
down a fleeing bad guy, a german shepard or
a Doberman pincher is a much better choice.
In the world of cattle, some are beef cows
and some are dairy cows.
Our cattle on the ranch are bred specifically
for their beef.
While our breeding stock still gets pregnant
and has a calf and feeds that calf her milk,
she is no where near the class of a milk cow.
A milk cow, typically a Holstein or a Jersey,
although there are many breeds are milk making
machines, but they will still only make milk
after having a calf.
After she has her calf she is capable of making
more milk than one calf could ever need.
Some dairy cows can produce up to 8 gallons
of milk per day, while a beef cow will only
produce enough milk to keep one, maybe two
calves fed and happy, without much extra at
about 1 to 2 gallons per day.
Like us, all cows are different and are good
at different things, dairy cows are the marathon
runners of the cow world, seeming to eat all
they want and never gaining weight, while
beef cows are the weight lifters, stocky and
strong, and a bit more thick headed, like
their owners.
The influence of farming, ranching and all
types of agriculture is all around us.
Like this house, I would hate to see it go
away, or have people just ignore it or forget
about it.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is
13 seconds, the elevator in the Statue of
Liberty uses a soybean based hydraulic fluid,
the average us farmer can feed 155 people,
women make up 30% of todays farmers, many
of the products we use everyday are byproducts
of farming and ranching from detergents to
paint, to xray film, chalk, textbooks and
musical instruments.
Last but not least pickles come from cucumbers,
a fact that only 22% of people knew.
It seems silly right?
But with only 2% of the us population living
on farms, the other 98% can neither be blamed
or hated because they are not connected to
it.
It’s a busy world and its no wonder these
non farmers and their kids don’t give a
second thought to what happens on a farm.
Hopefully most are informed enough to know
that chocolate milk doesn’t come from a
brown cow, but it still doesn’t mean they
are connected to where their food comes from.
That’s why we and many others do what we
can to bring the farm and the ranch to the
world, social media is a great tool and who
knows it may be what saves us.
The world population is set to jump from 7
billion to 9 billion by 2050, farmers will
need to double food production by then to
keep pace.
Those that built this house in the beginning
of the 20th century maybe shocked at where
we are now, but I know for a fact, they would
have never given up.
Please take a minute today to share this video,
or any video really that will help raise agricultural
awareness, cause if we are going to eat tomorrow,
or 30 years from now, whether it’s a hamburger
or a salad, its going to take all of us working
together to make that happen.
Thanks for hanging out with me today, I am
in the final stages of remodeling this house,
I hope to have it on Airbnb by march 1st and
I hope to welcome our first guest to the ranch
soon after.
If you would like to enter a pool to become
that first guest, all you have to do is send
an email to mail@ourwyominglife.com, tell
us who you are and where you are from and
you will get first dibs.
I’m back to work, and until next time, have
a great week and thanks for joining us in
our Wyoming life.
