Moving with the Seasons

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

This year, we’re able to be in Montana because a couple of the partners in the New Mexico cattle company are running things while we are away. We made provisions for this before we left by getting to know the neighbors on the new lease, fixing fence, learning the water our own. Working on the edge of public land and the wildlife therein presents its own set of challenges; as wolf and grizzly bear populations rebound thanks to successful conservation efforts, we as ranchers find ourselves in the crosshairs of biological and market realities, just as bears forge into a world full of roads, fences, flighty wild prey, and domesticated livestock. Last year we had an exhilarating few our grazing plan and management, and no doubt due at least as much to luck, the bear(s) eventually moved on. We don’t know what is in store for us this season; so much of this work requires putting ourselves in physical danger and having to make decisions with limited information and unknown consequences. the new cattle to improve their health and behavior, and making a grazing and work plan for the year so that our partners would have some good structure as the season rolls on. And because much of the grass was in need of a good rest when our lease began, we decided to move most of the cattle to one end of the ranch, consolidating herds as much as water and infrastructure would allow, so that the majority of the ranch could rest for the entire growing season and the cattle would be easier to manage.

We’re often mounted and often on the move, and all the while developing our horses, our dogs, and ourselves. We aim to live in rich, complex simplicity—to be thoughtful of what we require from people and the Earth, and to give part of ourselves back to both. We work within the confines of commodity cattle, yet are often on the lookout for cracks in the system we are part of in which to sow the seeds of a different or better one.

Picking up and moving can be taxing, but so can being stationary. We are learning what makes us feel at home, and how to make it wherever we go. One day, I look forward to staying in one place for a while—to let the seasons come to us rather than our marching out to meet them. We may revise our holistic goal and find that nomadism is no longer serving us. For now, we keep moving, working with the seasons and cycles of grass, rain, sun, and community.

You can reach Sam and Ariel at Grass Nomads LLC at grassnomads@gmail.com.

Here in Montana, Sam and I run the grazing on a couple of ranches, in four or five herds of stocker cattle. We practice holistically planned grazing, and our days consist of keeping up with fences and mineral, riding through cattle and teaching them to gather, move and settle, doctoring them in the field, and moving them to the next pasture.

All the while, we’re in country shared with wolves, bears, and migratory birds whose yearly rotation is not too unlike