OCT/NOV/DEC 2020
In Memory of Lilla Hunter Bell Lilla Hunter Bell passed away peacefully September 17, 2020 surrounded by family at the Bell Ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada. Lilla and her twin brother, Bob, were born on June 12, 1938 in San Francisco to Phelps and Lilla Hunter. Her sisters Beth and Pat followed a few years later. Lilla spent much of her early years on the family ranch near Hollister where she found immense joy caring for and raising animals. Lilla was active in 4-H at an early age raising and showing Hereford cattle. She also had a deep love for corgis, breeding and showing them throughout the years. Lilla was a pioneer in the agricultural industry. She received a bachelor’s of science in Animal Husbandry from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Lilla was the first woman to graduate from Cal Poly’s animal science program. She also achieved incredible success on the College’s livestock judging team and was the first woman on a champion collegiate judging team. She also won the Women’s Stockhorse class at the Salinas Rodeo with Bill Dorrance’s horse “Patrick.” In later years, she served on the American Polled Hereford Association’s (APHA) Board of Directors, representing 5 Western States. Lilla was the first and only woman to serve as chairman for APHA’s board. She was an integral part in bringing together the APHA and the American Horned Hereford Association into a single Association. As a result of her contributions and lifelong support of the breed, she was inducted into the Hereford Hall of Fame in 2012. In 1957, she attained worldwide fame when a photograph of her and her triplet Hereford calves hit the newspapers. She received fan mail from across the world, and her famous photograph made its way to Humboldt County, Nevada into the home of the Bells. A few years later, Forrest “Woodie” Bell would meet the beautiful young woman in the photograph at the San Bento Fair in California. Woodie bought Lilla an Orange Crush soda pop. Lilla often remarked to her family and friends, even years later, that she could still taste that soda. Lilla and Woodie were married in 1960 and had three sons together: Dean (Nikki), John ( Jhona), and Dan (Theresa). Lilla loved and cared for her boys deeply. They rejuvenated her interest in the Hereford breed as the boys joined 4-H and started breeding heifers to show. She loved watching her boys compete in high school, college, and professional rodeo. Lilla’s seven grandchildren, Dawson, Lilla “Lilly”, Trase, Quint, Cade, Shane, and Carly, also raised and showed Hereford cattle in 4-H. Lilla gifted each of her Grandchildren a Hereford heifer to foster the joy she had felt for raising Herefords over the years. During the time her grandchildren were showing cattle, Lilla served as an advisor for the Paradise Valley 4-H Beef Club and sat on the Humboldt County Show and Sale Committee. Lilla enjoyed taking drives through the fields at the Bell Ranch. She was an accomplished photographer and a world-class cook. She was the kindest soul this world has ever known. The family will be holding a celebration of life in December. More details on that event will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Winnemucca FFA Alumni Association Scholarship Fund.
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IN THIS ISSUE 3 President's Perspective
4 Nevada Farm Bureau Dealing With Crisis Overload 5 Nevada Farm Bureau 2020 Annual Meeting
18 Colorado State University - Sugar Content in Horse Feed & Forage 20 NV Society for Range Management - Healthy Horses on Healthy Rangelands
6 Nevada Cattlemen’s Association - 21 UNR - Ranch Manager Needed Summer / Fall Update 21 Division of Water Resources Cancels Virtual Hearings in 7 NCA News / Teacher of the Year Favor of In-Person Hearings Nominations Needed 8 Eye On The Outside - Heroes 9 BLM - Kathryn Dyer Update 10 Nevada Beef Council Checkoff News & Recipe
12 In The Mind of a Millennial
15 NDA - Covid Funding Assistance
22 R.O.G.E.R. - Results of Oriented Grazing for Ecological Resilience 25 Meet Author Savannah Montero
26 Falen Law Offices - Two Articles
28 Nevada Agricultural Foundation History of Nevada Water
29 The Nevada Independent Article 15 Great Basin Rangeland Research 30 Elko “No Fair” Results Cheatgrass Project Selected 34 Churchill County Cowbelles 16 Nevada CattleWomen Update Update & Recipe 16 Let’s Talk Ag - S. Emm Editorial 35 Jordan Meadows Collaborative 17 Range Plants for the Rancher Receives 2020 Sagebrush Steppe Single-needle Pinyou Stewardship Award
The Progressive Rancher Owner/Editor/Publisher – Leana Litten Carey progressiverancher@elko.net Graphic Design/Layout – www.AllegraReno.com
Cover Credit: Savannah Montero - Winnemucca, NV
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President's perspective By Tom Barnes, President, Nevada Cattlemen's Association Summer is over and unprecedented times continue. Typically, this is the time of year we are planning for our annual Nevada Cattlemen’s Convention. As you know, we were supposed to have a joint convention with California, but current circumstances required them to cancel. The officers and executive committee met and discussed our options and decided that we had no choice but to cancel ours as well. Our policy is what guides our organization. Gathering together with the opportunity to catch up with others in our industry, enjoy the trade show and take away something from the guest speakers is really what most
of us look forward to but policy setting is the most important thing we do at convention. With that being said, we are going to have a one-day board/membership meeting to conduct business and set policy.
I encourage those of you who want to participate to please attend these committee meetings; this your opportunity to voice your opinion and help set policy. Staff, officers and committee chairs are working to get this all pulled together. Notifications and details for With a legislative session coming next spring, we need these meetings will be provided to our membership as to ensure that we have policies to address the issues quickly as possible. that we are facing. Due to our limited time with the one-day meeting, the committee meetings will need We understand the challenges that come with virtual to be held prior. They will more than likely occur as formats that most of us are not accustomed to using, a hybrid in-person/virtual format with committee but our staff and officers are committed to making chairs, the executive director and an officer in person these meetings as simple as possible. and others attending via Zoom.
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RANCHERS HEIFER SALE N O V E M B E R 14, 2020 I N J U N T U R A , O R | P R E V I E W AT 11:00 A M | S A L E AT 1:00 P M M S T
400 HEAD OF BL ACK ANGUS BRED HEIFERS
LOTS SORTED TO CALVE IN FEBRUARY & MARCH/APRIL ALSO SELLING MATURE COWS
E THAN BENT Z 5 41.881.6286
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 3
Nevada Farm Bureau
Dealing With Crisis Overload By Doug Busselman | Nevada Farm Bureau | Executive Vice President As this is being written we are nearly six months into a state of emergency that has resulted in our Governor determining that he can decide which business operations are allowed to be open for business. The authority he has assumed gives him the ability to restrict or out-right ban church congregations from meeting for services – or actually any group above the number determined by his experts. Most recently this has resulted in edicts to require (under penalty of fines) that business operations will stipulate that their customers will wear face coverings or leave. We are told that all of this is for the purpose of addressing a “crisis.” It began with the goal of “flattening the curve” so hospitals and health providers wouldn’t be overwhelmed by too many infected persons. Over time, the requirements of dealing with the crisis expanded to the mission of washing our hands and not touching our faces, staying six feet apart – or not going anywhere at all. Further orders from news conference pronouncements has evolved to following each of these past edicts, that have been proclaimed for our own good, to also now wearing a face covering and making sure that unless local governments produce enough tests, selected business enterprises will be forced to either not open or close if they are open. We are supposed to accept this as a legitimate use of the Governor’s authority because we have a crisis and a section of state law apparently grants the Governor the power of untold or unlimited ability to craft Executive Orders which all shall obey. A recent announcement by the United States Select Committee on The Climate Crisis identified that once again more government is needed and more power needs to be rendered in the purpose of “Solving the Climate Crisis.” In case you haven’t checked the membership of this “Select Committee” it only represents one of the political parties…those who are in the majority of the U.S. House. In his August 24th news release Governor Sisolack launched the new State of Nevada
Climate Initiative. Back in November of 2019, Governor Sisolack proclaimed through Executive Order 2019-22 that through whatever “Phase” designation that would be used for dealing with Climate Change…a State Climate Strategy will be delivered to the Governor by December 1, 2020. Preparation of the State Climate Strategy has included a variety of virtual listening sessions that will also likely include presentations to segment the areas of concern that will be encapsulated in the strategy. These areas include: • Renewable Energy • Land Use & Land Change • Transportation Transformation • Air Quality • Urban Planning • Economic Recovery • Green Buildings • Climate Justice
Although several of these sections could have connection to Nevada agriculture, it is anticipated that “Land Use & Land Change” will be the primary topic which will cover where agriculture will fit into the Strategy. A rough draft of possible ideas for bringing Nevada agriculture’s Green House Gas emissions to Net-Zero by 2050 were identified in the 2019 Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Report, entitled, “Nevada Statewide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Projections, 1990-2039.” 10.6 Agriculture Agricultural Land Management Activities
• Promote and provide incentives for the adoption of silvopasture practices. • Promote manure and nitrogen fertilizer management practices that reduce GHG emissions.
• Promote practices to reduce emissions from enteric fermentation. Carbon Sequestration
• Provide incentives to sequester carbon through land restoration and
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retirement, thereby removing highly erodible or environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production.
• Promote “no till” and “low till” farmland management practices to protect soil from erosion.
• Promote hedgerow, windbreaks, and shelterbelts best practices to protect soil from erosion.
• Explore opportunities and incentives to increase carbon sequestration on agricultural and range lands. 10.7 Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry Carbon Sequestration • Promote land management practices that increase carbon sequestration by natural lands that are typical and/or native to Nevada. • Expand specific programs (an example being nursery programs) to restore and enhance habitats, including wetlands, with measurable carbon sequestration co-benefits through the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Division of Natural Heritage. • Expand existing efforts to protect sagebrush habitat through the use of the Sage Grouse Protection Conservation Credit System to include carbon sequestration cobenefits. • Promote enhanced forest biomass utilization with stringent emissions controls, such as restarting the biomass cogeneration plant located at the Northern Nevada Conservation Camp in Carson City. Urban Forestry • Promote urban reforestation and management. Perhaps designating Climate Change as a crisis is more of an attention-grabbing approach than what ought to be fretted over…except for the trend of how far
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government seems to think it can reach when responding to something that those in charge seem to think is a crisis… Early in September, a couple of agricultural news items that were published in an online agricultural news service spoke to efforts by the Environmental Defense Fund to have agricultural lenders designing their loan programs to encourage farming practices “resilient to the impacts of climate change.” A few days later the same news service carried another article which identified the idea from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to have Ag bankers and federal regulators conduct “stress tests” to assess the financial impact of climate change and the manner in which climate change poses a major threat to U.S. agriculture. Like a pack of wolves, circling their intended prey, as the prey that is being targeted for further government intrusion, the pressure is building. Anticipation is that various levels of government will make their pitch for more dictates and controls, limitations on what is allowed and explicit prohibition for what won’t be tolerated... The current administration in the White House has made a very powerful resume of demonstrated actions to reduce needless and over-pressing regulations. The challenger who would like to take over in November has a much different view of the role of government and is a front for an even more adamant crowd of control zealots who seem to have no limit to their views of what can be accomplished through expansive government regulations. As we know, from our state’s experience, there are ramifications of having authorities who believe they can and should use whatever oppressive requirements they dream up to accomplish their purpose. Whatever is done to deal with a “crisis” can be justified as being something done for our own good, regardless of what devastation to the economy or personal lives might occur. It’s all only collateral and evidently not very much to be concerned about, if you are on the government side of things.
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2020 Annual Meeting By Brittney Money | NFB | Director of Communications Mark your calendars for Nevada Farm The Nevada Farm Bureau’s Women’s Bureau’s Annual 101st Meeting in Ely, Leadership Committee will be sponsoring a silent auction to raise money for Nevada on November 19 - 21, 2020. This annual meeting is an exciting time agriculture promotion and education. for members to come together and grow County Farm Bureaus are encouraged to though educational breakout sessions. donate items for the silent auction. All One of the primary purposes of the annual proceeds go to the Women’s Leadership meeting is working on Farm Bureau Committee, Young Farmers & Ranchers policy recommendations, deletions and or and the Heritage Foundation. For more amendments. This is especially important information or to contribute, please feel free to contact me at brittney@nvfb.org as we head into a legislative year. The Nevada Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) committee will be hosting the Annual Discussion Meet. It will be a great competition with one lucky winner taking home a belt buckle, cash prize and trip to the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting to compete in the National YF&R Discussion Meet.
Early registration will open in September. Be sure to follow us at our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/NVFarmBureauNews) so you don’t miss out! Registering early is very important to receive the discounted conference registration rate. For registration questions, contact me at brittney@nvfb.org or call (775) 674-4000.
UPCOMING SALES Thurs - October 22 WVM Headquarters | Cottonwood, CA Catalog Deadline: October 14, 2020
Tues - December 1
Silver Legacy | Reno, NV Catalog Deadline: November 12, 2020 Check our website www.wvmcattle.com for consignment deadlines. WATCH & LISTEN TO THE SALE on the Web at:
For details call (530) 347-3793 or the representative nearest you: Gary Nolan
Mark Venturacci
(775) 934-5678
(775) 427-8713
Elko, NV
Fallon, NV
Steve Lucas
Paradise Valley, NV
(775) 761-7575
Brad Peek — (916) 802-7335 or email us at wvm@wvmcattle.com Look for the catalog and video on www.wvmcattle.com
Market your cattle with the professionals!
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 5
NCa Summer/Fall Update Happy October, Nevada Cattlemen and Women! I hope you are all doing well as you enter into your busy fall work schedules. It has been a while since I have given you an update on things that are happening at the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association (NCA). The end of July marked five years that I have been with the NCA. Time has flown by and I am still very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to work for all of you. It has been a great experience so far and I value all the unique, challenging, and gratifying tasks within the NCA. Within this past year, it has been especially difficult as we have faced many challenges and have learned to adapt to a “new normal”. Some of the changes we have adapted to is how we conduct business and meetings using technology as well as abiding by the restrictions and mandates put in place by the state of Nevada. Some of the past happenings at NCA include the following:
In the end of June, we held a meet and greet with the Public Lands Council (PLC) Director, Kaitlynn Glover. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we kept this event small, but it was very beneficial to both the producers that attended and Kaitlynn.
During July we attended meetings inperson and virtually and submitted comments jointly with the PLC for the BLM Environmental Assessment (EA) for Targeted and Prescribed Grazing of Annual Grasses in the Great Basin Ecosystems of Nevada. At the beginning of July, we held the summer NCA Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting where we received brief updates from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the NV Department of Wildlife (NDOW).
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) gave their update over the phone due to their offices being on lockdown because of COVID-19. On July 27th through the 30th, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) held their Summer Business Meetings in Denver, CO. The meetings were held both in-person and virtually, the NCA had representation at both. NCA Officers, Tom Barnes, Jon Griggs, and Hanes Holman joined me by attending virtually using the NCA office. We were still able to submit votes, give comments and ask questions all while attending virtually.
In August, I attended a Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) forum virtually to learn about the changes being made to the program at a national level and about consumer marketing. I also learned what opportunities are available for in-person and online BQA training. As a reminder, to maintain your BQA certification, you need to recertify every three years. Please go to our webpage for more information on how to become certified. In the middle of August, we submitted comments to the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA, APHIS) concerning the proposed changes to the animal disease regulations to provide for a National List of Reportable Animal Diseases (NLRAD). We also signed on with the Public Lands Council’s comments on the Proposed Rule; Regulatory Definition of “Habitat” Pursuant to Endangered Species Act. Upcoming NCA events you can look forward to:
Due to COVID-19 meeting restrictions set by the state of Nevada, in September, the NCA Executive Committee determined the NCA will be doing
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special committee meetings in October, and a special Winter Meeting at the beginning of December rather than holding an Annual Convention. Dates are still to be determined.
The Winter Meeting will be both inperson and virtual, however, there are restrictions on how many people can attend. Due to these limitations, only Board of Directors members will be allowed to attend in-person. At this meeting, we will conduct both Membership and Board of Directors business. The special Committee Meetings will be held only virtually. At these meetings, we will hear updates from committee chairs and agency leaders, as well as review expiring resolutions. If you would like to bring forward a resolution or change an existing policy or resolution, please attend these meetings, and become a part of the process. When dates and details are finalized for these events, we will be emailing this information to NCA membership and posting it onto our NCA Webpage at www.nevadacattlemen.org.
By Kaley Chapin NCA Executive Director and will be recognized on our webpage and in the Sage Signals publication. The candidates for the “100,000 Mile Club” award must be a Nevada Cowboy or Cowgirl who have logged 100,000 miles horseback. Nominations should include a narrative story to chronicle the nominees’ miles through their life horseback. Nominations for either award are open now until November 1, 2020 and may be submitted by email to nca@nevadabeef.org, faxed to 775-7385208; or sent by mail to the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, P.O. Box 310, Elko, NV 89803.
The NCA staff and leadership thank you for your patience during these uncertain times. For current and up to date information on things happening at the NCA, please follow us on Facebook and visit our webpage at www. nevadacattlemen.org as we are constantly updating it. If you have questions regarding any of our upcoming events, please feel free to contact the NCA office at 775-738-9214 or by email at nca@nevadabeef.org. We wish you luck Although we have made changes to our on your fall work as we understand this Annual Convention and there will not is a busy time for all. be a banquet, we will still be selecting the annual award recipients. The NCA has We are still planning to hold started their annual quest for “Teacher the Annual Fallon All-Breeds Bull Sale in Fallon, Nevada on of the Year” and “100,000 Mile Club” February 20, 2021. Consigncandidates and are asking for your help ments opened on September 1, in soliciting nominations. 2020 and the postmark deadThe candidates for the “Teacher of the line for entries and registration Year” must be an elementary, junior papers is December 1, 2020. high, or high school teacher who Registration papers, catalog adincorporates agriculture into their vertisement, completed transfer regular curriculum. Please contact the papers and results of the breed NCA office for application forms. The associations’ recognized genetic winner of this award will receive a defects for each bull must $1000 school supply stipend, donated accompany the entry form. by the Nevada Agriculture Foundation,
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USDA Provides Additional Coronavirus Assistance On September 18, 2020, President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced an additional $14 billion for agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of COVID-19. This is the second round of COVID assistance relief through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), or “CFAP 2”. Please find attached the final rule published in the Federal Register. Below are a few key items to note:
Cattle Payments The CFAP 2 payment rate for eligible beef cattle is $55 per head. Payments will be based on the maximum owned inventory of eligible livestock, excluding breeding stock, on a date selected by the producer, between Apr. 16, 2020 and Aug. 31, 2020. Eligibility
There is a payment limitation of $250,000 per person or entity for all commodities combined. Applicants who are corporations, limited liability companies, • USDA has determined that CFAP limited partnerships may qualify for 1 and CFAP 2 are separate programs. additional payment limits when members USDA’s first CFAP program was actively provide personal labor or personal designed to address disruptions that management for the farming operation. In had occurred by April 15, 2020. CFAP addition, this special payment limitation 2 payments are intended to address the provision has been expanded to include disruptions that have occurred since trusts and estates for both CFAP 1 and then. As a result, CFAP 1 payments will 2. Producers will also have to certify not impact how CFAP 2 payments are they meet the Adjusted Gross Income calculated, and two separate payment limitation of $900,000 unless at least 75 limits will be in effect. percent or more of their income is derived • For price-triggered livestock, payments from farming, ranching or forestrywill be based on a fixed number of head, related activities. Producers must also be which is defined as the lower of the in compliance with Highly Erodible Land maximum owned inventory of eligible and Wetland Conservation provisions. livestock, excluding breeding stock, on Applying for Assistance a date selected by the eligible producer from April 16, 2020, through August Producers can apply for assistance 31, 2020, or a specific number of head beginning Sept. 21, 2020. Applications (4,546 head of cattle or 10,870 head will be accepted through Dec. 11, 2020. of hogs, for example). Cattle payments Additional information and application can be calculated by multiplying the forms can be found at farmers.gov/cfap maximum number of head by the Documentation to support the producer’s payment rate (for example, if you have application and certification may be 325 head eligible, you should expect to requested. All other eligibility forms, such as those related to adjusted gross receive $17,875). income and payment information, can • Commodities not eligible for CFAP be downloaded from farmers.gov/cfap/ 2 include: Hay, except for alfalfa, crops apply. For existing FSA customers, intended for grazing, and animals including those who participated in raised for breeding stock. USDA’s FAQ CFAP 1, many documents are likely elaborates: the payments to livestock are already on file. Producers should check focused on market inventory because with their FSA county office to see if there are limited funds available for any of the forms need to be updated. CFAP 2 and the Commodity Credit Customers seeking one-on-one support Corporation (CCC) authority that with the CFAP 2 application process can fully funds the program is meant to call 877-508-8364 to speak directly with a assist with costs associated with market USDA employee ready to offer assistance. disruptions. Breeding stock is typically This is a recommended first step before kept for many years and therefore their a producer engages with the team at the value is less likely to be impacted by FSA county office. temporary price impacts. Non-breeding animals are more likely to be sold and More details are available on the USDA’s therefore more likely impacted by CFAP website: https://www.farmers. gov/cfap/livestock. market value changes. www.progressiverancher.com
NCA Seeking Teacher of the Year Nominations The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association has started their annual quest for “teacher of the year” candidates. We are asking for your help in soliciting nominations from school principals and fellow teachers. The deadline for submitting nominations is November 1, 2020. The nomination form can be found on our website at: www.nevadacattlemen.org/teacheroftheyearnomination2018.aspx
The nominations must be an elementary, junior high, or high school teacher who incorporates agriculture into their regular curriculum. For example, a teacher who teaches a one-week segment on agriculture and its importance to Nevada. Nominees may also include teachers considered in previous years but were not selected for the award. Nominations must include a completed NCA Teacher of the Year Application Form and an attached outline of the nominee’s curriculum that has integrated a unit about agriculture. The winner of this award will receive a $1000 stipend to use on school supplies, donated by the Nevada Agriculture Foundation. The award recipient will also be recognized on the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association webpage and in their Sage Signals publication. The heritage of Nevada is ranching. Nevada Cattlemen’s Association believes the future of our industry lies in the education of the generations to come, as we explore new and innovative methods of sustainability. Please help us in our efforts to support our teachers and their vital efforts in educating our youth.
Nominations may be submitted by email to nca@nevadabeef.org with “2020 Teacher of the Year Nomination” in the subject line; forms may be faxed to 775-738-5208; or sent by mail to, “Teacher of the Year Nomination”, C/O Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, P.O. Box 310, Elko, NV 89803. For further information or questions, please email nca@nevadabeef.org or call 775-738-9214.
HOS Emergency Declaration for Livestock Hauling and Feed Hauls has been Extended On September 14, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced an extension to the Emergency Declaration on Hours of Service, that would extend it until December 31, 2020. This declaration includes: 1. Livestock and livestock feed; a. FMCSA has informed us that the relief is only available to transporters of finished feed. Transporters of feed ingredients are ineligible for the relief. 2. Medical supplies and equipment related to the testing, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19;
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3. Supplies and equipment necessary for community safety, sanitation, and prevention of community transmission of COVID-19 such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, soap and disinfectants. 4. (4) food, paper products and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores. Direct assistance does not include routine commercial deliveries, including mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of this emergency declaration. To view/download a document explaining the Declaration in its entirety, please visit: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/ emergency/extension-modifiedexpanded-emergency-declarationno-2020-002-under-49-cfr-ss-39025
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 7
By Joseph Guild
Unsung Heroes There are unsung heroes in every walk of life. Every profession, every job, every family, and every place has its heroes no one knows about, but who do a little extra with all that they touch and endeavor; never asking for any reward or need of any recognition. They just do the job and fill every day with their productivity and grit.
and the manager hasn’t had a day off in a month. The young lawyer works to prepare a case for a senior partner on a Saturday and Sunday. There is the truck driver who works on her day off because the boss needs some help and there was no one else. There are those who do these things without complaint and those who don’t. I call the ones who do the unsung heroes.
This is being written on September 11th. We can all remember the images of the Twin Towers and the first responders who ran into the infernos to try and rescue as many victims as they could sacrificing You know them, you might be one. You themselves in the process. Most of these know young folks raised on farms and heroes’ names are known and we sing ranches, no longer working in agriculture, their praises. I do not mean to diminish who put in the extra hours, who go the the heroism of these people, but it is the extra mile until the job is done, and not unknown others I am writing about today. when the clock says five. It is no secret to longtime readers of this I can see the ranch wives I have known. publication of my involvement in and They raise kids, pull calves, fix fence, support of the National Cattlemen’s Beef feed surprise numbers of guests, wipe Association (NCBA), and as the current noses, start colts and never complain or Treasurer of NCBA, I am involved at stop when they are tired. I see a cowboy the highest level of decision making and bringing the last pair into the ranch yard knowledge of the way NCBA conducts long after dark just because that chore its business and is responsive to the needs needed to get done that day. and desires of its grass roots membership. I have seen many unsung heroes working The ranch owner and his visiting friend, on your behalf. after being horseback at dawn, are in the kitchen having a quick lunch when Livestock industry organizations such the there is a fire call in the valley. They as the Public Lands Council (PLC) and head to the truck, load shovels, pulaskis NCBA have dedicated employees working and jugs of water and drive to the fire in everyday to make sure livestock producers the hills across the valley. They still wear can stay in business. Using producer dues their riding boots and spurs. The spurs dollars to support their advocacy, these come off and they start walking the fire employees watch the U.S. Congress and line until way past dark when along with the agencies across the country to make their neighbors and a cool evening the fire sure the industry point of view is heard settles down enough for the relief crew to and supported in many respects. take over. Back at the ranch they climb into their beds and a few hours later, the Here are two recent examples of this fire under control, they saddle horses and engagement on behalf of the livestock move cattle well into the early afternoon. industry that follow which may not have received much publicity. I do not mean to imply these extra efforts don’t occur outside of agriculture because There are some 800,000 cattle producers we all know they do. There is the fast in the United States. Very few of them can food restaurant manager who covers for pay much attention to the issues affecting the employee with a sick child at home this industry being discussed in our Obviously, the readers of this magazine know such people because agriculture has its many uncounted numbers of people who fit this description.
8 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
nation’s capital. An example is the dietary guidelines which are required by law to be updated every five years. We all know lean beef is an important source of a versatile, affordable, nutrient-dense, and delicious protein for a balanced and healthy diet. However, most people do not know the technical details of this and there are groups of people who want to eliminate animal protein from our diets altogether. These guidelines are important to ranchers because they are used to base federal health and nutrition policy for congress and the relevant agencies. These federal dietary policies are used by the military, school lunch programs, dietary welfare assistance and nutrition and health care professionals. A statement in these guidelines suggesting beef is not a good part of a balanced diet could have a negative impact on the demand for beef by the public. Fortunately, there is a dietary expert on NCBA’s staff in Washington who is a part of the discussion about the guidelines and has had a positive influence on the decision for the guidelines keeping criticism of beef in the diet out of the final product.
hours that truck drivers can be on the road by promulgating regulations governing those limitations. This is fine for hauling bulk goods such as lumber or perishables in refrigerated trucks with days of cooling capability, but for hauling livestock or other animals a little extra time on the road means less stress for live animals who would have to be unloaded, fed, watered and reloaded to comply with the hours of service applicable to non- animal hauling. The economic and health impacts of requiring livestock transporters to follow these limitations in hours of service would be profound to the livestock industry. NCBA has successfully lobbied for extensions on the implementation of these rules until a time when a permanent solution can be instituted for these past four years since discussions of this issue first emerged. This is but another example of the work NCBA is doing for the industry whether a member or not. The quiet unsung heroes are doing their job day in and day out. We should all thank them. As an added note the NCBA Washington D.C. office has been the only agricultural organization still operating full time in the Capital since the beginning of the pandemic.
Another example is NCBA’s work on the hours of service livestock trucking issue. Going back to 2017 the U.S. Department Be safe out there, Happy Thanksgiving, of Transportation has tried to limit the and I’ll see you soon.
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Hello again, my name is Kathryn Dyer and I am the BLM Nevada Range Program Lead. My intent is to maximize the usefulness of this article for you all, so please don’t hesitate to give me feedback and ideas at kdyer@blm.gov or 775-861-6647. Do you keep a log of when you move livestock? That’s monitoring! Do you take pictures of site conditions when you visit the site? That’s monitoring! There are also monitoring requirements that likely fit your idea of monitoring better, such as production or utilization, however the most basic methods possible have been chosen to make monitoring as easy as possible while answering the questions that need to be answered to ensure each project is designed to fit the site conditions, and is able to capture the results effectively. In my last article I introduced you all to the Targeted and Prescribed Grazing of Annual Grasses in the Great Basin Ecosystems of Nevada Environmental Assessment (DOI-BLMNV-0000-2019-0003-EA). The Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was signed by Nevada BLM State Director Jon Raby on August 7, which enables the EA to be used as the NEPA analysis for decisions to implement projects that are in line with the purpose and need and which conform with the analysis. One of the main components is the use of a cooperative monitoring plan.
You can find the complete monitoring plan and requirements in Appendix E of the EA at DOI-BLM-NV-0000-2019-0003-EA (https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/ project/124311/510). The appendix begins with the statement “All targeted and prescribed grazing projects would require baseline data collection to establish the project starting point and help ensure the objectives of the project are well defined. In addition, all targeted and prescribed grazing projects would require pre- and post-implementation monitoring. Preimplementation monitoring would occur before each treatment cycle to determine annual conditions and direct treatment design. Short-term post-implementation monitoring would be done immediately after each project completion and long-term post-implementation monitoring would be completed at intervals appropriate to evaluate the achievement of objectives (every 3-5 years).” Basically this means there is monitoring before, during and after each project. When an applicant is working with the BLM office to develop the project, they will work out the details of what each party can contribute to the monitoring, and what they can do together. Anyone who applies to conduct a targeted or prescribed grazing treatment should be ready to do some monitoring!
To determine the current phenology of a site, the following six-class scheme to classify grass plant phenology at the time the targeted or prescribed grazing treatment is applied would be used (Schroeder and Johnson 2019): 1. Vegetative = new spring foliar growth evident; 2. Jointing = from boot, culm elongation, to seed head fully formed; 3. Anthesis = flowering and pollination; 4. Seed Ripe = from seeds firm to dispersal; 5. Dormant/Dead = growth senesced; and 6. Fall regrowth. Phenology should be recorded for invasive annual grasses (i.e., cheatgrass) and for dominant perennial grass species encountered including, but not limited to Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), squirreltail (Elymus elymoides), bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), and crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum). Riparian monitoring is only required in prescribed grazing treatments (since targeted grazing treatments are designed to exclude riparian resources.) Although, riparian monitoring would be conducted on riparian areas inadvertently impacted by targeted grazing treatments with challenges of maintaining livestock locations/temporary fences/etc. Baseline data are only collected once, and future data collected at the same transect is compared to the baseline data. All monitoring components will be collected for baseline data. Pre-implementation monitoring would occur before each treatment cycle to determine conditions and direct treatment design. Monitoring that occurs during treatment will be defined by each individual project and post-implementation monitoring will be done immediately after each project completion. Table 2 summarizes the required riparian monitored components and when each component would be performed. See Appendix E for further details.
One of the monitoring components required in pre-implementation is annual production. It is likely that this would be done collaboratively with both the operator and the BLM to build a common understanding of the conditions on site and the level of treatment needed to reach project objectives. The annual production will then directly inform the treatment design for that cycle. For example, on years with 2,000 pounds per acre production of cheatgrass, there will be a need for a different amount of livestock, perhaps a different size of treatment are, or even a different duration of treatment than on years where there is 1,000 pounds per acre of cheatgrass production. Monitoring required during treatment is largely comprised of just keeping your observations in writing, and documenting the things that you do to keep the project going well. Do you need to go out every other day to haul water to temporary troughs? Keep a journal of when you go out, and what you do and what you see. Documenting all the time and effort that is being put into the success of these projects is incredibly important! Keep general notes of conditions, weather, livestock behavior, etc., each time you go out to the field, and document those with pictures. While doing this, you will be able to keep close track of when the treatment objectives are close to being met and plan for project completion and livestock removal. Also, you will be able to see if things are not working as designed, and modify the project. The following is information from the EA regarding monitoring.
Implementation and Effectiveness Monitoring To document actions and to help establish cause and effect relationships when evaluating trend, implementation monitoring should be done periodically. Baseline data are only collected once, and future data collected at the same transect is compared to the baseline data. All monitoring components will be collected for baseline data. Pre-implementation monitoring would occur before each treatment cycle to determine annual conditions and direct treatment design. Monitoring that occurs during treatment would be defined by each individual project. Short-term post-implementation monitoring will be done immediately after each project completion. Long-term effectiveness monitoring should generally be completed at intervals appropriate to evaluate the achievement of objectives (3-5 years). Table 1 summarizes the required monitored components and when each component would be performed. See Appendix E for further details. www.progressiverancher.com
There are end of treatment thresholds defined in the EA, however each individual project has the opportunity create thresholds and responses within the treatment as well, allowing adaptation and adjustment. At the project level, these interim thresholds, and suite of available responses, for project adaptation will be established in the cooperative monitoring agreement and decision based on project objectives. Individual plan development will be reviewed to ensure compliance with NEPA. All thresholds and responses monitoring are directly tied to the treatment objectives, which would define if seasonal re-entry, non-use in other portions of the year, or other treatments would be needed. An example may be a fuel break targeted grazing situation with phased approaches – if concentration of livestock can be accomplished and treatment success can occur with solely water and supplementation distribution, then that’s all that’s needed. If monitoring shows (meets a threshold) that herding or an electric fence is needed (defined response), then that would be implemented.
We are also working closely with Nevada Department of Agriculture to ensure all necessary monitoring methods are available in their smartphone monitoring app, with the intent of making monitoring approachable for everyone. Thank you for the time you took reading this, and I look forward to the next article! Please present this article to your BLM Range Con. when you meet with a BLM staffer with an adverse attitude towards the topics of this column. - Editor
The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 9
By Nevada Beef Council Staff
Multiple Summer Campaigns Target Nevada Consumers As the summer months waned, the Nevada Beef Council and Beef Checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. program wrapped up a busy few months of unique campaigns targeting Nevada consumers with beef messaging and promotions. For Nevada beef producers, these campaigns leveraged the dollar-perhead Beef Checkoff by combining state-specific efforts launched by the NBC with national campaigns that also focused on Silver State consumers. As one example, the “United We Steak” campaign, which wrapped up over Labor Day weekend, celebrated the shared tradition of grilling steaks over the summer, as well as unique aspects of each state when it comes to grilling. The campaign came to life with an interactive map of the United States made from 50 hand-cut steaks in the shape of each state. Over the summer months, advertisements were pushed through digital and social media platforms, as well as through traditional media platforms such as radio, and video platforms including YouTube and Connected TV – all in an effort to inspire Americans to grill up their favorite beef meal no matter where they live.
As the United We Steak campaign concluded on a state and national level, the NBC team was pleased with the overall results and engagement. But the efforts to reach Nevadans with positive beef messaging didn’t end with this effort.
What’s more, the Ibotta offer resulted in over 550,000 brand impressions, 12,908 “Add to List” events (instances where the shopper took the additional action through the app of watching a video, unlocking the offer, and adding beef to their shopping list), and 7,235 offers redeemed at Nevada retailers.
Also through the summer months, the Beef Checkofffunded “Western U.S. State Campaign” was deployed, which worked to disseminate beef recipe content to consumers in western states from early June through early August. Given that consumers in these states have a higher propensity for choosing meat substitute options, this campaign worked to encourage consumers to choose BEEF instead for their meals. Overall, the campaign performed very well – consumers in the targeted areas were served Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. ads almost 20.4 million times.
This campaign included two primary elements. The first was a YouTube video advertising portion that included newly launched United We Steak videos, as well as a “Substituting Beef Is Beyond Impossible” video to address the higher rates of meat substitute consumption in the west. Secondly, a Google Search campaign was The national components of the campaign exceeded One advantage of the app is that any participating Nevada launched, the primary focus of which was targeting expectations even before it concluded, with a full retailer is included, which means the NBC doesn’t have consumers searching “protein-agnostic” searches, such analysis of all campaign metrics still pending. As of early to limit such opportunities to a small number of retailers. as consumers searching for non-protein specific dinner September, the campaign had resulted in over 326 million For this campaign, the retailers that saw the highest recipes or meals. The campaign would then serve these total impressions, far exceeding the goal of 270 million. redemption rates on beef products through the Ibotta app consumers beef-centric recipes. There were also over 83 million video views, and audio included Walmart at 22.9%, Smith’s at 21.9%, Albertsons at 13.1% and Costco at 9.6%. Other retailers in the top In Nevada specifically, there were over 1.35 million ads reached over 29 million listeners. ten included Walmart Grocery (Walmart’s online grocery impressions and 851,417 video views through the Here locally, the NBC further leveraged this campaign ordering and pick-up service), WinCo Foods, Sam’s Club, YouTube campaign elements, and 25,620 impressions through state-specific advertising elements, offers for Raley’s, Von’s and Army Military Commissary. and 2,163 clicks through the Google search campaign. cash-back rebates on beef products, and a sweepstakes In addition to Nevada, states targeting Nevada consumers offering a chance to win one included in the Western U.S. of two Traeger grills. The cash-back offer was a $2 rebate State Campaign were California, for any beef cut, one pound or larger, available through Oregon, Washington, Arizona the mobile app Ibotta® - a particularly compelling offer and Idaho. for shoppers at a time when retail food prices remained higher than usual. All in all, these campaigns worked to keep beef top of The Nevada campaign resulted in additional media mind for consumers in Nevada impressions and engagement with consumers, and across the nation during a supplementing the advertisements being deployed as summer that held uncertainty, part of the national campaign. In Nevada specifically, but also saw people continuing broadcast media impressions surpassed 1.7 million, with to cook and eat at home more nearly 1 million additional impressions through other often than in previous years. campaign elements, including streaming audio and banner ads across a variety of online platforms, ads airing Please visit NevadaBeef.org or via “OTT” television (which refers to “over the top” film BeefBoard.org to learn more and television content provided via a high-speed Internet about your Beef Checkoff dollar connection rather than a cable or satellite provider), and at work at home and nationally. mobile geo-fencing ads pushed out through a variety of smart phone apps. 10 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
Of those who took advantage of the offer, 89.9 percent were female, and 10.1 percent were male, with the age ranges of 35-44 (34.8%) and 25-34 (28.7%) being the top age groups.
The Progressive Rancher
www.progressiverancher.com
Slow-Cooked Beef and Mushroom Braciole By Nevada Beef Council Staff
This savory dish is an Italian favorite, and using a slow cooker (or pressure cooker) makes preparation of this meal a cinch. Flank steak is rolled up with a savory mushroom topping and slow cooked in crushed tomatoes. Perfect over warm polenta or pasta on a chilly fall day.
Ingredients:
• 1 beef Flank Steak (1-1/2 to 2 pounds) • 1 cup finely diced mushrooms • 1/2 cup finely diced onion • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese • 2 slices bacon or prosciutto, chopped (about 1 ounce) • 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning blend • 1 teaspoon salt, divided • 1 teaspoon pepper, divided • 2 cups cooked polenta, warmed
Courtesy of Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.
www.nevadabeef.org www.mybeefcheckoff.org
Cooking (Slow Cooker Method):
• Combine mushrooms, onion, cheese and bacon in medium bowl; set aside. • Cover beef Flank Steak with plastic wrap; pound until steak is 1/4 inch thick. Cook’s Tip: For a larger flank steak, cut it in half horizontally. Pound the two halves, top evenly with mushroom mixture and roll up each to make two smaller, more manageable rolls. • Season steak on both sides with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Arrange mushroom mixture evenly over steak, leaving 1-inch border on all sides. Starting on long side, roll up steak to enclose mushroom mixture. Secure roll with butchers twine. • Place tomatoes in slow cooker; stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper and Italian seasoning. Add beef roll to sauce, turning once to coat. Cooked, covered, on HIGH 4 hours or on LOW 6 hours or until beef is tender. • Cut braciole diagonally into 1/2” thick slices. Serve over pasta or polenta topped with sauce, as desired.
Pressure Cooker Method (6-quart electric pressure cooker): • Follow slow cooking method steps 1 – 3. • Place tomatoes in pressure cooker; stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper and Italian seasoning. Add braciole to pressure cooker, turning once to coat. Close and lock pressure cooker lid. • Use meat, stew or high-pressure setting on pressure cooker; program 60 minutes on pressure cooker timer. Use quick-release feature to release pressure; carefully remove lid. Continue as directed in step 5. (This recipe variation was tested in an electric pressure cooker at high altitude. Cooking at an altitude of less than 3000 feet may require slightly less cooking time. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions.)
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The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 11
In the Mind of a Millennial Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. And Breakfast. And Lunch. And Snack. By Jill Scofield | Director of Producer Relations, California & Nevada Beef Council “Mom, what’s for dinner?” According to my calculations, this is a question that has been asked of me at least 567 times since the pandemic began. That’s assuming three times a day over the course of 27 weeks – a highly conservative estimate. So as not to simply respond with the obvious answer (BEEF – what else?!), the anticipation of this question has forced me to be more creative and exploratory in my culinary skills to provide some new and different options for my growing boys. There are just so many meatloaf, pot roast, and beef chili meals one can make. Like many others, I’ve leaned hard into comfort food classics, pulling some delicious ideas from the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. website. Some big hits with my family have been a whiskey-molasses shredded beef (we shared that recipe in the last issue of The Progressive Rancher, but you can find it online as well), various iterations of chili, sloppy joes, and a perennial favorite of the Scofield family, good old Tri Tip. But aside from dinner, I, like many parents at home with children these last several months, have also been blown away by how much eating is being done before the dinner bell rings. In our household, we’ve settled into a solid pattern that goes something like this: breakfast at 7:30, snack at 9:30, pre-lunch at 11, lunch at noon, afternoon snack on a continuous rotation from 1:30 to about 4, pre-dinner around 5:30, dinner at 7. Turns out, being locked down with two growing boys will do a number on your grocery bill and put quite the dent in your pantry. So, needless to say, the money we saved over the last several months from not being able to eat out at restaurants as much was more than made up for by our increasing grocery spend. We obviously weren’t the only ones to experience this. But in looking at the data, turns out that many consumers stocking up on groceries were reaching for animal proteins, and predominately beef. As consumers stocked up their refrigerators and freezers over the last several months, all three major animal proteins saw significant year-over-year growth in retail sales, with beef leading the way. This growth was incredibly high in the early days of the pandemic in March, when beef sales spiked at 73 percent year-over-year. But even as the “stock up” mentality waned a bit, protein sales remained high in August, with beef sales still up 20 percent year-over-year. Throughout the pandemic, beef has also increased its market share compared to other animal proteins. For the week ending March 1, beef had 53% of the market share, compared with chicken’s 28%, pork’s 13%, and “other” at 6%. Fast forward several months to the week ending August 2, and beef ’s market share had increased to 57% compared to chicken at 25%, pork still at 13% and “other” at 5%. In looking at the dollar sales for meat, starting March 15 through July 12, retail meat dollar sales were up 35.9%, and volume sales increased 22.5% versus the same period last year. This translates into an additional $7.4 billion in meat department sales during the pandemic, which includes an additional $3.3 billion for beef. And just where to put all that extra meat? Another not-so-surprising result of the stock up mentality has been a run on home appliances, particularly deep freezers, which had surged by 45% this year as of early May. Other home appliances also saw huge increases in sales as consumers stayed home, including electric pasta makers (462%), soda machines (283%), handheld cleaning devices (284%), water filtration machines (152%) and air purifiers (144%). 12 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
As we enter the fall months, there doesn’t seem to be an end to this pandemic, and even as life returns to “sort of ” a normal pace in many areas, Americans are looking ahead to the fall months and holiday season with some uncertainty.
As we face the coming weeks and months, the Nevada Beef Council and Beef Checkoff will continue providing resources and content for consumers who are still navigating a return to the kitchen and home-cooked meals. This fall, beef-centric comfort food classics and home-cooking ideas will be shared with consumers through a variety of digital advertising and online engagement with consumers. This continues our efforts of meeting needs of consumers today amid this changing landscape – like our “United We Steak” campaign that took place over the summer and included an offer for Nevada consumers to get a cash-back rebate on beef products through the Ibotta app, which thousands of Nevadans took advantage of in an era of high food prices at the retail level. As an employee of the Nevada and California Beef Councils, I’ve always been impressed with the vast amount of work done on behalf of this industry – from research on important topics like beef ’s nutrition, to partnerships with influencers, to major advertising campaigns reminding consumers that beef still is what’s for dinner. But over the past several months, I’ve used more of those resources as a mom and a consumer than I ever have. Finding inspiration for the next meal is something that has been tremendously easy to do at BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. Other consumers are also using and seeing the value in these types of resources, which is a benefit to you, the producer who has continued to work so hard to continue supplying beef in these challenging times.
Just like you, our work hasn’t ended these past months. We adapt, we move forward, and we continue representing the beef industry to our consumers in a variety of ways. And just like you, we’re looking forward to the day when we can do so in easier circumstances. As I typed these last words, the blond head of my youngest son peeped into the home office with a burning question. You guessed it – “mom, what’s for dinner?”
The Progressive Rancher
www.progressiverancher.com
How the Beef Checkoff Drives Demand for Beef
EXPORT GROWTH The Beef Checkoff ’s subcontractor, U.S. Meat Export Federation, aims to keep U.S. beef top of mind and on the plates of international consumers through strategic social networking, online retail, HRI delivery promotions and social welfare initiatives. From January 2020 to March 2020, exports were valued at $2.056 billion.
SAFETY The Beef Industry Safety Summit gathered industry leaders to discuss new pathogen reduction research, foreign material contamination prevention and process control improvements in all industry sectors to continually improve beef safety.
INNOVATION The North American Meat Institute and the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council showed consumers and stakeholders that hot dogs are the perfect comfort food during tough times, but also the #PerfectZoomFood for professional or casual Zoom calls. More than 30 food-industry leaders participated in the first happy hour.
CONSUMER TRUST PRODUCER COMMUNICATIONS The Drive newsletter is reaching producers from across the country to share Checkoff initiatives and program successes. In July, 16 state beef councils added inserts into the newsletter, sharing their own state-specific news and beef promotion efforts with producers in their areas. More than 360,000 copies of The Drive have been mailed and distributed to producers this year.
The Beef Checkoff has successfully developed two beef-production, science-based courses to familiarize students with the beef industry and is being implemented as a pilot program in six states. In addition to educating students, the Checkoff actively engages with teachers from across the country. Virtual professional development events connecting middle and high school educators directly to the science of beef production reached into the ten most urban districts in the nation.
NUTRITION & HEALTH Beef Checkoff research shows adding lean beef to a healthy diet does not increase the risk of heart disease and reduces diabetes risk factors. This research was shared with doctors and nutrition experts to show that beef is a part of a healthy eating pattern. This study was completed by Dr. Kevin Maki at Midwest Biomedical Research and published in the Journal of Nutrition.
USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation
Read about these and other successes at
DrivingDemandForBeef.com.
www.progressiverancher.com
The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 13
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CARES NAARP Industry Article Administration Division
COVID-19 funding assistance available for producers By Jessica Anderson, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator
Four types of eligible expenses In a nutshell, the program has four areas for application of COVID-19 related expenses: • Supplies/equipment to safely operate - reimbursement of eligible expenses that were necessary to help protect employees and customers in various agribusiness situations in response to COVID-19. • Housing adaptations - reimbursement for on-farm housing modifications or provision of alternative on-farm housing needed to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
For agriculturists, 2020 has been a trying year. Between stalled markets, rising input • New farmers markets fees - new farmers markets developed in response to disruptions costs, weather and fires, farmers and ranchers have had their hands full. We’ve seen in supply chains and markets due to the pandemic are eligible to have permit fees commodity markets closing, endured the closures of livestock harvesting facilities and reimbursed. At least 51% of farmers market vendors must sell Nevada food products quelled the public fear of a food shortage. As ranchers and farmers, our days are long, to qualify for permit fee reimbursement. stressful and mostly thankless, but the rewards far out way the negatives. It’s why we • Agribusiness COVID-19 relief assistance – any additional business expenses that do it. Though 2020 has been tough, there are some funding opportunities currently would not have been incurred if not for the COVID-19 public health emergency will available that can help with some of those unforeseen costs many of us have incurred. be considered for eligibility under this general funding category. You must qualify as As Nevada Department of Agriculture’s (NDA) COVID-19 resource coordinator, I can a small business as designated by the U.S. Small Business Administration to apply for help you with our current relief funding program, the CARES Nevada Agriculture reimbursement under this funding category. Adaptability and Recovery Program (NAARP). On March 27, 2020, the President Help navigating the process is available signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (P.L. 116-136, CARES Act). This Act resulted in the creation of the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CFDA 21.019), Depending on the changes you may have had to make to your business operation and/ which provides relief funding to states to address the various impacts arising from the or infrastructure or supplies/equipment purchases that were made, you may qualify for pandemic. The NDA is administering more than $4 million to address food insecurity, at least one application area. For example, a producer who took orders online for the strengthen or expand food supply chains and provide financial relief to farmers, ranchers first time because markets were closed may be able to receive reimbursement for some and other agribusinesses for COVID-19 related expenses. of those costs. Other reimbursable costs would include purchasing gloves, masks and Thanks to these funds, the NDA created the NAARP to help relieve the stress food hand sanitizer to keep operations open and employees safe. Expenses are reimbursed and agriculture businesses face in responding to the COVID-19 crisis through business up to $15,000 and applicants can apply more than once, if needed, until that $15,000 adaptations and diversifications to ensure a safe and adequate food supply. Applicants maximum is reached. The deadline for application is December 15, 2020 or until funds must demonstrate how financial assistance is needed in response to impacts to their run out, on a first come first serve basis. operation in adapting to operating during the COVID-19 public health emergency. If you think this may be something you qualify for or have further questions, please reach out. We are here to help! You can learn more about the CARES NAARP program Jessica Anderson is the new COVID-19 Resource Coordinator for the NDA. As a rancher in at agri.nv.gov/naarp, or feel free to email me at j.anderson@agri.nv.gov. I am happy Nevada, she has first-hand experience of the industry’s hardships, and how to navigate the assistance to answer questions, walk you through the application process and even discuss other available. She is also a past high school agriculture teacher and outreach educator for Extension and programs and opportunities out there. From one fellow producer to another, I am right is passionate about agriculture and helping those involved. She looks forward to helping agriculture in the middle of the storm with you. I look forward to hearing from you and hope we, producers successfully find and apply for funding that can assist during these difficult times. at NDA, can help during these challenging times!
The Secretary of Agriculture Office of Communication selected only 6 projects Nationwide. Cheatgrass research at Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit in Reno, Nevada made the list. We want to thank everyone for their support over the years! Read more here: https://scientificdiscoveries.ars.usda. gov/explore-our-discoveries/pacificwest/nv-cheating-cheatgrass/
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ARS scientists at the Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit in Reno, Nevada, have found success using pre-emergent herbicides as part of an integrated management plan to control cheatgrass, an aggressive, invasive weed from central Asia. Cheatgrass outcompetes native plants for nutrients and water and deprives animals of dietary variety and quality as well as habitat. The accidental introduction and subsequent invasion of cheatgrass into Great Basin rangelands also increased the frequency, intensity, and acreage of wildfires, which cost millions of dollars annually to fight. Millions more are then spent on efforts to restore these devastated lands.
Researchers tested pre-emergent herbicides to control germinating cheatgrass seeds. They later seeded the treated area with selected perennial species, including some developed specifically for rangeland restoration by scientists at the ARS Forage and Range Research Unit in Logan, UT. These plants have the ability to establish and persist in competition with cheatgrass. Over the 10year study period, the strategy resulted in more than a ninefold increase in perennial grass densities as well as increased shrub and forb growth. This significantly reduced the chance, rate, spread, and season of wildfires. Restoring rangelands to a healthy mix of plants increases the productivity and sustainability of agriculture in the Great Basin while also supporting wildlife and reducing wildfires.
The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 15
By Melinda Sarman, President
2020 The Year of the Curveballs Fall has officially come knocking at our door; I hope everyone is safe and enjoying this incredible weather. This time of year, our days are full of fall work. For me, this is a very satisfying time of year. Most ranches around the state are busy preconditioning calves, weaning calves, preg checking cows and shipping cattle; And like many people I wish we had more hay!
The General Members meeting will be held on Thursday, December 19 from 4-8 p.m. This meeting will be also through Zoom platform. This meeting will be open to all Nevada CattleWomen members. If you have not taken part of a zoom meeting previously, Nevada CattleWomen will email out an invite and the agenda to members. Once you have received your email you will click on the Zoom link at the scheduled meeting time and you join Just a few days ago I was informed that the Nevada the meeting. You are welcome to go to another person’s Cattlemen had to make the hard decision to cancel this home to attend the meeting and have several people in year’s convention. Therefore, Nevada CattleWomen will a room during the meeting. Some items on the agenda be having meetings via zoom for our yearly meetings. The will be guest speakers, local CattleWomen updates, Executive Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, financial statements and budget approval, and WIRED December 3 from 4-6 p.m. The Executive Committee Programs in Nevada (Women in Ranch Education and is comprised of NVCW officers, past NVCW President Development). We have some great speakers for our and the Presidents from local CattleWomen Affiliates. annual meeting and there will be important business to Some of the items on the agenda will be approval of cover during the membership meeting. minutes for last years meeting, Financial review and budget proposals for the 2021 year. As well as, discussion Over the next few weeks, Nevada CattleWomen will be on Region VI Meetings and long-range planning for NV calling any members for whom we do not have an email CattleWomen.
Let’s Talk Ag
address. Please call me at 775/385-3619 or email me at MelindaSarman@gmail.com if you want to ensure we have your correct information, especially if you have a new email address, or if you simply have any questions. The roots of this organization began in 1939. Over the last eighty-one years, we have had good and bad years. But our mission of educating consumers and women producers has stayed the same. We will get through this! Trust me when I say, this is not what we want to do but it is what we need to do for 2020. My next article will have more information on the yearly meetings. I can not thank you enough for what you do to promote and educate the public about production agricultural and the beef industry. Until next time, stay healthy and safe!
• EDITORIAL • By Staci Emm
Be Ready - Second CFAP Program to be Released by USDA We are currently under our seventh month of a worldwide pandemic, and the United States Department of Agriculture announced last week there is going to be a second Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to be released. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program better known as “CFAP” was a price support assistance program that Nevada producers could access. In Nevada, this provided price supports for dairy, cattle, pigs, sheep, specialty crops and some non-specialty crops. The program was put in place for producers of agricultural commodities that suffered a 5% or greater price decline and producers who had losses caused by market supply disruptions due to COVID-19. There have been additions to the program over the last few months and the deadline was extended. For Cattle, there were designations by weight, and producers were paid a fixe- fee payment based on weight, which determined the livestock category under Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 was payment eligibility based on livestock sold between January 15, 2020 to April 15, 2020. Part 2 was based on the highest inventory of owned eligible livestock between April 16, 2020 to May 14, 2020. USDA paid out the first 80% of your approved payment within a couple of weeks of the application. My hope is that all livestock producers in Nevada took advantage of this program over the summer. 16 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
The second payment or the 20% withheld from the overall CFAP payment should have hit your accounts sometime in August. I had several producers comment that the money hit their accounts, and then they got a letter from USDA a few days later. Most commented that it was a nice needed addition to start the fall. I have a zoom call every Friday that is part of a large collaborative project called Native Waters of Arid Lands CARES Group and is dealing with COVID-19 agriculture issues related to land and water issues on tribal lands in the Western United States. USDA is on this call and a USDA-Farm Service Agency representative said to be expecting a CFAP 2 to be released soon that is 100% better than the first one. I really don’t know what 100% better means? What I do know is that producers need to continue their record keeping of cattle numbers and price losses. It always helps when a program is announced if you already have your cattle counts and sale receipts handy. It was nice under the first CFAP program that you could selfcertify your cattle counts, but always try to have your back-up documentation as you never know when it will be needed and/or requested. I personally am hoping that CFAP 2 provides price supports for fall cattle sales. We will have to wait and see what is released. The Progressive Rancher
On another note, Nevada producers should also be paying attention to the drought monitor for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP). As we get past the “D2” designation for 8-weeks in a row, this program begins to kick in for livestock producers on rangeland and pastureland. It also provides support as a result of not being able to graze a permit because of fire. I checked the drought monitor this morning and most of the state is at a “D2” level and eastern Nevada is at a “D3” level. This means that this program is available and to check with your local Farm Service Agency office. The Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP) is also an additional emergency support that I believe provides assistance for water hauling or other losses not covered by existing disaster programs. While this not has been the greatest year, I believe we are surviving and changing. USDA has stepped up and is offering support programs and I hope that producers are using them. I look forward to seeing what the new CFAP 2 is all about. I hope all of you stay safe and have a great September and October. www.progressiverancher.com
RANGE PLANTS FOR THE RANCHER Single-Needle Pinyou By Paul T. Tueller, Ph.D., CRMC The pinyou/juniper woodlands are found throughout much of the state of Nevada. Earlier I wrote of Juniperus osteosperma the Utah Juniper. This plant and single needle pinyou (Pinus monophylla makep most of the pinyou/juniper woodlands in Nevada and thus are of interest to all who are interested in Nevada’s rangelands. So what is single-needle pinyon? The single-needle pinyon is an aromatic pine tree with short, stiff needles and gnarled branches that grow mostly in coarse rocky soils.. Normal height for this tree is about 15 feet, but the tree can grow as high as 50 feet under ideal conditions. These woodlands cover more that 55.6 million acres in the western Unites States. They along with the Utah Juniper and few other tree species comprise one of Nevada’s most extensive vegetation types covering some 14,178 square miles or approximately thirteen percent of Nevada’s land area. As one travels around the state they appear as tree covered hill slopes on distant mountain ranges. There is some evidence that the woodlands have increased over time but how much and how long the stands will last is up for debate. Single-needle pinyon generally dominates the woodland in the upper and intermediate elevation bands. Nevada designated the single-needle pinyon as the official state tree in 1953. (Nevada adopted a second state tree in 1987; bristlecone pine). Variations in elevation create an ecotone between the Juniper and Pinyon species, where they can commonly overlap at around an elevation of 5,000 feet. They are sometimes scorned by real foresters as they refer to them as part of the pygmy forest
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Single-needle pinyon pines have a very slow growth pattern and can take almost a century to reach 12 meters in height. This woodland habitat is not highly adapted to fire. Fuel loads are often not sufficient enough to maintain a devastating fire, although many understory plants are particularly vulnerable to wildfires. Prescribed fire has been applied to pinyon woodlands in order to manage the land, clear the landscape for new recruitment, or for grazing. Many acres of these trees have been cut over for the making of charcoal to smelt ore during early mining. Ranchers have used the wood to warm themselves and provide fence posts to aid in the management of their livestock. Several decades ago some acreage of the woodland were chained. Large chains were drawn behind large caterpillar tractors to topple and cut down the trees to “release” the understory plants for livestock and wildlife use. This practice was stopped after many of the preservationist groups complained.
The seeds of the pinyon pine, known as “pine nuts” or “piñóns”, are an important food for American Indians living in the mountains of Nevada. Many pines produce edible seeds, but in North America only pinyon produces seeds large enough to be a major source of food. The pinyon has likely been a source of food since the arrival of homo sapiens in the Great Basin. Archaeological evidence indicates that the range of the pinyon pine expanded northward after the Ice Age, reaching its northernmost (and present) limit in southern Idaho about 4000 BC. Early Native Americans undoubtedly collected the edible seeds, but, at least in some areas, evidence of large quantities of pinyon nut harvesting does not appear until about 600 AD. Increased use of pinyon nuts was possibly related to a population increase of humans and a decline in the number of game animals, thereby forcing Great Basin inhabitants to seek additional sources of food
The stands vary from essentially closed stand with little understory species especially forage plants to open stands with a variety of understory species many of which are useful for livestock use. However, as vegetation progresses from an open sagebrush community with scattered trees to dense woodland, herbaceous plants and shrubs decrease and are thus unavailable as forage for livestock. Bleached skeletons of sagebrush remain as the only evidence of the former shrub- and grassdominated community. Scattered remnant clumps of bunch grasses hang on at the peripheries of the tree crowns, where the proper balance of shade, sun, and competition with tree roots for water allows them to persist in this harsh environment.
The suitability of pinyon seeds as a staple food is reduced because of the unreliability of the harvest. Abundant crops of cones and seeds occur only every two to seven years, averaging a good crop every four years. Years of high production of seed tend to be the same over wide areas of the pinyon range. The pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) takes its name from the tree, and pinyon nuts form an important part of its diet. It is very important for regeneration of pinyon woods, as it stores large numbers of the seeds in the ground for later use, and excess seeds not used are in an ideal position to grow into new trees.
The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 17
This results in increased bacterial growth in the stomach, increased acid and the possibility of gastric ulcers.
Sugar Content in Horse Feed & Forage
On a roughage diet, the horse normally produces up to 10 gallons of saliva a day, which has a tremendous capacity to buffer stomach acids. If the stomach becomes more acidic than it should be (which happens on a high-grain diet or with infrequent feeding), gas is produced by bacterial fermentation. The horse is incapable of belching, so the result can be pain, colic or in severe situations stomach wall rupture.
Normally, the ingested feed doesn’t stay very long in the stomach. It starts The following information discusses the role that carbohydrates/sugars play in equine health and nutrition. emptying food 15 minutes after a This information has been edited from a fact sheet supplied by Colorado State University Extension and can be meal. Once the food reaches the small found online at: https://stablemanagement.com/.amp/articles/sugar-content-in-horse-feed-and-forage intestine, the transit time is slightly longer. It takes a half-hour to 1½ hours Quick Facts to make it to the cecum, which is the • Carbohydrates and sugars play an Carbohydrates can be classified into varies immensely. Fructan is a type of start of the hindgut. important role in equine health. three categories: simple sugars, starches carbohydrate that plants accumulate and Feed can take up to three days to travel store for energy. It can be found in high • Sugar and starch are absorbed in the and complex carbohydrates. through the hindgut. It is important for upper intestine and fructan has to be Simple sugars are a one-sugar unit that levels in cool-season grasses and hay ingested feed to spend the majority of fermented in the lower digestive tract is readily and rapidly digested in the made from those grasses. Cool-season the time in the hindgut. If ingesta (feed) grasses such as timothy, orchard grass, (hindgut). moves through faster than normal, upper intestine. brome and ryegrass predominate in proper digestion and fermentation • Feed can be tested for sugar levels. Starches are a small group of sugar units horse pastures and hay fields. does not happen and there are serious Consult a veterinarian or nutritional connected together that quickly digest consequences, the most serious being consultant to determine the right Normal Digestive Physiology and absorb in the upper intestine. laminitis and colic. sugar levels for your horse. A horse’s digestive physiology works • Feed testing facilities can provide Complex carbohydrates are made up best when the horse eats frequently Differences Between Digestion instructions on proper sampling and of sugar units connected together that and is maintained on forage or hay. and Fermentation recommended procedures to send cannot be digested and absorbed from For most horses, little or no grain/ the upper intestinal tract. Those carbs There are huge differences in function samples to the lab. must be fermented by bacteria and concentrate is needed if they are on a between the small intestine and the • Different environmental conditions protozoa in the lower digestive tract good-quality forage/hay. Yet because hindgut. The majority of the digestion raise fructan levels in pasture grass or “hindgut” (cecum, dorsal colon, and of the physical demands humans have and absorption of sugar, starch, protein placed on performance horses, grains and fats takes place in the small intestine. Much has been written about sugar ventral colon). and concentrates are fed to horses. In the small intestine, absorption levels in feeds and forages because they One important complex carbohydrate of sugars occurs through enzymatic If you talk to the horsemen of years gone play an important role in equine health. in equine feeds is fructan. It is a nonaction. In the hindgut, fermentation by they will tell you that when their It is inappropriate to describe low- structural carbohydrate (NSC), as are sugar feeds as “low-carbohydrate” feeds simple sugars and starches, but it is horses were working on the farm, they brings about breakdown of the fiber because there is no horse feed that is different because it must be fermented fed them grain throughout the day, not into digestive derivatives called volatile low in “carbs.” The fiber in forage/hay is in the hindgut like other “fiber-type” just in the morning and night. When fatty acids that the body can use for the horsemen worked in the fields with metabolism. This process within the carbohydrate in nature. complex carbohydrates. horses and took a break, the horses took hindgut gives the horse the capability Fiber is made up of complex Fermentation of fructan, other complex a break, and this meant another feeding to digest the complex carbohydrates and carbohydrates, and the horse’s digestive fiber found in grass and hay. carbohydrates, and fiber involves a of grain. system needs it to function properly. longer process than sugar and starch. Feeds vary in sugar and starch content-- It also requires a delicate balance of the Here are some of the important But the microflora in the hindgut the “high-sugar feeds” can be detrimental proper population of microorganisms in physiological processes of the equine responsible for fermentation are gut. As forage/hay is eaten, the feed is sensitive to changes in diet. An overload to horses sensitive due to the starch: the hindgut. chewed and a profuse amount of saliva of high-sugar type feeds or high levels of • disrupts normal digestion, Feeds will vary greatly in their sugar, is produced by the salivary glands. fructan can upset the normal population • exacerbates certain medical conditions starch and fructan levels. Fructan When there is less chewing, less saliva of bacteria and protozoa, changing the • can lead to serious complications such is commonly found in certain types is produced, and less saliva means less environment within the hindgut that of grasses and hays, and the content buffering of the acids in the stomach. causes a cascade of problems. as colic and laminitis.
By Colorado State University
18 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
The Progressive Rancher
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Detrimental Effects of Feeding High-Sugar/High-Starch Feeds Typically, grain and concentrate rations are higher in sugar and starch than forages. When horses are on a ration or diet that has a high sugar and starch content, it can have dramatic effects on the digestive physiology such as:
• There is less chewing, less saliva produced, more acidic contents in the stomach, and possibly more gas or development of gastric ulcers.
The body’s resistance to insulin can also be involved in laminitis in that the resultant high levels of insulin may cause a decreased blood flow to the hoof and/or the high insulin may affect the uptake of blood sugar into the laminae of the foot. The resulting effect of either is a cascading set of events that result in laminitis or a painful breakdown in the bond between the hoof and the underlying bone.
and exercise. The insulin resistant horse should not be on grain or high-sugar concentrate feed, and might need to be taken off pasture grass completely and only fed hay low in sugars and starch. Test hay for levels of sugar and starch as these Other medical conditions that are very are the highly absorbable carbohydrates sensitive to sugar and starch levels in the in the diet that quickly raise the blood sugar and the insulin levels. feed are:
• The ingested feed moves faster through the small intestine; more sugar/starch substrate enters the • Gastric ulcers hindgut upon which abnormal • Cushing’s disease bacteria feed and proliferate. • Equine metabolic syndrome • The bacteria that feed on sugar and • Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) starch grow rapidly, causing normal gut bacteria to die and bringing • “Tying-up” syndromes such as polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM) about inflammatory changes in and exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) the gut. The dying bacteria give off endotoxins that are absorbed into the bloodstream. This can potentially lead Detrimental Effects of Feeding High Fructan Forage or Hay to laminitis. These changes can result in abdominal pain, inflammatory As mentioned above, fructan is a complex disease and digestive upset. Thus colic carbohydrate and is not like simple sugars or starch. Typically forages or hay is another possible consequence. • The sugar and starch is absorbed are higher in fructan than a grain-based rapidly from the small intestine, feed. A feed can be low in sugar and/ resulting in an elevated blood glucose or starch, but if it has a large amount of level and a subsequent increase in fructan, problems occur in the hindgut. Remember that most of the fructan is insulin in the blood. fermented in the hindgut. Therefore, three serious problems that When excessive fructan arrives at the occur from ingestion of high-sugar/ cecum and large colon (hindgut), the high-starch feeds are: laminitis, colic bacterial flora is overwhelmed, the and insulin resistance. normal gut bacteria can die, increased The body normally produces insulin from the pancreas, and it is secreted in response to high blood sugar (which occurs after eating and absorbing sugar and starch). Insulin is used to help the cells use the sugar that is circulating in the blood. It helps transport sugar from the blood into the cells where it is used.
levels of the digestive derivatives from fructan called volatile fatty acids are formed and this can cause digestive upset and colic.
When abrupt changes like this occur in the bacterial flora, the results can be local inflammation in the hindgut, endotoxins from the dying bacteria in In a condition called insulin resistance, the gut are released, and laminitis can be the affected horse has a high blood sugar one of the outcomes. level from sugar and starch digestion. A Best Horse Feeding Practices resulting high insulin level occurs and persists because the body’s cells are not It is best to feed horses only small responding to the insulin. Therefore, the amounts of high sugar/starch feeds cells are not able to transport the sugar (grains and concentrates) in frequent from the blood into the cells. feedings; this will provide for optimal It could be likened in some respects to equine digestion and fewer medical Type II diabetes in humans. The insulin problems. Unfortunately this schedule is there, but there is a lack of response might not be convenient to many horse owners. It might be hard to divide grain to it. www.progressiverancher.com
feedings into three to four feedings In contrast, the following were shown to per day, but that is what is best for the have lower glycemic index values (a low index value predicts a low blood sugar horse’s digestive system. Insulin resistance is treated and response to this feed). They are ranked prevented mainly by nutritional changes from mid-range to lowest:
A proper hay would be a prairie hay or a second or third cutting of alfalfa hay processed after the bloom stage. But you cannot tell the sugar content by type of hay or a particular cutting of hay. It should be tested. Even the new Nutritional Requirements of Horses published by the National Research Council (NRC) does not give us a definitive value. Current thought is that a safe sugar content for sensitive horses is 10% or less.
1) Wheat Bran 2) Beet Pulp 3) Alfalfa 4) Rice Bran 5) Soybean Hulls
Fructan will be at a higher level in the plant at different times of the season and at different times of the day. It will be higher in plants in these situations: • after a very sunny day--photosynthesis produces a greater quantity
• after a period of stress whether it is nutritional or from drought
• after cool evening temperatures-below 40 degrees Fahrenheit
• after quick and rapid drying of cut grass and hay Good Grazing Management
Good grazing management will lower the consumption of fructan and reduce the incidence of colic and laminitis. Feeds can be classified according to their Good practices should include: “glycemic index,” which is an indicator of how a particular feed will elevate the • Limit grazing on high fructan grasses to less than one hour a day for blood sugar level and the subsequent susceptible horses. blood insulin level after consuming it. The elevated blood sugar and resulting • Use grazing muzzles when necessary. insulin is called the glycemic response. Horses with insulin resistance should • Don’t overgraze pastures; fructan is higher in the lower few inches of plants be on a low glycemic index feed because they have an abnormal glycemic response • Fructan is lower on fertilized fields; after eating feeds that are high in sugar the plant is less stressed so there is less and/or starch. fructan. In a recent study the glycemic index • Graze early morning; fructan is values were determined for 10 feeds. A higher in afternoon/evening after a high index value predicts a high blood sunny day. sugar response to this feed. They are, • After a sunny day and a cool night, from highest to lowest, as follows: limit grazing in the morning because 1) Sweet Feed 2) Corn the plant has not used up its energy 3) Jockey Oats 4) Oats 5) Barley store of fructan during the night.
The Progressive Rancher
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 19
HEALTHY HORSES on Healthy Rangelands
By Gary McCuin, Eureka County Extension Educator & Barry Perryman, Professor UNR, CABNR
In our first article this year we laid out the dismal statistics and general nature of Wild Horse & Burro (WH&B) management as it presently exists on federal lands. Too many horses, too much emotion, and too little management sums it up fairly succinctly. Yet we are optimistic, or maybe determined, that there are practical solutions. Toward that end, the Free Roaming Equids and Ecosystem Sustainability Network (FREES) has continued meeting through three working groups (Figure 1). These working groups originated from the 2019 Reno FREES Summit. Participants interested in seeking practical solutions to Wild Horse and Burro overpopulation and the resulting degradation of rangelands, wanted to continue the dialogue in order to explore potential solutions. FREES working Groups are: 1) Population Management Working Group, led by Redge Johnson and Callie Hendrickson a. Assess and improve gathering methods and population growth suppression strategies
We proposed a slightly different slant on the Public/ Private Partnership in our Rangelands article - Forum: A Framework for Resetting Wild Horse & Burro Management (Rangelands Vol 40 Issue 5 pgs. 129-170 (10/2018).
Figure 1. FREES representatives (L-R) Gary McCuin, Barry Perryman, Terry Messmer, Callie Hendrickson and Tammy Pearson in Washington D.C.
A number of innovative and feasible ideas have emerged b. Re-think the status quo for holding facilities and through their regular meetings. Those ideas will be brought forward by participants at the next FREES distribution of horses Summit October 6-8 in Cody Wyoming. Due to the c. Identify and understand successful efforts for Covid-19 circumstances, there is still uncertainty how collecting and analyzing data this meeting will be accomplished, but there are plans for both an in-person meeting as well as virtual, or a hybrid 2) Rangeland Conditions and Habitat Working Group, of both. To join in the working groups and/or find out led by Tracey Jean Wolfe more about the FREES Network please go to https:// a. Identify common misperceptions regarding extension.usu.edu/freesnetwork/. federally defined Wild Horse and Burro habitat The other development that we discussed in the first conditions article was the “Path Forward.” The primary objective of this proposal is to develop an economically and b. Identify ecological and cultural “hot spots” environmentally viable, humane, non-lethal, and feasible 3) Outreach and Communication Working Group, led long-term management plan for wild horses and burros. by Terry Messmer and Celeste Carlisle Authors of the “Path Forward” proposed the following solutions for the short and long-term health of our wild a. Develop collaborative committee focused on horses and burros along with our Western rangeland: public messaging/education and congressional (1) Relocate removed wild horses and burros to more strategy cost-effective pasture facilities, b. Develop organizing structure and funding (2) Contract with private parties to secure lower-cost strategy for working groups. To date the group has created an endowment to secure long-term leasing of land for long-term humane care of removed support for the network https://extension.usu. horses and burros, ( edu/freesnetwork/donate 3) Apply proven, safe and humane population growth suppression strategies to every herd that can be reached c. Develop a structure and process to build trust and utilizing trained volunteers, Agency staff, and animal consensus in FREES health professionals, as individual HMAs dictate to d. Complete a rigorous national survey of public prevent repeated gathers and perceptions about Wild Horse and their (4) Promote options to reduce captive populations and management costs (Figure 2). 20 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
The Progressive Rancher
The underlying problem for anyone taking on the care of a horse or burro, wild or domestic, is the associated cost. It takes “real” money to provide feed, water, health care, and shelter for a horse or burro, and the more of them you have the greater the cost, compounded by the fact that those costs are increasing every year. That is primarily why BLM off-range holding costs at current animal numbers exceeds 60% of the total Wild Horse and Burro (WH&B) budget. On the flip side, there is little to no financial return associated with warehousing WH&Bs. Possibly one of the reasons WH&B advocates continue to demand that the government shoulder 100% the burden. Our concept of a Public/Private Partnership is to get Congress to create “Green Tax” credits that an entity could contribute towards reducing their tax liability (Figure 3). Tax credits could only be utilized by an authorized caregiver to pay for the maintenance of WH&Bs with proof of life and would terminate upon the natural death of an identified animal. Through this funding mechanism all off-range holding costs to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) could be eliminated from their budget, returning $52+ million dollars (at current inventories) to on-range management. In 20-30 years this program would sunset upon the demise of all off-range WH&Bs. This assumes that WH&B populations can be maintained at Animal Management Levels (AML) in the future through adoptions, fertility control, and diligent management.
Figure 2. Gary McCuin presenting public/private partnership concepts to D.C. staffers. www.progressiverancher.com
EXPERIMENT STATION College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources
Figure 3. Congressional staffers, invited by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) attending a FREES presentation. The financial burden shifts from the public sector to the private sector and the funds do not come out of the annual BLM budget. Equally important, this would open up holding facilities to receive the thousands of horses required to be removed from rangelands to achieve AML and subsequently move those horses and burros into private sector care. And finally, it would provide political cover to Congress by avoiding unrestricted sale and/or euthanasia.
With political cover in place, there should be motivation for Congress to provide the direction and funding for the reductions of on-range populations, eventually reaching AML, all while utilizing effective fertility control methods and management to maintain AML. A portion of the funding could then be funneled towards restoration of rangelands that were degraded by overpopulation use. The activities described above have made a difference in what could accurately be described as an otherwise hopeless and unwinnable cause (Figure 4). It is easy to be discouraged when faced with a challenge like WH&B management. We hope that these articles have convinced readers that changing the course of WH&B management in order to salvage the health of our rangelands and western rural economies is not a pipe dream (an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme). Rather, it is a challenge worth facing and engaging in because the alternative is unconscionable. We will not falter, stumble, or fail.
Figure 4. Jim French and Barry Perryman, WH&B Advisory Board members, 2019 Washington D.C. meeting. www.progressiverancher.com
RANCH MANAGER
(Sheep Herd Manager) Needed in Eureka, Nevada
JOB DESCRIPTION: The Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station (NAES) at the University of Nevada, Reno is recruiting for a Ranch Manager (Sheep Herd Manager) in Eureka, Nevada. The mission of the Eureka Station is to demonstrate sustainable, Integrated Management of Crops, Sheep, and Rangeland in Dryland Environments and provide education and outreach to the agricultural community and area producers. This position is critical to the establishment of the station, maintenance of the breeding flock and pending research functions. The successful candidate will manage the daily operations of the Rafter 7 Merino and Merino Rambouillet sheep in an arid rangeland and private pasture environment. The Rafter 7 flock is a unique and exceptional flock of sheep that has been bred for range hardiness for high quality lamb and wool production. The flock will also contribute to rangelands research, benefits of multiple species grazing, wildlife and livestock interactions, animal disease control and improved production or best management practices. Service duties will include daily management of the flock and associated herders, coordination and participation with research scientists, and outreach and educational activities.
For questions, please contact: Gary McCuin - 775-237-6134 or Verla Jackson - 775-682-8484 Mailing: CABNR • 1664 North Virginia, MS0221 • Reno, NV 89557-0221 For detailed job description & to apply, visit https://nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ UNR-external/job/Extension-Eureka---University-of-Nevada-Reno/Ranch-Manager---Eureka_R0120588-1
Division of Water Resources Cancels Virtual Hearings in Favor of In-Person Hearings The Division of Water Resources has announced they have eliminated their planned virtual hearings in favor of inperson hearings for proposed Orders issued for a number of ground water basins around the state. They also gave additional Orders to make a more complete slate of proposed orders. These meetings, which will follow the Governor’s COVID-19 mandates, will be in effect for those who wish to attend in person. Written testimony options are also provided for all hearings, deadlines for which will be November 2, 2020. IN-PERSON SCHEDULE: Monday, October 12 (starting at 9:30 a.m.) Churchill County Commission Chambers, 155 N. Taylor St. Suite 145, Fallon, NV. Proposed orders to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations will be covered for these basins: • Fireball Valley (077) located within Churchill and Washoe Counties • Edwards Creek Valley (133) located within Churchill County Monday, October 12 (starting at 1 p.m.) Mineral County Commission Chambers, 105 South A St., Hawthorne, NV. Proposed orders to designate, these basins: • Alkali Valley-Northern Part (111A) • Alkali Valley-Southern Part (111B) • Walker Valley-Shurz Subarea (110A) Further, these proposed orders are to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for these basins: • Teels Marsh Valley (114) • Queen Valley (116)
• East Walker Are (109) • Walker Lake Valley-Lake Subarea (110B) Tuesday, October 13 (starting at 9:30 a.m.) White Pine County Library Meeting Room, 950 Campton St., Ely, NV. Proposed orders to designate, these basins: • Long Valley (175) • Spring Valley (184) • Pleasant Valley (194) • Snake Valley (195) • Butte Valley-Southern Part (178B) Further, these proposed orders are to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for this basin: • Newark Valley (154) Tuesday, October 13 (starting at 1 p.m.) Eureka County Commissioner’s Chambers, Eureka County Courthouse, 10 South Main St, Eureka, NV. Proposed orders to designate, this basin: • Stevens Basin (152) located within Eureka County Wednesday, October 14 (starting at 9 a.m.) Elko County Convention Center, Ruby Room, 700 Moren Way, Elko, NV. Proposed orders to designate, these basins: • Independence Valley (036) • South Fork Owyhee River Area (035) • Goose Creek Area (041) • Butte Valley-Northern Part (178A) Further, these proposed orders are to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for these basins: • Antelope Valley-Southern Part (186A) • Antelope Valley-Northern Part (186B)
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Wednesday, October 14 (starting at 12:30 p.m.) Lander County Courthouse, Community Meeting Room, 50 NV-305, Battle Mountain, NV. Proposed orders to designate, this basin: • Smith Creek (134) Wednesday, October 14 (starts at 3:30 pm) Humboldt County Commission Chambers, 50 West 5th St., Winnemucca, NV. Proposed orders to designate, these basins: • Continental Lake Valley (002) • Mud Meadow (026) Further, these proposed orders are to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for these basins: • Pueblo Valley (001) • Gridley Lake Valley (003) Also, further these proposed orders are to extend these designate areas, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for these basins: • Silver State Valley (032) • Quinn River Valley-Orovada Subarea (033A) • Quinn River Valley-McDermitt Subarea (033B) Thursday, October 15 (starting at 10:30 p.m.) Pershing County Courthouse, LowerLevel Round Room, 400 Main St, Lovelock, NV. Proposed orders to designate, this basin: • Granite Springs Valley (078) located within Pershing and Churchill Counties Further, this proposed order is to designate, establish preferred use and curtail new appropriations for this basin: • Kumiva Valley (079) within Pershing Co.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 21
Diverse Opinions, Distinctive People, Exceptional Leadership to find Ultimate Solutions through the Wonders of ROGER Robert Kraft, Chief Executive Officer of the New England Patriots, once said “One of my beliefs about leadership is it’s not how many followers you have, but how many people you have with different opinions that you can bring together and try to be a good listener.” The world’s problems will always seem endless, the opinions we have about them will continuously often be different unalike to one another and there will be disagreements, obstacles and issues in every direction one looks. Although there are multiple solutions to these massive problems, the one common denominator is we need each other to fix them. That sounds simple; however, it actually takes a lot of work.
Ranch in 1991 and became the ranch manager in 1998. While Griggs appreciates the variety of day-to-day life on a ranch, he notes that it is also one of his biggest challenges.
One such challenge came to a head in the fall of 2015 when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rolled-out their Land Use Plan Amendment to conserve the Greater Sage Grouse (GRSG) west wide. The amendment created concerns with Griggs and “As a manager, it seems nearly impossible to sometimes other ranchers due to possible potentially unattainable stay ahead of the changes that are thrown our way targets and its focus on a single species rather than the whether political, environmental, economic or human health of the sagebrush ecosystems, upon many other issues – there’s always something,” said Griggs. species and values depend. To address these concerns, a group of Nevada ranchers came together with various Federal and State Agency leaders and staff and other Laura Van Riper, a social scientist with the BLM partners in early 2016. The hope was to bring together individuals from dissimilar backgrounds, each with parallel concerns, but different ideas of solutions, to meet and come to terms with big picture issues that are facing the sagebrush ecosystem as a whole (e.g., wildfire, grazing, endangered species, monitoring, etc.). The first two-day gathering of the group, now known as ROGER, was difficult.
Before people can work together, individuals with different perspectives need to be heard and understood, and relationships and trust need to be built – which takes time and effort. Jon Griggs, manager of Maggie Creek Ranch and spokesperson for the rancher-led Results Oriented Grazing for Ecological Resilience, ROGER, collaborative group, understands these issues very well.
“There really were no relationships built, there wasn’t a lot of trust established in the group and ROGER would have never been born if we hadn’t figured out that we needed some facilitation,” Griggs said. After the initial meeting, Laura Van Riper, a social scientist with the BLM, jumped on board as a facilitator and coordinator for the newly emerging group. Van Riper has over two decades of academic and on the ground experience in with collaborative communitybased natural resource management and conflict
Griggs has always had an affinity for ranching after spending his summers as a child on his grandparents’ ranch in Tuscarora, Nevada. Griggs started as a cowboy at the YP ranch in 1985. He moved to Maggie Creek 22 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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resolution both in the US. and abroad. Since 1999, she has worked with the BLM’s National Riparian Service Team and Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution program. Over the years in this role, she has worked to bring diverse interests together to address the social and ecological dimensions of natural resource issues across the western US. For the past five years, she has been occupied almost exclusively in Nevada, facilitating and coordinating a number of collaborative efforts in the state. When mentioning Van Riper’s name, Griggs said, “I’ve met a few social scientists in my career and I think if we had a lot more of them, we’d need fewer lawyers. Laura helped us to establish good relationships, build trust and then have difficult conversations where we may not always agree, but we do see other’s perspectives and can work toward mutually beneficial solutions.” Griggs describes Van Riper’s work as amazing and notes she is devoted to this group and others in the state. He believes there would have been dangerous divergences, similar to others experienced in Nevada, if it had not been for her. Van Riper’ goal is to increase the exposure and use of collaborative community-based natural recourse management practices. She explained natural resources issues are complicated, “They are not straightforward science www.progressiverancher.com
questions with simple answers that can be determined by trained specialists working in a vacuum.” Van Riper stressed there are ecological, economic, political and social dimensions which need to be considered in every decision, and not just one answer is right. Van Riper said, “Having the people who effect and are most effected by natural resource decisions meaningfully engage in conversations about them is critically important.” Van Riper discussed the purpose of ROGER is to bring various (parties (ranchers, agencies, researchers, nonprofit organizations and other partners) together to seek out ways to both protect GRSG habitat and conserve sagebrush ecosystems while supporting ranching - not at one at the expense of the other. According to ROGER’s purpose statement, their goal is to “develop a shared vision of on-the-ground conditions; create a common understanding of what it will take to achieve those outcomes; identify ways to provide ranchers needed flexibility and take action; and document and share successes, failures and lessons learned with this group and others.” The group’s function is to “create venues that brings diverse parties together to communicate, share information, ask the hard questions, struggle through disagreements and learn in order to develop solutions to the problems at hand. The group functions as an information, The Progressive Rancher
...continued next page OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 23
ROGER ... continued from previous page learning and communication venue that supports individuals or groups of individuals experimenting in different ways.” (ROGER Fact Sheet) While ROGER is largely centered in Nevada, people from neighboring states are working with the group as well to share information and lessons learned.
completed in 2020-2021. Second, ROGER has worked with University of Nevada extension and various ranchers as part of a Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant to explore the use of the Grazing Response Index - which focuses on time (duration), timing (season of use), intensity (amount of forage removed) and opportunity for plant recovery Although ROGER began to help further responsible as an adaptive management planning tool. grazing in GRSG habitat, the diversity and horsepower of the group has expanded its endeavors to tackle Third, two ROGER ranchers are engaged in the first numerous issues surrounding public lands for grazing. BLM National Targeted Grazing Demo. The targeted Specifically, ROGER currently has four focus areas: grazing project was first implemented in spring 2018 when approximately 2,000 cattle were released for 1. Outcome-Based Grazing - Identify resource three weeks to graze a fuel break in cheatgrass. This objectives and provide ranchers with the means to fuel break worked to hold the Boulder Creek fire, achieve them through flexible grazing permits started in July 2018, at only 1028 acres in an area that is susceptible to large fires and protected past Emergency 2. Adaptive Management Planning - Identify and Stabilization and Rehabilitation efforts designed to apply tools and techniques to help guide grazing recover sage grouse habitat after past fires. I’m working management and assess progress on getting a HDR photo. 3. Wildfire Management - Explore issues such ROGER members also worked closely with the as targeted grazing, post-fire rehabilitation and Martin Fire coordination group to address post-fire grazing management, and engagement of ranchers grazing management, through the use of management in fire suppression agreements rather than automatic closures, and 4. Assessment & Monitoring - Explore Experiment restoration issues, such as the strategic use of native with new ways to assess and monitor rangeland and non-native seed mixes and green strips. conditions and GRSG habitat by obtaining In Griggs’s opinion wildland fire is one of the biggest accurate and precise measurements across a large threats to the ranching community and the sagebrush scale through timely and cost-effective means. ecosystem upon which GRSG and 350 other species ROGER has had achievements in each of these areas. depend. Griggs has suffered from tragedy like many First, four ROGER ranchers were selected as BLM others on the ranch he manages; eighty percent of National Outcome-Based Grazing (OBG) Demos. Maggie Creek Ranch has burned in the last thirty One OBG term permit renewal (TPR) has recently years; Griggs witnessed houses being lost, buildings been completed, with the other three scheduled to be burnt and destruction to lands for grazing.
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Griggs said, “We have lost cattle, we have put ourselves at risk and we have had to close parts of the ‘factory’ several times to rebuild.” Griggs also discussed the difficulty ranchers have, trying to graze for fine fuel reduction, or fuel breaks, within the limitations of the public land permits. He stressed how tough it is to be proactive with fire, but also expressed hope and excitement with the targeted grazing projects and other efforts concerning wildfire rehab. “I think we may at least see the corner now if we aren’t turning the corner on being proactive with these uncontrollable mega fires we’ve experienced. I think ROGER has shown that grazing can be an economical and effective tool among many in the before and after conversations about fire,” said Griggs. Last, ROGER has also convened a science team to explore the use of remote sensing, threat-based modeling and vegetation mapping to assess and monitor rangeland health and GRSG habitat across the Great Basin. The team includes rangeland ecologists, sage grouse habitat biologists, remote sensing specialists, various agency partners and ranchers. To date, the BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has contributed $700,000 to fund the first phases of a five-year project to develop a spatially explicit map for the Great Basin that incorporates State and Transition models, Disturbance Response Groups, GRSG habitat objectives and remote sensing tools. The intent is to “develop a spatially explicit map as a tool for conservation planning and monitoring the results of OBG actions in conserving and improving GRSG habitat and rangeland health objectives on-the-ground.
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Two ROGER OBG demos will serve as study sites to develop and incorporate recommendations from the produced decision support tool into grazing management on public and private land.” (ROGER fact sheet). Griggs believes the primary benefit of ROGER has been the connections made between various agency partners and ranchers. He explained he was surprised about how little these folks knew about each other. “In my experience as part of Nevada Cattlemen’s Association leadership, I’ve been frustrated that when we meet with an agency leader, say at the state level, he or she would tell us the solution to whatever problem we had. Then when we’d take that solution to the ground level and our agency contact would say, ‘No we can’t do that and here’s why’. In the ROGER group, all of those agency folks are in the room and can hash out that discussion with the support of facilitation,” Griggs said. Griggs mentioned a personal highlight for him was the close friendships made. He described how ROGER has created a forum for all of these unique individuals, with various life paths, to come together and build both success and a side of friendship with it. He treasures these friendships and while he understands that disagreements between each other will happen, they now come from a place of trust and respect in wanting success for everyone. ROGER has spent the first few years focused on building relationships, bringing parties together, creating trust and developing an informal structure. Five years later, supported by this strong foundation of dedicated individuals, the group is now ready to move from planning to into implementation. The group also has plans to publicize information and lessons learned beyond active ROGER members to others within the Great Basin. In order to facilitate this expanded focus, the BLM, FWS and Intermountain West Joint Ventures has provided funding to hire a coordinator to help manage ROGER. Griggs explained the dedication and time spent in ROGER can be difficult for ranchers who in addition to having busy schedules are also not paid to attend these meetings, unlike many of their agency and nonprofit partners. Griggs encourages ranchers to at least tune into what ROGER is doing and attempt to attend a meeting. “Rancher’s perspectives almost always have some uniqueness and are always appreciated in this group,” Griggs said For more information and involvement in ROGER contact Griggs at jon@maggiecreek.com. www.progressiverancher.com
Meet the author
SAVANNAH MONTERO
From cowgirl boots, graduations heels, firefighting boots and up and coming to aviation shoes, wellrounded is one of many words to distinctively describe author Savannah Montero.
Born in Boise, ID in 1996 and raised 90 miles north of Winnemucca, NV on Leonard Creek Ranch, Montero’s childhood was surrounded by ranching, farming and rodeo. She grew up living in the mountains away from cell service and a place where dogs and cattle immensely outnumbered humans. Montero enjoyed many athletics, but her significant sport was rodeo; she was competing by the age of two. Homeschooled till 4th grade, Montero later moved to Winnemucca part time and attended public school. In high school, she was involved in drama, rodeo club, soccer, cheer, dance team and leadership. Through leadership she held two titles: Sophomore Class President and Student Body Treasurer. Montero enjoyed the politics so much, she decided to run for Nevada State High School Rodeo Public Relations and received the position. Eventually, this lead her to take a jump further to the office of National High School Rodeo Secretary for the USA, Canada and Australia. This created an opportunity to travel throughout the United States representing rodeo.
took senior photographs, and at the end of her last year published her first photography book: Women in Rodeo. She also wrote a feature length film: The Last Days of Summer.
After college and six months of firefighting in 2018, Montero left to travel abroad in the following countries: Australia, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Vietnam. She even volunteered abroad for three weeks in Thailand, creating websites and exercising polo horses. While traveling, Montero began producing blogs on her website: https:// savannahmontero96.wixsite.com/savagephotography Montero is now attending Silver Hawk Aviation in Caldwell, Idaho to become a helicopter pilot, while continuing her freelance writing and photography career. Montero inspires to be in an exciting career with the opportunities to see the world, travel, hold consistent adrenaline rushes and help others; she believes flying will stimulate the best stories and encourage her imagination. Montero has over 20 published articles and several photographs that have made magazines, books and newspapers. She hopes to start a novel in the upcoming year. “I grew up with a passion for the creative media/ story-telling world. I swear my mind is exploding with intriguing thoughts and ideas. Putting myself in unfamiliar situations and not being afraid of extreme obstacles has made me grow as a creative person. I look forward to defeating future difficulties and taking risks that scare me to inspire the best out of me.” Savannah Montero | savannahmontero96@gmail.com
Montero attended New Mexico State University on a rodeo scholarship. She competed competitively all four years of school. She graduated with a 3.7 GPA, holding a Bachelors Degree in Creative Media and a Minor in Spanish and Journalism. During her Junior fall semester, she attended Academia de Latino Americana in both Ecuador and Peru to excel in Spanish. During her summers she worked as a wild land firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management. While in college Montero got her hands on a few amazing internships. One was as a film intern for documenting the Great Florida Cattle Drive. Her second internship was working for KHOU11 news in Houston, Texas in the creative media department. Montero landed her first news writing and photography job during her senior year of college. She also has a passion for creative photography and
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 25
The Trump Administration made a major regulation change to make the government more efficient and assist landowners and industry B y Conner G. Nicklas | Falen Law Offices, LLC On July 15 the Trump Administration and the Council on Environmental Quality announced major regulation reforms that will hopefully streamline landowner and industry projects across the country and also deweaponize a major tool environmentalists use to delay or derail projects. The intention behind these regulation changes is that important projects across the country will no longer be delayed or canceled because of red tape and technicalities. Ultimately, these reforms will hopefully help every American, from the rancher seeking the renewal of a grazing lease to the pipeline company proposing a new interstate pipeline, the American public will no longer have to wait years for an answer as to whether to proceed on a project.
These regulatory changes are to NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), a law that harkens back to the Nixon administration and was intended to require federal agencies to consider the effects a major federal action may have to the human environment. Simply put, the law requires when a federal agency performs a major federal action they must undergo a review in which the agency considers a wide-range of actions and the potential effect that action may have on the human environment (though many would argue the human side of the environment is often ignored). The agency is then supposed to choose from those considered actions and make a final decision.
Since the creation of NEPA, the law has been weaponized by many environmentalist organizations to oppose any policy they disagree with by nitpicking through the document and suing the agency for violating NEPA. Because of the hundreds of lawsuits filed against agencies across the country, it now takes an average of four to seven years for an agency to complete a NEPA analysis just to ensure that the agency can defend itself from the inevitable lawsuits. Some examples of important projects that were unreasonably delayed include taking over 13 years to finalize the NEPA review for expanding I-70, decades plus delays on important water infrastructure projects in the West, and years in delays in grazing permit decisions across the country. Another problem with NEPA is that some courts and environmentalists craft it apply nearly to everything. Whether the federal agency is only underseeing a small portion of a large project or is only a funding partner, many radical courts have interpreted NEPA to apply to the entire project. TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline has experienced this and are now mired in a several year delay on their project because the NEPA review must be for the entire pipeline instead of just those portions crossing federal land.
Because of these major delays and the fact that an entire project would be subject to NEPA, many private companies
painstakingly try to avoid projects that may require federal permitting because the delays are too costly for the company to viably complete the project. It is because of these delays in getting NEPA approval that many pipeline companies will zigzag around public land and condemn landowners rather than pursue the shortest route through mixed federal lands. In turn, because of NEPA, private landowners are now expected to bear most of the burden for public uses. Despite the fact that NEPA clearly has moved past its intended purpose, it had not been updated or reformed in over forty years. So the proposed changes are long overdue and will hopefully be a shot in the arm for an economy still struggling in the throws of Covid-19.
One of the major changes to NEPA include limiting when NEPA actually applies. The intent behind NEPA was for the federal government to make informed decisions regarding potential environmental proposed major federal actions and make the public aware of the agency’s decisionmaking process. The new regulations clearly demarcate that only actions that include major federal involvement and are major in scale are those actions that require NEPA. This means that those projects that the government has a minor role are not included. This also means that minor actions (such as allowing certain range improvements on a grazing allotment)
are not included. This is a major step in the right direction toward modernizing NEPA because projects that are either minor in scale or require minimal federal involvement should not be trapped in years of NEPA analysis. Another major change to NEPA is s now a page limit and time limit for all NEPA documents. If the impact of the decision is not significant, the NEPA document can only be 75 pages and must be completed within a year. If the impact of the decision is significant, the NEPA document can only be 300 pages at the most and it must be completed within two years. These are enormous improvements because it now requires the agencies to speed up and simplify the NEPA process and will hopefully make twenty-year delays for project approvals a thing of the past.
In the end, the Trump Administration’s NEPA reform may be one of the greatest accomplishments of Trump’s first term in office. The new regulations will hopefully eliminate the ridiculously long delays NEPA has caused for the past forty years and will help disarm radical environmentalists. Many of these radical environmentalist organizations and radical courts will undoubtedly bring lawsuits in order to prevent the new regulations from becoming law, but we can all hope that the courts will agree that NEPA was desperately in need of a makeover.
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Landowners and local governments stand to benefit from proposed regulations that would put a stop to costly landgrabs under the Endangered Species Act By Conner G. Nicklas and Katherine E. Merck | Falen Law Offices, LLC In what stands to be a major victory for landowners and local governments, the Trump Administration has proposed regulatory changes that would correct and prevent the costly, unjust landgrabs of the previous administration. These regulations have broad implications for how land is managed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and how far the federal government can go in controlling private lands.
The newly proposed rule, if finalized, would prevent this very thing from happening again. It will finally give counties, landowners, and federal permitholders a voice in whether land is designated as critical habitat and therefore federally managed. The rule includes five major improvements.
and stakeholders as experts. One of the major issues facing most environmental decisions is the impact of special interest groups and large populations from outside of communities using the notice and comment period in a way that nearly Conner G. Nicklas and Katherine E. drowns out the voices of those who are Merck are Associate Attorneys with Falen actually impacted by a decision. The new Law Offices, LLC with a primary focus on rule will essentially give local governments First, the rule reverses the FWS’s current and stakeholders expert status when property rights, environmental, and natural policy and allow federal land to be discussing the economic and local impacts resources law. For several years, the US Fish and Wildlife excluded from critical habitat designation. of critical habitat designation within their Falen Law Offices, LLC, has attorneys Service (FWS) have used critical habitat This would be a big victory to federal jurisdiction. This, in turn, will allow those licensed to practice law in Colorado, Idaho, designations as a tool of coercion to allotment permit holders who can now who are actually affected by the decision Illinois, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, essentially instigate land grabs of private petition FWS to exclude critical habitat to have substantive voice and impact on North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. property. Regardless as to whether land is when it would greatly interfere with their the decision instead of being drowned out private or public, whenever it is included as operation and would offer little value to by special interest groups and those on These articles should not be understood to critical habitat, it is regulated to the point the preservation of the species. the coast who have never been to these state or imply that any lawyers of this law of being nearly unusable by the landowner. communities. firm are certified as specialists in a particular Second, the rule clearly lays out when field of law. Colorado does not certify lawyers The poster child of the weaponization of the agency must provide an exclusion In the end, the proposed regulations as specialists in any field. critical habitat is the dusky gopher frog, analysis. Historically, FWS had complete will ultimately give a stronger voice to an amphibian found in the southeast and arbitrary discretion when determining stakeholders potentially affected by a The Wyoming State Bar does not certify United States that is famous for covering whether to conduct an exclusion analysis. critical habitat designation. Combined any lawyer as a specialist or expert. Anyone its eyes with its front legs when it feels In turn, the agency would sometimes close with greater transparency and consistency, considering a lawyer should independently threatened and peaking out between them its eyes and ears and ignore information this proposal could go a long way toward investigate the lawyer’s credentials and periodically until the danger passes. that would clearly support exclusion. reining in the historical overreach under ability, and not rely upon advertisements or The proposed regulations will allow the ESA and relieving the hardships that self-proclaimed expertise. In 2011, FWS designated over 1,500 acres local stakeholders to provide credible landowners and local governments have of land as critical habitat for the dusky information that could hopefully trigger These articles are informational and are experienced in recent years. gopher frog. Despite this designation, the an exclusion analysis. not legal advice. Use of these articles or dusky gopher frog had not lived on the These proposed regulations are currently contact with this law firm does not create an land since at least 1965 and the land was Third the new regulations will allow the open to public comment through October attorney-client relationship. currently uninhabitable to the frog. To agency to consider more than just the 8, 2020. It is incredibly important that make matters even more disturbing, listing economic consequence of listing habitat. supporters of these proposed regulations the property would have cost the property Instead of conducting an exclusion provide public comments to ensure owner $34 million in lost development analysis purely through an economic development into a final rule. opportunity. Thus, despite the fact that analysis, the new rules also considers the habitat would have to be physically public health and safety, community The proposed regulations and a link to altered in order to successfully introduce interests, and environmental concerns comment can be found at: www.buddfalen. dusky gopher frogs, and the designation in the analysis as well. This is important com. would cost the property owner $34 because communities are so much more million, the FWS designated the area as than just economic machines and impacts critical habitat anyway. In turn, the frog to a community often extend past purely became a pawn in the fight between economic consequences. an overreaching government agency and property owners, culminating in a Fourth, the proposal allows for other Supreme Court case in 2018. Common methods of conservation outside of just sense would dictate that the agency listing as critical habitat. Under the should have excluded the property from new rule, when a permittee is properly Water Rights / Resource Permitting Expertise being critical habitat because the cost to executing a conservation plan that protects the property owner greatly exceeded the the species in question, the land will always benefit to the species. Thankfully, reason be excluded from designation as critical Thomas K. Gallagher, PE prevailed at the Supreme Court and the habitat. Such conservations plans can even be developed by local or state governments property was finally removed. 775•825•1653 / FAX 775•825•1683 if they are approved by the agency. 333 Flint Street / Reno, NV 89501 However, many have been concerned that Last and perhaps most important is the the FWS would try to attempt a similar tomg@nevadawatersolutions.com new rule will consider local governments power grab in the future.
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Comstock Lode
Agriculture & Water Educational Series
HISTORY OF NEVADA WATER
The demand of food for both people and livestock increased as more stations along the emigrant trails sprang up and gold and silver were discovered in Nevada. Water was needed for the mining camps, the milling operations, and other mining activities. Water development projects were increasing around the state as the demand for this precious resource grew. One well known example of a water diversion system was the pipeline constructed to meet the growing needs of Virginia City during the Comstock Lode. Between the Sierra Mountain and Virginia Mountain Ranges lay Washoe Valley. Hermann Schussler, a Swiss engineer, was brought to the Comstock to design the new system to get the water from the Sierras across Washoe Valley and up to Gold Hill. With much fanfare, the first flow of water reached Gold Hill and Virginia City on August 1, 1873. This accomplishment was the greatest pressurized water system in operation in the world. Marlette Lake, Hobart Reservoir and Spooner Lake were built with the flumes and pipelines to funnel water to Virginia City & Gold Hill Water Co.
During severe drought in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Lake Tahoe fell below its rim (6,223’) eight years in a row and the Truckee River dried up. Large pumps were installed near the Tahoe Dam. Newspapers reported that Tahoe residents were intent on sabotaging the pumps. Armed confrontations were barely averted between Tahoe residents and Fallon farmers who needed water released to the Truckee River to irrigate their crops.
Colorado River
For parts of the west, like northern Nevada, tapping the groundwater and aquifers allowed for access to The Role of Water in the water to meet citizen need. In Southern Nevada the key water source is the Colorado River. The Colorado River Early Development of Nevada Compact of 1922 was a deal between seven Western States and Congress. This deal divided the Colorado Westward Expansion River into upper and lower river basins. Each of the basins During the 1840’s the Humboldt River played an split 7.5 million-acre feet of water per year. Then in 1928 important role as westward travelers made their way the Boulder Canyon Act officially divided up the amount along the river on their way to California, providing of water that each basin state would receive. Nevada was pioneers and their livestock with fresh water. If they allocated 300,000-acre feet per year which at that time came by way of southern Nevada on The Old Spanish Water was a key element in the settlement of the was plenty of water to serve the needs of the population. Trail, they came through “the meadows,” where spring West; however, most of the arid West was too dry to With today’s larger population, Las Vegas is searching for grow traditional agriculture crops. Cattle and sheep additional sources of water, leading to a very controversial water created a stopping place for the weary travelers. were the primary source of protein for the settlers. pipeline project that has pitted urban Southern Nevada As the amount of people traveling through Nevada on The federal government realized that they had to issue against a largely rural Northern Nevada. their way to California increased, small towns established water and grazing rights for federal lands. This would be themselves along these water trails. Mormon Station, instrumental in ensuring farmers and ranchers with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe what is known as Genoa, was founded in 1850 as a trading ability to produce a stable food supply. and Pyramid Lake station along the Carson River, also part of the Emigrant Reclamation Act & Newlands Project The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe which is located below Trail. The first mention of irrigation in Nevada was here, the Derby Dam on the Truckee River in Western Nevada, at Mormon Station. Settlers around the area irrigated Without irrigation, the land was limited in the number was promised through a treaty with the U.S. government their crops that were raised to support themselves, as of settlers it could support. U.S. Representative Francis that they would have enough water to maintain their well as, the gold seekers, passing through on their way Newlands from Nevada pushed for federal help with historic fishery at the mouth of the river. The Derby Dam to California. Around this time, an outpost in Southern irrigation and reclamation projects. Newland had a cut water flow into Pyramid Lake, a terminal lake, and by Nevada, Las Vegas, was a way station for travelers heading supporter in President Theodore Roosevelt who was 1967 had dropped 87 feet which prevented the endangered to Southern California. In 1855 an irrigation diversion an avid supporter of conservation and a lover of the cui-ui fish and threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout from in Las Vegas Creek, built by the Mormon settlers, was outdoors. The President pushed for Congress to act on migrating upstream to spawn. the beginning of organized irrigation in Nevada. The this and passed the 1902 Reclamation Act. This act used Mormons diverted water from the creek to their fields, so proceeds from the sale of federal land to build reservoirs Truckee River Compact the crops would get water. that helped control flooding and allow for irrigation. The Water Master’s duty is to administer the most recent Lake Tahoe In 1903, the first big project under the Reclamation Act, federal court decrees regarding the Truckee River and the Carson River. The original purpose of the Tahoe dam In 1865 Colonel Alexis Waldemar Von Schmidt and known as the Newlands Project, broke ground in western and the management of Lake Tahoe was to store water five other investors established the Lake Tahoe and San Nevada to divert water in the Truckee and Carson Rivers. for the agricultural industry in Fallon, not to protect fish, Francisco Water Works Company and wanted to export The goal of the project was to transform the Lahontan wildlife, property, or the environment. water from Lake Tahoe to the Bay Area (San Francisco). Valley desert near Fallon into farmland. The engineers miscalculated and overestimated the reliability of the This would be a distance of 163 miles and be accomplished Under the current Truckee River Compact, Lake Tahoe’s through a series of tunnels, pipes, ditches, aqueducts, and Truckee River water supply. Upset farmers who had been goal is to provide as much water to the downstream reservoirs. They petitioned the U.S. Congress for a right- lured into the project rebelled over water shortages. users without causing shoreline damage to Lake Tahoe. of-way package. The Water Master is required to release as much water Tahoe Basin Snowpack as possible when the lake nears the 6,229.1-maximum Nevada Attorney General, George A. Nourse, challenged Dr. James Church, a University of Nevada, Reno elevation mark. Von Schmidt to prove his legal entitlement to Tahoe professor, developed a snow survey system which water. He claimed that Nevada’s agriculture and mining measured water content in the Tahoe Basin snowpack. Now the Truckee River Operating Agreement helps industries were completely dependent on the Truckee These snow surveys enabled Tahoe dam operators to enhance conditions for the threatened Lahontan cutthroat River and they held preeminent water rights through better regulate releases to prevent both flooding and trout and endangered cui-ui, increase drought protection established usage. Von Schmidt claimed that the six-foot wastewater. Adequately controlling the lake’s elevation is for the Truckee Meadows, improve Truckee River water dam he planned to put in at the Lake Tahoe outlet would an on-going challenge. When the lake’s water level falls quality, and enhance stream flows and recreational store enough water for both states, and Lake Tahoe was to 6,223 feet mean sea level, it stops feeding the Truckee opportunities in the Truckee River Basin. two-thirds in California so California had superior claim. River. Federal law prohibits storage of water in Lake State and federal legislators killed the legislation. Truckee River Flume Photo courtesy of R. Charpentier, TMWA Tahoe above 6,229.1 feet.
28 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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Nevada Supreme Court says state cannot change water rights for ‘public trust,’ a loss for environmentalists, county seeking to bring more water to Walker Lake The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state cannot reshuffle existing water rights to prevent environmental damage, despite recognizing a legal principle that requires the government to preserve natural resources for future generations. Instead, the court ruled that principle, known as the public trust doctrine, is recognized in existing law. The Nevada court, in a 4-2 decision, separated itself from the California Supreme Court, which reached the opposite conclusion in a landmark 1980s case. Effectively, the court found that the system that underpins Nevada’s water law, known as the doctrine of prior appropriation, is meant to take the public interest into account by defining how water can be used and by placing guardrails to prevent waste or overuse in times of scarcity. Allowing reallocation, the court said, “would create uncertainties for future development.” The decision deals with litigation on the Walker River, which rises in eastern California and flows into western Nevada, ending at Walker Lake, a terminal desert lake in Mineral County. Along the way, water is removed from the river for farming and ranching operations. As more and more water was used over the past century, the lake shrunk and its water chemistry changed.
The ruling marks a significant loss for environmentalists who view the public trust doctrine as a pathway for carving out greater protections for the environment and recreation in a legal system where water is often appropriated to private interests with little left to spare for anything else. “This says we’ve got a public trust doctrine and it applies everywhere,” said Bret Birdsong, an environmental law professor at UNLV who filed a brief in the case. “Only it means nothing.” The decision, Birdsong argued, relegated the public trust doctrine, what is meant to be a broad legal principle, to a set of statutory tools that have not always protected resources long-term. “It’s a bad decision for the environment,” he added. In a dissent, Chief Justice Kristina Pickering criticized the majority interpretation, writing that it could mean “there is no remedy or action to be taken to protect from the irreversible depletion of this state’s most precious natural resource,” as long as the state engineer fulfills his statutory role. Justice Abbi Silver joined Pickering in the dissent.
Walker Lake became increasingly inhospitable for fishing, The issue came before the Nevada Supreme Court after boating and recreation, harming the local economy of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was weighing Mineral Hawthorne, the small Mineral County town located near County’s public trust claim. In 2018, the appellate court the lake. In 1994, the county took the issue to court. It asked the Nevada Supreme Court to define the scope of intervened in an ongoing case to assert a “public trust” the public trust doctrine as it is applied to the state’s water claim, asking the court to do what existing water law had rights system. The case then became about much more than Walker Lake. not: require that a minimum flow reach the lake. “The public trust doctrine is something that transcends Water users across the state — cities, counties and tribes statutory law,” said Simeon Herskovits, an attorney for — became involved, filing briefs with the Supreme the Walker Lake Working Group, an organization of Court. Industry groups for miners, ranchers and farmers similarly filed briefs. Most argued against the reallocation Mineral County residents. of existing water rights, considered a property right. Although the opinion recognizes that the public trust doctrine applies “to all waters of the state, whether On Thursday, the court ruled that water rights cannot be navigable or non-navigable,” it says the state cannot reallocated unless provided by statute. reshuffle existing water rights to meet its responsibilities. Rod Walston, an attorney for Lyon County and Those responsibilities are instead met through existing Centennial Livestock, applauded the ruling and noted statute. that it could have broader implications for other Western “We recognize the tragic decline of Walker Lake,” Justice states, where courts are still weighing the scope of the Lidia Stiglich wrote. “But while we are sympathetic to public trust doctrine in the context of existing water the plight of Walker Lake and the resulting negative allocations. impacts on the wildlife, resources, and economy in Mineral County, we cannot use the public trust doctrine as a tool to uproot an entire water system, particularly where finality is firmly rooted in our statutes.”
Justices Elissa Cadish, Mark Gibbons and James Hardesty joined the majority opinion. Justice Ron Parraguirre voluntarily recused himself from the decision.
Pickering’s dissent, which cited the Mono Lake case, argued that the public trust doctrine was a distinct element of law that evolved separate from statute and should be considered in balance. The statutory framework, Pickering said, does not always fully account for public trust values. “For example, while it could theoretically be in the public interest to allocate water rights to facilitate cattle grazing, increase herd size, and ultimately reduce the price of beef for dinner, if done without regard to the deleterious impacts of unsustainable water and grazing on Nevada’s natural resources, such action could also be entirely inconsistent with public trust principles,” she wrote. She added that Mineral County’s public trust claim might not necessarily affect existing rights. The county sought “a range of relief ” that could “take a number of different forms,” including irrigation efficiency, a stateled plan and changing how water is managed in wet years. “Crediting Mineral County’s position with respect to the public trust doctrine does not require that the decree court revoke senior adjudicated Walker Basin water rights,” Pickering wrote. In a footnote, the majority disagreed with this interpretation of the case, arguing “the underlying dispute involves demands for over-appropriated resources that require determining whether water rights may be reallocated from current rights holders.” Herskovits said the decision could make it harder to bring a public trust claim in the future. “The majority opinion creates a precedent that will make it extremely difficult for any individual citizens or citizens organizations to bring an action challenging whether or not the public trust duty or obligation has been fulfilled by the state,” Herskovits said in a phone interview. “It is very significant and it has tremendous implications for the state,” he added. The Nevada Independent is a 501(c)3 nonprofit news organization committed to transparency & disclosing of donors. The following people mentioned in this article are financial supporters of our work: Abbi Silver $240.00 | Bret Birdsong $150.00 | Elissa Cadish $740.00 Kristina Pickering $360.00 | Ron Parraguirre $150.00
“Until this decision today, only one [state] Supreme Court had dealt with this,” Walston said.
By Daniel Rothberg on 9.18.2020 daniel@thenvindy.com @danielrothberg
In a 1983 case involving the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s diversion of water away from Mono Lake, the California Supreme Court affirmed the public trust doctrine can affect existing water rights. Nevada’s recent decision marks a stark contrast to that ruling.
Daniel is a Las Vegas based reporter covering energy, the environment and water. He reported on technology and energy for two years at the Las Vegas Sun, where his coverage was recognized with a Journalist of Merit award from the Nevada Press Association. (Article reprinted with permission)
Photo credit: Water flowing through the Walker River in August 2019. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent) www.progressiverancher.com
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 29
Elko “No Fair” Results Jennifer J.J. Roemmich | Elko County Fair Board Secretary 775-397-2769 cell | www.elkocountyfair.com Even though the Elko County Fair as a whole had been cancelled, the Elko County Fairboard decided to still have some events so the community could come together over Labor Day weekend. The Elko NoFair contest had 30 teams in the Open, 10 Women’s Teams, 28 Co-Ed Teams, 8 Senior Branders (called the Geezer Branding) and 45 youth Branding teams. We had such a great turnout for our event and so great some of the new branding classes will stay in for the coming year and possibly another one to come out too. Look for more information coming next year on these great events. The stockhorse classes also had a great turnout and lots of great runs with special Thank you to our Judge Ed Robertson for judging our event. The Non-Pro Snaffle had 9 entries with the winner earning $696.00, scoring 216 was Renee Jackson on her horse Cat At Heart. The Open snaffle had 5 entries the winner earning $520.00 with a score of 214.5 went to JD Thacker riding Fred & Jan Buckmaster’s horse Autumn Zinfedel DX. The Two Rein Champion was Cats Cadillac ridden by Jamie Melarkey with a score of 211.5 earning $582.00. Our two biggest classes of the weekend were the Nevada Cattle Working and the Champion NV cowhorse. The Nevada Cattle Working which is only 2 events herd work and fence work had 15 entries and the Champion Cayenne Cat; who is owned by local rancher Kenneth Jones and shown by Todd Fitch; earned a score of 146 and $960.00. The Champion Nevada Cowhorse; which does 4 events, herd, rein, fence, and roping; we had 14 entries and the Champion was YY Catinthehat owned and shown by Kyla Rianda with a score of 285.5 earning $916.00. The Junior Riders 13-16 had 5 entries and the Champion went to Reminics Kiss owned and shown by Hannah Rose Kelley scoring 203 earning $226.00. The Young Buckaroos 8 & Under Champion was Hadley Denier riding Short N Smooth and the Junior Riders 9-12 Champion was Ben Marvel riding Matt & Mary Marvel’s horse Dualin Lilly.
Judge: Ed Robertson | Scribe: Daryl Santos Ranch of Evanston Wyoming, Justin Martin, Range Martin, Montana Martin and Mesa Martin had a fast time of 5:11:69 earning $2,967.60 which allowed each team member $741.90. We added 2 new divisions to our branding contest this year. Senior Branding brought 8 teams; which the ropers had to be 55 or older; Champions were C Lazy R Ranch, Leo Ramon and Robert Crutcher had a fast time on 3 head of 2:29:66 earning $690.00 each roper took home $345.00. Reserve Champions were the Ruby Valley team, Lanny Morrison and Joe Wines had a fast time of 3:22:58 earning $414.00 each roper took home $207.00. Our youth branding had 2 division 0-10 and 11-14. There were 18 teams in the 0-10, Champions were Seventeen team; Emitt Bourdet and Wyatt Bourdet had a fast time of 2:03:65 earning $90.00. Reserve Champions were Colt 76, Crue Dowers and Nick Dowers had a fast time of 2:08:66 earning $54.00. In the 11-14 division there were 27 entries. Champions were Team Malotte, Malikai Malotte and Alan Malotte having a fast time of 1:43:55 earning $135.00. Reserve Champions were Oman Ranch, Challas Oman and Matt Oman had a fast time of 2:16:10 earning $81.00. The Elko NoFair also had a muley roping, barrel race and team roping in the back arena as well and all were well attended over the weekend. It was a positive, fun, and overall, well attended event. The Elko County Fair was cancelled but the community came together to the Elko NoFair proving there can be a light during these trying times with the overall support of everyone. Kyla Prunty Rianda • Winner of the Champion Nevada Cow Horse Class
The Open Branding with 30 teams, as always was nail biting fun right to the end. The Champion team The Deadman Ranch; Trevor Carrasco, Austin Carraso, Josue Madrigal, Austin Iveson: roped 6 head changing ropers after 3 to a fast time of 5:16:70 earning $5,375.00 each man took home $1,343.75. Reserve Champion went to the Mori Range Bulls; Michael Mori, Quinn Mori, Hanes Holman, Blake Teixeira with a fast time of 5:45:67 earning $3,225.00 each man taking home $806.25. The Women’s Branding had 10 teams, the fastest team there roping 4 head and changing ropers after 2 had a fast time of 4:48:84 went to the NK Ranch, Bailey Bachman, Jessica Kelly, Timmy Lynn Delong and Katie Cavasin, earning $1,820.00 / $455.00 each. Reserve Champions were Goemmer Ranches; Dally Goemmer, Riata Goemmer, Mindy Goemmer, Abby Estes; with a fast time of 6:52:02, earning $1092.00/$273.00 each. The Co-Ed Branding Champions were the Bachman Ranch of Bruneau Idaho. Travis Bachman, Bailey Bachman, John & Katie Dennis had a fast time of 4:58:89 earning $4,946.00 which allowed $1,236.50 each. Reserve Champions were Martin 30 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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Women's Branding - Teams: 10 Times First Place NK Ranch $1,820.00 4:48:84 Bailey Bachman Jessica Kelly Timmy Lynn Delong Katie Cavasin Second Place Goemmer Ranches $1,092.00 6:52:02 Riata Goemmer Dally Goemmer Mindy Goemmer Abby Estes Third Place Silver Creek Girls $728.00 8:10:00 Natalie Padilla Lindy Norcutt Jymme Dominguez Taylor Logan Open Branding - Teams: 30 Times First Place Deadman Ranch $5,375.00 5:16:70 Trevor Carrasco Austin Carrasco Josue Madrigal Austin Iveson Second Place Mori Range Bulls $3,225.00 5:45:67 Michael Mori Blake Teixeira Hanes Holman Quinn Mori Third Place Jim / Harney $2,150.00 5:59:42 Dirk Jim Daxton Jim Woody Harney Jr Harney Open Incentive First Place 24/7 Livestock Hec Hurley Wyatt Bourdet Frank Martinez Chance Machado Second Place Anseth Ranch Quentin Anseth Cleve Anseth Jim Berrett Deon Castle  32 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
Times
Third Place
YP Ranch Frank Dominguez John Jackson Nathan Kelly Jr Russ Jackson
Co-Ed Branding - Teams: 28 Times First Place Bachman Ranch $4,946.00 4:58:89 John Dennis Katie Dennis Bailey Bachman Travis Bachman Second Place
Martin Ranch $2,967.60 5:11:69 Justin Martin Range Martin Montana Martin Mesa Martin
Third Place
Spring Ranch $1,978.40 5:14:78 Franky Martinez Chance Machado Lilla Bell Josie Pereira
Senior Branding - Teams: 8 Times First Place C Lazy R Ranch $690.00 2:29:66 Leo Ramon & Robert Crutcher Second Place Ruby Valley $414.00 3:22:58 Lanny Morrison & Joe Wines Third Place MC Bar $276.00 4:10:47 Steve McDermott & Dave Cornmesser Youth Branding - Teams: 45 Times Division 0-10 First Place Seventeen $90.00 2:03:65 Emitt Bourdet & Wyatt Bourdet Second Place Colt 76 $54.00 2:08:66 Crue Dowers & Nick Dowers Third Place Diamond Slash $36.00 2:39:25 Braydee Bourdet & Wyatt Bourdet Division 11-14 First Place Team Malotte $135.00 1:43:55 Malikai Malotte
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Rolly Lisle
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Anna Van Norman
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Renee Jackson • Non-Pro Snaffle Champ
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 33
Churchill County Cowbelles Update By Susan Van Patten, President
It has been another long hot summer here and now we are in the fire season. Growing up in Wyoming I was educated on fire danger. We doused and stirred any fire until Dad was sure it was out. A small thing, but it made an impact. As an adult I remember watching helicopters scoop water from a mountain lake during the Yellowstone Fire of 1988. I remember a frank discussion taking place where the cause of the fire was determined to be a lack of forest management, not clearing brush, nor cutting down dead or beetle infested trees. It saddens me to see this happening on a much larger scale in California. Why would I bring this up? Those of us that live in northern Nevada are impacted every year by the wildfires in California. Since the end of July, I have tasted the smoke in the air and seen the haze in the sky. Now the smoke is so thick that most of us are driving with our lights on twenty-four hours a day. The air quality probably ranks right up there with some of the most polluted cities in the world. I pray daily for the safety of the fire fighters and for the fires to be brought under control. This year definitely has us sitting on the edge of our seats, first the coronavirus, the shutdown, mandated masks, riots, and fires. I think we need tee shirts and hats that read “I Survived 2020.” It’s as if God is trying to get our attention and wants us to listen to an important message. Having pointed all that out, it has not all been bad news. I have read news about children being rescued from human traffickers;
heard a vaccine for the coronavirus is being developed and will hopefuly be out shortly; noticed a growing awareness among US citizens who are paying attention to what our elected officials are doing, and have seen an increase in the belief in God. It has been a wild and crazy ride this year, but that is often when growth occurs. I look forward to seeing all the new innovations across the country. This year has taken a toll on the Cowbelles as well. We were moving steadily toward our goal of sponsoring a Carcass Contest for the Churchill County Jr. Livestock Show, but we have had to cancel. We are anticipating working again toward imbedding the carcass contest into the livestock show this upcoming year. I greatly appreciated every individual that stepped up and donated to this endeavor. I believe that individuals who assist their communities are rewarded, and will trust it will be true in this case as well. A huge thank you is due to Jack Payne, Donald Shank, John Hancock Construction, Lane & Associates, and Mackedon for your contributions. Personally, this year in Cowbelles I am looking forward to sharing our mission with as many people as possible. Last year we revised our mission slightly. We plan on using social media, Ag in the classroom, and participating in community events like The Cantaloupe Festival and Country Fair to “Promote the beef and agricultural industries in the community, schools, and youth organizations in Churchill County.”
Happy Holidays
Our Favorite Beef Recipes Easy Beef Wellington Beef Wellington may look intimidating but it’s really not. Trust us, it will taste like it took way more time than it actually did! Be brave and give this tasty showstopper a try. It’s the perfect meal to impress your holiday guests!
from The Progressive Rancher To see how easy it is to make this dish, view a step-by-step How-To Video here:
www.delish.com/cooking/ recipe-ideas/recipes/a58702/ easy-beef-wellington-recipe/
INGREDIENTS: 1 (2 lb.) center-cut beef tenderloin, trimmed kosher salt & fresh black pepper Olive oil, for greasing 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 lb. mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped 1 shallot, roughly chopped Leaves from 1 thyme sprig 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
12 thin slices prosciutto Flour, for dusting 14 oz. frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 large egg, beaten Flaky salt, for sprinkling
DIRECTIONS: Using kitchen twine, tie tenderloin in 4 places. Season generously with salt and pepper. Over high heat, coat bottom of a heavy skillet with olive oil. Once pan is
nearly smoking, sear tenderloin until well-browned on all sides, including the ends, about 2 minutes per side (12 minutes total). Transfer to a plate. When cool enough to handle, snip off twine and coat all sides with mustard. Let cool in fridge. Meanwhile, make duxelles (mushroom stuffing): In a food processor, pulse mushrooms, shallots, and thyme until finely chopped. To skillet, add butter and melt over medium heat. Add mushroom mixture and cook until liquid has evaporated, about 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then let cool in fridge. Place plastic wrap down on a work surface, overlapping so that it’s twice the length and width of the tenderloin. Shingle the prosciutto on the plastic wrap into a rectangle that’s big enough to cover the whole tenderloin. Spread the duxelles evenly and thinly over the prosciutto. Season tenderloin, then place it at the bottom of the prosciutto. Roll meat into prosciutto-mushroom mixture, using plastic wrap to roll tightly. Tuck ends of prosciutto as you roll, then twist ends of plastic wrap tightly into a log and transfer to fridge to chill (this helps it maintain its shape). Heat oven to 425°. Lightly flour your work surface, then spread out puff pastry and roll it into a rectangle that will cover the tenderloin (just a little bigger than the prosciutto rectangle you just made). Remove tenderloin from plastic wrap and place on bottom of puff pastry. Brush the other three edges of the pastry with egg wash, then tightly roll beef into pastry. Once the log is fully covered in puff pastry, trim any extra pastry, then crimp edges with a fork to seal well. Wrap roll in plastic wrap to get a really tight cylinder, then chill for 20 minutes. Remove plastic wrap, then transfer roll to a foil-lined baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake until pastry is golden and the center registers 120°F for medium-rare, about 40 to 45 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before carving and serving.
34 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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Jordan Meadows Collaborative Receives 2020 Sagebrush Steppe Stewardship Award John Ruhs, former BLM NV State Director and current ID State Director, announced at the PLC Annual Meeting that the Jordan Meadows Collaborative Group is the recipient of the 2020 Sagebrush Steppe Stewardship Award A separate meeting will be scheduled for Loyd Sherburn, from the Home Ranch, to accept the award on behalf of the group.
John Falen and his family have been running a cow-calf operation on the Home Ranch in Orovada, Nevada since 1977. Son-inlaw, Loyd Sherburn, joined them in 1979 and has been the ranch manager for the past 5 years. Combined, the Home Ranch and associated BLM grazing allotments encompass approximately 320,000 acres (98% BLM and 2% private). The Jordan Meadows allotment contains three streams occupied by threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout (LCT). It also provides important habitat for mule deer and antelope and is considered the most important greater sagegrouse habitat in a three-state area. For many years, management of the Jordan Meadows allotment was contentious with relationships and interactions between BLM, NDOW, USFWS and the permittees characterized by lack of trust, conflict, and litigation. Like many allotments across the west, the management plan for the Jordan Meadows allotment is old and out-of-date. It was part of a large landscape managed under direction dating back to a 1982 Record of Decision. Following consultation for LCT, changes were made to improve LCT habitat and a Biological Opinion and Final Multiple Use Decision were issued in 1995. These documents provided management direction (mainly fencing of riparian areas and more stringent standards for utilization in riparian areas) and remain in effect today.
In 2015, several challenges were being confronted regarding the Jordan Meadows allotment; the area was entering the fourth year of drought, numbers of LCT were down to single digits, fencing needs were not being addressed, monitoring was incomplete or insufficient, communication was poor among all parties, and a trespass notice was issued to the permittee. In preparation for the development of a new grazing term permit renewal, renewed emphasis was placed on creating a sustainable forum for facilitated dialogue, collaborative problem-solving, and conflict resolution among the diverse parties. The BLM Field Office contacted the National Riparian Service Team (NRST) for assistance and in October 2016 the Jordan Meadows Collaborative was formed. The www.progressiverancher.com
intent was to improve relationships, create a common understanding of the current situation, develop a shared vision of what is needed to maintain and improve riparian and upland conditions, and experiment with various grazing strategies (within the confines of the current permit) to inform the development of alternatives for the upcoming term permit renewal.
“In the beginning, working with the National Riparian Service Team, there was... skepticism and lack of trust on both sides. Since working with the team, we have built trust and working relationships for the betterment of both public lands and the viability of the ranch. Being a family operation, it is important to sustain this ranch for future generations. By working together, we have accomplished a lot with much more to accomplish in the future. I am hoping this model can help other ranchers and government agencies and be beneficial to all.” - Loyd Sherburn, Home Ranch
The Jordan Meadows Collaborative group has about 15 active participants - the permittee and ranch manager plus various representatives from the BLM Field Office and the NRST, USFWS, NDOW, UNR Cooperative Extension, the Conservation District, and Trout Unlimited. The initial action plan was finalized shortly after the first meeting and focused on the development of effective riparian management strategies. Riparian resources constitute a very small portion of the allotment and water is short in large portions of the allotment resulting in continual difficulties with livestock distribution and little to no ability to utilize portions of the forage resource. As a result, initial actions were largely designed to determine the status of existing and potential future water gaps, springs, troughs and wells; complete lotic and lentic PFC assessments and monitoring; and identify structural improvements needed for better control and distribution of livestock. Each spring, the collaborative identifies opportunities to adjust timing, intensity, and duration of grazing within the parameters of the existing final multiple use decision to minimize and manage concentrated livestock use on riparian areas during the growing season and improve riparian conditions. The group meets for a summer a field tour focused on issues being considered or results of actions. In the fall, the group reviews how the year progressed sharing lessons learned, monitoring data, and observations. All decisions are made by the responsible line officer following group discussion and adherence to required NEPA processes.
Over the years, the collaborative has worked to improve riparian condition on the three LCT occupied streams. In 2017, the permittee voluntarily agreed to remove livestock from the upper elevation summer pastures with LCT occupied streams approximately 15 days early during the growing season. This provides reduced concentrated use most years, while also retaining the flexibility to occasionally use the pastures a few additional days as appropriate. In 2018, an important pasture boundary fence was extended to eliminate the long-standing issue of livestock drift in two of the upper elevation summer pastures Additionally, two of the three riparian areas were fenced (2015 and 2018) and managed as riparian pastures, which are showing positive trends of riparian plant growth and root stability. The permittee has also been experimenting with the use of protein supplements to better distribute livestock within upland use areas and decrease riparian utilization and concentration, which has resulted in modest improvement by reducing the pressure on the stream. Last, there are plans to extend an existing pasture fence to create a new riparian pasture on the third stream to increase manageability. The group also resolved issues regarding maintenance of riparian exclosure fences in 2017, which was an ongoing conflict. In years prior to 2016, the BLM had not completed their required maintenance as directed by a court decision. Unmanaged livestock access inside existing exclosures reduced stream shading, water quality and quantity due to loss of vegetation and breakdown of banks and also potentially resulted in direct impacts to LCT, such as trampling. The permittee balked at fixing the BLM fences on principle; fixing only fences that were his maintenance responsibility. This caused conflicts with the BLM, NDOW and USFWS. In 2017, agreements were made that BLM would commit to completing their required maintenance and the permittee, once notified, would remove livestock as soon as possible and make at least temporary repairs to prevent additional use. Improved communication and relationships have largely resolved this issue. The collaborative is also working to improve LCT habitat by reducing the length of existing water gaps on fenced LCT streams to the minimum necessary to achieve the purpose of allowing suitable watering areas (hardened if needed) for cattle while minimizing impact on streamside zones. The associated work group is in the process of
The Progressive Rancher
completing an inventory, condition survey, and needs assessment of existing water gaps to inform and prioritize future projects. As an example, upon completion of planned work on just one creek, the total lineal feet of 4 water gaps will be reduced by over 2,000 feet providing riparian and LCT habitat over time. Also, the additional inclusion of stream hardening structures provide for water access while minimizing sediment load impacts from livestock use. Early on, the ‘water gap’ work group identified their highest priority task to be protection of a key segment of an important LCT stream through the extension of an existing fence and creation of a small water gap, which was completed in 2018 by BLM crews and the permittee. The original plan was to fence this area when the other exclosure fencing went in, but it never happened. Given existing riparian vegetation above and below the newly fenced section, this riparian area should quickly improve and provide additional LCT habitat.
During the field portion of the October 2016 kick-off meeting, a number of springs and small meadows were discussed by the group, since they were identified by all parties as critical water storage and production areas that were being trampled and damaged. There was solid agreement that an important first step for this collaborative would be to protect and jump start riparian recovery in 7 priority areas by excluding livestock using free-standing ‘Liberty’ metal-pipe fence around the spring itself and providing water in troughs. By 2017, planning and approvals were completed and, in 2018 construction was completed as part of a cooperative effort of the BLM, USFWS, NDOW and the permittee. The collaborative group also focused on repairing and/or improving other developed water sources, and potentially developing additional water where necessary with the common understanding that troughs will include float values to control water use and flow, so as to ensure spring habitats are not drained excessively.
The Jordan Meadows collaborative has made amazing progress in the past 4 years, both in terms of allotment level improvements and in inspiring others to take a similar collaborative approach. The effectiveness of the Jordan Meadows Collaborative has led to the development of a second, similarly designed, collaborative group on a neighboring allotment and the tenets of the collaborative have become a model for how USFWS hopes to implement future LCT recovery efforts.
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CLOSING DATE FOR PASTURE RANGELAND FORAGE PROTECTION IS NOVEMBER 15, 2020
