Pride Agriculture

FAMILY FARM Jerry Darnell

AGRITOURISM Sheep Wagon Hideouts

Farmer appreciates community and all it offers Page 13

Ranch getaway is part of an active agritourism group in the Panhandle Page 6

Pride Ag Edition

Scottsbluff/Gering, Nebraska

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Rocky Hollow Buffalo Co. n Banner Count y rancher motivated by reverence for bison STEVE FREDERICK Special Projects Editor sfrederick@starherald.com

HARRISBURG — Banner County rancher Rick Forepaugh manages an operation that’s been in his family for years.

He learned a lot about the business from his father. He tracks the bloodlines of his livestock and makes a living selling animals to the meat industry.

At that point, the resemblance to any typical Nebraska ranch ends.

Rick FoRepaugh Instead of cattle, Rocky Hollow Buffalo Company raises the iconic American bison. When the herd saunters into the front pasture of the ranch along Highway 71, it can turn a few heads.

“In the summertime, it looks like Yellowstone, with the cars pulling over out here,” Forepaugh said.

His father, retired Lt. Col. Vance Forepaugh, is a decorated Army veteran who earned Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals during his wartime service.

“He’s my hero,” Forepaugh said. “He did two tours in Vietnam as an airborne ranger.”

His mother, Jill Crotty, was a colonel in the Air Force. Both served more than three decades in the military. After Vance Forepaugh retired, he bought a ranch in Elbert, Colorado, and began raising purebred buffalo. He bought his first cow at the Gold Trophy Sale and Show in Colorado in 1995. When it came time to expand, he purchased the Monkey Ranch in southern Banner County. The elder Forepaughs own 2,900 acres there, with about

STEVE FREDERICK/Star-Herald

A dominant cow casts a wary eye at a visitor across the fence.

350 more under lease.

“They own the land. I manage all of this for them,” Forepaugh said.

For a guy who studied pre-law and archeology in college and went on a few fossil digs before moving on to a business career, moving from Midland, Texas, to one of the most sparsely populated coun-

ties in the nation required quite a lifestyle change. Rick’s wife, Lindsay, is chief financial officer at High West Energy, an electrical co-op in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming.

They met in Oregon and moved around the nation before settling into their new career. He worked in newspapers as a manager, and she worked in accounting

and finance. They married in 2007 in Texas while he was working in an oilfield management job, directing trucks. Two and a half years ago, he got a call from his father, inviting him to take over the ranch.

“We were about ready to sell everything we had and move to Alaska,” he said. “We

BUFFALO page 2

Pilot chicory project enters new phase SANDRA HANSEN Ag Editor ag@starherald.com

The 2015 Blue Prairie Brands chicory project was the first step in creating a new western Nebraska cash crop.

According to company officials, the pilot effort answered questions and gave direction to further research.

David Woodburn, Blue Prairie’s CEO, said last year’s efforts determined what would work and what wouldn’t in producing a high quality human food product.

“Last year, the harvester worked very well, and the roots were delivered in good shape,” Woodburn said.

“We were experimenting with the processing design until near the end of the year, and had two shifts working until mid-February to ship the product to millers in the midwest.”

According to Woodburn, the Charlottesville, Virginia, company’s first attempt to grow and generate a product served its purpose. They learned the roaster and other pieces of equipment were not satisfactory for human food production, and have redirected their efforts toward a satisfactory operation. Last year’s roaster has Courtesy photo been retired, and a new dehydrator will be used this year.

Gluten-free pasta can be produced with flour from Blue Prairie Brands chicory raised and processed in the Panhandle.

He explained that last year’s facility served its purpose

well, but human food production requires more health conscious features, such as floor drains, and general cleaning capabilities.

“Some of the equipment was OK, but the dryer was not appropriate for our purposes. We need a different dryer, one like they use for dehydrating fruits and vegetables, and we’ve talked to several vendors,” Woodburn said. “That should be in place by August.

“We’re still figuring out the best options for us,” Woodburn said. “And working to understand what we’re capable of receiving this fall.

“The test run did give us a very nice flour product,” Woodburn said. The University of Nebraska Food Processing Center is helping develop the gluten-free flour that can be used in tortillas, bread sticks, health food bars, and other foods.

In addition to securing new processing equipment, Woodburn said the company is ordering seed, and contracting 200 acres for this year’s crop. Those contracts should be signed later this month.

Woodburn expects to double the chicory production in the Nebraska Panhandle this year.

“We hope to have two large fields, and that is quite an

CHICORY page 3

Local couple at the helm of award-winning meat judging team JEFF SMITH Staff Reporter jsmith@starherald.com

A lot of people might not be too well-versed in different cuts of meat, but for various FFA and 4-H meat judging teams, learning them is only a matter of time.

Being on a judging team also helps them prepare for future careers at a young age.

According to meat judging coaches for Goshen County,

Michael and Mai Lee Olsen, there are an abundant number of options for students in the meat industry which team members could do in the future.

“They could work anywhere from buying and a processing plant to developing product to writing plans for companies. There are meat scientists who work in Dallas and they are in charge of cutting all the

steaks for Outback Steakhouse,” said Mai Lee. Mai Lee said that a person can become a feedlot manager and work on the live product to develop some of the characteristics desired by consumers. There are also careers in being USDA graders where they will grade on quality grade, which is the tenderness, juiciness and flavor and then the yield grade, which

JEFF SMITH/Star-Herald

Michael Olsen, Goshen County meat judging coach, helps Kora Frederick, 13, understand the different characteristics of judging meat during practice on Feb. 29.

is the amount of usable lean facilities. Mai Lee said that for larger companies like meat on an animal. There one of her favorite careers is JUDGING page 5 are also inspectors at USDA research and development

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

n BUFFALO: Continued from page 1

thought this would be a great next adventure.”

The abrupt career switch required a crash course in agricultural production. Vance had kept extensive records and notebooks. Forepaugh began attending seminars and conferences on buffalo ranching, learning a lot about bison habits, mannerisms and diet.

“I spent a lot of time reading all of that,” he said. “It’s not hard to learn something when it’s the only thing you’re doing.

I got a good jump-start in the business.”

The ranch, once owned by the Van Pelt family, was well-suited for the operation.

Decades earlier, it had been a working sheep ranch with 15 shearing stations. It also retains horse barns and the outline of a track once used to train race horses. Although the company takes its name from Rocky Hollow, where the buildings sit, the original gate out front remains.

“We left the sign up,” he said. “You can go a long way from here and people know the Monkey Ranch.”

Vance and his wife still live on their ranch in Colorado.

Rick and his wife buy buffalo from the local ranch and resell them, mostly to restaurants.

For a man who used to manage newspapers, oil-hauling trucks and other operations, the business part came easy. Forepaugh tracks pasture use, evaluates forage and makes sure the animals move from pasture to pasture. He uses social media networking for marketing and keeps a sales database. The next step is a professional website.

Applying management skills to one of the Great Plains’ most powerful and unruly animals was a different story.

He’s had two especially memorable experiences. The first taught him a lot about the stamina of a bison. Instead of a horse, he uses a Kubota side-

Steve Frederick/Star-Herald

ABOVE: Rick Forepaugh works his buffalo herd with the aid of a 4x4 ATV. LE F T: A l t h o u g h R i c k Forepaugh’s operation is known as Rocky Hollow B u f f a l o C o m p a ny, t h e family retains the original Monkey Ranch name for the property in Banner County.

by-side ATV to work the herd.

As part of their nutritional regimen, he gives the animals a mineral supplement in the form of heavy blocks that they can lick, requiring him to stop the vehicle and drop the blocks on the ground. As he went into a pasture to leave some blocks, the herd got frisky and started following him around.

“The entire herd was running with me at full speed,” he said. “It took 20 minutes to slow down that herd enough so that I could get out for about 30 seconds. You’re going 25 mph and they’re running alongside and looking at you.”

The other time, a dominant “herd queen” crept up on him as he was fixing fences.

“I heard a guttural grunt, almost a growl. She was stand-

ing on the other side of the fence, and it wasn’t a nice look in her eye,” he said. “It shook me.”

It served as a reminder that buffalo are wild, agile, protective of their calves and can kill someone who gets careless around them.

“I’m cautious. They’re very powerful. They’ve got a head like a plow,” he said. “They’re built to dig through several feet of snow to find grass.”

At the same time, the animals require less feed, water, medicine and attention than cattle.

“I’ll go days without seeing them,” he said. “Buffalo are some of the hardiest animals.

We don’t pull calves. This was the worst year we had for calf loss, and we lost two. Calving is super easy. From the time she starts, the calf is on the

ground in 45 minutes. In another hour the calf is up and running with the herd. They can run, and run fast.

“They don’t get cold until it’s about 60 below. In a square inch of hide, they have seven times more hairs than a cow.

The sheer athleticism of a buffalo is amazing. I’ve seen a bull walk up to a six-foot fence and jump over it with no running start.”

Roundup, required several times a year, is the most dangerous time on the ranch, he said.

Calves weigh about 50 pounds and are born from mid-April to mid-June. When it’s time to take stock of the herd, he cuts off its access to water and puts out fresh hay to draw the animals close to the ranch buildings.

“They’re matriarchal, like elephants,” he said. “Within the herd, there are family units. When I want to move buffalo, I just focus on a couple of animals. I move them and I can get the rest of the herd to go.”

After a few days to settle down, they’re nudged into a pen once used for horses.

It takes about 10 people to move them through a series of chutes reinforced with welded steel. From there they funnel into a squeeze chute, where the cows are checked for pregnancy and general health.

“The bulls are too big to fit into the squeeze chutes, and they’re buffalo squeeze chutes,” he said.

The workers pull hair samples from calves. The tufts are sent to a lab where they’re tested by scientists at Texas A&M University to determine each calf ’s bloodline. It’s important to the family to maintain genetic purity, which was largely lost when original herds were decimated by hunters more than a century ago and bison began breeding with cattle.

“Cow DNA is living within a lot of the buffalo,” he said.

“Our herd is probably more pure than the government herds.”

They also strive to keep the herd healthy on a natural diet of grass, consulting with experienced veterinarians and soil scientists. The herd gets virtually no routine supplements or medicines, only minerals they could get from the soil.

“We help them get it easier and in a better form,” he said.

“They never get grain. If it isn’t water, grass or sunshine, they don’t get it.”

Animals get vaccinated only when required for them to cross state lines or for shows. One of the diseases the ranchers fear is mycoplasma,

a bacterial disease that attacks the lungs and other organs, causing emaciation and weakness. It can be transmitted by infected sheep.

“That’s what we fear as buffalo ranchers,” he said. “We don’t want to be near sheep, and we don’t want sheep to be upriver.”

Animals from the ranch have won several awards at the Denver Stock Show in recent years, including reserve grand champion.

Despite its unconventional start, Rocky Hollow Buffalo Company began with reverence for the bison, which evolved about 10,000 years ago and is descended from a family line going back five million years. North America’s largest land animal, its vast migratory herds once covered much of the continent, a reliable and honored food source for Native Americans.

“Having these buffalo is part of the legend of the West and the effort to bring these magnificent animals back,” Forepaugh said. “The history of it is very important to my dad. He dreamed of being a cowboy and buffalo rancher. His forward air controller (Capt. Butch Guerue) was a Lakota Sioux. I think that was the connection.”

Though in time they’re destined for the slaughterhouse, he said, it’s hard not to feel respect and admiration for each individual.

“It’s tough for me to take those animals to slaughter.

You see it in their eyes. There’s something in the soul of a buffalo.”

When one of the original herd queens died, “She didn’t go to the coyotes,” he said. “I gave her a proper burial.”

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n CHICORY: Continued from page 1

expansion,” he said.

“We’re looking at 1,000 acres, eventually, but we’re not at that stage,” Woodburn said.

“The facility will be the driving factor. It would be great to have a permanent one.

We need it to be close to the fields, and we rely on having Bob Wilson and his expertise available.”

Wilson recently retired as a research specialist at the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center, where he worked with Blue Prairie for several years, developing the crop.

Over all, Woodburn said the company is pleased with the research results, saying it accomplished its goal, and it provided a solid eduction for future use.

“We’re still talking to customers,” Woodburn said of efforts to promote the new product. The flour, a product of proprietary equipment, will be sold to manufacturers who will sell it under their own brand.

“We have a lot of balls in the air,” he said.

Brad Justice, co-founder and chief operating officer, has been in the Panhandle since the beginning of the local project. He has been onsite, adjusting and evaluating equipment. Earlier this week spent time in Lincoln discussing the project with UNL Food Processing Center personnel. They are engaged in conducting taste tests of the various Blue Prairie chicory products, including cookies, pizza dough, extruded items, such as crisps in cereals and snack bars, and will evaluate results.

“We wrapped up processing in mid-February and we’re pretty satisfied,” Justice said.

The company, funded by a Nebraska Research and Development Grant, shipped 15 tons of dried flakes.

This year, the company plans to address some of the issues they encountered during its first season.

“Material handling was one of the big challenges,” Justice said. The small flakes, shipped in totes, were suitable for milling.

“Now we need to focus on consistency of color and quality,” he said

Courtesy photos

According to Justice, last year’s efforts revealed that hot, dry heat is detrimental to chicory. It needs to be dried with a low heat system in order to produce a satisfactory color in the end product. This is because the plant is high in sugar, similar to sugar beets, and high heat causes discoloration.

Goals for 2016 include 200 acres of chicory production, and a facility that can be used for two years. The facility has turned out to be a problem,

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according to Justice.

“We’re looking forward to The company needs a another great year with more building approximately 100 x growers, a new facility, and 150 feet, or ideally, 150 x 80 new equipment,” he said. feet, with gas and electricity, an area to pile the harvested chicory, and a way to dispose of waste water from washing the chicory roots.

“We need a location in the Panhandle,” Justice said Tuesday morning. “We have invested a lot of time and energy here, and plan to push forward with this multi-million dollar investment.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The 2015 chicory harvest produced 15 tons of dried flakes for Blue Prairie Brands.

The company plans to grow chicory in the Scottsbluff area that will be turned into gluten-free flour for use in health foods.

Chicory roots closely resemble sugar beets, a popular crop in the Nebraska Panhandle. Blue Prairie Brands plans to raise chicory here and have it processed into flour for use in health foods.

Health food bars made with chicory flour are among the food items being developed by the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center.

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

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n JUDGING: Continued from page 1

Tyson, who develop different ideas for meat, acting as a sort of meat scientist.

Some might even look at being future coaches for meat judging teams such as Michael and Mai Lee, who have been coaches of the Goshen County Team for four years. They also assist the Banner County FFA, which they have been a part of for three years.

Mai Lee said that as coaches they enjoy giving back to the community and staying active in meat judging.

“We just really enjoy it.

We are hopeful to do it when we have kids of our own,” said Mai Lee. Michael and Mai Lee delight in being able to provide students with scholarship opportunities and sending information out to colleges so they are able to see what options are available to them.

“This would be for all of the individuals we want to see this happen for, not just the high-placing individuals,” said Mai Lee. Meat judging has formed an important part of their lives and they would like to see it be a part of other’s lives.

Michael grew up in Harrisburg and was in 4-H all through high school. When he went to college at University of Nebraska-Lincoln one of his friends was going to be on the livestock judging team and when he went to talk to the coach he told them to be on the meat judging team first. He made the team at UNL and enjoyed his experience.

“I was on a very successful team for Nebraska and ended up being a second-team All American,” said Michael.

Mai Lee was on a meat judging team during one year in high school and went to Texas A&M her first year of college. She then transferred to Texas Tech to be on the meat judging team there.

Michael and Mai Lee met at a meat judging event in Pennsylvania.

“It’s been a big part of our lives,” said Michael.

Both of them have formed connections with two of the previous coaches of the team, Casey and Deidrea Mabry. After the Mabrys moved away for a job offer Michael and Mai Lee decided they wanted to be the new coaches.

Michael was able to get a job right out of college not too far from where he grew up in Harrisburg. Not long after, Mai Lee also was able to get a job at Eastern Wyoming College.

Currently, Mai Lee is the admissions coordinator for EWC and Michael is a civil engineer for M.C. Schaff & Associates.

Meat judging teams all across the country practice grading different types of meat and learn how to identify different cuts of meats. The Goshen County 4-H has 10 members on the meat judging team currently. The team has received numerous awards and accolades for its achievements over the years.

The first year Michael and Mai Lee were the coaches the team received second at the state competition. The second year students received overall champions at state competition with the seniors. Last year, the senior members received second place at the state competition.

Juniors have received first place at all of the state competitions since Michael and Mai Lee have been coaches and even before that.

The members compete against 10 other teams across the state of Wyoming at the state competition.

Each year, there is one major competition. The team goes to Laramie for it, which is held April 30 this year. If the seniors place well at this

Courtesy photo

ABOVE: The 2016 National Western team: Shelby Schainost, Skyler Miller, Makenna Greenwald, and Anna Schmick.

JEFF SMITH/Star-Herald

LEFT: Mai Lee Olsen (center), a Goshen Co. meat judging coach, Connor Booth (left), 10, and Kaleb Booth (right), 8, at practice.

competition they are able to either go to the American Royal Competition in Kansas or the National Western Denver Round Up competition. At the American Royal Competition there are judges from 18 states to compete against and at the National Western competition, the members compete against judges from 11 states.

Members of meat judging teams are only allowed to participate at each of the national competitions once.

Two years ago, the team placed second overall at the American Royal competition.

This year, the team went to the Denver Round and received an award as the reserve champion team and had the highest overall individual, Makena Greenwald.

“Mostly, what we teach them on the 4-H side of things is retail identification, so one of the major things they learn is being able to identify the meat that they are buying at the store, knowing the species, where it comes from, the primal and being educated when they go to the counter to buy meat,” said Michael.

Michael said the students also learn how to grade the meat through the USDA meat-grading system, grading beef carcases mostly based on the yield grade and quality grade.

Aside from the meat portion of it there is also a lot of analytical qualities to meat judging. Students have to learn about placing the different cuts of meat

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based on set parameters and vocalizing the reasons for placing the meat the way that they did.

Michael and Mai Lee have created a guidebook for the group that is a product of their own expertise.

Since they aren’t far removed from being college students, they are able to talk to their past coaches to get some of their input for the books. It includes terms for the members to

use, how to format their reasons and retail identification. They have formed various connections in the meat industry and with instructors at Colorado State University and Texas Tech University.

Juniors in the clubs have to answer questions and be organized in their thinking.

Another part is being able to analyze their thoughts and when members get to be seniors they must be able to give oral reasons and be confident in their decision-making.

“With the analytical side of anything, anything they learn here they will be able to use, such as reasoning skills, and apply it in any job that they are in,” said Michael.

He said students grow into being more confident.

Most of students hate the

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aspect of giving reasons for their placings which is required at the competition.

“Somebody that might be more personable, it’s a lot easier for them to do the reasons but you don’t have to be that way when you come in,” he said.

A similar type of judging is livestock judging, where the animals are judged on how they might place in a show ring, and might be more abstract.

Meat judging is more clear cut, Michael said.

“To me, meat judging is easier because it’s a lot more black and white. In livestock judging, there is a big gray area. For meat judging, there is either a heavier muscled one or a trimmer one or a higher quality. There’s a lot less room for interpretation,” Michael said.

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Sheep Wagon Hideouts n Ranch getaway is part of an active agritourism group in the Panhandle STEVE FREDERICK Special Projects Editor sfrederick@starherald.com

CHADRON — Nebraska tourism officials define agritourism as any agriculture-based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch.

That could include buying produce or meat fresh from a grower, picking pumpkins or raspberries, drinking wine made from home-grown grapes, riding a horse or in a covered wagon or simply waking up to the crow of a rooster. It’s considered a high-potential option for rural economic growth as landowners look for ways to increase their income and diversify their operations, as well as an educational tool to help city neighbors understand life in the wide open spaces, according to the Nebraska Association of Bed and Breakfast.

“Nebraska agritourism can be an excellent way to restore and refresh oneself, and recover from long hours of work,” says the association’s website. “It can help you view your life in a new light. It can stir childhood memories. Or it can simply be fun.”

In the northern Panhandle, they take agritourism seriously. About two dozen operations have joined Northwest Nebraska High Country, an association with about 40 members that created a website to promote the region and the diverse opportunities they represent. They meet for potluck dinners in which they visit each venue, learn about what the host has to offer, share ideas about how to be successful and arrange to represent the organization at outfittter shows and expos.

Among them are Jim and Lora O’Rourke, who live with their 14-year-old twins, Seth and Shannon, on their rural property near Chadron. The O’Rourkes decided to combine their fondness for the horse-drawn wagons used by sheepherders in the late 1900s with their expertise in range management as a way to diversitf their family’s RuJoDen ranch. Both retired, they worked in rangeland management in a shared career that took them all over the world. They bought the ranch, which Jim’s grandfather, Frank O’Rourke, acquired in 1950 from a homesteading family in the area, from Jim’s father, Joe, who was also a rangeland manager.

“We bought it from Jim’s dad in 1988,” Lora O’Rourke said. “We moved back here

from West Africa.”

Jim taught rangeland management at Chadron State College and Lora worked for the Forest Service. They had been working on a World Bank project, helping a tribe in Nigeria establish better grazing systems.

“He’s done a lot of grazing work in Africa and Mongolia,” said Lora, who had a 28year career with the Forest Service and Bureau Of Land Management.

Once on the property, they began restoring the ranch and managing the rangeland, planting trees and augmenting windbreaks. They started the visitor side of the operation, Sheep Wagon Hideouts, in the mid-1990s.

Guests who stay at the ranch sleep in a sheep wagon rather than the usual cabin or guest room.

Sheep wagons originated with hired sheepherders who would take their flocks out to the open range while they and their dogs followed along to protect them. When the flocks moved, they pulled along the wagons with teams of horses. A wagon contains a bed, wood-burning stove, bench, pull-out table and plenty of storage, and often a Dutch door and window over the bed. Developed in the 1880s in Wyoming, they’re regarded as a forerunner to today’s campers and motor homes.

“We’ve collected sheep wagons since 1986 or so,” she said. “They were a common thing for both of us. I’ve been around sheep wagons all my life. We had a wagon on our ranch when I was growing up. We played in it. Jim grew up in Buffalo, Wyoming, where there are sheep wagons in everyone’s back yard.”

They found their first wagons in Utah. They acquired others in Washington, Utah, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. As time goes by, the heirloom wagons have become harder to find.

“We’ll go quite a ways to get a sheep wagon,” she said.

The O’Rourkes now have 19 in various stages of restoration, as well as other horse-drawn wagons, stacks of cast-iron stoves and nearly an acre of antique farm implements, rescued at auctions from being sold for scrap. They built a shelter to keep some of the wagons out of the weather, including a special one, No. 61 built in 1909 by Schulte Hardware in Casper, which was credited with standardizing the wagon’s design at 11 1/2 by 6 1/2 feet, with a rounded canvas top. A collector’s item, it’s

STEVE FREDERICK/Star-Herald

Jim and Lora O’Rourke operate Sheep Wagon Hideouts, one of about two dozen agritourism facilities that are part of Northwest Nebraska High Country, an organization of guest facilities in the northern Panhandle.

kept for displays and parades.

Wagons that serve the ranch’s guests have been weatherproofed and restored, with as many authentic details as possible. Some retain their original wagon wheels; others have been upgraded in the past with auto axles and rubber tires.

“We make them nice and livable and restore the stoves,” she said.

Three restored wagons have been installed at secluded corners of the 460acre pine-covered ranch, which is visible from Highway 385 about five miles south of Chadron. Another can be pulled to a site when needed. The O’Rourkes provide firewood for the stove, as well as linens, dishes, coolers and lanterns. There are no phones, electricity or plumbing. Guests use porta-potties and do their own cooking.

“Sometimes, we get hunters. Sometimes, it’s just

people who like a nice qui- said. explaining the history of the et area,” she said. “You just Guests will find a book or wagons and other topics, bring your own food, and we two inside their cozy abode, SHEEP page 7 haul you in to the wagon.”

Those who don’t hunt can enjoy hiking, bird-watching, photography and a nightly campfire beneath the stars.

“We get elk walking through occasionally. We have bighorn sheep wander through there, and we’ve seen mountain lions. I got a nice photo of a mountain lion a few years ago,” she said. “I don’t mind them. We love having them around.”

A hunter who stays at the site will have the entire ranch to himself. They generally book one guest for each hunting season, including archery, muzzle-loader and rifle deer seasons. Turkey hunting is also available.

Some hunters from Minnesota have come back year after year.

“This will be their fourth season and they love it. They stay for an entire week,” she

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n SHEEP: Continued from page 6

and can enjoy a quick education in topics such as range ecology, plant identification, grazing systems and soils.

The family also conducts tours for people who are visiting the college. Wagons can be circled for gatherings.

The operation averages about eight visitors per season.

“It’s not a lot, but we like it that way,” Lora said. “We don’t promote it a lot. We usually have one guest or group at a time for the entire property. We’ve met some interesting people over the years, so it’s been fun.”

Raging wildfires in the Pine Ridge a few seasons ago gave the family a scare, setting back some of their management efforts.

“It burned about 200 acres,” she said. “We watched it all night, and it was heartbreaking. The wind shifted and started pushing it back on itself, and that stopped it.

Our neighbors helped us get the sheep wagons moved as it was really ripping.”

The O’Rourkes lease out some of their land for grazing, which they consider a useful management tool for the rangeland. They also board some horses and raise chickens. Future plans include using corrals on the ranch to provide overnight stays for horses that are on the road with their owners.

“It would make a nice horse hotel. I would feed them and water them and provide weed-free forage,” she said. “We butt up against the national forest. There’s a trail at the edge of the property. In theory, you could ride all the way to Crawford if you went on a few county roads.”

During the O’Rourkes’ travels, they also visited Mongolia and have considered offering the round tentlike shelters known as yurts as another option for guests.

While they realize that sheep wagons and yurts may not

be for everyone, neither are traditional motels. A stay at the ranch offers a slower pace, with plenty of peace and seclusion in a natural setting.

“We’re not very big. That’s why we had to diversify,” she said. “The taxes are so high we had to do something more to help cover some of the expense.”

That’s a common theme among members of Northwest Nebraska High Country. In addition to farming and ranching, the members offer bed-and-breakfast accommodations, hunting lodges, guest houses, ranch activities and specialized opportunities such as fossil hunting.

“There are some really neat outfits,” she said. “We were all trying this individually. We decided, ‘Let’s pull together and build a website, get us all in one place and try to promote each other.’”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The O’Rourkes also collect antique farm implements, which cover about an acre on one of the Pine Ridge hilltops on their ranch.

A restored sheep wagon sits on a remote corner of Jim and Lora O’Rourke’s ranch near Chadron, awaiting visitors to Sheep Wagon Hideouts.

Lora O’Rourke pulls out a hidden table in a restored sheep wagon. Once a traveling home for shepherds, it also includes a stove, bed, bench and plenty of storage.

The driveway to the O’Rourke ranch is lined with a variety of horse-drawn wagons and implements.

Do you have something to sell?

Call the Star-Herald Classifieds department at 632-9020 for assistance.

Pride Page 8

Saturday, March 12, 2016

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Pride Saturday, March 12, 2016

Page 9

One of the family dogs sneaks into a photo of Dianne, Jacey and Garry Watt on their ranch northeast of Sidney.

STEVE FREDERICK/Star-Herald

Sidney rancher tends horses’ hooves for more than four decades STEVE FREDERICK Special Projects Editor sfrederick@starherald.com

SIDNEY — When Garry Watt was a boy growing up in Iowa, his father hammered horseshoes out of iron bars, heating the metal in a portable furnace until it glowed.

“He could do anything with iron,” Watt said. “He started me shoeing horses when I was about 14 years old.”

Watt’s spent most of the past five decades plying a trade with centuries of tradition. The work brought him to Nebraska in 1975.

In 1987, he bought his own spread in Cheyenne County, tearing down the existing structures and building his agricultural operation, Watt Land and Cattle Company, from the ground up. Today, he owns and leases about 2,000 acres on the flat plains northeast of Sidney, about half in grass and about half in cropland. He owns a few hundred cattle and about 40 head of registered horses.

A maze of fences and corrals connect several outbuildings, including the dusty workshop where a row of horseshoes nestles over a rafter, ropes and tack hang from the walls and saddles rest on wooden stands. An eager pack of five dogs, alert to any sign of human activity, keep Watt company while he feeds and tends to his livestock.

Technically, the operation is divided between the wheat and cattle production, along with a small feedlot, and his farrier business and performance horses. By necessity, they sometimes overlap; his calves, for instance, are used in the training of the horses.

“One or the other usually needs money,” he added with a laugh.

The equine side of the operation, Watt Performance Horses, produces registered quarter horses. Most are sold to riders for rodeo or cattle work — reining, cutting, roping or barrel racing.

Some are sold for breeding purposes. All carry the equivalent of a birth certificate certifying their breeding and blood lines.

Though horses no longer play their longstanding role

in most farming and ranch- my true love.” ka at Omaha, Jacey started os. During high school, her old, she was ranked eighth ing, “There’s still a good Now studying pharmacy in 4-H horse activities at 9, interest turned to quarter in the world by the Amerimarket for registered hors- at the University of Nebras- performing in junior rode- horse shows. As a 17-yearWATTS page 10 es,” he said.

His daughter, Jacey, partners in the horse operation.

CROPINSURANCESPECIALISTS .COM A skilled horsewoman, she took her first ride at 2 years old.

“She has the talent as well as the desire,” Watt said — and, for her efforts, a glass case full of trophies and belt buckles. Watt’s wife, Dianne, keeps clippings of magazine articles featuring the family’s successes. The living room of their ranch home is decorated with photos of Jacey’s winning performances and their champion horses.

As a hobby, dad and daughter work on meticulously crafted saddles together in a basement leather shop — Jacey did 30 hours of leather tooling on a recent project.

A sign on the wall reads, “Horses are like potato chips.

You can’t have just one.”

“The farming is what you have to do to make a living,” This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Watt said. “The horses are

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Pride Page 10

Saturday, March 12, 2016

STEVE FREDERICK/Star-Herald

AB OVE: A v a r i e ty o f rop es and harnesses hang on the wall in Garry Wa t t ’s h o r s e s h o e i n g shed.

FAR LEFT: Jacey Watt has a case full of trophies and buckles from her riding career.

NEAR LEFT: Garry Watt checks a horse’s hoof using the traditional t o o l s o f t h e f a r ri e r ’s trade.

n WATTS: Continued from page 9

can Quarter Horse Association in ranch horse versatility, which combines the confirmation, or quality, of the horse with the rider’s skills in cutting, reining, working cattle and a style of riding known as ranch pleasure. She rode Watts Twistin Badger, a top performer in the operation’s champion blood line. Another Watt

horse, Bella San Hickory, was named top horse in the nation in 2014 by the American Stock Horse Association.

The operation has produced numerous other reserve and regional champions.

At one point, Watt had nearly quit the farrier business, but his interest revived with his daughter’s successes. A lot about shoeing horses has changed over the past

half century, he said. The blacksmithing technique, starting with raw iron, has become more of an outmoded performance art than a practical application. Today’s farrier buys “keg shoes” that require less shaping.

The knowledge required has expanded, especially in the world of valuable show horses. A farrier has to be able to work with other materials,

such as aluminum. Some horses require the equivalent of an orthopedic shoe to correct leg or hoof problems, or benefit from shoes that are designed for the activity they’re involved in.

“When we got into the show world, the shoeing got to be a bigger issue, because it needed to be specialized,” Watt said. “You have to know about anatomy and individ-

ual needs. When there are leg problems, a good shoeing job can do a lot to help. They may not have a problem, but I shoe them to avoid problems later. I don’t see the leg problems that I used to see.”

Today, the money is better.

A job that used to bring $20 to $25 can bring in almost four times as much.

“The pay scale has changed. That’s what brought

me back to specialized shoeing,” he said. “The horseshoeing is a sideline. I don’t do it for a living any longer.

It’s backbreaking work, but it’s a very good sideline. If you stay in shape ,it’s a little easier.

“I’ve been shoeing horses for 45 years. Generally, guys in this profession don’t last that long.”

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Pride Saturday, March 12, 2016

Page 11

Watching plovers changes Kimball farmer’s outlook STEVE FREDERICK Special Projects Editor sfrederick@starherald.com

KIMBALL — About 14 years ago, Larry Snyder was fishing with his kids at Oliver Reservoir near Kimball when a pickup pulled up and a young woman got out to talk to him.

She was employed by what was then called the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory in tracking a variety of birds, including eagles, owls and hawks. She had noticed his license plate, which identified him as a local, and wanted to discuss some research she was working on in partnership with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

“Part of her job was landowner outreach,” Snyder said. “She got to talking about different birds she was looking for. At the bottom of her list was the mountain plover.”

Though he didn’t know it at the time, that meeting would re-direct Snyder’s career path for the next 13 years.

“I didn’t know what a mountain plover was at that time,” he said.

Discovered in the 1880s, the bird was initially sketched with a mountain in the background, giving it its common name.

“It probably should have been named the prairie plover,” he said. “They’re a desert bird. They rarely go around water, and they’re not a plover that goes into the mountains.”

The ground-nesting birds are well concealed in their native habitat. Snyder gave the technician, Cris Carnine, permission to check the family’s fields for birds. She found a nest. It was one of few mountain plovers confirmed in Nebraska. At the time, scientists believed the bird was rare, possibly close to extinction.

Snyder’s father, Glendel, began farming the ground, about as far south as you can go in Kimball County, in 1956. Snyder, 50, recently moved back to the farm to help work the family’s 3,500 acres, today planted mostly in commercial and organic wheat. He graduated from Kimball High School in 1984, and attended Northwestern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, for two years, studying production agriculture.

At the time of that initial meeting, he was farming his own ground and working as a welder. A year later, the organization, known now as the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, invited him to take part in a broader survey of western Nebraska as a parttime technician.

“It wasn’t what I set out to do, but it worked out well with my farming because it was only a couple of hours in the morning,” he said.

Before production agriculture reached the Great

Plains, plovers nested among bison and prairie dogs, because the big grazers kept vegetation short and because burrowing by prairie dogs exposed bare soil, ideal habitat for plover nest sites. Researchers believe the plovers nest on bare soil because it helps them blend into the color of the land, hiding them from predators. Initially, Snyder and the others working on the study found the birds by imitating their calls.

“They’re pretty territorial and they fight,” Snyder said.

“They respond pretty aggressively to a territorial call.”

That first survey documented 119 adult plovers in Kimball, Banner and Cheyenne counties and triggered further research, including the involvement of more technicians, improvements in equipment and expansion of the search area. Further studies confirmed that plovers prefer plowed farmland to grassland and that few of the birds live north of Banner County.

“We started looking for nests and working with landowners on a one-to-one basis,” Snyder said. “By 2006, we were finding 100 nests a year.”

The effort brought more scientists and graduate students to study the birds, as well as wildlife photographers, including former Nebraska Game and Parks reporter Bob Grier and Great Plains advocate Michael Forsberg, who gave the Snyders a photo of their land in full bloom with prairie flowers. Snyder’s colleagues later bought one of Forsberg’s images, of a plover and chick, to give to Snyder to honor his service with the organization.

Funded from grant-togrant, the research’s future was always uncertain.

“It was soft money, but we just kept getting grants,” he said.

His job title expanded to

STEVE FREDERICK/Star-Herald

ABOVE: Larry Snyder carries a spotting scope to identify banded birds. Some of the mountain plovers in his study carry GPS tracking devices.

LEFT: The wing and back of a golden eagle show above the upper left rim of a nest on the side of a cliff in Kimball County. Snyder keeps track of raptors and other birds as well as mountain plovers in his work for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.

Courtesy photo

RIGHT: A mountain plover darts through a Kimball County wheat stubble field.

landowner outreach biologist, and his work became full time for more than a decade.

“I just kind of learned it on the fly,” he said, reading research papers, going to seminars and conferences and putting on informational meetings about mountain plovers for landowners. “I do a lot of other species too, but this is the main project.”

Eventually, an incentive payment helped to boost participation in reporting nests. Active plover nests would be marked, and property owners agreed to

farm around them.

“We had a lot more cooperation than resistance,” he said. “The more we worked with the landowners, the more they recognized the nests, and the more they started reporting them to me. Over time, we gained a lot more access permission than we could cover. It was a win-win.”

Today some birds are tagged with trackers that record their daily movements and annual migration patterns through a global satellite network.

“They keep them on for life until we take them off,”

he said. When the tags are removed, the information is downloaded into a research database. Some birds have been tracked as far west as California and Arizona and into Canada and Mexico. The conservancy’s efforts indicate that Nebraska may be the most popular nesting ground for the birds.

Until the research began, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service had been attempting to get the plover listed as an endangered species. It’s been considered a threatened species in Nebraska for 40 years.

“They really didn’t think there was a population here. With all the adults, that sparked a lot of interest.”

It also helped to prevent the listing, which could have led to restrictions on land use.

Although the research continues, Snyder recently shifted his duties back to part-time status.

“I came back to help out on the farm, and I’m still helping the Bird Conservancy,” he said.

Snyder will be offering free grassland bird tours through the conservancy April 1 to May 15, by reservation. Participants can see plovers as well as a variety of raptors and other birds, with tours leaving from the High Point Welcome Center in Kimball. For more information, call 308-2410573.

The plovers will show up by the end of this month, he said. In the meantime he’s been watching for signs of nesting activity by eagles, hawks and other raptors.

“This is a good time to go birding, for the next month or so,” he said. “The winter migrants get more active, and then the spring migrants start coming in.”

As a born farmer, Snyder never expected to make a career out of scientific bird-watching. But participating in the research has changed the way he looks at the world around him.

“I was a hunter and outdoorsman, but now I find myself looking at the smaller things and the deeper things,” he said.

“When I started working with the Bird Conservancy I knew what a hawk was, but I didn’t know what kind of hawk. I knew what a killdeer was. Now I know one bird well, and that’s the mountain plover.”

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Pride Page 12

Saturday, March 12, 2016

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Pride Saturday, March 12, 2016

Page 13

Farmer appreciates community and all it offers IRENE NORTH Staff Reporter inorth@starherald.com

When most people are looking for their coffee at 5:30 a.m., Jim Darnell is on the road, delivering another load of sunflowers to Ft. Morgan, Colorado.

If you saw any sunflowers growing north of Scottsbluff this year, they were probably Darnell’s. Darnell typically grows corn, sugar beets and Great Northern beans.

Though he prefers to grow beans, he switched to sunflowers this year because of market prices.

“I usually do Great Northerns, but bean prices were low so we did sunflowers because there is a bit of a market for them,” he said.

The 1,400 acres of sunflowers will be traveling to Spain and Israel. They’ll be in Spain for the running of the bulls and Israel for Ramadan. The seeds are not like the ones Americans are used to. They are about the length of a quarter and are eaten one at a time.

“They’re no good for the American market,” he said.

“You can’t eat them a handful at a time.”

One advantage for farmers growing sunflowers is they use less water. There is one significant disadvantage.

Your combine will probably have a fire. Dust from sunflowers piles up and can smolder or ignite.

“We keep a 1,000-gallon tank of water on each field so you can fight a fire,” he said.

Another disadvantage to growing sunflowers is Darnell can’t load the seeds on his truck if the wind is blowing.

“They are real light,” he said. “Seeds weigh 20 pounds per bushel and beans weigh 60 pounds per bushel.”

Darnell bought his farm from his grandmother after his grandfather died. It was also the year he married Calleen.

Darnell and Calleen knew each other in high school.

Their families were both farmers.

“Her family got caught in the ‘80s and it took their farm under,” he said. “It changed the whole community.”

In the 1980s, nearly every house was a farmer until the farm crisis hit and many people lost their farms.

“It was really sad,” he said.

“There were farm auctions every day of the week and sometimes on Saturday.”

His crops were destroyed in 1987 by hail, but he has done well since. It would have to hail from north of Morrill to south of Gering to get all his crops again.

Darnell and Calleen were married a year after she graduated high school. Darnell went to college for one year.

He was going to be a certified public accountant, but after working at JC Penney’s, he knew he didn’t like the work.

“I wanted to be outside,” he said. “I dropped out of college and started farming, and it’s been good for us.”

Darnell is still trying to decide if he’ll grow sunflowers again or switch back to beans.

The price on beans still has to rise a little bit more before he will plant beans again. Darnell hopes the price will rise enough so he and two other employees don’t have to haul sunflower seeds to Ft. Morgan every day.

“It’s not a bad drive,” he said. “It’s about 125 miles, but

IRENE NORTH/Star-Herald

Jim Darnell stands on the steps to the tractor he uses in one of his fields north of Scottsbluff.

Courtesy photo

Calleen and Jim Darnell, back row, with their children Jerry, Jon and Jeff.

it gets to be old.”

Darnell also serves on the board at Regional West Medical Center (RWMC). After being asked to serve by then Chief Executive Officer Todd Sorensen, Darnell said he learned a lot about the hospital and how important it is to the community.

“I think it’s underrated by everybody. Unless you need it, you don’t appreciate it,” he said. “It used to be there for us all the time. One son just couldn’t go without stitches all the time.”

He understands the role of the hospital more after learning how it works.

“I was just like everyone else,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’ll get on and decide how to spend all this money.’”

All the money the hospital collects is rolled back into the hospital with some cash reserves.

“You think the hospital is

wealthy and has lots of money, but it’s not really the case,” he said. “It takes that money to operate a facility like this.”

Darnell volunteered to be on the board because he felt it was a good way to give back to others.

“Our life has been very good. Our family has been raised here and we have a great time with the grandkids,” he said. “I think you should do something to give back to your community.”

Darnell’s children have also done well. Jerry works at Western Sugar. Jeff works for Hensel Phelps in Colorado. Jon is an optometrist in Scottsbluff. He and Calleen get to spoil their six grandchildren.

Darnell has learned a lot about the hospital, including how hard it is to recruit doctors to western Nebraska. It’s a problem nationwide.

“Most doctors that come

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here and stay like the community,” he said. “A lot of young doctors want to live in larger cities and want more activities.”

One of the biggest changes the hospital has to keep up with is government regulations.

“Government rules have changed a lot. It gets more complicated,” he said. “They make it tougher every year to operate.”

After serving on the board, Darnell learned how difficult it can be for a community-owned hospital to function.

“It’s something you don’t realize because our jobs stop,” he said. “Medicine doesn’t

stop, it’s seven days a week.”

The changes at the hospital aren’t the only ones Darnell has to keep up with. Technology has changed the farming landscape in the last 10 years.

All tractors now have GPS and auto-steer.

“It makes it easier for me to hire someone,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about having someone who had a natural talent to drive straight. You push a button, it drives to the other end.”

Combines have monitors.

Darnell uses three monitors when planting. It gives him more time to watch what he’s doing.

“I think some day when my grandson is my age, he’ll be sitting in a control room.

If it goes bad, they’ll call someone,” he said. “They already have robotic tractors they are experimenting with.”

Technology has helped seeds have better yields and also removed the need for most migrant farmers. In the past, sugar beets had to be hand-worked. Migrants would arrive in the valley in early May and stay through the summer working in the fields.

When he began farming

in 1968, Darnell farmed 240 acres, which was standard for the time. Back then, a planter took a swath about 12 feet wide. Today, Darnell has a planter that covers 60 feet and another covers 30 feet.

Farming runs deep with the Darnell family. In addition to his father and grandfather, Darnell’s sons Jon and Jerry share a field on the east side of the soccer fields in northeast Scottsbluff. They each had what Darnell defines as a poor farm. He convinced them to give it up and share the new field.

“That is a really good farm,” he said. “It’s worked out well for the two of them.”

Darnell farms 4,500 to 5,000 acres of farmland each year. He has six employees, most of whom have been with him for a long time. In much of his conversations, he makes a point to praise their hard work and dedication.

“I got a new guy last year.

He called me and asked, ‘would you need a body?’”

Darnell said. “He’s a young fellow who wanted to come back to town. I interviewed him over the phone and lucked out there again.”

Darnell’s farm, JD Farms, isn’t only known for farming.

His children and grandchildren also participate in tractor pulls in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. They recently received an award as family of the year at one event.

Darnell participated from 1974-1984 and decided he wanted to start doing it again.

“I’m getting older and I figured if I didn’t do it now, I wasn’t going to do it,” he said.

After going to a few tractor pulls, his sons wanted to do it too.

“They were going to each buy one to travel with us, but their wives didn’t agree,” he said. “It’s an expensive hobby.”

Although people ask him frequently, Darnell has no intention of retiring.

“We have six people who work for us and are very good help,” he said. “As long as I have good health and help, I don’t have a desire to retire.”

Pride Page 14

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Homemade, one of a kind business churns out positive results SANDRA HANSEN Ag Editor ag@starherald.com

TORRINGTON, Wyoming — Although it doesn’t seem possible, that bag of compost you just brought home from the store is probably the product of a special recipe. It needs to be stirred and cooked for about six months before it is ready to be served to your gardens and fields.

Jodie Booth, owner of Booth Chopping and Spreading, owns and operates one of the few composting businesses in the region. He purchased the business, located south of Torrington, five years ago from Madden Brothers, and plans to expand capacity and products.

Booth said he has learned a lot about the compost business, and continues to learn as he moves into new opportunities. For its part, the compost steadily moves toward a completed product, in its own good time.

“It’s continually processing,” Booth said on a recent sunny, windy morning. “It’s churned 40-50 times. We need moisture to heat it to 150 degrees, so wind is our biggest enemy.

When it’s windy like this, it takes a lot of water.”

When nature fails to meet Booth’s requirements, he hooks up a custom made water tank and sprays his way up and down each row, wetting down the strips of compost, all of which are in various stages of “cooking.”

The churning process is accomplished with a modified 8820 John Deere combine.

The header was removed and a churning cylinder built into the back. Special blades inside and in front of the front tires funnel rows of compost from both sides together and under the machine to the cylinder where they are mixed and left in one larger rows.

“When they’re steaming, they’re cooking,” Booth explained, pointing to a couple of rows that are releasing faint clouds of moisture. “They need to be 150 degrees for two weeks for good results.”

According to Booth, there is no set schedule for turning each row. Although he would like to turn them every other day, at least once a week is next best. The schedule depends on conditions, with fresh rows of corral waste turned more often. During summer, rows can be churned more frequently.

Loose rows steam more, Booth said. As the compost cooks down, it shrinks and emits less steam. Also, as it dries, the compost changes color, until it is black soil when finished.

The compost rows are about 800 feet long. It takes about an hour to make one trip up and back, churning the material. An infra red, hand-held heat gauge is used to check the temperature.

When the composting process is complete, the result will be moist but not sticky.

“It can be squeezed into a ball that will fall apart,” Booth explained, demonstrating with a handful of the three to four tons of material produced each year. “It looks like dirt, nice black dirt, when it’s done.”

The end product ads nutrients to soil that help plants grow, Booth said.

“It makes healthy soil and healthy plants,” he said.

Booth gets most of the raw composting material from the pens at the Torrington Livestock Markets sale barn. He said it was sort of a natural evolution from his custom spreading business.

“It doesn’t take long to collect a large amount of manure and straw,” Booth said, ex-

plaining that the sale barn handles about 4,000-5,000 head of cattle per sale, depending on the season.

He also picks up material at the fairgrounds in Torrington, including sawdust.

“It’s been good for me,” Booth said of the fairgrounds business. “They’re a great source and great to work with.

Being right in town, they need to get rid of it, and I’m glad to take it. Others bring in waste from their home corrals where they have a few horses, or cows, even smaller animals, such as chickens, goats, pigs and sheep.

“I’m building a town compost clientele, too, because of our location.”

Booth said his move into the compost business was natural.

He has worked with the Maddens for years, and when they wanted to sell the enterprise located on the south end of Torrington next to U.S. Highway 85, a deal was struck, and Booth took over five years ago.

Expansion plans are underway, Booth said, explaining that the current site will eventually be replaced with one further from other businesses.

“We’re expanding and need more space,” he said.

His spreading and chopping businesses are wide ranging.

He goes as far as Montana and east to the Lake McConaughy area in Nebraska. Profitability determines the distance he travels, Booth said.

With that in mind, Booth said the future might include dehydrated material that SANDRA HANSEN/Ag Editor

TOP: The header was removed from an 8820 John Deere combine and re-purposed to become a churning machine for the Booth compost business. Farmer know-how has saved the business a lot of money by not buying new equipment.

LEFT: Jodie Booth stands on one of the strips at the compost yard south of Torrington. The large dark pile in the background is finished product waiting to be sold and applied to gardens, yards and fields. Three to four part time employees are involved in his custom chopping, spreading and composting business.

would be profitable to haul farther with special spreader trucks. There is also a possibility for customers who would pick up and spread that compost themselves.

He is also investigating the potential for a packaged product, such as bags that would be sufficient for homeowners who need only a small amount of compost for their yards and gardens.

Organic compost sales are also part of Booth’s plans. He said a lot of organic hay farmers apply compost to their alfalfa fields.

“There is a niche market out there,” Booth said. “Some greenhouses, as well as organic growers, can’t use commercial fertilizer. This is the fertilizer for them.”

Booth said he has been surprised at the number of organic growers in this area. His compost will meet the guidelines for those growers, and he is working on national certification.

Another possibility for the future is composting grass clippings collected by the City of Torrington. Booth believes that could be a huge market.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” Booth said. “I think there’s a future in compost as people change their minds about gardening and crops, from what we used to do, to what we should do in the future.

“Everyone has their own idea on how to make compost,” Booth explained. “We do it like the big cities. They just use different material.”

He admits there are different ideas involved, too. His modified self-propelled churner is an example. Being raised on a farm, he has skills and is familiar with tools so he can make his own adjustments to equipment in order to make the dollar stretch further, and still get the same, or better, results.

There are also differing ideas on the composition of compost. He said the ratio of green to brown ingredients helps determine how fast the compost cooks and ferments, and the correct mix makes the compost quicker.

“This has been an experience, big time,” Booth said, waving his arm to indicate the compost yard. “I’m basically self taught. There are no rules.

Everyone has his own ideas.

I’ve watched videos and read up on it, looking for ideas.

“It can be frustrating because there isn’t a set schedule, and it’s hard to get help. But it’s been an interesting project, and I’m not sorry, even though it’s an on-going process with no guarantees.

“In a way, it’s an awful lot like farming,” Booth said. “It takes half a year to make, and then you sell it. Kind of like planting crops and selling your harvest.”

The same goes for Booth’s other enterprises. Raised on a farm, he knows unpredictable weather, prices, costs, and any number of other events can disrupt plans. Consequently, he is used to having numerous chores and jobs to manage, including the chopping, manure spreading, and compost business, and seeing to his own cattle herd.

“We chop in the fall, and spread manure in the winter,” Booth said of his schedule.

“We do the composting in between.”

And that leads to one change he would like to make.

He needs additional reliable help. He has three to four parttime employees, but would like to hire two full-time so he can keep regular hours at the compost yard this summer.

“I’m not disappointed with what I’ve done,” he said, answering his cell phone, and reaching for the door handle of his pickup. “You just have to get an early start so you can finish what didn’t get done yesterday, and work on what you have to do today, and what needs to be done tomorrow.

“And here, we have homemade, one-of-a-kind compost that everyone should be using.

It’s nature’s fertilizer.”

With that summation, after two hours in the compost yard, he says a quick goodbye and is off to his next appointment.

Pride Saturday, March 12, 2016

Page 15

EWC vet tech program adds to options of animal lovers JEFF SMITH Staff Reporter jsmith@starherald.com

Courtesy photos

ABOVE: Shelby Wright, of Albin, Wyoming, left, and Brianne Hessler, of Mitchell, performing ophthalmic procedures on a dog.

LEFT: Megan Velke, vet tech student from Portland, Oregon talks with high school students about guinea pigs at the Wyoming Area Health Education Center Fair in February.

Bittner teaches nine classes in the program. He also spent a career in the Air Force as a veterinarian and was a practicing veterinarian for 23 years in Fairbanks, Alaska, before coming to Torrington.

A lot of the instruction is more hands-on and teaching is done one-on-one rather than having students sit down with professors standing in front of the class and lecturing.

In the veterinary world it’s common to have to perform many procedures all at once.

The students have to be proficient in numerous tasks through the accreditation of the American Veterinary Medical Association and “even though they might only be interested in small animals, they

still have to do cattle because AVMA says the students whose interest is small animals have to do cattle, but large animal people have to do small animals,” said Bittner.

One draw is the number of internship possibilities available through the program.

A lot of the time students will be able to continue to work where they have done

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Walker teaches the anesthesia and analgesia classes as well as medicine and surgery classes.

“It seems like since I’m the director of the program, I do way more paperwork then I used to,” said Walker.

Walker said that veterinary technology is continuing to evolve as fast as the medical world with advanced equipment and other new types of treatment.

At peak times in the semester there could be six to 12 dogs at the facility, six to nine cats, turtles and other reptiles, rodents such as guinea pigs, rabbits and other small mammals.

All of the animals are enclosed in the vivarium section of the veteran technology building on the Eastern Wyoming College campus.

The EWC veterinary technology building was remodeled in 2007 to accommodate all of the animals.

Right now, between the two locations in the program there is one resident horse, two cows, two goats and two resident pigs. There are also lowline Angus which Dr. Edwin Bittner has started to raise.

“In Alaska, I used to breed Dexter cattle and when I came down here I got interested in lowline because they are a smaller breed. You could run several lowlines on the same acreage that you could just one regular-sized cow,” said Bittner. “I’m just fascinated with the breed. It was developed in Australia and imported to the United States.”

S O I L

Students in the Veterinary Technology program at Eastern Wyoming College spend a lot of time with animals.

“Students will typically have usually at least one, possibly two classes where they’ll spend three hours per week in laboratories working with the animals,” said Susan Walker, veterinary technology program director.

One of the classes is an animal care course where the students will spend an hour per week in a time of enrichment for the animals.

“Depending on the animal, that could be doing something like brushing them, training a dog, working on basic commands, having them walk on leads, get the rodents used to being handled. With the sugar gliders, it’s getting them used to being handled,” said Walker.

Eastern Wyoming College offers a two-year degree in veterinary technology and a one-year certificate program for students to become veterinary aides, which was started in 2013.

This year the program started out with 35 students.

Dr. John Simons started the animal health technology program in 1974. It changed its name to the veterinary technology Program in 1987 as the kennel facility was expanded and improvements were made to the veterinary technology building.

The start of the new millennium brought about the large animal housing facility which was added to the land across from the Veterinary Technology Building. In 2002, there was an addition to this with a large animal treatment building.

The current faculty offers a wide variety of experience and teaching styles. It includes Susan Walker, Doctor of veterinary medicine, Edwin C. Bittner Jr., veterinary medical doctor, Jamie Michael, certified veterinary technician, Cristi Semmler, certified veterinary technician, and Colleen Mitchell, doctor of veterinary medicine.

As the only college that offers a vet-tech program in Wyoming, there is a definite need for it from students instate, but the students also come from Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and beyond. Walker said that only 20 percent of the students that come to the college are from Wyoming. The majority of students are from Montana or South Dakota.

Nineteen students graduated from the program last year.

“That’s better than what we have done in the previous years, where we were more around 15-16 students,” said Walker.

Michelle Bradford, on her second year in the program, has continued in the program because of her passion for animals.

“I want to help animals.

That’s my dream job, making their lives easier,” said Bradford.

their internships for different clinics. Some veterinary clinics in Scottsbluff and Mitchell have past students who have graduated from the program.

Aides are required to do 100 hours of an internship and vet techs are required to do 400 hours. Walker said that there a number of opportunities so students could explore the career field, including a diagnostic laboratory, wildlife facilities, rehab facilities, sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums and sea life centers.

“We’ve had them go to stud farms. We just help them pursue their area of interest,” said Walker.

A lot of the local clinics have taken in the students and Walker said that these facilities do a great job of providing them with educational opportunities and mentoring the students.

There is a lot of applicable knowledge that students procure before they graduate.

“I think a lot of the clinics benefit, too. They see them coming back as employees,” said Walker.

After students graduate they take the national exam, the Veterinary Technician National Exam. Currently, students who have taken it have a pass rate of around 87 percent.

This is above the national average for the students who take it for the first time.

EWC graduates also earned higher scores than average U.S. candidates in all nine of the test domains.

“We are pretty proud of that,” said Walker.

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Pride Page 16

Saturday, March 12, 2016