From Deseret News archives:
Ranchers struggle to pass on way of life
They treasure their trade, but are barely hanging on as profit margins shrink
RANDOLPH, Rich County — Bright red abrasions show through a ripped hole in the back of Cole Weston's shirt.
The teen has reins in his hands and a sheepish grin on his face as he tells how he followed a bull up a steep slope, only for his horse to fall backward on top of him.
"At first I thought it killed him," says his cousin, Simmy Weston, before he plunges into a gully to meet the rest of the Weston clan out for the day's cattle drive.
They have a name for every nook and cranny — Whitney Canyon, Muddy Creek, Bell Butte — on this rugged, 250,000-acre range along the Utah-Wyoming border. Those names are signposts of a way of life that Simmy's father, Cole's grandfather and four other brothers hope to pass on as it was passed to them.
But with ever-shrinking profit margins, environmental lawsuits and unplanned expenses around every corner, they're just hanging on. And the fate of a program that helps them may be a test of whether anyone else cares.
This was a late spring.
Like every year, newborn calves were fed last summer's alfalfa, grown along the Bear River. They should have headed up the mountain to the range around May 15, but the pastures weren't ready in time.
A few days make a difference: If hay runs out in the valley, where cows outnumber people 150 to 1, the ranchers buy more at $75 a ton. Feeding a cow runs 80 cents a day. With 500 head, a three-day delay costs more than $1,000. On an operating budget of $250,000, that hurts.
It's a cold valley, dipping to 20 below in the winter, which produces sturdy, highly regarded cattle. But ranching is tough with a limited number of feed crops. Typically, 35,000 calves are sold here in late fall, then shipped to Midwest feed-corn yards on their way to Kansas and Nebraska slaughterhouses the next summer.
The ranchers can make a 3 percent return — about $2,000 a month — in a good year, says Al Dustin, who runs a farm and ranch management program through the Utah College of Applied Technology's Logan branch. The last few years have been rough.
A mostly self-sufficient bunch, the ranchers rely on Dustin to navigate their financial straits. Most have recently refinanced their long-term debt, and many have moved to federal loans after banks dropped them. Despite vast land holdings and other assets, their cash flow is a trickle.
"They're millionaires who can't buy a hamburger," Dustin said. "They literally live off the lifestyle."
On this summer day, 35 riders move some of the combined 10,000-head herd that grazes in the range's four high-elevation pastures. The brothers and 20 other ranchers run a cooperative cattle company started by the previous generation.
