A Rancher’s Life Isn’t Easy, But it’s Still a Great Life
A Rancher’s Life Isn’t Easy, But it’s Still a Great Life
Editor,
I’m writing this letter to share with you what it’s like to be a rancher and the consequences that come with it. I have over 60 years as a rancher, great life – a life you wouldn’t trade for anything else. A life you have to be made for; if you aren’t it won’t last. You have to put up with the good and the bad years.
Where I grew up, some years things looked so promising you couldn’t believe it and suddenly there comes this dry winter storm straight from the ocean over the island creating this mist of salt water turning the beautiful green to black. Leaving only the stems, it looked like somebody had burned it with a torch. Hard times for the ranchers. We would usually recover in two to three months, thanks to the abundance of rain. Things turn green fast.
Coming to California and continuing to be a rancher, the love for the animals came with me. Cows are very intelligent; if you are kind to them they have all the respect for you. I have my cows trained, with a whistle and a bale of hay I have no problem getting them where I want them to go. In the good years you wished you have more cows. So much feed make things run pretty smooth. It is the bad years like this one with 4 to 6 inches of rain, not even enough to raise grass to feed the many squirrels.
I was forced to sell three quarters of my herd but even doing that in order to keep the remaining ones alive, I have to continue to feed them and hope for rain next year. I am not alone, I am talking for all the ranchers. We are all in the same boat.
In all these years in this business many times I’ve asked myself, have the good years paid for the bad ones? The ones who own the land and herds might be out of business but not broke. But those making a living by borrowing the money from the bank to buy their herds, buy feed and to pay the rent, years like this can be very hurtful.
My friends you can see from this letter that being a rancher is not without difficulties. regardless of the consequences no one living this kind of life would trade it for life in town or anyplace else.
We started on our own in 1952 and it’s been a long journey. Sometimes very enjoyable, sometimes not so pleasant. That’s what life is all about.
Amadeu Lima
Hollister
