WyomingLivestockRoundup

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Last Updated on Saturday, 11 May 2013 00:00

Written by Dennis Sun

  This week the Wyoming Livestock Roundup turned 25 years old. We’re proud as punch about it, and we hope you are too. We are humbled that we are part of Wyoming and surrounding state’s agricultural community. We are also very proud that, as a weekly agriculture newspaper we are still growing and are committed to the standards and values that one finds in agriculture and the Code of the West. 

From Alaska and Hawaii to our eastern shores of Manhattan and Washington, D.C., the Roundup arrives weekly by mail or over the internet, but as you know, its main territory is in numerous mailboxes throughout Wyoming and the surrounding region. “Did you see that in the Roundup?” is a phase one hears often in the hills and valleys of its reader’s homes, businesses and pickups. 

What started as a dream 25 years ago in Worland and the Big Horn Basin is now an established business in Casper. It has grown through three owners, numerous managing editors and staff that had agriculture, Wyoming and the West running in their blood. A weekly deadline was something you didn’t question or miss. Others and myself have realized that the story was not the important part, but rather, getting the story right was top priority. I have heard numerous times from persons interviewed after reading the proof of the article that, “They may have not said it that way, but that was what they meant.” Every issue in the last 25 years was developed with pride, 52 times a year.

We thank the readers for subscribing to the Roundup. Our readers invite those who wish to place an ad and spend their well-earned dollars with us, and we especially thank our advertisers. Every ad is meaningful. From a set of bulls to farm machinery to financial businesses, all are there for a good purpose – to improve our lives. We also thank those who send in classified ads, even the one for the used rain gauge. It amazes me every time people tell me they read the whole classified section every week looking to see what’s for sale. 

We thank those who allow us on their farms and ranches to do stories for the special editions and the weekly paper. There is a story down every road in Wyoming. Thank you for telling us about them. We always look forward to the calls telling us about a good story somewhere, and we really like the calls about Wyoming’s youth doing well in agriculture and sharing a parent’s or grandparent’s pride is something we are proud to do. On a sad note, we also appreciate when you send in obituaries or notices of a death to share with our readers. 

At times, I’ve said I have a lot to be modest about – the Roundup is not one of them. Thanks to Del Tinsley for allowing me to become an owner, and Jennifer Womack for making the transition so easy. The team here, both past and present, is and has been comprised of some of the smartest, dedicated, most hard working individuals I’ve ever seen. The Roundup you receive each week is built with pride, 25 years worth. Looking forward to the next 25 years.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 04 May 2013 00:00

Written by Dennis Sun

        At the Public Lands Council Legislative Conference a couple of weeks ago in Washington, D.C., the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) top people in their Wild Horse Program spoke to us on what is happening and how it will affect Wyoming. We didn’t like what we heard.

Most likely, less than 25 percent of the state has wild horses grazing on it, so it’s not a statewide issue. But if you have wild horses grazing and running around in your allotment, there is a good chance they are on your private and state lease lands, as well as on the public lands – that means you have a problem.  That problem is not because you have wild horses, but because these horses have no management.  Remember, a herd of wild horses grows over 20 percent in numbers each year, and it doesn’t take long for a horse herd in a BLM horse management area or allotment to get out of hand. Those over-objective numbers were established to signal that it was time to reduce the numbers so as not to damage the resources of that allotment. Horses do cause damage, especially this time of the year, as they graze heavily on the riparian areas to get to the green grass that grows first along the creeks. I can’t blame them – if I was a horse that is where I would be.  But a wild horse is like any other animal out there, it has to be managed.

For the past years, the state has had a Consent Decree with the BLM that dealt with the management of the wild horses, and it expires this summer because the BLM doesn’t want to sign another one. The Rock Springs Grazing Association in southwest Wyoming just won a settlement with the BLM to control wild horse numbers on checkerboard lands, and they have past court cases to back them up. Elsewhere in the state, the BLM has said they just don’t have the dollars to roundup any horses this year to reduce the over-objective numbers.

The reason they don’t have any money is due to prior management. Last year, the BLM spent over $43 million to maintain the horses they already had in holding facilities. Adoption numbers also went down as the price of hay has shot up. Nobody wants them, and horses can live over 20 years. The BLM has tried fertility control and that hasn’t worked; it just made the mares more fertile as the control wore off. Now they want to spay a number of mares to control numbers. The wild horse enthusiasts will have a field day over that issue. There just isn’t a silver bullet with this issue.

The issue of domestic horse slaughter hasn’t helped. We in Wyoming all know that congressional restrictions dictate that wild horses can’t be sent to slaughter, but the two separate issues get hung together. It will most likely come down to a legal issue with a court deciding, and somehow, we need to educate the public.  

I’m wrong in using terms like “shot down” and “silver bullet” when talking about wild horses. To win, we need to get a lot smarter.  

Dennis

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Last Updated on Saturday, 27 April 2013 00:00

Written by Dennis Sun

    A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to be among 15 others from Wyoming attending the annual Public Lands Council Legislative Conference for two days and two days with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Spring Legislative Conference. While I haven’t been back in Washington, D.C. for some years, the mood among some certainly has changed. 

These annual conferences are planned for those in the beef business and those who ranch on public lands to visit with their state’s congressional members, their staffs, BLM, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and NRCS personnel along with people from the Farm Service Agency, Food and Drug Administration’s Animal Health division, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service’s Animal Disease Traceability and lobbyists from other ag organizations. 

We heard talks on the new Farm Bill from Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Congressman Frank Lucas from Oklahoma. As the Chairmen of the Senate and House Ag Committees, they are certainly power players in agriculture. We heard panels talk on the new immigration bill that were really interesting. Almost everyone said “enforcing the border” had to be the first order of business, and we heard from ranchers who live along the border and how their daily lives are so disrupted as they live in fear of those involved in drug smuggling and human trafficking.

We were welcomed everywhere we went as the word was the “hats are in town,” but the best welcome was from Wyoming’s Congressional Delegation and their staffs. Wyoming was the most represented from any of the western states, both in leadership and attendance. Wyoming has three Congressional members who are very hard working and have staffs who represent Wyoming well. We attended many receptions during our visit, with crowds from as many as 3,000 legislative staffers at a NCBA function that was catered by Outback to a small reception for the Wyoming Cherry Blossom Princess. 

Our days started around 7 a.m. and ended well after my normal bedtime. We soon found out that long days are the norm in Washington lobbying.

We also realized that the ag and public land organizations we support do a great job in Washington. If you in the ranching business and you are not supporting them, you are hurting everyone because they work for us all – not just their members. These organizations are respected in Washington and are welcomed through many doors.

Lets face it – Wyoming is viewed as a “red state.” We’re Republican, but we vote for the person; we graze cattle and sheep on public lands; we mine for coal and trona on public lands; we drill for oil and gas on public lands; we hunt, fish and recreate on public lands; and we are proud of it. These days, we’re getting a raw deal from the White House and the new guard that has surfaced in some of the agencies around Washington. Somehow we have to get the town back and have things going more our way. We thank those who fight the fight for us in Washington and at home, and we know they will not give up. We shouldn’t give up either. Time is on our side. 

Dennis

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Last Updated on Saturday, 13 April 2013 00:00

Written by Dennis Sun

     “Ecosystem marketplace” are not words we commonly use around our state, but that may be changing. As Wyoming is the headwaters of numerous river systems, what we do in Wyoming may affect water quality downstream. If we are doing a good job managing our resources, should we receive recognition and monetary payments? 

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a forum on Conservation Finance that looked at creative approaches to sustain land and water. I always thought if one wanted to sustain land and water, you just turned a good rancher or farmer loose on the land, but I soon realized it is much more than that. The event was hosted by the University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and Stroock Forum on Wyoming Lands and People and the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. The audience was somewhat familiar with the topic, so nothing said was controversial to them, and other than myself, I think there were only a few other persons from agriculture attending, but a couple of the speakers had ties to agriculture and represented ag well. It was a great start on a subject that agriculture will soon become familiar with. 

Conservation financing is ongoing all over the world, including in the U.S. The best way to explain it is to use the model that was explained at the forum. New York City was at the point where they would have to build water treatment plants to clean up the water for their systems, and it was going to be expensive – really expensive. They decided to work with landowners in the watershed upstream to ensure the water quality was in a good condition. The landowners received payments not to develop their lands in ways that would degrade the water quality. Also, best management practices like buffer zones along streams and other practices that wouldn’t stop agriculture were used. I understand it was voluntary and incentive driven. Now New York City only treats their water with fluoride and chlorine, and it is a heck of a lot cheaper than building expensive water treatment plants. 

Closer to home, Sheridan County has voted to spend dollars on water quality, and in Sublette County, local ranchers and the Sublette County Conservation District are working to develop a program. The Pathfinder Ranch southwest of Casper is in the process of developing a conservation or mitigation bank and credit trading for industry and others to use. It is called the Sweetwater River Conservancy, and so far, it is the only one of its kind in the state. For example, if an energy company or the Wyoming Department of Transportation needed to develop along a wetlands or stream, they could buy credits from the conservancy, and this would allow their development of the project. 

This concept will work as long as it is voluntary and no one takes a large club to agriculture, and it could provide added income to the landowner while still allowing them to farm or ranch. People and municipalities are realizing that the public benefit of having good agriculture upstream in the watershed is a real cost saver. 

Dennis