the progressive rancher - july/august 2015

NCA 2009 President’s

Award Recipient

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The Progressive RancherOwner/Editor/Publisher – Leana Stitzel

[email protected] Design/Layout/Production – Joshua Rinard

[email protected]

Published 9 times each year, The Progressive Rancher is mailed to more than 7,000 approved addresses, and has digital and print readership reaching more than 30,000.

The Progressive Rancher is published monthly. The views and opinions expressed by writers of articles appearing in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor. Letters of opinion are welcomed by The Progressive Rancher.Rates for advertising are available upon request. Advertising in The Progressive Rancher does not necessarily imply editorial endorsement. Liability for any errors or omissions in advertisements shall not exceed the cost of the space occupied by the error or omission.The Progressive Rancher is free to people working and active in the livestock industry. The Progressive Rancher is donated to the agricultural industry. If you are not currently receiving this magazine on a regular basis, and would like to be a part of The Progressive Rancher family, contact us by e-mail at [email protected], today, so we can include you on our mailing list. If you have moved or changed addresses, please notify us, by e-mail, so we can keep you informed. All requests for the magazine must be made by e-mail.

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(208) 733-1828 • [email protected]

Cover Photo: by Katarina SutphinCrowley Ranch Ontario OR

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In this Issue...Riding for the NCA Brand ............... 3

Nevada Cattlemen’s Assn. ............... 5

NRRC ............................................... 8

Eye on the Outside ......................... 10

NV CattleWomen ........................... 12

Fumes from the farm ..................... 14

Talking about NCBA ....................... 15

NV Farm Bureau . .......................... 16

Mind of the Millennial .....................19

Beef Checkoff ................................. 20

Nevada FFA .................................... 22

NRRC ............................................. 24

Battle Mt verse Ranchers................. 28

Press Release ........................... .......30

Kentucky Bluegrass ......................32

Look Up .......................................... 35

Gascon ........................................... 36

Yellow Starthistle ...................... 40

Humboldt Watershed .................... 44

Ramblings ...........................................46

Edward Jones Financial Focus ........47

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The Progressive Rancher www.progressiverancher.com 2 July/August 2015

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Habitat Restoration Projects

We hear a lot about the need for habitat res-toration and preserving landscapes for the Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG), Lahon-tan Cutthroat Trout, and other potentially threatened species such as the pygmy rab-

bit. Often we hear about the negatives to our landscape such as fire, invasive plants and degraded watersheds and riparian areas. The authors of this paper agreed there are many posi-tive projects occurring that need to be highlighted and brought to the attention of not only agriculturists but the general public as well. This article, along with the various sidebar stories and photos, are an attempt to do just that - showcase the positive things that are occurring on our landscape in a cooperative and collaborative way between private landowners, permittees, federal and state agencies, and conservation organizations.

Perhaps more than any other feature on the landscape, riparian areas illuminate both positive and negative land use practices. A riparian area is the interface between land and water and often appears as a “ribbon of green” along a stream or other waterbody. Degraded riparian habitats are characterized by eroding stream banks, drying floodplains and a loss of desirable native plant species. Conversely, healthy riparian ar-eas support stable well vegetated stream banks, hydrated floodplains and resilient plant communities. Managing for healthy, functional riparian habitats is important because of the vital ecological services healthy systems provide. Riparian habitats in “proper functioning condition” dissipate the energy of flowing water (thus reducing flood damage), filter sediment, recharge groundwater supplies and provide critically important habitat for many species of wildlife. Because conditions in the surrounding watershed affect streamflow and sediment events, livestock management practices that benefit the entire watershed tend to be most effective. In Nevada, most federally administered grazing allotments include watersheds comprised of mixed public and private lands making a collaborative and coopera-tive approach to livestock management especially important.

There are a number of collaborative livestock management proj-ects focused on improving riparian areas and uplands on both public and private lands in Northeastern Nevada. Some of these projects have been in place for more than 25 years. All share a common vi-sion of restoring healthy functional streams as well as stable, well vegetated uplands. In many cases, success has been achieved through partnerships developed among the ranching industry, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Nevada Department of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the mining industry, the Nevada Department of Agriculture and conservation organizations such as Trout Unlimited. A prime example of these collaborative livestock management proj-ects is highlighted in the sidebar story featuring the Heguy Ranch and is accompanied by several before and after photos which clearly show fascinating results over time. Accompanying future Riding for the NCA Brand articles will be other examples of collaborative water-shed-level restoration efforts underway in allotments in the Maggie,

Susie, Willow/Rock and Salmon Falls River drain-age basins.

Through this monthly column our hope is to up-date those involved in the Nevada Livestock indus-try about the issues NCA is working on to fulfill our mission of promoting, preserving and protect-ing a dynamic and profit-able Nevada beef industry. Habitat restoration of our rangelands and watersheds is obviously necessary to sustain our landscape and our industry. Should you like to visit with NCA staff or officers in person feel free to contact NCA at 775-738-9214 or my NCA e-mail address [email protected]

Ron Torell, President Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and Carol Evans, Elko District, Bureau of Land Management with Assistance from All Cooperating Partners

Rhonda and Mitch Heguy, Blue Basin Allotment, 4-9-12.

Susie Creek, Blue Basin Allotment, BLM Stream Survey Station S-9, looking upstream. 10-27-78. Stream and riparian habitat conditions are poor as shown by a poorly defined channel and a drying floodplain. Most of the riparian vegetation on the floodplain is comprised of Kentucky bluegrass and other shallow-rooted species typical of a lack of persistent soil moisture.

Susie Creek, Blue Basin Allotment, BLM Stream Survey Station S-9, looking upstream. 5-15-15. Since implementation of rotational grazing prac-tices in this area starting in 2008, Susie Creek is narrower and deeper and streambanks are stable and well vegetated. The floodplain is much wet-ter now and supports wetland plant species over a broad area. Note the area of new floodplain devel-oping between the stream channel and the terrace slope to the right.

Spring complex adjacent to Susie Creek, Blue Basin Allotment. 10-27-78. High levels of trampling and compaction from concentrated livestock use limits in-filtration and reduces the ability of this area to capture and store water.

Ron Torell and Mitch Heguy standing at the same spring complex on 5-5-15. After seven years of ro-tational grazing management, the spring complex is saturated at the surface and wetland plant species such as sedges and rushes are expanding into adja-cent uplands.

The Progressive Rancherwww.progressiverancher.com July/August 2015 3

Long-time Nevada ranching family, Mitch and Rhon-da Heguy and their son, Joe, run cattle on the Blue Basin Allotment, located just north of Elko, Ne-vada. The allotment encompasses about 37,000 acres of public lands in the Elko District of the

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and about 13,000 acres of private lands. Included in the allotment are the headwaters of Susie Creek, an important recovery area for Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, a federally listed threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as important habitat for the Greater Sage-Grouse, a candidate species for listing under the ESA.

Beginning in about 2005, the Heguy family began working with BLM and other partners to improve fisheries and wildlife habitats through-out the allotment. Their approach to livestock grazing on public lands is based on partnerships, collaboration and restoration at a watershed scale.

Following a large wildfire in 2006, the Heguy family received funding through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife program to assist them with drilling and aerially seeding burned areas at risk for cheatgrass infestations. Under this cost share program, na-tive grasses and forbs were preserved, es-pecially in the upper elevations. In 2011, Mitch and Rhonda again worked with the Partners Pro-gram to install a water development to draw cattle away from sensi-tive riparian areas and to better distribute the cattle on uplands.

In 2008, the Heguy family worked with BLM to construct a pasture in the upper reaches of the Susie Creek drainage. The pasture includes both pri-vate and public sections and has enabled control of both timing and duration of grazing on the principal riparian acres. Mitch Heguy feels this one change has allowed better cattle grazing patterns leading to an overall healthier condition throughout the entire allotment. From the perspective of reestab-lishing Lahontan Cutthroat Trout into the Susie Creek drainage, improve-ment in functionality of headwater areas is critical to downstream habitat. Energy is dissipated at the top of the watershed reducing potential for down-stream flooding, while development of a healthy well vegetated floodplain improves water retention for the entire system. Perhaps most importantly, Mitch, Rhonda and Joe have voluntarily employed the same principles of modified timing and duration of grazing, especially during the hot season, throughout the entire allotment. The result is streams with narrower and deeper channels, more pool habitat and desirable vegetation like willows, rushes and sedges dominating the streambanks. Regeneration of burned aspen has been outstanding, even where stands have not been fenced from grazing following the fire. Both seeded and unseeded rangelands support a diversity of forbs, native grasses and shrubs in areas affected by recent fire, resulting in rapidly improving post-fire habitat conditions for Sage-Grouse.

In 2014, BLM contracted with Trout Unlimited to quantify the changes in stream and riparian habitat conditions as a result of improved livestock grazing practices throughout the Susie Creek Basin. A primary goal of the analysis was to evaluate the status of habitat recovery for reintroduction of cutthroat trout. The Blue Basin Allotment is northernmost of four BLM ad-ministered grazing allotments within the entire Susie Creek watershed. Pre-scriptive livestock grazing practices to improve fisheries habitat in the three other allotments have been implemented over the past 10 to 20 plus years in cooperation with the Maggie Creek Ranch.

By working with satellite imagery and aerial photography, Trout Unlimited was able to com-pare conditions from as far back as 20 to 30 years ago (depending on available imagery sets) to present conditions (2013). The results are nothing short of amazing. For the Susie Creek

Basin as whole, riparian vegeta-tion increased by over 100 acres, beaver dams in-creased from zero to 139, aerial ex-tent of open wa-ter increased by over 20 acres and length of wetted stream increased by almost three miles. Exclud-ing the effects of wildfire and pre-cipitation, con-servation grazing practices were also found to account for a 32% increase in photosynthetic activity within the riparian zone. In addition, well monitoring data has shown increases in shallow aquiitive changes realized in the Blue Basin Allotment have taken place through improved cattle grazing management rather than through an exclusion of grazing or through a reduction in cattle numbers. The Heguys note that although they spend more time riding and distributing cattle and placing supplement tubs to draw cattle to the uplands, they feel this investment in effort pays off in the long run. Once conditions start to improve, modifying management prescrip-tions becomes easier.

Clearly, the collab-orative, partnership based approach taken by the Heguy family in the Blue Basin Allot-ment has yielded excel-lent results from an en-vironmental standpoint. From a ranching per-spective, Mitch Heguy feels the partnerships have benefited his fam-ily’s operation as well. In his words, “we have been blessed to have a resource team that is committed to work-ing with us to develop grazing plans that are workable; the teamwork and an open dialogue have been invaluable”.

Aspen stand, Blue Basin Allotment, post-wildfire, 5-15-15. Regenera-tion of aspen suckers in the Blue Basin Allotment following wildfire in 2006 has been excellent. A difference in regeneration of burned aspen between fenced and unfenced areas is not discernable as a result of suc-cessful grazing practices. Mitch Heguy is standing in the photo.

The positive changes realized in the Blue Basin Allotment have taken place through

improved cattle grazing management rather than through an exclusion of grazing

or through a reduction in cattle numbers.

“we have been blessed to have a resource team that is committed to working with us to develop grazing plans that are workable; the teamwork

and an open dialogue have been invaluable”.

Mitch Heguy at trough and pipeline system constructed with the assistance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Part-ners for Fish and Wildlife Program. 5-15-15. The troughs help to distribute cattle away from senstive riparian areas.

Blue Basin Creek, Blue Basin Allotment. Rotational livestock grazing practices have allowed for vegetative recovery and an elevated water table along this important tributary to Susie Creek. As the water table rises, forbs along the margins of the riparian area expand out into the adjacent sagebrush community. This creates ideal forag-ing conditions for Sage-Grouse broods in late summer.


Josie Moore of Churchill County High School is the recipient of the 2015 Nevada Cattlemen’s Association Scholarship. Nevada Cattlemen’s Association Research and Education committee would like to congratulate Josie and wish her the very best as she continues her education. Below is a copy of her winning essay.

Johann Goethe once said; “Nothing is more danger-ous for a new truth than an old misconception.” One of the most prominent issues that the beef industry is facing today is the general public’s mis-conception about their protein packed products

and the effects the animals themselves have on the environ-ment. If one runs a Google search for beef quotes a majority of the search results that show up are ones bashing the beef industry in some way or another. Beef producers have to con-tinually defend their profession because of people’s ignorance to the importance their products hold in society.

One misconception that is running rampant in our appearance con-scious society currently is that beef consumption is too high and that it is leading to more health problems. The fact is that protein consumption is the only part of our diet that has stayed fairly constant in the last few decades. Based on the two thousand ten Dietary Guidelines Ad-visory Committee report the daily amount of calories consumed by flour and cereal products has risen by over one hundred and ninety three calories per person in the last forty years while the category of meat, eggs, and nuts has only risen nineteen calories in the same time period. In fact the same report states that the average American only consumes five point one ounces of protein a day while five point five ounces is the recommended amount. Of that five point one ounces of protein only a small portion of it is high quality meat because individuals are told that real meat products cause various health problems.

One of the leading causes of death in America today is heart disease and the general public attributes these deaths to prob-lems in the population’s diet. Ironically less than five percent of American’s diet is beef, some of the lowest consumption rates in American history. In that five percent of beef over half of the fatty acids found are monounsaturated acids, the same heart healthy acids found in olive oil. In addition beef consumption is only responsible for approximately eleven percent of Americans cholesterol intake, compared to eggs which are about twenty five percent. The Beef Checkoff has discovered that a three ounce piece of lean beef can make up to fifty percent of the suggested protein consumption suggestion. If Americans were to truly consider the reality of what beef contributes to our health they would find that switching to a vegetable filled diet will do more damage than improvement.

Another misconception that the beef industry is facing is the rumor that Big Beef is taking over beef production and driving family ranches out of business, which is impacting the welfare and quality of beef in a negative way. In reality the beef

production community is comprised of over one million cattle farmers and ranchers whose primary goal is to produce a “high quality beef prod-uct in an environmentally and economically efficient way.” According to a recent study ninety seven percent of beef ranches are family owned and over fifty four percent of those have been owned by the same family for three or more generations. The reality of the matter is that the demand for beef around the world needs both family ranches and “Big Beef” to ensure everyone’s demands are met.

Some believe that cattlemen reap rewards from the public’s need for beef and do not contribute back into society. Cattle produces obviously care for more than profits because eighty four percent of beef producers contribute to their churches, forty seven percent volunteer with youth organizations, and thirty fiver percent of other community organiza-tions. Cattlemen dedicate their lives to serving the general public and that doesn’t stop after the beef makes it to market. Ranchers and farmers make pennies on a dollar from the price per pound of beef that consumers pay in a grocery store and then they proceed to put half of that income back into the community through other outlets.

The final misconception I would like to discuss is the belief that Beta-agonists cause cattle to be deformed and effects meat in a manner that is dangerous to the public’s health. Zilmax and Optaflexx are beta-agonists; they are simply animal feed ingredients that encourage a better conversion rate for feed to transfer to muscle and fat development in an animal. These products have been deemed safe by researchers for the consumption by humans and animals. Ranches only use these products in prescribed amounts to create a leaner product to fill the demand by the general population. An interesting result of the use of these products is it reduces the strain on the environment by lessening the need for minerals, water, and fuel that would be used if ranchers had to continually move their cattle in order to fill health needs.

Misconceptionby Josey Moore

NCA Scholarship Recipient


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The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association (NCA) recently hired Kaley Sproul as their new Executive Director. Kaley is a well-qualified addition to our associa-tion having recently graduated from Great Basin College with an Associate of Arts degree in agriculture and is in the process of finishing her Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary education for agriculture. She has been involved in the promotion and sustainability of the livestock industry throughout her life. Kaley most recently worked at the University of Nevada Cooperative Exten-sion in the Mineral County office coordinating with the statewide “Herds and Harvest” and “Beginning Farmers and Ranchers” programs. “NCA extends a warm welcome to Kaley as we look forward to having her as our new NCA Executive Director,” states Ron Torell, President of Nevada Cattlemen’s As-sociation. Kaley will begin her work assignment with NCA on July 20, 2015.

Originating in 1935 as the sounding voice for Nevada’s livestock industry, NCA, a dues paying non-profit membership organization, had the same goals and mission then as it does today: “To pro-mote, preserve and protect a dynamic and profitable Nevada beef industry.” Center to accomplishing these goals and mission has been an ever-important fleet of volunteers as well as the two paid staff posi-tions of Executive Director and Executive Secretary. Kaley will join Sharon McKnight, NCA Executive Secretary, and the many membership volunteers in helping NCA accomplish its mission.

The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association office is lo-cated in rooms 208 and 209 of the Henderson Bank Building. The office can be reached by phone at 775-738-9214, e-mail [email protected] or by face-to-face office visit each week day from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Nevada Cattlemen’s Association Hires New Executive Director

Kaley Sproul, New Executive Director of Nevada Cattlemen’s Association


For details call (530) 347-3793 or the representative nearest you:

or email us at [email protected] for the catalog and pictures on

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Mark VenturacciFallon, NV

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Steve LucasParadise Valley, NV

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TOP OFFERINGSWeight Steers Heifers

300-400 230.00-300.00 215.00-307.50400-500 259.00-312.50 233.00-267.50500-600 271.43-290.00 230.00-240.00600-700 226.00-250.00 207.00-237.00700-800 213.00-235.00 197.00-215.00800-900 195.00-200.00 171.00-191.00Lite Holstein (under 600#) 130.00-175.00Heavy Holstein (over 600#) 122.00-150.00

*Single, small framed or plainer cattle 40.00 to 70.00 less than top offerings

BUTCHER COWS & BULLSBreakers (Fat Cows) 95.00-100.00Boners (Med Flesh) 101.00-118.00Cutters (Lean) 88.00-95.00Holstein Cows 60.00-106.00Butcher Bulls 95.00-130.00Shelly (Thin) Bulls 75.00-85.00Shelly Cutters (Thin) 20.00-40.00Young Feeder Cows 95.00-117.00Heiferettes 95.00-140.00Holstein Heiferettes 102.00-125.00Holstein Bulls NTFeeder Bulls 85.00-95.00Cutting Bulls 95.00-120.00Used Roping Steers 110.00-145.00Preg Tested Cows (3, 4, 5 yr. old solid mouth) NT

Bred Heifers (6 to 7 months bred) NTPairs (solid mouth) 4-5 yrs NTPairs (older) NT

CALVES-SHEEP-GOATS-PIGS-HORSESBeef Calves (HD) 450.00-625.00Dairy Calves 2.00-80.00Feeder Lambs 160.00-190.00Fat Lambs 140.00-170.00Ewes (CWT) Top End 40.00-70.00Bucks (CWT) Top End 40.00-60.00Small Goats (under 65 lbs.) (HD) 30.00-125.00Large Goats (over 70 lbs.) (HD) 125.00-330.00Weaner Pigs 45.00-110.00Feeder Pigs 60.00-130.00Top Hogs 75.00-91.50Butcher Sows 20.00-45.00Horses (under 1100 lbs.) 10.00-20.00Horses (over 1100 lbs.) 25.00-35.00

TOdAy’S COWSAvg. Wt Avg. Cost

Top Cow 1305 118.00Top 10 Cows 1112 111.43Top 50 Cows 1367 108.81Top 100 Cows 1367 102.61Top Butcher Bull 1990 130.00Top Holstein Cows 1280 99.34

MARkET TRENd:Feeder cattle were steady on the same kind and quaity de-pending on flesh and fill. Fallon Livestock is a key market for industry where buyers and sellers meet each week with a pro-fessional staff with over 50 years of experience in marketing livestock.PLEASE call us ahead with your consignments. It helps us market your cattle. We talk to buyers all the time - they want to know what’s coming in. We are seeing good demand on weigh up cows & bulls. It sure makes a big difference on how they are sorted. Ranchers, don’t send your cows directly to kill right now, most cows will bring a premium over kill price. To feed or go back to the country call us for details! Let our crew sort and class your cows. This will help you receive full market value for your cows.

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MARkET REPORTJune 16th, 2015

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Travel Day


By Joseph Guild

Sometimes when one least expects it, a word, a touch, and maybe even just a smile sets your thinking in whole new direction. An email, a real letter or a phone call picks you up and restoes faith in whatever might have been wavering or on shaky

ground in your life. I was feeling rather pessimistic recently about the progress the livestock industry was making on all the myriad issues spawned by the many critics against whom we were waging fights

to preserve and protect our businesses, fami-lies, lifestyle and way of life. Yes, Mr. optimis-tic was not feeling very confident about the out-come of so many of these conflicts.

A recent review of a selection of the agricul-tural publications I have stacked up in my office revealed a whole list of problems we could be facing or are currently facing. I have written about them before. The EPA effort to redefine what constitutes a Wa-ter of the United States subject to that agency’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act is at the top of most lists be-cause of its widespread potential impact on all agriculture everywhere. Since the rule is now adopted, many of the co-alition opposing this un-warranted effort by the EPA are contemplating a lawsuit to stop imple-

mentation of the rule.But just a short list of

the other issues can make a person go as crazy as a mad mom cow trying to protect her baby calf from all sorts of terrors known and unknown.

Trade Protection Authority, Dietary Guidelines, potential listing of the sage grouse, wild horses, H2A program “reforms”, bighorn domestic sheep conflicts, China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, animal rights advo-cates, GMOs, weather, drought, market uncertainties, COOL pushback tar-iffs from our neighbors and best trading partners, Mexico and Canada are all

serious issues facing many sectors of the livestock industry at the same time.It makes a person want to throw up hands, shake their head in disgust

and walk back to the south 40 and scratch their favorite retired cow horse on the neck for a while. But the last thing ranch people have in their DNA is the give up gene. Survival in this business is part of the daily bread they were raised on and facing adversity is the only option.

That is why I am so optimistic in spite of the trials and travails I see on the horizon. The example of the grit, no quit determination described above was revealed to me in a phone call from a young producer acquaintance of mine. She had recently been involved in the Young Cattlemen’s Conference tour conducted by NCBA and sponsored by many of the allied industry partners of the National Association. The tour members visit feedlots, pro-cessing facilities, the Commodity Exchange in Chicago and end the tour in Washington D.C. visiting with NCBA’s lobbyists and members of Congress from their own states. Most of these young people are part of their family owned operations or work in some way in the production sector of the cattle business. They are very familiar with a cow calf or stocker operation. They know the seed stock or feedlot business but generally they lack a broad understanding of the larger industry and the impacts laws and regulations can have on any business.

It was heartening to hear her passion and love for ranching and how articulate she was in expressing that passion. More heartening however, was the depth of her commitment to work on the many issues facing our industry.

She gets it. What does she get? She gets that every member of this in-dustry is a part of the problem or part of the solution. What is the problem? The problem is 98% of this country doesn’t realize how badly they need the other 2% who provide the full bellies that allow them to whine and complain. And to be fair, those who do not whine and complain (the vast majority) are just content in their full bellied ignorance to let someone else provide them their food.

I told her NCBA is deliberating a dues increase which will be presented to the NCBA Board of Directors meeting in Denver in July. She was aware of this issue because her group had been briefed about it a couple of times on the tour. She said the need for the increase was most evident when they were in Washington D.C.

She was amazed that such a small staff was working in D. C. with so many important issues facing the industry in that town. She said without that office and those dedicated employees the industry would virtually have no voice. She would gladly pay more in dues. She also said something profound and so outside the box that I had to catch myself from laughing: “ Every beef eater in America should be a member of NCBA because the Association is essentially working on the consumer’s behalf too.” Wow, you think I am not impressed.

This young lady and others like her are our future and the future is so bright. She and her eighth generation ranching husband (she is only the fifth generation) are raising their children to be ranchers. They will succeed at that and they will help solve the problem of communication and commit-ment to work on those problems. This is why I am confident and optimistic; and you should be too. I’ll see you soon

Tanner Miller checking the cattle


Beef Fits Into An Athlete's Diet

As a long-time endurance athlete and beef fan, I’ve seen a lot of articles in sports magazines, books, and of course on social media about what ath-letes need to eat for training and racing. For this month’s CattleWomen article, I’d like to focus on

some of the research on protein’s role in an athlete’s training and recovery and how beef can fulfill those protein requirements. I’ll also touch on the information that NV CattleWomen, NCBA, and partners like the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and Beef Councils are sharing with athletes to help them with their nutrition plans.

The role of protein in diets for athletes has become an interesting topic lately, as in the last year or two, sports drinks have started adding protein to their cocktail of carbohydrates and electrolytes. The way in which endur-ance athlete nutrition supplements are marketed today, it seems protein or amino acids may be the new, hot trend. Recovery products have typically contained higher levels of protein, but what is also starting to take off is pro-tein added to nutrition consumed during training or racing. Some of these sports drinks and recovery drinks now contain up to 10% protein or ratios as high as 33% protein added to the swirl of carbohydrates and caffeine. Whey protein isolate and soy protein isolate are common protein sources and amino acids that are currently marketed include glutamine and leucine (Hammer Nutrition website).

Diving into the research, it is clear that protein’s role in strength train-ing and recovery has been studied more extensively than endurance exer-cise training, but several important points can still be discussed. Much focus has been put on determining when athletes should eat protein, how much they need to eat, and what types of proteins are most beneficial. Sev-eral studies have pointed to a minimum of 10-25 grams of protein should be consumed soon after completing a workout in order to increase the rate of muscle protein synthesis (Moore et al. 2014). In their review, Moore et al. (2014) also go on to suggest that endurance athletes continue to con-sume 20 grams of protein every 3-4 hours (rather than 40 grams every 6 hours) for at least 12 hours postexercise. Protein sources enriched with the amino acid leucine, such as whey, are often recommended, especially in the early recovery process 0-60 minutes following exercise (Moore et al. 2014). There is also evidence that protein consumption prior to exercise is also beneficial for better recovery. From the review paper by Moore et al., the take home message is that athletes (regardless of endurance or strength training sport) need to be eating protein, before, and most especially af-ter exercise to properly recover, build and remodel muscles, and promote muscle protein synthesis.

Beef is a natural source of protein that compares well to recovery bars (Men’s Health Website) for post-workout nutrition. Jerky is low in fat and calories, convenient, tastes better than recovery bars and provides a more effective source of digestible protein with less sugar (Men’s Health). Women’s Health Magazine (Feb 2015) stated the same benefits of changing to jerky for your gym bag treat. A 1-oz serving of beef jerky (Trader Joe’s Organic Beef Jerky) provides 70 calories, 1 g unsaturated fat, 5 g carbohy-drates (all from sugar), 11 g protein, and 270 mg of sodium. Compare this to the average recovery bar (Hammer Whey Recovery Bar) for the same 1 oz serving (which is only one-third of a bar) and you’ll take in 127 calories, 5 g of fat, 10 g of carbohydrates (6 g of which come from sugar), 8 g of pro-tein, and 30mg of sodium. Eat the whole bar, and you’ll be consuming 330 calories, 126 of those from fat! Recovery bars have their time and place, but for athletes trying to lose weight while training, beef jerky is a great choice

to help muscles recover. Selecting jerky that isn’t excessively high in sugar and salt content helps athletes get the most from their beef consumption toward their recovery.

NV CattleWomen and Elko County CattleWomen are taking this mes-sage of beef’s benefits to athletes by teaming up again to provide beef jerky to the participants of the Ruby Mountain Relay in Elko County July 31 - Aug 1st. With help of Ashley Buckingham our Beef Ambassador, last year about 500 people received beef jerky packages as well as the “Confident Cooking with Beef” brochures from the Nevada Beef Council. Many ath-letes last year indicated that it was their favorite item in their race swag bag. We hope to reach just as many athletes at this year’s race. The “I Love Beef” team of 12 ladies is racing 184 miles again to get the word out about how great beef is and how important beef is to an athlete’s nutrition plan. The team is seeking sponsorships to help defray the costs of participating in the event. A $50 sponsorship received by July 25th lands your ranch’s brand on the side of the race vans and your ranch’s name listed as a sponsor of the jerky in the race packets every participant receives. Contact Salli McDer-mott at 775-753-9692 or [email protected] to donate.

Other programs that are helping get the word out about beef’s nutrition-al benefits include the 30-day protein challenge that folks can sign up for at BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com website. This beef checkoff funded program helps people journal, evaluate when they are not getting enough protein, and balance the amount of protein they are eating at each meal. From both an exercise physiology standpoint and a dieting standpoint, taking in 25-30 grams of protein at each meal (or 10-15 grams of protein every few hours) can vastly improve muscle protein synthesis (Douglas Paddon-Jones 2014).

The Nevada Beef Council manages a Facebook page for Team Beef Nevada. This is a group of endurance athletes who enjoy beef as a recovery food. It is a great page for picking up the latest info on nutrition and exercise and for sharing info with other endurance and strength training athletes. The Nevada and California Beef Councils also have on staff Registered Di-etician James Winstead who could who can answer specific questions about beef in nutrition plans. He can be contacted through email at [email protected]. The Cattlemen’s Beef Board and NCBA through the beefnutrition.org and beefitswhatsfordinner.com websites have put out several publica-tions that also help share the important messages about beef in an athlete’s diet, such as:

• Power Up for the Good Life• Proteins are not Created Equal• How Protein Powers YoutAs you can tell, there are tons of resources out there for athletes

to learn how to go beyond carbo-loading and incorporate proteins like beef into their diets for optimal performance and recovery. And for those folks that are exercising and reducing calories to meet a weight loss goal, adding jerky to your post-workout routine can be a great way to help you reach your goals. Regardless of whether or not you consider yourself an athlete, making sure you incorporate 25-30 g of protein into each meal of the day will go a long way into helping you maintain muscle mass and improve satiety between each meal. Beef - Fuel for the Finish!

References:Moore, D.R., Camera, D.M., Areta, J.L. and Hawley, J.A. 2014. Beyond

muscle hypertrophy; why dietary protein is important for endurance ath-letes. Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 39: 987-997.


Elko County CattleWomen Honors Beef Business and Mother of the Year for 2015.

Harmony Ranch Ministry3767 Keyes Way (775) 867-3100Fallon, NV 89406 [email protected] Cell (775) 426-1107

Tom J. Gonzalez | Diana J. Gonzalez, Pastor

You are invited to

COWBOY CHURCH!1st Saturday of every month

Standish, CA @ 6:00 p.m.

Hwy. 395 /A3 — Standish 4-H Hall

You are invited to

COWBOY CHURCH!3rd Saturday of every month

Lovelock, NV @ 7:00 p.m.

1035 Cornell Ave. — Old Variety Store

Are you having a Rodeo or Livestock event? GIvE Us A CAll.We would love to come to your event or ranch and host Cowboy Church for you.

BEEF BUsINEss OF THE YEARDuring this year’s Annual Banquet for the Elko County CattleWomen;

Maggie Creek Ranch was presented with the 2015 Beef Business of the Year. Maggie Creek Ranch is a beef cow-calf and summer stocker opera-tion west of Elko. They grow cattle on the hoof, locker beef, and beef for retail seasonally. Maggie Creek prides itself on conserving and improving public and private lands and furthering their standing in the communities they interact with. Their goal is to be the best possible stewards of their resources, natural, financial and human, while contributing food through production agriculture.

As stated they have been offering retail beef seasonally, and it is a wonderful opportunity for the community to know and understand where their beef is coming from. To be “in the know” on this wonderful product, please follow and like Maggie Creek on Facebook.

MOTHER OF THE YEARLorey Eldridge was presented with the 2015 Mother of the Year dur-

ing the Annual Awards Banquet for Elko County CattleWomen. Karen Winchell, chairman of the award recognized Lorey’s selfless hours that she have given to CattleWomen, not only did she hold leadership positions in Elko County but also White Pine County. Karen pointed out all the different committees she has chaired over the years, and echoed the sen-timents of many that Lorey has been a dedicated member. Lorey’s Grand-daughter Natacia Eldridge had the pleasure of adding to the presentation on behalf of the family. Natacia began by saying, “The true meaning of a mother describes Lorey perfectly. If you know Lorey, then you know she is one of the most compassionate, caring, and loving women you will ever meet. She is beautiful inside and out, with those sparkling blue eyes and bright smile, she is the type of person who always makes you feel welcome. If you are lucky enough to stop by Lorey’s house during breakfast, lunch or dinner time, you are sure to taste one of the best meals you have ever had!

And not only is she a master chef, she is also an impressive artist, a talented writer, and a creative mastermind. Not only has Lorey been a mother to her four sons she raised, she has been a mother to her daughter-in-laws, her many grandchildren, numerous stray animals, pets of her own, she even acts as the mother hen to her three brothers on occasion, as well as now caring for her mother. I am sure that we can all say that Lorey has been a mother figure to all of us at some point in time in our lives. You couldn’t be more deserving of this award. Your years of service in the Cattlewoman’s association as an ambassador for the beef indus-try and the ranching community are appreciated by all. May you cherish this day and congratula-tions from all of us on this exciting honor of being named Cattlewomen’s Mother of the Year.”

Kevin and Leslie Ahearn, Maggie Creek Ranch (Red House) accepted the award on behalf of the Ranch.

Karen Winchell – Chairman and Lorey Eldridge – Mother of the Year

Left to Right: Brandi Stitzel, Les Peterson, Marty and Sham Eldridge, Tom and Lorey Eldridge, Natacia Eldridge, Mark and Veronica Eldridge.


Well shearing is over and lambing. We are getting everything to the hills. We have had great moisture. You know its good when the livestock haters look so disap-pointed that they didn’t get to kick us off.

Well I was telling the story about Bob Beatle Bailey and Mel Kelly. They were country horse traders and to this day no computer program or video camera could compare to the raw entertainment that these two gentlemen could provide. Beatle Had sold me Apple Jack the non-swim-ming horse and later sold me Blue John. Blue John was an athlete with a type “A” personality. I never saw a cow out fox him and you had better be paying real close attention when he was working because he was in over drive and was eating the cow with or without you. When I got him, Beatle had him in a snaffle bit. To show what a hand that I was, I put him in a hackamore. I am sure he was ready but maybe I wasn’t. The first day that I rode him in his new headgear, Cowboy Bob McDonald and I were moving some little first calf heifer pairs down the road. Blue John was bored to death as following along a bunch of wobble-geared calves had bored him to death. He kept bumping the calves with his nose and pawing the ground in shear boredom. For some reason Blue John reached down and bit this calf. The calf bawled and his mom spun around and got under Blue John’s belly. Blue John had enough and went air borne. My wallet came out first then my pocket knife, then my Copenhagen can and it came open so about half of it was in my eyes. Blue john emptied my pockets and why he didn’t get me down was a miracle unto itself. McDonald was on his hands and knees picking up my stuff and laughing himself silly. Riding a bucking horse is an individual sport and out on the high wide and lonesome it can be a long walk home so you might not make a pretty ride but its like flying airplanes; any landing is good if you walk away.

The next day I decided I should put Blue John in a bozel. I had one that Jim Hutchinson had given me; it just needed reins and a lead rope. I bought a fine horsehair rope and proceeded to assemble the apparatus. When fully assembled it seemed like my lead rope was rather long but not to be out done I just made a few more tucks and loops of hair rope in my chinks. I proudly mounted up and headed for the group of, yes once again wobble geared calves, of nearly the same vintage as the day before. We were going to take them through the yard past the barn to the Burdett field. By any measure this shouldn’t take long. We had to cross the double culverts by the barn and past the loading chute and we would be home free. The heifers didn’t want to go across the culvert as a lot of water was passing through them and was no doubt as good an excuse as any to be ignorant. Well about three heifers jumped in the river and proceeded to swim toward the chicken house. I dove in behind them and for a fleet ing moment wondered if old Blue John could swim. He did very well. When we reached the far shore, Blue John had won the struggle but when he hit the shore he floundered in the muddy bank and had stepped over my new hair rope. When he hit dry ground he went ballistic. He would shoot me straight up and then the hair rope between his front legs would come

tight and goose him again. The only reason that I was still in the average was the hair rope had dallied around me some how and would slam me back down in the saddle. After being slammed around three or four times Blue John was going high enough I thought I could see the other side of Wrights Point. Finally all came loose and Blue John threw me so high, I started looking around for a stewardess. Then down I came. Went through the chicken wire on the top of the chicken coop and landed in the water trough which was an old wood stove water heater cut in half and for about a month, not only did I see stars, I saw chickens and could smell them too. Well enough about my ability, as a forked legged Vaquero, Getting the job done may not look pretty but getting there can be half the fun.

Another legend in the horse-trading arena was Mel Kelly. He guar-anteed every horse he sold and would tell you that if you didn’t get along with your new purchase to bring him back and he’d get you another one just like him or a better one with maybe a little boot adjustment to make it right by all parties. HUH!!!!! One of Mel’s legendary stories was when the well dressed man came in the scale house looking for Mel and Mel coughed it up that he was indeed Mel Kelly and what could he do for him? The well-dressed fellow said even though he was a doctor he was a horse-man of the first order and new his onions. Mel mentioned that he could see he was gifted in the judgment of horseflesh and what could Mel do to help him along. The Doctor without blinking said he was looking for a five thousand dollar horse and wouldn’t pay a penny more. Mel Got up and without hesitation, replied, “Your in luck young fella, I had one come in this morning”. A few minutes later Mel reentered the scale house with a check for five grand and as he held it up said, “Touch me Jesus touch me”.

One fall day Beatle and Mel came by the house and wanted to know if I had room for about sixty head of horses for the winter. Beatle had turned a couple of mare bands loose in the Big Red “S” field so a few more horses eating slough grass and flags couldn’t hurt. About an hour later the horses were unloaded behind the barn and they looked like they had escaped from the kill floor in Redmond. I asked Mel if anyone was hurt when the killer truck tipped over to which no reply was given. Then the horses were led one by one into a small pen, twitched, and their teeth floated. Some got a leg tied up during the procedure; but when all was done the corral looked like it had a couple inches of hail in it. The horses were trailed down the road and it seemed incumbent on me to mention to Mel that the company wouldn’t be responsible for any death loss. Once again, no response from Mel, just a determined look of just you wait and see young fella.

The next spring a miracle seemed to have been performed. I believe that most of the horses had made the winter and were slicked off and fat. Now, Mel’s two boys Dennis and Jim could tune up a horse so well that Mr. Good wrench would be shamed. The manes and tails were pulled and the pile of hair looked like a loose stack of hay. Dennis and Jim began prepar-ing the freshly over hauled horses for the big show and within about two days all had been distributed to a new owner. “I guarantee it” If that’s not the way it happened, well it should have happened that way.

Hang and Rattle! Hank

By Hank VoglerFUMES FROM THE FARM


TALKING ABOUT NCBAJoe Guild, 6th Region Vice President

A ny organization is only as effective as its people. This is a truth which is also a cliché and it applies to a ranch, a school district, business or govern-ment agency. It is also true of organizations led by volunteers such as the National Cattlemen’s

Beef Association. I have written often in the last two and a half years of the efforts and effectiveness of the employees of NCBA, but I don’t think I have ever mentioned anything about the vol-unteer leadership of NCBA. And to paraphrase songstress Joni Mitchell; you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

I have had the privilege of serving on the boards of several volunteer associations over the years. Many of you have been to the awards functions of such organizations where someone’s work on behalf of the membership is recognized and such awards are always well-deserved but rarely is the whole story of that person’s hard work ever told.

NCBA is no different as it recognizes its outgoing leadership with kind words, plaques or as is typical for agricultural organizations, new hats and shiny belt buckles. Sometimes it is too late to tell that whole story because the person who deserves the recognition passes away way too early. Such was the case recently when a personal friend of mine and a friend to the entire cattle industry passed on after a very valiant fight against a terrible disease. I would like to use him and his service as an example of so many others whose service to us all is not remarked upon often enough when they are with us. I do this in honor of him but also to make the point there are others like him doing faithful work on our behalf who never get accolades or thanks.

His name was Richard Gebhart. At the time of his death he was serving as the Treasurer of NCBA. This job is a very large undertaking. It requires extensive travel away from home and ranch. It involves spending a great deal of time in meetings with the NCBA Audit Committee and the Chief Financial Officer of NCBA in making sure the association finances are in order and in a positive position.

Richard Gephart was a big man physically and his expansive charm and personality filled a room the minute he walked in and helped to fill the lives of those fortunate enough to know him. His story is typical of those leaders in agriculture we have all known. Also, I would argue there are dozens of similar stories with different details of other members of this industry who are the bulwarks of rural society. These people who are in such leadership po-sitions also form the bedrock for the stability of our larger society as a whole.

Obviously, the urban and suburban sectors of our country have their steadfast community leaders too but in my opinion, it is in rural America where we find our greatest reservoirs of the traditional values that have made this such a great country in spite of its faults and shortcomings.

Gebhart was a great example of the high standard of societal leadership produced in rural America. And, it was obvious after meeting him for only a short time that he embodied the traditional values so important in maintain-ing a forward thinking, positive, get things done attitude. He was personally gifted with these standards and he imparted them to the organizations he associated with.

He was a fourth generation cattleman from the Northeastern part of Oklahoma. Well educated, he had a Bachelor’s Degree, two Masters Degrees and a Juris Doctorate. He was a 30 year career Army Officer and a veteran of the first Gulf War. And, he held a Professorship in the College of Business at the University of Tulsa. His professional accomplishments were many in addition to being a successful cattle rancher.

Equally impressive were his contributions to the agricultural industry by volunteering for many tasks to help aid the part of our society I believe he was

most fond of. This example helps to make my point about the many others who are in the trenches fighting every day to block those whose criticisms and outright efforts to harm agriculture are so pervasive.

As I said earlier, he was the Treasurer of NCBA at the time of his passing. He was the Immediate Past Chairman of the national Federation of State Beef Councils. He was the President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Associa-tion when he died and Vice-Chair of the Oklahoma Beef Council. He served on the Tulsa State Fair Junior Livestock Auction Committee, was a member of his County Cattlemen’s Association Board of Directors.

He was also a devoted husband, father and grandfather as is so typical of community leaders who are as grounded in traditional values as Richard was. He leaves behind a legacy of sacrifice and service to his family too. I only knew him a short time but I considered him to be a very good friend; one in whom I could confide and receive sound advice when I asked for it.

So that is a brief description of what was obviously a rich and fulfilled life. I can think of a dozen other lives like his off the top of my head. The people like Richard I can easily draw upon for inspiration are men and women who have devoted themselves as he did for better families, better industry, better ranches, improved animals and plants, thus creating a better business and living environment which ultimately adds up to a better nation and world. I could easily be criticized by some for hyperbole here, but I say to those critics, prove me wrong. Tell me that examples like my friend’s do not inspire and set standards that if followed make improvements for us all.

I’ll see you soon.


Nevada Farm Bureau

Farmers & Ranchers of Nevada: Bringing a New Industry to Nevada

Scott and Anna-Lisa Laca met at Modesto Junior Col-lege after both growing up in the agriculture indus-try. From there, Anna-Lisa went to Oklahoma State University to study animal science marketing, and Scott went to Cornell University where he studied

dairy science. They would later reunite and start Great Basin Shepherding in Churchill County.

In the United States, the most common dairy operations are cow dair-ies, buffalo dairies and goat dairies; but most people aren’t familiar with, or have even heard of, sheep dairies. The sheep dairy industry in America is still in its infancy with only 100 operations across the country and only 12,000 milking sheep within those operations. Despite a small number of dairies across the U.S., this in-dustry is closer to home than some might think. Great Basin Shepherding is the first and only Grade A sheep dairy in Nevada.

Scott originally thought he was going to work in the cow dairy industry, but a trip oversees in-troduced him to the idea of milking sheep.

“I intended to milk cows, and I studied dairy cows in college,” Scott says. “My junior year I was in a dairy program where I went to school, and we ended up traveling to Italy. It really hit home when we went to Italy. We ended up stop-ping at a sheep dairy, and the sheep dairy was very simple. There was low capital cost, and for somebody like me with no equity, it presented an opportunity to start something on my own.”

Once he returned home, Scott took a college class on sheep, went to work on a New York sheep dairy for six months and then came back to Ne-vada to start his own operation.

Being young and trying to start a farm has presented its own unique challenges for Scott and Anna-Lisa who are only 26 years old.

“Well a lot of times when you’re young, people don’t take you seriously,” Anna-Lisa says. “And we’ve experienced that several times, but what bet-ter way to deal with it than to prove them wrong.”

“You say you’re going to make the milk. You make the milk. There are no excuses. And they’re shocked that we actually did what we said and made the milk. And I think that all goes back to our age,” Scott says.

Scott was advised not to start a sheep dairy operation and was told it couldn’t be done, but he went ahead with his idea anyway and would recom-mend any young person considering farming to do the same.

“Most of the young people that do come up into agriculture follow the generation before them, take over an operation or doing something like that,” Scott says. “Which is great, but I would tell the younger kids that want to do agriculture that they can really do anything they want to. I was told you can’t milk sheep several times, yet, I had seen it done and seen it work. So you just have to do some research, put your back into it and get it done.”

Naysayers didn’t discourage Anna-Lisa either, and when the idea of start-ing a sheep dairy was presented to her by Scott, she met it with enthusiasm.

“Scott decided we’re going to this, and I said, ‘Okay, sounds fun.’ I’m interested in new things, and it’s been an adventure.”

Running a sheep dairy isn’t a small task and ensuring everything runs smoothly keeps both Scott, Anna-Lisa and their full-time employee busy on a daily basis. Scott is involved with milking the sheep, bagging the milk, feeding, and all the day-to-day management of the farm including mainte-nance, quality and outside farming.

Anna-Lisa maintains a full-time job outside of the farm, but she also helps oversee the lamb program, feeds the lambs in the morning, helps manage the health of the lambs and does some of the paperwork.

Anna-Lisa and Scott are also active members in their community, and Anna Lisa is the chair of the Nevada Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee.

“It’s really great to be an active in YF&R,” says Anna-Lisa. “Farm Bureau is an awesome chance for younger farmers like Scott and I to have a voice in our surrounding community and industry.”

On the business side of things, now that Great Basin Shepherding is up and running, they are largely dependent on the market for production and growth.

“It’s a hurry up and wait game,” Scott says. “We hurry up and grow, and then we wait for the market to catch up. Everybody says they want the milk, but we al-ways have to wait for the lag in the market to catch up.”

Currently, the dairy freezes its milk, allowing for longer wait time between shipments. Despite the chal-lenges that the operation faces by freezing milk, Scott remains optimistic about where the market is going.

“I think the market is just starting to take off,” Scott says. “Most of the market is made up of artisanal creameries. That is where we’re selling most of our milk, which is used to make high-end cheeses, mostly sold in the bay areas. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco those are the main markets. Most of our food trends follow Europe’s food trends, and they eat lots of sheep cheese in Europe.”

Frozen milk is great for creameries because it lasts longer, but fresh milk produces a higher quality cheese. Scott would like to get to a point where he can sell fresh milk instead of frozen because it is less labor intensive.

“I would love to ship fresh milk at some point,” Scott says. “I don’t know if it’s the answer per

say; I think the frozen milk will always have its place. However, I would like to get to the size to where we are able to ship fresh milk.”

As the market grows, Great Basin Shepherding is also growing. Employ-ees at Great Basin Shepherding milk every 12 hours January through Octo-ber. Since being founded a year and two months ago, they have already in-creased their daily production by two to three times what it was starting out.

“We just need more sheep so it pencils to be able to ship fresh milk ev-ery other day over to California. It’s a pencil game to make sure it all works financially,” Scott says.

Although this growth is promising, whether or not they are able to sell all the milk is largely dependent on market demand at a consumer level. Ac-cording to Anna-Lisa, overall market demand comes down to the consumer,

Nevada Farm Bureau

By Austin Wright, Nevada Farm Bureau Internt

Scott and Anna-Lisa Laca run the only Grade A sheep dairy in Nevada.

The sheep at Great Basin Shepherding are milked twice a day.


Nevada Farm Bureau

The recent April announcement by U.S. Secre-tary of Interior Sally Jewel that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would not list the bi-state population of the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act

(ESA) is welcome news to the agriculture community.“Thanks in large part to the extraordinary efforts of all the partners

in the working group to address threats to greater sage-grouse and its habitat in the bi-state area, our biologists have determined that this popula-

tion no longer needs ESA protection,” Jewell says.

A large factor in the decision was the Bi-State Action Plan, a conserva-tion plan developed by the Bi-State Local Area Work-ing Group during the past 15 years as well as $45 million in secured fund-ing. State and local efforts will focus on a variety of conservation practices, including cutting back pinion-juniper trees to en-sure they do not encroach on sage-grouse habitat.

According to Nevada Department of Wildlife Public Information Of-ficer Chris Healy, effec-

tive collaboration from all involved parties led to the listing prevention.“I think the most important thing that happened on that was that

a lot of hard work was recognized,” Healy says. “Because the process was well handled; some of the Native American tribes, private ranch-ers and other people were able to work together and come up with a game plan to do what they can to save habitat and save the bird.”

The announcement also draws focus toward the impending de-cision for the greater sage-grouse population, which must be made in September 2015. Yet, experts do not believe the bi-state deci-sion will influence the potential listing of the greater sage-grouse.

“I think that it makes everyone hopeful, but everybody is very cautious about calling it a logical next step,” Healy says.

Unlike the bi-state population, which lives in small area straddling the California-Nevada line, the greater sage-grouse habitat covers an expansive 186 million acre, 11 state range and habitat, making state and local plans even more crucial to the survival of the bird population and the ranching industry.

“Wildlife and conservation efforts for the sage-grouse are going to vary widely from state to state,” says Ryan Yates, American Farm Bureau Federa-tion (AFBF) director of congressional relations. “It’s clear that when you devel-op conservation plans close to the ground, you can produce positive results.”

(Continued on page 18)

Nevada Farm Bureau

By Jessica Fagundes, Nevada Farm Bureau Director of Communications

The Future of Sage-Grouse: State and Local Efforts Key to Listing Prevention

and most consumers aren’t familiar with sheep-related products yet. This issue is as challenging to creameries that sell the cheese as it is for

the farmers that produce the milk.“The creameries are facing the same challenges we are,” Anna-Lisa says.

“They are trying to grow their market too. Because consumers are not used to seeing sheep products on the shelves, so when they do, and they find out that they like them, then they start purchasing them more. But it’s getting the dairy buyer to put them on the shelf in the first place.”

Currently, sheep milk can be used to create a variety of cheeses, yogurts, butter, feta and aged hard cheeses, but as consumers are becoming more fa-miliar with sheep products, producers are also working on developing new products to create further demand. Besides milking their animals, Great

Basin Shepherding also utilizes their sheep to produce meat and low-grade wool, which is mostly used in carpet.

Great Basin Shepherding raises mainly two different breeds, East Frie-sian sheep, which are from northern Germany, and Lacaune, which are out of France. Both these breeds are dairy specific sheep.

The Lacas also recently purchased Icelandic rams to expand their ge-netic pool. A lack of variety in the sheep industry gene pool creates problems for sheep farmers and could potentially be the largest threat to the survival of the industry.

“One of our biggest challenges, if not the biggest challenge to our indus-try, is genetics.” Anna-Lisa says.. “The border is often closed to sheep and sheep semen. For the families of dairy sheep in the United States, the pool is very small. At some point if we are not able to import genetics then we probably won’t have a sheep industry for dairy in the country.”

Borders are closed to sheep and sheep semen due to a disease many sheep in other countries carry known as Scrapie. Scrapie is fatal for sheep. The disease is thought to be passed down from ewe to offspring and any other lambs that might come into contact with an infected ewe’s placental fluids during the birthing process.

The United States is trying to prevent this disease from becoming a seri-ous problem in U.S. sheep flocks by limiting sheep importation to countries that have been deemed free of the disease. Currently, the United States only views Australia and New Zealand as Scrapie-free nations, which is extremely limiting.

With limited importation possibilities come less options for sheep farm-ers looking to breed their animals. A higher chance of inbreeding results when there are fewer sheep families to breed with. For farmers like Anna-Lisa and Scott, this dilemma is a huge challenge against growth and could even eventually become fatal for businesses like their operation.

“Many other countries don’t have these rules,” says Anna-Lisa. “We’ll have to lobby against laws like these if we want to keep things going here in the U.S.”

In the meantime, Great Basin Shepherding is continuing to grow, the market is continuing to grow, and the sheep dairy industry is beginning to grow. And although the rest is uncertain, Anna-Lisa and Scott remain hopeful for the future.

“We have faced sev-eral obstacles the last few years, but we made it through those and will take the others as they come,” Anna-Lisa says.

Cattle graze in the bi-state region at Fish Springs Ranch.

U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell announces the bi-state decision.


Some state officials seem to have a similar opinion about future conser-vation plans for the bird. In 2012, Governor Brian Sandoval established the Nevada Sagebrush Ecosystem Council. The council has worked the last three years to develop state and local plans to preserve the greater sage-grouse while allowing industries like agriculture and mining to thrive.

Nevada Farm Bureau Vice President Bevan Lister sits as the agriculture representative on the Sagebrush Ecosystem Council.

“We worked hard to develop a state plan for sage-grouse, and we adopted that plan in October 2014,” Lister says, adding that the council has developed the outline for the Conservation Credit System and is now working on the strategic action planning.

The council’s plan, known as the 2014 Nevada Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan, will address the many problems that have decreased sage-grouse populations. According to Lister, the biggest threats include wildfires, invasive species and common ravens.

The plan is currently being discussed in the legislature as Senate Joint Res-olution 5 (SJR5). SJR5 expresses support for the plan and urges the Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. SJR5 passed through the Nevada Senate on April 21, 2015 and through the Nevada Assembly on May 18, 2015.

Nevada Farm Bureau policy supports SJR5. Policy 232 states “NVFB supports the state of Nevada Greater Sage-Grouse (Hen) Conservation Plan and its unaltered contents as the preferred alternative to an Environmental Impact Statement.”

On a federal level, proposed legislation has also been introduced to prevent the listing and to allow for state and local efforts to protect the bird.

“Senator Gardner from Colorado introduced the Sage-Grouse Protection Conversation Act, S. 1036,” Yates, AFBF director of congressional relations, says. “That legislation will allow those state and local efforts to continue to meet the needs of the conservation of the species, but will preclude a federal listing decision and push that back for six years.”

According to Yates, state and local efforts like those encouraged by cur-rent proposed legislation are the only way to ensure the greater sage-grouse population is protected. Federal intervention would be detrimental.

“That listing decision will ultimately jeopardize much of the ongoing conservation work that has already been done and is planned to be done and frankly will have serious consequences for land owners and certainly work-ing ranches, farmers and ranchers throughout the western United States.” If the sage-grouse were to be listed, Yates equates the situation to that of the northern spotted owl, which was listed as a threatened species under the ESA in 1990.

“It fundamentally altered the state of federal forests and federal land management across that range. That listing decision led to the decline and largely the elimination of the timber industry across the Pacific Northwest. And that had a pretty significant impact not only on mill owners and the timber industry in general, but I would say also on the larger ecosystem.”

And once a species is listed under the act, it is nearly impossible to delist it due the lack of resources and funding.

“The Endangered Species Act has one of the worst track records in American history. Less than two percent of all species listed under the ESA have ever been recovered,” Yates says.

Although the bi-state decision will not have any effect on the decision to be made in September, most remain hopeful that collaboration and sound science might prevent the greater sage-grouse from being listed.

“There is a lot of hope that if all the stakeholders with the much large concerns of the greater sage-grouse can see the success that cooperation and planning gained with this decision not to list, hopefully that will create some motivation for more cooperation during this process,” says Healy, Nevada Department of Wildlife public information officer.

“One of the things that it does do is it proves that when local government, stakeholders, state and federal government work together collaboratively and base this vision as well as land management decisions on sound science and locally-based initiatives that are fed with local information, it has posi-tive results,” Yates says.

“It gives us some hope that our work won’t be in vain, that possibly the same track will hold, and the secretary will have no warranted findings for the greater sage-grouse,” Lister says

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As I write this latest “In the Mind of a Millen-nial” article, the tem-perature is warming, the days are getting a

little longer, and the backyard patio beckons for evening barbe-cues with friends and family. That’s right, summer is here.

For anyone in the business of selling anything, thinking about the millennial consumer and what their preferences are with respect to your product is always top-of-mind. But forthose of us in the beef business, that’s good news for us, since the summer months bring with them strong millennial preference for beef as they head to their grills, steaks and burgers in hand.

For all consumers, the top five most important factors when it comes to food choices are: that it is great tasting, that it is good value for the mon-ey, extremely safe to eat, a balance of taste and nutrition, and some-thing they can feel good about eating.

But for the millennial consumer, par-ticularly those “older millennials” who are just establishing their careers and families and developing life-long eating habits, con-venience is also an important factor in terms of food choices, and preparation methods.

When it comes to grilling specifically, millennials find it to be a fun, social and healthy way to cook, and they have a strong preference for beef on the grill over other proteins. Take a look at some of the factors that influence millennials when it comes to grilling, compiled and pro-vided thanks to the Beef Checkoff Program and made available at www.beefretail.org.

Millennials and GrillingFor millennials, food isn’t just about providing nutrients to one’s body.

Whether eating at home or dining out, this important demographic wants its meals to be social as well as delicious, and they say grilling is a fun and interactive way to entertain. According to research compiled by the Beef Checkoff, millennials consider grilling to be a good way to bond with friends and family, and they associate grilling with watching and playing sports.

When it comes to the specific sub-section of millennial who have a strong preference for grilling, “mature millennials” and millennials who have children tend to prefer grilling beef more (although all subgroups of this demographic enjoy grilling in general.) To be more specific, millennial dads are the most excited about grilling, with 72 percent reporting plans to purchase a grill within the next year.

Millennials also view grilling as a healthy preparation option. Com-pared to years in the past, more Americans currently pair grilled steaks with side items like corn on the cob and grilled fruits and vegetables instead of dishes like baked beans or baked potatoes.

In terms of timing, it’s no secret that summer is a key grilling time for all

of us, but it’s especially so for millennials. Over 80 percent of “mature mil-lennials” – those who are between the ages of 25-33 – rank grilling as one of their favorite summer activities. Over half of millennials grill year-round, which is a higher percentage compared to other age groups.

Throw Another Steak on the Barbee!Statistics show that Americans generally prefer to grill beef over

chicken, but you might be surprised that those “mature millenni-als” lead the way. In fact, 76 percent of these folks (and, even more impressive, 81 percent of mature millennials” who have children) choose beef most often when grilling. In terms of beef choice, the “ma-ture millennials” love to grill both burgers and steaks – and in the steak category, T-Bones, sirloins and Ribeyes are the most favored.

Consumers of all ages love burgers on the grill, yet the highest pref-erence is among the younger millennials. Sixty percent tend to grill

burgers more than any other beef dish. Among all audiences, traditional toppings still rule, but options like avocados and fried eggs are becoming more popular.

Lastly, millennials are excited about bold flavors and are more willing to experi-ment with foods on the grill. Nearly75 per-cent of millennials use rubs and marinades on steaks to boost their flavor, as com-pared with 57 percent of Gen X/Boomers.

With millennials’ love of grilling beef, it’s no surprise why the Nevada Beef Coun-cil (NBC) and Beef Checkoff focus so much attention on this popular cooking method in their outreach and advertising efforts, especially in the summer months. This summer, the NBC has a lot of outreach and consumer communications planned focused on this cooking method, primarily

through digital communications and social media engagement. As just one example, a variety of the seasonal recipes found on BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com – many of which are created by a Checkoff-funded test kitchen staffed with professional chefs – will be shared through the NBC online and social media proper-ties to help engage with consum-ers while providing helpful infor-mation about grilling with beef.

For more information, visit www.nevadabeef.org or www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com

By Jill Scofield, Nevada Beef Council

In the Mind of a Millennial

Jill Scofield is Director of Pro-ducer Relations for the Nevada and California Beef Councils. You can reach her at [email protected].


CHECKOFF NEWS:

For more about the Nevada Beef Council, visit www.nevadabeef.org.

Kicking off an All-American Summer

A s summer commences, Nevadans are fir-ing up the grill and getting ready to serve up their favorite beef dishes. The Nevada Beef Council (NBC) has already been hard at work sharing summertime favorites with

consumers, kicking off the summer months with a fun and successful day at the Reno Aces game on May 30, where beef was center of the HOME plate, and NBC staff and pro-ducers were on hand sharing information not just about cooking with beef, but also ranching and beef production.

With a sell-out crowd in attendance, the May 30 Aces games was a prime time to engage with Nevada consumers on topics ranging from how cattle are raised to our favorite recipes. On the plaza as Aces fans waited to get into the game, Nevada’s 2015 beef Ambassador, Bailey Kelton, was on hand with two of her cow-calf pairs. Kids attending the game got a kick out of petting the calves and getting their “I Heart Beef” temporary tattoos applied, while their parents asked NBC council members and beef producers questions about the cattle, ranching, and cooking with beef.

Inside the stadium, the fun continued, with NBC staff handing out free samples of beef jerky provided by new promotional partner Oberto, along with recipe and nutrition brochures, kids’ beef activity booklets, and of course, “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” bumper stickers.

To kick off the game in proud Nevada ranching fashion, Clover Valley rancher Peyton Peltier joined the NBC and threw out a beautiful first pitch of the game, doing a great job of representing Nevada’s beef community.

In addition to the presence at the game, the NBC partnership with the Reno Aces also incorporated a promotion with Northern Nevada Scolari’s markets, where shoppers could get free tickets to the Nevada Beef Coun-cil Day at the Ballpark with a minimum beef purchase of $20. Tied into this promotion was extensive broadcast advertising, social media out-reach, and online engagement during the weeks leading up to the game.

“This was a great way to raise the profile of Nevada’s beef community with consumers throughout Northern Nevada,” said Annette Kassis, Di-rector of Consumer and Brand Marketing for the NBC who coordinated the NBC Day at the Ballpark. “We had extensive publicity leading up to the game, thanks to our work with our promotional partners, but the face-to-face conversations we had with consumers at the ballpark were extremely valuable. Children who had never seen a cow came away with a greater sense of how cattle are raised in Nevada, and parents and adults got a better understanding of beef nutrition and beef’s role in a healthy diet.”

Good News for Beef's Image

When it comes to perceptions about the product Nevada’s ranchers and beef producers work so hard to get to the consumer’s plate, it’s always nice to hear some good news. According to the

latest Consumer Beef Index (CBI) – a Checkoff-funded resource that tracks changes in consumers’ perceptions of and demand for beef relative to other meat proteins – there have been some highly positive changes in perceptions, attitudes and beef use.

The March 2015 CBI notes that the percentage of consumers who say that the positives of beef outweigh the negatives reached a four-year high of 77 percent. In addition to the increase in positive percep-tion about beef, the March 2015 CBI revealed the following trends.

Consumers still eat beef regularly.• 91 percent of consumers eat beef monthly. • 35 percent of consumers eat beef 3 or more times a week,

which is a return to highs recorded in 2012.

And they are planning to consume more beef.• 85 percent of consumers plan to eat the same or more beef

in the future. • 18 percent of Americans plan to eat more beef. • Of the 18% percent of Americans who say they plan to con-

sume more beef, the primary reason is that they prefer the taste of beef. Other top reasons: beef fits many meal occa-sions, it’s a family favorite and it’s easy and convenient.

In addition, a strong interest in knowing more about beef preparation also was clear, with a majority of millennial parents interested in getting more information about how to make a great burger; cook beef in a way to provide servings at two or more meals; cook a steak; and cook a roast – all things being address through checkoff resources and through NBC efforts.

Welcome to our Newest NBC Council Members

The NBC is proud to welcome two new board members! Bernard Peterson, who manages ranches throughout White Pine County for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and Ted Christoph, who manages his family’s dairy operation in Fallon, have both joined the NBC, bringing their long-time experience in their respective sectors to the board.

They join board members Lucy Rechel (feeder, Yerington), Jay Dalton (cow-calf, Wells), Ray Callahan (cow-calf, Reno), John Jackson (cow-calf, Tuscarora), and Gary Ward (cow-calf, Gardnerville), who was also se-lected to serve as chair of the NBC. Welcome aboard!


Ranch Burgers: Because Sometimes, Simple is BestFrom James Winstead, RDN, Director of Food and Nutrition Outreach for the Nevada Beef Council

There is nothing wrong with keeping a clas-sic a classic. When it comes to burgers, you can find plenty of variations with different ingredients. However, this recipe takes two simple main ingredients – ranch dressing

and ground beef – and makes one tasty, nutritious burger. In my conversations with consumers and health professionals,

they often single out burgers as being unhealthy. In reality, it’s one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the plate when you consider what’s often served with a burger. The nutrients offered from beef greatly outweigh those found in the tomatoes, lettuce, bun, a side of French fries and soda!

As a Registered Dietitian, I like to tell people to enjoy the burger, but skip the extra calories from fries and soda. Instead, enjoy a cold glass of unsweetened ice tea and side salad to complement your deli-cious and nutritious burger.

Ranch Burger Ingredients• 1 pound Ground Beef (93% lean or leaner)• 1/4 cup soft bread crumbs• 1 egg white• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

News From the Nevada Beef Council

• 1 medium red onion, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided• 4 hamburger buns, split, toasted• Romaine lettuce, tomato slices• 1/4 cup reduced-fat creamy ranch dressing

Instructions• Combine Ground Beef, bread crumbs, egg white and sea-

soned salt in medium bowl, mixing lightly but thoroughly. Lightly shape into four 1/2-inch thick patties. Brush onion slices with 1/2 tablespoon oil.

• Place patties and onion slices on grill over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill patties, covered, 8 to 10 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill 7 to 9 minutes), until instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into cen-ter of the patties registers 160°F, turning occasionally.

• Grill onions, 11 to 13 minutes or until tender, brushing with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and turning occasionally.

• Line bottom of each bun with lettuce. Place tomatoes and burgers on lettuce. Spoon dressing over burgers; top with onions. Serve and enjoy!


www.lifespringdesign.com

ChurChill FFA

Churchill County FFA kicked off their summer by joining sev-eral other FFA Chapters at the Nevada FFA Summer Leader-ship Camp at Lake Tahoe, Nevada hosted by the newly in-stalled 2015-2016 Nevada FFA State officer team. Churchill County FFA is very proud to be represented by Blane Merkley

as our Nevada FFA State Vice President. While attending campers gained valuable personal connections and leadership skills that will continue to benefit them for the rest of their lives. Summer Leadership Camp isn’t all work and no play! There are many chances for members to enjoy activities like swimming, lounging at the beach, or joining in on a friendly volleyball or basketball game. Churchill County FFA enjoyed many successes over the course of the week. Sydney Felton, our 2015-2016 CCFFA Vice President, was chosen to be the 2015-2016 Western Zone FFA Vice President as well. The chapter dominated the volleyball courts ending the tournament with a 3 win and 0 loss record. As the chapter heads back to Fallon we look forward to many exciting events like hosting a cookies and milk booth during the newly combined Cantaloupe Festival and Churchill Country Fair over Labor Day weekend to raise funds for our trip to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky in October to represent the state in the Dairy Cattle Evaluation and Milk Products and Quality Evaluation contests. CCFFA will also be collaborating with the Churchill County Farm Bureau and Churchill

County 4-H during the Labor Day Weekend events. Five CCFFA members will be attending the Nevada Youth Range Camp to prepare for the Range Evaluation Contest in the Fall. Many members are preparing livestock proj-ects for the Nevada State Fair in July and the Silver State Fair in August. Our officer team will be participating in a retreat together to further develop the leadership skills that they have learned at Nevada FFA’s Summer Lead-ership Camp and plan the activities for the rest of our year. A wonderful experience and great way to start the summer and new FFA year!


On Tuesday, May 5, the final gavel tap signified not only the adjournment of the Wells FFA Chapter’s Annual Parent/Member Banquet, but also marked the end of a great year for the Wells Chapter and a bright beginning for the year to

come. The Banquet was called to order by Chapter President, Deseret Johnson. Some highlights of the program included the introduction of special guests and presentation of Certificates of Appreciation. The senior chapter members recognized their parents and the chapter officers presented the Honorary Mem-bership Ceremony where they elected Beth and Robert Downy, Julie and Brian Gale, Chris and Pala Otto, Darcy and LeAnn Tate, and Donna Webster to honorary membership. The Chap-ter Scholarship Award was presented to the chapter members with a 4.0+ G.P.A. and Cody Gibbs and Kenedy Craft gave a re-port of the Chapter’s trip to State Convention.

On March 17th, 36 members of The Wells FFA Chapter left for State Convention at the University of Nevada Reno. The Wells FFA Chap-ter members had worked tirelessly to prepare to compete in a variety of Career Development Events against other chapters from all over the state. This year the Wells FFA chapter won eleven team golds as well as numerous first place individuals.

The Farm Business Management team took first with Kacey Mae Franco as first high individual, DeMar Gale as second high individual and Dys-tany Young as fourth high individual.

Junior Farm Business Management took first with Liberty Johnson as first high individual, Ruth Gale and Ben Bal-lard and Cody Gibbs tied for second high individual. Camberlin Uhlig and Marshall Botts were also on the team.

Senior Parliamentary Procedure took first with Chelsea James as high chair person. Hailey Swan, Deseret Johnson, Zalie Peters, Kenedy Craft and DeMar Gale were also on the team.

Floriculture took first place with De-seret Johnson as first high individual, and Chelsea James as fourth high individual. Jacqueline Huff and Rachel Johnny were also on the team.

Liberty Johnson won the Creed Speaking competition! Novice Flori-culture took first with Mikayla Rodriguez as first high individual. Mallorie Limardo, Elexis Swisher, and Roberto Roque-Luna were also on the team.

Meat Science and Technology took first with Deseret John-son as second high individual, Chelsea James as third high in-dividual, Zalie Peters fourth, and Justin Monroe fifth.

Environmental Natural Resources took first with DeMar Gale as first high individual, Pat Wines as second high individual, Wy-att Gibbs third and Joseph Tate fourth. Range Science took first with Deseret Johnson as first high individual, DeMar Gale sec-ond, Wyatt Gibbs third. Chelsea James was also on the team.

Novice Parliamentary Procedure took first with Ben Ballard re-ceiving the High Chairperson award. Cody Gibbs, Ruth Gale, Liberty

Johnson, Camberlin Uhlig and Victoria Young were also on the team. Homesite Evaluation came in third with Justin Monroe

as fourth high individual and Joseph Tate was also on the team.In the Job Interview Competition, Deseret Johnson

came in second with Wyatt Gibbs close behind receiving third. Dairy Cattle Evaluation took second with DeMar Gale as third high

individual. Wyatt Gibbs, Teigan Myers, and Patrick Wines were also on the team.

Poultry Science came in second with Kacey Mae Franco as fifth high individu-al. Jacqueline Huff, Shauna Wilson and Dystany Young were also on the team.

Nursery Landscape took second with Crystal Lake as first high individual. Jo-seph Tate and Elexis Swisher were also on the team.

Livestock Evaluation came in fourth with Patrick Wines, DeMar Gale, Teigan Myers and Brennen Hooper on the team.

Agriculture Mechanics competed with a team of Matthew Morgan, Bren-nen Hooper, Steven Wright, Levi Talbert, and Kaysen Sorensen.

Horse Evaluation competed with Aspen Whinnery as third high individual. Kaysen Sorensen and Jessica Solis were also on the team.

Veterinary Medicine competed with Kenedy Craft, Hailey Swan, and Jessica Solis.

Joseph Tate, Jaqueline Huff, Shauna Wilson, Hailey Swan, Teigan Myers, Wyatt Gibbs, Rachel Johnny, DeMar Gale, and Tessa Hubert all received their State FFA Degrees.

Tessa Hubert was also elected as the Nevada State FFA Treasurer! After the state results were announced, a nominating committee made

up of members of the Wells Chapter gave their report announcing the 2015/2016 Chapter Officer team. They are: DeMar Gale, President; Chelsea James, Vice President; Liberty Johnson, Secretary; Ben Ballard, Treasurer; Deseret Johnson, Reporter; and Zalie Peters as Sentinel. The Wells FFA Chapter is very excited to start a new year and would like to thank all of the people who do so much to support them!

Wells FFA

State Champion Environmental Natural Resources team

State Champion Junior Farm Business Management team


Cheatgrass causes us to recognize fire and fuels management are a high-stakes endeavor for the

future resistance and resilience of sagebrush rangelands,” began Sherm Swanson of UNR, open-ing the Nevada Society for Range Management

winter workshop in January 2015. “Dependence on cheatgrass, noted for variable forage production, is not economically easy for ranchers; the challenge for agencies and all of us working together is to find solutions to the problem of mega-fires after very wet years. Triple bottom line sustainable ways to use our most extensively available tool, livestock grazing, require open communication that embraces the whole problem set. Re-cent drought environmental assessments have missed this larger problem. It is time to empower tools with NEPA documented planning that embraces climate variability and the bigger fire problem, along with the economic sta-bility necessary to implement the tools. Finding durable solutions will require cooperation among diverse stakeholders and produce better decisions, improved relationships, and sustainable communities and landscapes.” With this workshop, NvSRM continued and expanded the discussion begun on last summer’s tour north of Winnemucca discussed in the Septem-ber/October 2014 issue of The Progressive Rancher. Presenters included livestock producers, rangeland scientists, the state climatologist, BLM state range lead and a fire and fuels specialist.

During rehabilitation and active vegetation management, Dan Harmon, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), recommends six steps for ensuring the establishment and persistence of perennial grasses:

1. Understand your site potential and recognize that it is dynamic, continually changing based oannual weather and plant community structure.

2. Measure your cheatgrass threat potential by sampling the soil seed bank; the how-to can be found at previous article mentioned above.

3. Implement active weed control as needed prior to rehabilitation seeding to reduce competition from cheatgrass;

4. Seed the most cost effective long-lived perennial grass species with the highest potential for plant establishment;

5. Manage lands to achieve the goal of perennial grass establishment, cheatgrass suppression, and functional plant succession;

6. Actively manage lands to increase species diversity and maintain a healthy perennial grass component.

UNR and NRCS are close to completing state and transition mod-els on Major Land Resource Areas 24, 25 ,28A, and 28B, and they are currently working on 23 and 26. When these are complete, the team, led by Dr. Tamzen Stringham, will have provided a road map on how natural resources will react to changes in management by specific ecological site for the northern two-thirds of Nevada. These have been incorporated into Disturbance Response Groups. Dr. Stringham diligently made the point that lands may look similar, and have similar vegetation but act very different in response to changes in management or environmental conditions. If an area burns more than once it will respond differently after each time particularly if you are in less than a 10-inch precipitation zone.

Mike Scott of the NDOW game division stated, “there are two dynamics at work in Nevada: too much and not enough fire. It creates two issues; northern

Nevada, which used to have vast stands of sagebrush, has seen too much fire, and central and southeast Nevada has grown too much PJ due to not enough fire.” In many areas of the state and imbalance of seasonal habitat availabil-ity has caused deer to decrease, while grass eating species like antelope and elk have increased substantially. Sage grouse seem to lose in both instances.

Dr. Barry Perryman, UNR, pointed out that while all of the processes and paradigms of current management are based on steady state or linear models and thinking, the reality is that rangelands in the Great Basin are pulse systems. State Climatologist, Douglas Boyle, reported the climate in the Great Basin is highly variable and the current droughts that we are facing may be short-lived, though there is significant evidence throughoutthe region to suggest that much longer term and more severe droughts have occurred. Based on predictions, variability in the climate may increase. Brad Schultz of UNCE noted that plants can recover and produce enough in drought years to reseed and recover; the plants can succeed and survive

Grazing Management for Fine Fuels & Annual Grass Ranges

By Ryan S. Shane and Maggie Orr

Exploring the Science and Strategic Plan Development

Spring Grazing to Reduce Cheatgrass and Increase Perennials - Perryman

Seeding vs not seeding post fire - Rick Miller


Nevada RanchersCaretakers of ourRangelands

Nevada Rangeland Resources Commission was created bythe State of Nevada to promote responsible public land grazing. Representatives come from Nevada state grazing boards, Nevada

Woolgrowers, Nevada Farm Bureau, and Nevada Cattlemen’s Association.

4780 East Idaho Steet, Elko, NV 89801 • 775-738-4082WWW.NEVADARANGELANDS.ORG

Sheep often graze on steep terrain and can control cheatgrass, a

major fuel for wildfi res.

Grazing cattle and sheep coexist peacefully with native wildlife and, in fact, make a friendlier

habitat for many species.

Cowboys and sheepherders produce food and fi ber for the nation. Growing food

on Open range is a natural biological process.

Grazing actually benefi ts the land with hoof action and natural fertilization. Plants are healthier and regenerate faster after the herds move to a new range.

Antelope and other game animals and birds take

advantage of the improvements

ThisadisfundedthroughtheNRRC’sassessmentof10centsanAUMpaidbypubliclandranchers.

with 75% of the moisture available in drought years. We need to ask, what is drought for a desert-suited plant? Dr. Perryman said flexibility should be the foundation of any management or plan to operate toward success in a fluctuating environment. Fewer fires get away, but the ones that do become large or even mega fires; fuels have to be reduced across a landscape to change the trend. According to Dr. Kirk Davies of USDA ARS, livestock grazing represents the only way for us to achieve landscape scale fine fuels reduction. Dr. Perryman went on to say that landscape fine fuels management means that we need some type of NEPA autho-rization for grazing cheatgrass and other fine fuels when they become persistent and voluminous. He also mentioned that cheatgrass prefers to germinate in its own litter, but that can be reduced by fall grazing, likely reducing germination rates of cheatgrass. In recent studies, Devon Snyder of UNR found that early season grazing after wildfires where bluegrass was present could reduce cheatgrass and promote bluegrass.

Dr. Davies’ latest research indicates that livestock grazing can reduce wildfire risk and that we can make management actions to improve outcomes following fire. Reducing fuels can also result in decreased plant mortality during wildfire by lowering fire temperatures and residence times. Dr. Chad Boyd, USDA ARS, said up to 64% of perennial grasses died in their fire experiments, and if repeated fires happen, the additive effect can be substantially greater. All it takes is five to seven minutes at 60-100C to kill the plants. Most of the mortality occurs in shrub-grass-lands where grasses are underneath the shrub canopy because the most heat is generated there during a fire. Lower fire intensities also allows easier control by fire suppression forces due to decreased flame lengths and the option to direct attack the fire. Performing grazing for fuels reduction in the dormant season may be a great option because there is less potential to negatively impact desirable perennial vegetation, fuel loads are known, and site-specific grazing treatments can be developed.

Kathryn Dyer, BLM State Range Program Lead, provided background to address the annual grass and fine fuels dilemma with livestock grazing. One option would be to designate lands as annual rangelands, which would

The Society for Range Management (SRM) is “the profes-sional society dedicated to supporting persons who work with rangelands and have a commitment to sustainable use.” SRM’s members are ranchers, land managers, sci-entists, educators, students, conservationists – a diverse membership guided by a professional code of ethics and unified by a strong land ethic. This series of articles is dedicated to connecting the science of range management with the art, by applied science on the ground in Nevada. Articles are the opinion of the author and may not be an official position of SRM. Further information and a link to submit suggestions or questions are available at the Nevada Section website at http://nevada.rangelands.org/ . SRM’s main webpage is www.rangelands.org. We welcome your comments.

Cheatgrass fire - Perryman


“The Nevada Rangeland Resource Commission (NRRC) ac-knowledges and endorses the worthwhile effort of the Nevada Section of the Society for Range Management in dealing with the annual grass fire fuels and grazing management challenges in Nevada and throug out the West. The NRRC was created by the State of Nevada to promote responsible public land grazing. NRRC representatives come from Nevada state grazing boards,

Nevada woolgrowers, Nevada farm bureau, and Nevada cattlemen’s association.”

allow allocation of annual species as forage, but this designation would reduce the land’s priority for rehabilitation funds and require a different permitting process. She also talked about using activity plans, temporary non-renewable (TNR), and NEPA planning documents to address the is-sue as well. More specifically, TNR requires an EA which would take more time to write and approve than the grazing season allows. However, a NEPA document could be written to cover fuels reduction activities. Also, during permit renewal EA processes, conditions could be cited that war-rant a change in management to meet resource objectives. She proposes that term permit language could include If / Then statements, where if certain conditions occur, then specific management approaches would be allowed. This approach would require monitoring and documentation to achieve. Another option would be to prescribe targeted grazing through NEPA, though this would be a costly alternative for producers and would be comparable to Stewardship Contracting.

Ranch manager Stacy Davies of the Roaring Springs Ranch in Harney County, Oregon, employs targeted grazing and has documented fire pre-suppression effectiveness on his ranch and BLM allotments. His ranch employs a full time wildlife biologist to ensure that a holistic approach is used for natural resource management, though livestock grazing still pays the bills. Today’s ranch contributes $4.27 per cow per day; this economic impact to local communities should be considered. Davies experienced gridlock in the past; he has formed a good working relationship with his federal counterparts more recently to overcome the issues. For example, a couple of years ago they had waist-high cheatgrass growing in a 100,000 acre pasture which they all agreed could use some grazing; 4,500 cows were put in the pasture from February to August. When lighting ignited a fire within the pasture that fall, it did not spread. He says the key to this type of grazing is very close monitoring; they have cowboys that live with the herd. The minute they switch to grazing perennials, the animals are moved. What allows them to be flexible is an Allotment Management Plan (AMP), which includes adaptive management language.

Panelist statements included, but were not limited to:• “Fire professional’s participation in this process is essential to

help find solutions,” said retired Fire Chief Jim Reinhardt. • Tina Mudd, NDA, said, “Conservation Districts could be instru-

mental at establishing cooperative monitoring programs to sup-port prescribed grazing treatments.”

• Dr. Davies noted that high production years and years immediate-ly following them provide the highest level of risk and the greatest opportunity for grazing to contribute to the health of rangelands.

• John McLain, RCI, stated, “Allotment Management Plans are a way that ranchers can get the flexibility needed for prescribed grazing.”

• “The USFWS will support scientifically backed flexibility in man-agement,” vowed Susan Abele.

• “Resource professionals should have an open mind about using

non-native species to rehabilitate rangelands given they have an appropriate time and place for use,” said Lee Turner, NDOW.

• Some ranchers are willing to be flexible in grazing operations, but they need BLM to allow flexibility. “I need the agency to work with me to accomplish proper grazing management,” said Gary McCuin with the JD Ranch.

Ideas were gathered, on the second day, at the strategic development roundtable to create solutions and next steps. These included, but were not limited to:

• Produce a template for NEPA-authorized grazing plan utilizing If/Then terms approach utilizing Disturbance Response Groups as foundation.

• Produce or find examples in existence to help BLM and ranchers with fine fuels management planning using cohesive planning strategies.

• Produce Disturbance Response Groups for the rest of Nevada.• Recruit livestock operators willing to engage and implement in-

novative management.• Form or reactivate a Coordinated Resource Management Group

in Nevada.• Agency ideas need to be gathered regarding how the larger range

management community can help them succeed with their goals.• Demonstrate and publicize changes on the ground as soon as

possible.• Get buy-in from the ranching industry.

The technical presentations for the conference can be found at http://tinyurl.com/kpgvrxn and the post-conference report can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mulhn5o . The Nevada Section of the Society for Range Management views the topic of this conference as a keystone issue in the state and has committed to following the progress made through time.

You are invited to participate in the continuing quest for solutions at the NvSRM Summer Workshop on August 6-8, 2015 at the Roaring Springs Ranch that was discussed above, near Frenchglen, Oregon. We will be touring and discussing how solutions can be created and achieved. We hope you will join us to enrich the conversation.

Livestock Grazing on Cheatgrass in Nevada - Perryman

Sage Grouse Drinking from Livestock Trough - Stacy Davies


In the last couple of years many BLM permittees in the Battle Mountain District elected to not use their des-ignated grazing AUM’s to help rehabilitate their graz-ing allotments in the area by taking voluntary cuts in AUM’s. Other permittees were denied use of their

grazing rights and forced to take mandatory cuts in AUM’s, even on their own private land that was interspersed with BLM land. Then it rained. It rained a lot. The grass grew. They were still in a drought, but there was grass, and it was going to dry out and become a fire hazard if cows were not allowed to graze it. Still the BLM would not back down, or allow grazing by livestock.

This is true for Eddyann and Dan Filippini of the Badger Ranch of Battle Mountain. In 1989 they bought the Badger Ranch from Leroy Horn, who purchased it from the Rufi brothers. The Rufi family settled it in the 1800’s. The Badger Ranch water rights go back to 1862 and the ranch had rights to the land prior to the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The Badger Ranch and its owners have the original claim to lands sur-rounding to for grazing by cattle. The Taylor Graz-ing Act was intended to “stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration; to provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development; [and] to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range.” This act was designed to help the government and ranchers find a middle ground for the best of the range. The BLM can claim only about 3% of the 100,000 acre North Buffalo Allotment that is attached to the Badger Ranch, and none of the water rights. Yet they control the entire allotment.

As those of us in Northern Nevada know, we cannot raise enough beef to meet the rising demand for food in the United States. Without our BLM and Forest Service permits, we are liter-ally sunk in ranching. We can’t raise enough grass on our private lands to feed the number of cattle needed to feed America. Ranchers are the original en-vironmentalists, and even in years of drought we strive to find a happy medium grazing on public lands. We know if we remove too much of the grass and feed, there will not be enough grass to come back to next year, but if we don’t take enough of the grasses and feed, we create a serious fire hazard. If the allotment burns, not only livestock suffer, but wildlife and recreationists suffer as well. Eddyann stated “BLM is obligated to manage the land under its care for a healthy environment. It is also obligated to respect ranching as one of the congres-sionally mandated uses of our public lands. So long as facts and science, and not personal agendas, drive BLM management decisions, we and the entire ranching community in the West will be able to work in partner-ship with the BLM to manage our beautiful western land for its resource values and for the men and women who make a living from the land.”

The North Buffalo Allotment is roughly 97% privately owned, but the Public Land dispersed throughout it isn’t fenced out, and is man-aged by the BLM. The Filippini family owns all of the water rights, yet

the BLM controls the allotment. In May when the family went into the district office to pay their annual grazing fees, they were informed that they would not be able to until an agreement was reached on the Ar-genta grazing allotment, which isn’t tied to the North Buffalo allotment.

In early June the Filippini’s advised the BLM’s acting District Manager, John Ruhs, of their intentions to turn out in spite of the BLM’s ruling against it, and later received a call from Ruhs saying the BLM would not stop them, that they were authorized their Ex-change of Use AUM’s for the allotment. With the support of neigh-bors, friends, former Assemblyman John Carpenter, and Elko County Commissioners Demar Dahl and Rex Steninger, Dan and Eddyann Filippini were able to turn out cattle on the North Buffalo Allotment.

Despite criticism from Western Watersheds Project, “The BLM is enabling this kind of behavior by coddling Nevada ranchers

who ae surely emboldened by the lack of law enforcement within the agency and the lack of a commitment on

behalf of our government to protect the public trust – the lands, waters, and wildlife that are already

suffering from the drought and will now be fur-ther abused by these private cows.” said Ken Cole, Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project. Filippini’s and the BLM are receiving sup-port from local ranchers and industry leaders.

In a statement released by the Nevada Cat-tlemen’s Association, the NCA applauded the BLM and permittees for aggressively working to find a solution to the closed grazing areas in the North Buffalo Allotment. “Creative think-ing, adaptive management, and cooperation are the critical tools needed in moving forward with grazing management in the Great Basin.”

J.J. Goicoechea, DVM also encourages the Filippini family. “The recent development in the

Battle Mountain District are the results of coop-eration and determination. Through a process of

open dialogue and a willingness to give and take, stakeholders were able to come to agreements and

areas that had been closed to grazing are once again open. While there are considerable restraints placed on

the permittees with regard to utilization levels and grazing management, a grazing plan is now in place and some fuels can

be removed from the range before the upcoming fire season. There has been considerable time and resources spent on trying to find a solution by many stakeholders. Throughout this process there has been tremendous stress place upon our friends and neighbors impacted. I applaud them for staying strong and finding the will to continue to not only fight, but hold their operations together. The work of the National riparian Team needs to be recognized as well. These processes are exhaustive and can consume individuals who pour everything they have into finding solu-tions. While words are never quite enough, I want to thank the team, the permittees, their consultants and counsel, and especially Nevada BLM and Acting Director Ruhs for the commitment to see this through. On behalf of a grateful industry, I thank you all and hope the path forward can serve as an example of cooperation and adaptive management.”

Battle Mt. Permittees Turn Out!By Jennifer B Whiteley “Special Assignment Writer”


NLAA Dues Notice Letter

There is no doubt that we are currently experienc-ing some of the most challenging times in Nevada ranching history. There is very little any of us can do about a lack of snow and irrigation water, but while a significant problem for many of, it

isn’t the only big issue facing us. The proposed Land Use Plan Amendments based on the Greater Sage Grouse EIS is probably highest on the list for many natural resource based industries including agriculture. Another key area of concern is the con-tinued application of agency prescribed drought response ac-tions based on BLM Drought Environmental Assessments. Of course Nevada is still challenged with having the lion’s share of wild horses and in this current era of very little to no ac-tive management of these populations, we look to continue to wrestle with this problem.

So other than stating the obvious, what can we, as protectors of agri-culture and grazing in Nevada do? The answer is to join or renew mem-bership and conthhribute to the Nevada Land Action Association. NLAA was created in 1976 to help defend public land grazing and agriculture in general in Nevada. Since its inception, NLAA has challenged several deci-sions and actions that had potential and often realized negative impacts on our industry. The last two years the involvement of NLAA in legal mat-ters has drastically increased.

As an example, NLAA has contributed financially to the on-going Ne-vada Association of Counties and the Nevada Farm Bureau lawsuit asking the BLM to abide by the 1971 Wild and Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act. While Federal Judge Du did not decide to hear oral arguments on the case and subsequently dismissed the case, NACO and the Farm Bureau have appealed the decision and NLAA has supported this effort. With continuing reductions in AUM use across much of Nevada, NLAA feels it is imperative to have the BLM manage the extremely over populated Wild Horse herds in Nevada at approved levels and in a manner consistent with thriving natural ecological balance. Allowing large populations of horses to go unchecked while all other users of our natural resources pull together to conserve the sagebrush ecosystem and wildlife habitat cannot continue.

As producers, recreationists, sportsmen, and true conservationists,

we spend more time observing habitats, forage, water, and trends than anyone else. We don’t need a drought monitor or an agency document to tell us when it’s dry and that management changes may be needed. NLAA has met the challenge of the BLM Drought Management Plans (Drought Environmental Assessments) head on. To date, we have committed a huge amount of resources toward a legal challenge on the Battle Mt. District Drought EA. The response actions present in that document will be disas-trous to the agricultural community and lead to continued fragmentation of wildlife habitat by increased fire and less productive rangelands.

Leadership in NLAA remain fully engaged in efforts to support Ne-vada’s Conservation Plan for the Greater Sage Grouse. With that said, we must not lose sight of the fact that litigation is going to occur on BLM Resource Management Plan Amendments, a listing decision, and habitat designations. Whether we, as users of our natural resources, agree with defendants or plaintiffs, WE MUST BE PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE IN LITIGATION. Our ways of life, families, and rural communities must be fought for and protected.

Participation in and providing funding to groups fighting for conservation of our natural resources and protection of multiple uses, is no longer optional.

The time to stand together and push back on multiple fronts is now. Whether you are a sportsman who enjoys stalking a buck near a spring developed by and maintained by a rancher, the father of children who enjoy camping in Nevada’s great outdoors, a store owner who depends on a stable rural economy, or a fifth generation rancher NLAA works for you and needs your support.

The next 12 months are critical for Nevada agriculture and our rural economies. If you are currently a member of NLAA, renew your dues today. If you are not a member, contact NLAA and become a member. Organizations opposed to our ways of life are heavily funded, and well organized. NLAA has the will power and commitment to fight the battles against these groups and overreaching federal agencies, but we MUST have your help.

Please renew your membership today and if you are not a member, join NLAA and contribute to the protection of our natural resources and multiple uses.

J. Goicoechea, DVM, President Nevada Land Action Association

P. O. BOX 310ELKO, NV 89803 775-738-9214775-738-5208 fax

[email protected]

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Ely, NV; June 9, 2015 – In late May, several Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest employees worked to clean up debris from a massive marijuana grow discov-ered and eliminated last August on the Ely Ranger

District near Big Creek in Nye County, Nevada. In August 2014, a deer hunter found and reported the garden’s existence

to authorities. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Las Vegas Met-ro, and Nye County law enforcement agents subsequently entered the Big Creek Marijuana Garden and eradi-cated over 9,000 plants, resulting in tens of millions of dollars’ worth of illicit drugs being taken off the street. One arrest was made in connection with the garden.

While the initial eradication was a huge success, the mess left behind by the illegal operation was an envi-ronmental disaster, with debris left strewn over a mile-long stretch of Big Creek’s banks. Signs suggested the grow been operating for several years prior to its discovery and ultimate destruction.

During the recent two-day weekend clean-up, the eight-person group elimi-nated the entire infrastruc-ture that included dwelling structures and two marijua-na processing stations; over a mile of plastic pipe from the creek bed along with two large dams; pipelines in the 1.5-acre actual garden; and more than 50 burlap sacks full of trash. The group also found and removed another previously unknown satellite grow operation.

Because the grow was originally detected close to marijuana harvest time, the clean-up had been delayed until it was safer to work in the area.

“I am proud of our employees who took the time and energy to clean up this overwhelming accumulation of trash to restore this area’s ecological health,” said Ely Acting District Ranger Martina Barnes.

People who see suspicious activity while out in the forest should first back out the way they entered the area. Acquiring a global positioning system (GPS) point or photos are helpful if it seems safe to do so. Once in a safe location, reporting the concern to either Forest Service or local law enforcement is appreciated. People can also contact the local ranger district with the information.

Humboldt-ToiyabeNational Forest Employees Clean Up Marijuana Grow Area Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell today formally

withdrew a proposal to more carefully gauge how the agency’s land management decisions affect groundwater. The agency’s groundwater directive<https://www.federalregister.gov/arti-

cles/2014/05/06/2014-10366/proposed-directive-on-groundwa-ter-resource-management-forest-service-manual-2560>, unveiled in May 2014, had sparked a torrent of criticism from Republicans and Western governors who argued it could usurp states’ authority to allocate water.

The Forest Service’s notice of withdrawal<https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/06/19/2015-15151/proposed-directive-ongroundwater-resource-management-forest-service-manual-2560>in today’s Federal Register acknowledges those concerns but calls them unfounded. While the proposal was received favorably by tribes and conservation groups, the agency “must have further discussions” with other stakeholders before moving forward with the proposal, it said.

“The proposed directives did not, and any future actions will not, infringe on state authority, impose requirements on private landowners or change the long-standing relationship between the Forest Service, states, and tribes on water,” the notice reads. “The intent of any new groundwater proposed directive or next steps would be to establish a clearer and more consistent approach to evaluating and monitoring the effects of actions on groundwater resources of the National Forest System.”

The move drew praise from House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), whose panel discussed the rule at a hearing in April with the Forest Service’s Leslie Weldon, deputy chief of the national forest sys-tem. “Finally, after more than a year, states and private water rights holders can have some peace of mind in knowing this policy is now officially off the table,” Bishop said in a statement this afternoon. “From the outset the For-est Service failed to identify any practical or legal basis for this directive.”

Tidwell had announced in February that the directive had been placed on hold pending further discussions with Western stakeholders, but Bishop and five other leading Republicans in March asked that he permanently withdraw it (E&E Daily<http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1060014991>, March 13).

The withdrawal comes a day after a Senate Energy and Natural Re-sources panel held a hearing to discuss a GOP bill to combat what critics describe as “federal water grabs” in the West including the groundwater di-rective (E&E Daily<http://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1060020533>, June 19).

The directive would have required the Forest Service to better account for how surface uses such as wells and mines would affect groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. If potential harm were discovered, the agency would work with forest users to mitigate those impacts.

Dozens of conservation groups rallied behind the directive, saying in comments <http://docs.nrdc.org/water/files/wat_14090401a.pdf> submitted to the Forest Service that it provides long-overdue recognition of the intercon-nectedness of groundwater and surface water, and the need to better track how groundwater withdrawals affect ecosystems and downstream users.

GOP cheers as chief formally ‘withdraws groundwater rule

Pipe in creek runs for a mile

Big Creek Cleanup

Burlap sacks full of trash Debris left over a mile-long stretch of riverbanks


Grasses, members of the Poaceae family of higher plants, are the lifeblood of grazing over much of the world. So for this issue I describe and discuss Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis, L.). This grass is found in meadow en-vironments over most of Northern Nevada. Kentucky

bluegrass has long been one of the most important cool season grass species planted in the west. This grass has been used for lawns, athletic fields, golf course fairways, tees, and rough, and been widely planted for pastures in regions where it thrives. This plant is very valuable for live-stock grazing because it is adapted to such a wide range of climates and soils. You might think it is a native species, but like many other or our range species Kentucky bluegrass arrived in North America along with traders and settlers from Europe. Some think it is so common and well used around the United States for so long that it ought to be considered as being a naturalized member of our flora. Kentucky bluegrass is ubiqui-tous in permanent pastures in humid, temperate regions of the US, occurring in every state and extending into Canada. They tolerate a wide range of environments from 30 to 83 degrees N latitude, from sea level to 4,000 meters (13,120 feet). In Nevada this good grazing plant is found in many meadow pastures across northern Nevada and is a valuable forage plant.

Kentucky bluegrass is a sod forming rhizomatous cool season perennial grass that is adapted to climates with warm summers and cold winters. It has a perennial root system in which maximum root system development occurs after one to two years from planting or establishment and occurs naturally in many meadows across north-ern Nevada. While there is an annual flush of new roots in spring many of last year’s roots remain alive and functioning. Because many roots live through the winter, it is not unusual to dig up a patch of healthy bluegrass and observe that most of the roots appear brown. In general Kentucky bluegrass is an upright grower. There are liter-ally hundreds of cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass and many produce outstanding turf. Kentucky bluegrass has open panicles that are pyramidal or oblong-pyramidal in shape. Leaves are folded in the bud shoot with blades that are parallel-sided and terminate in a boat-shaped tip that is characteristic of the genus Poa. Its sheath is flat-tened and smooth and has overlapping margins. The spikelets in the raceme are 3- to 6- flowered (3-6mm long), laterally compressed, nearly as wide as long. The lemmas are keeled (2.5-4mm long) acute or obtuse with 5 pubescent nerves, and with cobwebby hairs at the base of the palea.

Kentucky bluegrass tolerates a wide range of soils and tolerates flood-ing, but not a high water table. It is neither acid- nor alkali-tolerant,

RANGE PLANTS FOR THE RANCHERBy Paul T. Tueller, Ph.D., CRMC

Kentucky Bluegrass

but survives in a pH range of 5.8 to 8.2. Kentucky bluegrass is not as high yielding as some other cool-season grasses but has many favorable qualities including its vigorous creeping growth via rhizomes, tolerance to close grazing, and high palatability. Plants have a low tolerance to drought but recovers well from it. Soil tolerances allows growth on a wide range of soils. Plants spread easily by rhizomes and have the ability to adapt to a wide range of environmen-tal conditions. It is easily spread by seed, often introduced into areas in hay bales of other species or by grazing animals that have eaten the seed and later defecate somewhere else.

Owing to its short stature it is easily crowded out by taller plant species where grazing or cutting is infrequent and/or a tall stubble height is left, but it may remain as an understory plant until shaded out completely. Once established it rapidly colonizes meadows, pastures, and turf. Due to need for ample soil water availability and cool conditions, spring and early summer plus a period in the fall are times of greatest growth rate. It reaches anthesis (the flowering period when the flower is fully expended and functioning) 10 or more days earlier than some associated species such as orchardgrass, smooth bromegrass, and timothy.

Kentucky bluegrass is good for livestock and wildlife especially in early spring when other plants are not yet growing. It is considered undesirable in hay meadows but is very valuable as a forage in meadows. Forage can have high or low quality, because if sampled early, Kentucky bluegrass will be more mature than other species. However, if prtoperly managed, quality is excellent in pastures, with high crude protein content and high digestibil-

ity. Further, digestibility declines less rapidly than other cool-season grasses. Kentucky bluegrass has no known problems arising when

livestock or wildlife graze the herbage. Every Nevada ranch-er will be pleased if he has, in his mead-ows, a good sward of Kentucky bluegrass.


We as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles would do anything to help and pro-mote our kids, wouldn’t we?

We give them calves and horses, we buy them pick-ups, trailers, even homes and ranches. We fix stuff for them, feed them, and love them unconditionally. But how many of us

know for sure where our kids are going to spend eternity? I have observed how parents love these precious little ones; they are so dear to us. Yet, sometimes those same loving parents give no thought to where their little ones are going to spend eternity. We need to train our little ones up on the Word of God so that they can live victoriously in this world, yet not be of this world.

Read I John 3:24-46. “Greater is He (Jesus) who is in us, than he (Satan) who is in the world.”Now read I John 5:1-5. So who lives in victory in this world? Verse 5 says, “He who believes that

Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world!”We as parents cannot say we love our children if we won’t bother to find out what the Bible says

about parenting them. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he (or she) should go and even when he (or she) is old he will not depart from it.” Depart from what? The training of the Word of God. We need to train our children and grandchildren to be Christ-like, Christians. Why? To overcome the world and its sinful ways.

Let’s teach our children to be led of the Lord, and not fall into the deadly sins of the world. Let’s dig into the Word of God so we can be the godly examples they need.

May God bless you and your children. If you have never made Jesus Lord of your life, why not do it today? Then you can know that heaven is your eternal destination.

Happy trails. We love you and would love to hear from you. If you would like someone to pray with, or just have a question, please give us a call at (775) 867-3100. ‘Til next time….

by Pastor Diana Gonzalez

640 AC N. Fifth Street (Elko, NV)

Section 25, Twp.35N, Rge.54E. Water Well and seasonal creek through

property. Close to Elko’s Snow Bowl ski area. Easy access, Great views of

the Ruby Mountains. $400,000

Wells Arena (Wells, NV)

Old Clover Road. 12+ Acres with 15,400 sq. ft. metal building &

storage shed. Power, private well. Wire and panel fenced. $480,000

Shadow Mtn. Ranch12.5 Acres in Duck Creek Basin in Nevada.Beautiful spacious 4,000 sq. ft. home with 4 bedrooms/3

bathrooms. Water RightsHunting and Fishing Galore! $995,000

Recanzone RanchNeat ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada.

900+ acres, 300 AUMs, right by town. Original Sandstone House. Easy access to Hinkey Summit &

surrounding mountains. Includes Barn, Outbuildings and Corrals. $1,390,000

Starr Valley PastureUnique fenced 1,104 acres on Boulder Creek bordering U.S. Forest Service in Starr Valley, Nevada. Water-righted with nice meadows. $1,400,000

Howell RanchLocated in Elko County, nestled on the hillsides of the East Humboldts, north end of the Ruby Mtn. Range. Water-righted meadows that produce 1200 average ton of hay a year. 4 homes

with mature landscape. Multiple barns, shops, storages, chutes & corrals.

Pond stocked with fish. Gravel pit on property. Only 10 minutes to schools, stores & restaurants. $5,000,000

Clear Creek RanchSouth of Winnemucca, Nevada. Approx.

10,000 Deeded Acres. Approx. 740 irrigated acres, Ranch Manager’s

home & equipment yard. Log Cottage

Specializing in hunting, ranching, and horse properties

Allie Bear Real Estate

775-738-8535

View complete listings at:www.ARanchBroker.com

775-777-6416Allie Bear, Broker/Realtor

SALE PENDING

It’s amazing that many groups who propose to “save the environment” have convinced the public that the best thing for our forests is to leave them completely alone. Now, after

years of following that advise, we are learning that, in fact, gardens are meant to be tended...and our nation’s gardens are dying.

Forest experts throughout California are speaking up about the desperate need our forests have of being thinned and the positive effects that would have upon the health of those forests, not to mention the well-being of the people of California.

It is a fact that local people know their local prob-lems better than any person in Washington D.C....no matter how good their intentions may be. And those who work directly with the forests of a given state know what is wrong in that forest and how to fix those problems. But mountains of red tape and bureaucracy make it impossible for them to do what they know needs to be done.

The Transfer of Public Lands is essential for our for-est health, for the preservation of our water, for the well-being of our citizens...for the sovereignty of every state.

Below is the article found on Valley Public Radio. There you can listen to the nine minute interview with

UC Merced on the subject that will shed great light on the need to thin our forests if we are to save them. Please take the time to read and listen, then share this important information with your friends, your col-leagues, and your elected officials.

Forest managers throughout California say that thinning forests to a more natural state is a good way to reduce the severity of wildfires. Now scientists suggest that it also could offer help in saving water in the drought.

Researchers at UC Merced think that thinning overgrown forests throughout the Sierra could result in as much as a million acre feet of extra water each year for the state. That’s enough water to fill Pine Flat Lake on the Kings River east of Fresno.

Roger Bales is the director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UC Merced. He says years of fire suppression have left much of the Sierra overgrown with small trees that consume a lot of water.

Bales says a team of UC researchers are currently studying the issue with the US Forest Service in the American River Basin and in the Sierra National For-est near Yosemite.

This is the time to stand if you have not already done so. The opposition is loud, but they cannot change the facts. Please help us to continue educating throughout the states and see what you can do to help.


and the making of the Golden Cross By Rachel Dahl

Not unlike Gaston, the larger-than-life male char-acter in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the French cattle being raised in Northern Nevada by Paul Plouviez known as “Gascon” are strong, beautiful animals, and like the song from the movie says, “as

a specimen, yes…intimidating.” Plouviez owns the Bench Creek ranch in Churchill County, 50 miles east

of Fallon, Nevada and has remarked how similar the geography is to the Pyr-enees region of France where the Gascon were originally raised. He bought the ranch in 2006 and soon realized that “Bench Creek is not an easy ranch.” He said, “A cow has to be in good shape and have good legs and not all the breeds (of cattle) in the US are good for this kind of mountain terrain.”

With a long history in the food production businesses, including healthy, natural cookies and bread products, Plouviez is now focusing efforts on tak-ing the next stehp to produce a meat that is raised naturally from “Pasture to Plate” and offers an alternative way of thinking to the stereotype that beef is not an option for the health-conscious consumer. Plouviez is building on the success of the “grass fed” and “organic” movements to create, breed, and market the next healthy alternative in the beef production world; a meat rich in Omega-3, the nutrient normally found by consuming fish or taken by supplement for heart health.

In that process, combined with the need to find a cow that would flour-ish on a Nevada desert outfit, Plouviez wondered, why not try the cattle that came from the Pyrenees in his home country. “With all the Basque people in this state, I wondered why no had thought to try the Gascon, which is the perfect breed for this type of geography and elevation.” Plouviez came to the US in 1981 when he was managing a medical clinic company in France. “They sent me to training in San Francisco and I didn’t go back,” he says with his charming French accent and a twinkling blue-eyed laugh, “it was a bad investment for them.”

He then began working in the food industry where he was able to “make a lot of money—with a bakery right downtown.” He said the work was seven days a week, twelve hour days. “We had a line out the door when we opened every morning.” From there, Plouviez opened a cookie factory to make the French Butter Cookie, a venture he calls “the worst idea I ever had.” Ap-parently, no one wants to buy a French cookie made in the US, he explained with another self-depreciating laugh as he shared the details of going broke in that venture.

One day, at a food show, he got lucky in two respects. With buyers from all over the country attending, he met a buyer from Japan and business-man from New York. The Japanese food buyer, Shima, he married and they celebrate their 29th anniversary this year. The New York businessman suggested using wheat flour and fruit juice in his cookies and three months later the cookie factory was running 24 hours a day making product for the natural food market.

Four years later with the factory running at full capacity, Plouviez was filling contracts with large, nation-wide food companies when he was bought out by Weetabix, a processing company from England that was expanding to the US. Always involved in real estate, Plouviez told his wife “maybe we can buy a little ranch to have fun with your horses.”

After looking in California and deciding there was no way to make money on a ranch there, he went to look in Oregon. On the way back he detoured through Fallon to look at Bench Creek.

“In January of 2006,” he recalls, “we drove up the 13-mile road through the beautiful snow-covered canyon, and looked at the ranch, and it was so pretty.” He figured if it ran 500 cattle, they could make a little money so he called his wife on the way back to the city and said he had found the place. By April they had bought the ranch from Patrick Dempsey.

When he finally took his wife to see the ranch it was late spring and all the snow had melted. They drove for miles through the mud and pulled into the yard where Paul said Shima just looked at the place and calmly said, “we bought a junk yard?”

They set about to clean up (making 60 big truck loads to the dump) and build a beautiful ranch house, outbuildings, guest house, barn and arena. He still refers to his experiences over the years with the ranch as, “the wild west.”

After several years of trying to find a way to make money on a Nevada cow outfit, Plouviez is now focusing on the Gascon project. He is working with several Nevada ranchers and scientists at the University of California at Davis, to develop and produce purebred Gascon cattle in the US, as well as find a cross-breed that will flourish in the harsh high-desert conditions of Nevada ranches.

Because of regulations that prevent and limit the import of live cattle into the United States, Plouviez imported the embryos, a project which came with its own extensive regulation and timeline. In order to protect the live-stock native to the US, all livestock imports that are allowed are still heavily regulated, so it took over five years to finally get the originally 300 embryos here in December of 2012.

Working with Dave Stix, who provided the surrogate heifers, and Kenny Lee, the first embryos were transferred in late 2012. With the help of the State Veterinarian and the University of Nevada, they transferred 75 of the embryos, and had seven purebred Gascon calves born in September 2013. The six bull calves will be used to harvest semen, and the heifer will be sent to Davis where Dr. Bret McNabb will “super ovulate” and fertilize her eggs to create embryos that will then be transferred to surrogates for another round of purebred calves.

In 2013 Plouviez then crossed 60 Gascon embryos with different cattle including Black Angus, Limousin, and Red Angus. The “Golden Cross” has turned out to be the Gascon/Black Angus. Although the Gascon are a light grey color, when crossed with the Angus, calves are born black, which in the marketing world, Plouviez says are worth about 20 more cents per pound.

Additionally, the meat has the traditional flavor that is so popular with the Angus breed, but also is rich in natural Omega-3 fatty acids, developed through a feeding program that focuses on the use of flaxseed. Accord-ing to Plouviez and his scientists, by feeding the cattle a finishing diet that includes flaxseed that has been extruded to make the Omega-3 more avail-able for the digestion process, they can produce the highest quality meat that is rich in naturally occurring, rather than added, Omega-3 and is more healthy for the consumer.

In addition to developing a more healthy beef product, Plouviez is work-ing on opening a store in Reno that will feature the Sierra Basque Ranch beef. The store is slated to open late this summer on Plumb Lane as the Butcher Boy Meat Market, and will carry beef, poultry, and pork, all rich in the natural Omega-3.

Jason Storm, a livestock grower in Fallon, has been working with Plou-viez and has seven Angus/Gascon calves born this spring. He is now is starting a Holstein to Gascon cross, and agrees with Plouviez in the effort to perfect beef for the “healthy consumer.”

“We eat a lot of garbage in this country and once you start eating healthy you start feeling better and then you become passionate to get rid of all the fake things we eat,” said Storm. “We are better off eating real food and healthier meat.” Storm refers to the “foodie movement” and said by eating these foods that are raised naturally, with no hormones or antibiotics or strange byproducts, people will be better off.

“What Paul is doing is a good place for food to go,” said Storm. like all Disney movies, that is the “happily ever after” for which Plouviez is hoping.

GAsCON


Brad Schultz, Extension Educator, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Winnemucca, Nevada

Yellow StarthistleNevada’s Priority Agricultural Weeds:

Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) is a non-native forb (wildflower) originally found in southern Europe. This weed entered the United States as a seed contaminant in alfalfa in the 1850s. Following its initial introduction to the

United States, yellow starthistle has spread to all but seven of the lower 48 states, including all 17 western states. Yellow starthistle usually follows the lifecycle of a winter (cool season) annual plant but on occasion may become biennial. All annual plants reproduce only from seed; thus, long-term control re-quires preventing existing plants from adding new seed to the soil and reducing the number of viable seeds in the soil seed-bank for at least several years, and perhaps as long as 10 years.

Yellow starthistle typically inhabits areas that receive 10 to 60 inches of annual precipitation, have well-drained soils, are below about 7,500 feet in elevation, and have hot dry summers. The preferred soil types inhabited are deep silt loam and loam, but the plant can also grow on shallow and gravelly soils. Yellow starthistle may occur in open woodlands, shrub-grass rangelands, grasslands, pastures, cultivated fields, roadsides and other linear corridors that are regularly disturbed, rec-reation areas, waste areas and vacant lots. New infesta-tions can readily establish on disturbed ground at the wildland-urban interface. Yellow starthistle does not grow well in areas with extensive shading or low light conditions. These conditions are typical of vigorous ag-ronomic crops or productive pastures and rangelands with dense vigorous stands of tall perennial grasses. Shortly after seedlings of yellow starthistle emerge, they begin to develop a deep tap root that reaches moist soil below the comparatively shallow root zone inhabited of most annual and perennial grasses and many shrubs.

At the state level, 7.9 percent of agricultural pro-ducers in Nevada considered yellow starthistle a prob-lematic weed, which ranks the plant as the 17th most problematic weed in Nevada. Some agricultural produc-ers in each county consider yellow starthistle a prob-lem, with the largest percentage in Washoe and Storey Counties (13.9 percent), Douglas County (13.2 percent), Clark and Lincoln Counties (10.6 percent), and Persh-ing County (10.5 percent). In the remaining counties between 5 and 10 percent of respondents considered the weed problematic. Among managers of public lands, 6.7 percent of survey respondents considered the weed a problem. Yellow starthistle creates management problems because the weed is highly competitive and tends to form dense stands that displace higher value vegetation. Stand density has been reported to reach hundreds of thousands of plants (or more) per acre. Mature plants are unpalatable to all livestock except goats due to thorns that protrude from flower heads (Figure 1). Also the plant contains a chemical that causes chewing disease in horses.

Plant BiologyAs a winter or cool season annual, yellow starthistle typically ger-

minates from the fall through early spring (i.e., the cool months) and develops a basal rosette of leaves by mid-spring. In late spring to mid-summer, the reproductive stems bolt upward and develop flowers and subsequently seed. By the time flowering occurs, most, if not all, of the

basal leaves have desiccated. The stem leaves typically are covered by dense cottony hairs which can intercept herbicide before the chemical reaches the leaf surface and stomata where uptake occurs. Yellow starthis-tle seedlings put most of their initial growth into root development via a deep taproot that can penetrate the soil to over six feet deep. This root provides access to deep soil moisture that is largely unavailable to many other plants during the driest part of the summer. The lower two inches of the stems typically have buds that can facilitate rapid regrowth follow-ing mowing or defoliation that leaves several inches or more of stubble.

All reproduction occurs from seed. Individual plants may produce from 1 to 1,000 flower heads per plant, with up to 80 seeds per flower head, for approximately 80,000 seeds. Research has reported seed pro-duction can reach 14 to 100 million seeds per acre. Seed may become vi-able only eight days after flower initiation. The first germinable seed on a plant appears when about two percent of the flower heads have initiated flowering. Germination can occur at both warm and cool temperatures

if soil moisture is adequate. Excellent germination occurs when temperatures exceed 43°F and are less than 86°F. This allows for germination and seedling establishment from fall through spring, making it dif-ficult to achieve excellent control with a single herbicide application at the “seedling” growth stage. High light conditions at the soil surface enhance germination.

Over 90 percent of the seed falls within two feet of the mother plant, but some seed may fall up to 16 feet away when the wind reaches 25 mph and is largely blow-ing over bare ground. This results in a slow but persistent expansion of the perimeter of any infestation. Animals and humans can move viable seed both short and long distances relatively quickly. Yellow starthistle seed has microscopic barbs (on the pappus) that readily adhere to animal hides and clothing. Longer distance transport occurs when contaminated animals are shipped to new locations, vehicles covered with infested mud disperse the material far from where it became attached, or con-taminated crops are shipped to distant locations. Many birds, including ring-necked pheasant, quail, house finches, and others feed heavily on yellow starthistle seed and easily move the seed offsite after foraging bouts.

Yellow starthistle seed may remain viable in the soil for as long as 10 years for seed with plumes, and six years for seed without plumes (Figure 2). Burial depth

of seed influences seted viability. As much as 88 percent of the seed buried at two inches deep is viable 13 months after burial. Buried seed generally remains viable longer than seed on or very close to the soil surface because it is less exposed to soil pathogens, intense heat, insects, seed consuming animals, and other factors that result in high seed or seedling mortality.

Control Approaches - Non-chemicalBecause yellow starthistle only reproduces from seed, control of this

weed requires three general strategies: 1) preventing seed production; 2) and depleting the soil seedbank over at least two to four years, and per-haps longer; and 3) preventing movement of viable seed back onto the site from other locations. Also, a vigorous stand of perennial grasses (or other desired species on cropland) must be established to reduce the number of germination “safe sites” in the soil that yellow starthistle seed may inhabit. Safe sites are minute locations in the soil that provide the best

Figure 1. Yellow starthistle plant at the flowering growth stage. Photo from Calflora (http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?where-taxon=Centaurea+solstitialis&where-anno=1). © 2008 Luigi Rignanese.


microenvironment for seed to germinate and for the seedlings to establish. Mechanical tillage methods can effectively control yellow starthistle

if they are properly timed to prevent seed production, and they persistent long enough across time to deplete the soil seedbank. New and especially small patches of yellow starthistle can be effectively addressed by hand removal (pulling, digging, hoeing, etc.), as can old infestations that have been treated for several years or longer and have few plants or viable seed left on the site. Tillage treatments must remove all stem material to ensure there are no basal buds left for regrowth to occur. When two inches or more of a stem remain after a mechanical treatment, there can be rapid regrowth from one or more buds at the base of the stem, provided the roots have access to adequate soil moisture. Mechanical treatments should occur after the plants have bolted and before any viable seed has been produced during the early flowering stage, which is about eight days after flower initiation occurs. Large-scale tillage can control large infesta-tions of yellow starthistle when it severs the root below the soil surface and separates the root crown from the tap root below. It is most effective in early summer before seed set occurs. Repeated tillage just before seed set can deplete the seedbank dramatically in a few years.

When topography and soil conditions permit, mowing can effectively control yellow starthistle. Mowing treatments work best when applied after the bloom has begun, but before five percent of the flower heads are in bloom. Mowing too early can permit rapid regrowth because deep soil moisture is abundant and the plant can regrow from buds at the base of each stem. Mowing too late (> eight days after flower initiation) just disperses viable seed, and the later into the flowering period that mowing occurs, the greater the numbers of viable seed present. Also, if desired perennial grasses inhabit the site, mowing treatments that overlap plant growth (for the grasses) from just after the grasses reach the boot stage through early seed head emergence are likely to result in less carbohydrate production and a decline in the stored energy reserves. The stored energy reserves are what keep the grasses alive during summer and winter dormancy and to initi-ate growth the following growing season. Thus, a decline in vigor occurs for the very species you may need to fully occupy the site post-treatment. Depending on the amount of regrowth by yellow starthistle following a mowing event, multiple treatments in a growing season may be warranted.

Cattle, sheep and goats will readily select yellow starthistle before the spines associated with the flower heads appear. This corresponds with the rosette through bolting growth stages. Once the spines appear, only goats will readily consume the plant. Yellow starthistle is toxic to horses and they should not graze infestations that lack other forages they can select. Grazing is seldom effective as a stand-alone weed control treat-ment because it cannot be applied long enough and/or with great enough intensity to fully control the weed without adversely affecting the desired palatable forage species on the site. Also, to obtain use levels sufficient to seriously harm yellow starthistle, livestock productivity is likely to decline beyond acceptable levels. Grazing works well when integrated with other management actions which collectively will: 1) cause greater harm to yel-low starthistle plants than repeated application of either treatment alone, and/or 2) confers greater benefit toward desired residual species so they can outcompete the starthistle plants and assume dominance of the site. Every grazing treatment should be evaluated for its potential adverse ef-fects on the desired residual species that inhabit the site. If the grazing treatment largely eliminates the desired species and there is no vegeta-tion on-site to competitively exclude yellow starthistle (or another weed) then yellow starthistle or some other weed are likely to establish on the site. The best defense against the sudden large scale establishment of yel-low starthistle or any other weed species is the presence of one or more desired deep rooted species that capture most of the sunlight and soil re-sources before they are used by yellow starthistle or another weed species. .

Seed buried in the soil is relatively safe from fire-generated heat but plants can be readily killed by flaming/fire. Any fire treatment should oc-cur before the first viable seed is set, and remember almost all seed can germinate one week after dispersal. Prescribed fire (or flaming) before seed set occurs can substantially reduce the number of seeds in the soil the following growing season because one year of seed input is lost. Three consecutive years of burning can reduce the seedbank from over 300 seeds per square foot to about 10 or less. The key is to always apply the burning treatment before the plants develop any viable seed. Seed in the soil at the time of burning generally survives well, but no additional inputs occur, and the remaining seedbank suffers annual losses from consumption by insects, birds or other wildlife, disease or soil microbes, or successful ger-mination but failed seedling establishment. Fire treatments that remove most standing vegetation (desired or undesired species) before the typical germination period for yellow starthistle likely to enhance seed germina-tion because more sunlight will reach the soil surface. This approach can

actually increase the number of young plants on a site and increase the effectiveness of other treatment methods including tillage, pulling, or herbicides. Also, the seedbank becomes smaller with each germination event that is not followed by inputs of additional seed to the seedbank. The benefits of any burning treatment should be weighed against potential adverse effects toward desired vegetation on the site. Treatments that will harm the desired residual species should be avoided unless the site can be successfully re-seeded with species of equal or greater ability to exclude weed species and provide a plant commu-nity that meets management goals and objectives.

Six insects are known to attack the seed heads of yellow starthistle but only two have

demonstrated much success at reducing seed production These are the hairy weevil (Eustenopus villosus) and the false peacock fly (Chae-torellia succinea). The reported declines of 43 to 76 percent seem high but are insufficient for long-term control of yellow starthistle be-cause one large healthy plant can produce 80,000 seeds. Seventy-six percent control may still yield about 20,000 seeds being produced.

Chemical ControlThere are at least 14 active ingredients labeled for application to yel-

low starthistle in Nevada (Table 1) with at least 152 potential products available. Many of these products are pre-mixed packages that include one or more of active ingredients shown in Table 1 and one or more ad-ditional active ingredients that often control many other weeds, some of which often grow in conjunction with yellow starthistle. Most of the active ingredients in Table 1 are selective herbicides and collectively they possess varying degrees of soil residual activity. Soil residual activity can be im-portant for controlling seedlings that appear months to several years after an herbicide treatment. These herbicides can be very valuable for treat-ments on rangeland, pasture or non-crop areas but less useful for areas planted to many annual crop species. There is at least one active ingredient and usually multiple products available for most of Nevada’s major crops (Table 1), but most of the herbicides labeled for control of yellow starthis-tle are labeled for range, pasture and non-crop settings. This reflects the infrequent presence of yellow starthistle in most agronomic fields.

Most herbicides, including those with a strong soil residual, con-trol yellow starthistle best when they are applied postemergence at the rosette stage. Some herbicides also are effective at the bolting to early flower-bud growth stages but they often require higher rates of application.

In part, this is due to the cottony hairs that form on the leaves and stems of mature yellow starthistle plants. These hairs intercept much of the ap-plied herbicide, which prevents good contact between the active ingredient and leaf surface where uptake occurs. Higher application rates are needed to achieve the level of uptake typically found before the hairs develop. For all herbicide applications, the applicator should ensure that there is enough

Figure 2. Seeds with and without a plume. Plumed seeds retain viability in the soil several years longer than plumeless seeds.


soil moisture in the ground for yellow starthistle to have rapid growth for several weeks after the application. This allows the active ingredient to bemoved (translocated) from the leaf surface to the plant’s growing points (meristematic tissues) which is where the plant creates new leaves, and its reproductive stems and flower heads. Death of these growing points is critical for killing and controlling the weed. Growing conditions that result in little or no herbicide uptake and/or translocation to the growing points (i.e., excessively cold, dry, wet or cloudy) are going to be costly failures.

No single active ingredient listed in Table 1 is the best herbicide for all infestations of yellow starthistle. Every infestation has some unique char-acteristic different from other sites. Herbicide selection should be based on site-specific conditions. Some factors to consider are: 1) do you need an herbicide that is selective and not going to adversely affect the residual desired vegetation on the site; 2) are your short- and mid-term manage-ment objectives compatible with a soil persistent herbicide that can leave a significant amount of the active ingredient in the soil for months to years; 3) what will be the growth stages of yellow starthistle when you have time to fit an herbicide treatment into your overall farming or ranching operation; 4) can you make the commitment to any follow-up treatments that are needed; and 5) consider using active ingredients with different modes of action (i.e., killing mechanism) when chemical treatments are needed for several consecutive years. The latter consideration reduces the risk of creating herbicide resistant biotypes of yellow starthistle.

An important question of any herbicide treatment is, was I success-ful? Yellow starthistle reestablishes from seed each growing season, and seed buried several inches deep can survive at least six to 10 years. An herbicide treatment of yellow starthistle can be 100 percent effective the year it is applied, but successful long-term control of yellow starthistle may require several more years of completely successful treatment be-

fore all of the viable seed in the soil is eliminated. Always revisit treated sites for at least three or more years to ensure that new plants do not establish and produce seed. Remember, one large productive plant can produce upwards of 80,000 seeds. If the infested area occurs along an invasion pathway for which the movement of starthistle seed cannot be prevented, then annual inspection should occur to determine if new plants have established. If new plants are found, the best control treat-ment may or may not be an herbicide application. If only a few young plants are present remove them mechanically to reduce the risk of creating an herbicide resistant plant. Repeated use of the same active ingredient or other active ingredients with the same mode of action can lead to herbicide resistance and loss of an effective management tool.

Weed control and management programs for yellow starthistle should use an integrated approach that applies two or more methods of weed control. Very seldom does a single approach work long-term. Furthermore, all approaches, except for the purposeful management of an area for bare ground, must consider how to establish and/or in-crease the desired species on an infested site. A dense, vigorous stand of desirehd perennial grasses (or crop species) provides the best oppor-tunity to prevent a rapid large scale establishment of yellow starthistle, particularly when it is combined with periodic scouting to find and eliminate the initial colonizers. Controlling the initial colonizers of a site before they add seed to the soil typically results in a one season control program. Once viable seed enters the soil, a control program will last at least three to four years or longer. Early detection of yellow starthistle and a rapid response to the first few plants provides the best opportunity to prevent large scale establishment and costly, multi-year treatments.

The next weed addressed in this series will be dodder (Cuscuta spp.) a parasitic annual plant that may infect crops or wildland settings.

Active IngredientRepresentative

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Selective Soil Residual Growth Stage

2,4-D Many x x x x x x x x Yes No Postemergence to rapidly growing plants from seedling through rosette stage.

Aminocyclopyrachlor Method 50 SG Method 240 SL x x x Yes Yes Preemergence or postemergence during rapid

growth from seedling to rosette stage.

Aminopyralid Milestone x x Yes Yes Preemergence or postemergence during rapid growth from rosette (best timing) through bolting stages.

Bromoxynil, Octanoic acid ester

BrocleanBuctril x x x x x Yes No Postemergence to actively growing seedlings with ≤

4 leaves and ≤ 2 inches tall for best results.

Clopyralid Clean Slate, Stinger, Transline x x x x x x Yes Yes Postemergence to seedlings and rosettes (best), with

higher application rates needed on bolted. plants

Chlorsulfuron Telar x x Yes Yes Preemergence only. Postemergence requires tank-mix with an active ingredient with postemergence activity.

Dicamba Banvel, Sterling Blue Herbicide x x x x x Yes Yes Postemergence to actively growing plants from rosette to early bolting.

Glufosinate-ammonium Forfeit, Reckon 280 SL, Rely 280 x x No None to

very shortPostemergence to actively growing plants when temperatures are warm, humidity high and bright sunlight.

Glyphosate Accord, Roundup and many others x x x x x x x x No No Postemergence to rapidly growing unstressed

plants through early flower stage.

Imazapyr Arsenal, Habitat, Polaris x x x No Yes Preemergence for seedlings, with some postemergence

activity for young rapidly growing weeds.

Indaziflam Esplandade 200 SC x Yes Yes Preemergence with soil incorporation by rainfall (0.25 in).

Picloram Tordon 22K x x x Yes Yes Preemergence or postemergence during active growth, from rosette through bud formation.

Tebuthiuron Spike 80 x x Rate dependent Yes Preemergence or postemergence with soil incorporation by precipitation.

Triclopyr Element, Garlon 3A, Trycera x x Yes Yes Postemergence to actively growing weeds from seedlings to bolting stage.


HUMBOLDT WATERSHED COOPERATIVEWeed Management Area

HWCWMA P.O. Box 570 Elko, NV 89803-0570 [email protected] [email protected]

Providing land managers, owners and local weed control groups assistance through funding, agency and weed group coordination, communication and cooperation

The HWCWMA was developed to address the invasive weed problem and subsequent de-cline in water quality within the entire 16,843 square mile watershed, which covers most of Northern Nevada. The primary function

of HWCWMA has been to provide land managers, owners and weed control groups assistance in the areas of fund-ing, agency and weed group coordination and cooperation.

This month, we would like to discuss the ways biocontrol can be used as a method for helping to control noxious weeds in Nevada.

Biological control, also known as biocontrol, is the use of a living or-ganism to control a pest, in our case, using beneficial insects to control invasive plants. All over the state Nevada, noxious weeds are invading private and public lands, destroying native habitat, and choking out desirable vegetation. Most of the noxious and invasive plants that are problems in the United States came here from Europe and Asia acciden-tally as seed or soil contaminants or in some cases on purpose, as orna-mentals. When they arrived in North America, they left the insects that fed on them in Eurasia behind, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Biological weed control is the deliberate release of specialized natural enemies from the weed’s native range to reduce the weeds abundance or spread in its introduced range. Since the state listed nox-ious weeds in Nevada are exotic species, they have few established natu-ral predators. Biocontrol methods generally suppress host weed popu-lations, but will most often not eradicate them. Therefore,integrating other weed management methods with biocontrol is critical. Typi-cally, biocontrol is most effective on dense weed infestations that cover large areas. These insects are not adaptable to all sites; therefore evaluation must be used to find where they will be most effective.

Nevada has recently began implementing biocontrol as part of its integrated pest management approach to managing noxious weeds. The Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) Noxious Weed Program has adopted the International Code of Best Practices for biological control of weeds. Only safe, effec-tive, and approved natural enemies will be used for biocontrol.

NDA works with US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other scientists who visit the original location of the weed to find natural enemies that can be tested as candidates for introduc-tion as biocontrol agents in the US. Before release in Nevada, agents are rigorously tested to ensure they are the following:Safe and will not become pests of crops and na-tive plants Clean from disease and parasites

Contact your local weed coordinator or extension agent for help with this type of management. In Nevada, please contact Jamie Greer, Noxious Weed Coordinator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture at (775) 353-3640 or [email protected] for more information on bio-control that is currently available for release or to ask any questions

you may have regarding noxious weeds.As always, please notify the HWCWMA

if you see any suspicious weedy plants growing within the Humboldt River Watershed. We have an opportunity to stop potentially invasive species from spreading if we act quickly and our staff can provide the property owner or appropriate public agency with site-specific treatment options for these plants. The HWCWMA also maps and monitors heavily infested sites in the watershed which allows the HWCWMA the ability to provide educational and financial assistance to land owners and groups in their management efforts, ultimately improving all of the qualities of the land and water in our watershed.

The HWCWMA has also developed a website to serve as a clearinghouse for information on invasive weeds in the Humboldt Watershed. Our website (http://www.humboldtweedfree.org) con-tains fact sheets for state listed noxious weeds in Nevada, Board of Director’s information, funding partner’s links, and many more features including a detailed project proposal packet that you can print, fill out and mail back to us at your convenience. We are look-ing to expand our project area outside of the Humboldt River and always welcome new opportunities to help fund land owners’ projects.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Andi Porreca, HWCWMA Coordinator at (775) 762-2636 or email her at [email protected]. You may also speak with Rhonda Heguy, HW-CWMA Administrator at (775) 738-3085, email: [email protected].


Pretty! And She Ropes Too! by Jennifer Whiteley

No stranger to doing things horseback, Alex Wood of Mountain City helps at branding time by working the ground, and heeling calves. In her spare time, helps her horse trainer husband Mike train horses.

Cara Small of Mountain City, gives her young horse a little breather before return-ing to the branding trap to rope another calf. Cara brings her young daughters branding with her. One day they will be the ones roping.

Rachel Buzzetti of Lamoille comes in to heel a calf on her big buckskin horse “Coyote.” Noth-ing makes Rachel happier than picking up 2 feet, or watch-ing her daughter Ella rope.

10 year old Ella Buzzetti of Lamoille comes from a long line of hardwork-ing ranch women. Roping comes naturally to her, and now that she has had a taste of it, there will be no keeping her out of the corral!

Carla Chapin of BattleMountain makes nice horses, and throws a pretty loop!

Mackie Griggs of Hunt-er is an amazing little roper! She and her little bay horse “Bob” make a great team. They real-ly know how to hustle!

Here’s to the ranch women that can cook like no other, work hard, act like ladies, are good moms, and are pretty good help with a rope in their hands too!

Carissa Bieroth of Mountain City waits for a calf to turn off the fence before throwing her loop. New to roping, she is learning it takes a lot of patience!


It’s almost the Fourth of July — time for fireworks, pic-nics and a reflection on all the liberties we possess in this country. But if you’re going to enjoy the freedom to do the things you want, especially during your re-tirement years, you’ll want to take the steps neces-

sary to achieve your own “Financial Independence Day.” Here are a few suggestions for helping you reach that goal: • Liberate yourself from debt. For most of us, a certain amount of debt is unavoidable. But the greater control you can gain over your debts, the better off you will be, because any dol-lars not spent in paying debts can be used to save and invest for your future. So look for ways to cut down on your spending and think about postponing some purchases until you can pay for them in cash. It may not be easy, but it’s possible. And by put-ting this “found money” to work immediately in quality invest-ments, you may motivate yourself to keep a lid on your debt level. • Unlock the power of time. Albert Einstein once said, “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” Ein-stein, who knew a thing or two about the nature of time, clearly recognized its importance in investing. In fact, as an investor, time may be your greatest ally. The more years in which you in-vest, the more dollars you’ll put in, and the longer you’ll have for your investments to potentially grow. Even if you’re just start-ing out in your career and can only invest a small amount each month, you’ll be starting to accumulate the amount you’ll even-tually need to enjoy the retirement lifestyle you’ve envisioned. • Release your investments’ growth potential. To at-tain financial freedom during your retirement years, you will need to invest for growth — it’s that simple. So include an ap-propriate amount of growth-oriented vehicles in your over-all investment mix. Ultimately, this mix should be based on your risk tolerance, time horizon and specific long-term goals. • Free your investments from “clustering.” In the investment world, as in many other arenas of life, you can have “too much of a good thing.” For example, if you own a particular investment, such as a stock, that has done well, you might think that it’s a good idea to own more of the same type of stock. But when investing, duplica-tion can be dangerous, because if a market downturn affects one asset class particularly hard, and much of your portfolio is tied up in that asset class, you could take a big hit. Instead of “clustering”

your dollars around a single asset or two, you could diversify your holdings by owning a mix of stocks, bonds, government securi-ties and other vehicles. While diversification can potentially help you reduce the impact of volatility on your holdings, a diversi-fied portfolio can’t guarantee a profit or protect you from loss.Achieving any type of freedom, in any kind of endeavor, takes time and effort. That’s certainly the case with financial free-dom— you will need to consistently make the right moves, over a period of many years, before you can finally declare your fis-cal independence. But once you reach that point, you will likely conclude that your diligence and dedication were well worth it.

Presented by Jason Land, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones in Elko, Nevada2213 North 5th Street, Sui te A | 775-738-8811

Fi n a n c i a l Fo c u s

Work toward Your Own Financial independence Day


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the progressive rancher - july/august 2015

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