Doing the Right Thing

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but my ranch is a commercial operation. We raise steers until they are around 6 months old and then sell them to a feed lot. Pretty soon we are also going to start selling first-cross Baldy bred heifers. I know there are some stigmas out there about commercial ranchers, and knowing some of the people I do, I can see where that comes from. The goal of my family, and especially me, is to give every animal on the ranch a happy, safe, healthy, and humane life. However short or long that life may be. I don't understand how you could work alongside livestock day after day and not develop an attachment to them. I can't help it, at least. If we have a sick or dying animal we always do everything we can to save it. If it can't be saved and it is in pain, we humanely end its life. We don't find any pleasure in this and every loss is an emotional and financial loss. There have been many times that we have lost a calf or a wonderful cow that I've cried. And don't get me wrong, the ranch is a business. We have a bottom dollar, but not at the expense of our livestock. One thing I've noticed is that when you treat your cows with kindness and work with them gently, they will be gentle and kind in return. I honestly take pride in the fact that I can walk out in the open pasture with the cows and they don't run away in fear. They stand there and continue eating. Some even come up to me to say hi. Of course, you will always have a crazy one, or two. That can't be changed. At the same time, I have neighbors who have all crazy cows. These cows aren't naturally crazy, they're afraid of what happens to them when they are worked or being moved or whatever. Some ranchers think that they can abuse their cattle and it doesn't make a difference. It does. A 1500 pound animal that is afraid is a lot more likely to cause problems than one that is content. There is a marked difference between the way our cattle behave compared to the more aggressive cattlemen. Even so, there are always times when you can't help but to be a little aggressive with the cows. I find that these times are usually when a cow could get hurt, like trying to push through a barbed wire fence to get to hay. In fact, one of my cows aborted this year not long after she jumped a hay pen fence. Now if I see a cow in a hay pen I get anxious. Once they get a taste of it, they keep wanting to go back for more, even if they almost kill themselves in the process. Anyway, I just got to thinking about how I honestly love ranching and if hurting the animals in any way would make me a million dollars, I still wouldn't do it.
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." -General Normal Schwarzkopf