By Nelseena Lehmann

In 1975 in southeastern Montana, I was just 7 years old, but that fall as the weather started to cool off, it was time to bring the cows home and get ready to wean. The cows went in the big corral and little packages were sorted off and the cows seperated off of the calves. There were a select group of steer calves that would go on feed as potential show steers. There was a little bigger bunch of heifers that would go on feed as replacement heifers.

The cows went through the chute to be preg checked, poured for worms and grubs after they checked bred and the list of who was going to gain their wheels was hopefully short and never sweet. Each cow had an ear tag and each calf was tagged to match. The cows each carried the ranch brand and a number brand that allowed us to identify the cow should she ever lose an eartag. There were only 250 cows but most of them we knew without ever looking at a tag and by the time A.I. season was complete in July, we pretty much knew the calves too.

The calves that didn’t get on the truck were processed to stay. They went in small bawling bunches across the scale where my grandfather would stand and weigh each calf. The tag number and the weight and sex were logged in the cowbook. The steers that didn’t qualify as show calves would get on the truck and the others would get “started” on feed. Usually some concoction that I wasn’t aware of at 7, except I knew part of the ration was rolled oats, because we rolled every bucket by hand.

Some fines from the cottonseed cake that came up from Texas were stored and fed to the calves. The cake was delivered bulk. It was dark and had a strong smell. The cubes were round and hard and almost black, but it would test 30% plus on protein. Grandad had designed a little chute with a screen and appropriately placed hooks made from nails that would hold a sack. The cake was scooped into the little chute which poured into burlap gunny sacks. The fines were kept seperate and bagged so that they could be fed to the calves along with rolled oats in a bunk. The sacks of cake were loaded by hand either into the back of the pickup or the two wheeled cart that Grandad pulled with his team. I know there was a scale on a pulley that was used to weigh the buckets so they knew how much feed was going out to the livestock.

The quonset was a cement floored round top that held the bulk cake, the grain, the mineral and the salt. It was the feed shed and that was where the supplies were all inventoried, delivered and where everything was fed from basically. Sometimes after school I would go and roll oats through the little grinder while dad did the chores. Many times it seemed like it took hours for him to finish and come and rescue us from the feed shed.

I tell you all of this for several reasons. Looking back, my family were ranchers and stockmen because they wanted to be. They did what they did to take care of the land and the livestock and to provide for our family. My dad and grandfather were stockmen, and horsemen. They liked the livestock and they took pride in what they raised, just like most of our surrounding neighbors. Record keeping was difficult, hand written, time consuming and difficult to relay to future generations.

Most of the neighbors raised Hereford cattle, we didn’t, but I can tell you this. I grew up looking at some of the best Hereford genetics known to man and I liked the Hereford cows. I didn’t even know of the prejudices of livestock breeds everyone had good cattle, lots of feed, good management practices, fat calves and rode good horses. I was sheltered and it was good. Our neighbors were good managers and most were record keepers and had the same struggles and battles. I think it was regional at best and universal at it’s worst.

Fast forward to the 21st century. My dad kept good records in a time when it was difficult and sometimes almost impossible. I cannot imagine how much more successful his operation might have been had he access to the technology of companies such as Agriwebb. Being able to have chutes with digital scales, the A.I. business has changed astronomically, feed rations and scales and nutrionists and range management skills and feed sources. All things that are more easily managed, better options, more resources and the availablity of technology to be able to implement all of those things. Simplification of program compliance, marketing advantages, research, taxes, USDA programs and tracking and source and age and genetics. I think all of the tools that these companies bring to the table and all of the people whose goals are to benefit the producer. What a win for production agriculture.

Forty seven years later, technology continues to make strides with so much positive impact. So my conversation with Campbell dredged up a plethra of antiquated ways. However with the ushering out of the old and having lived it, I can appreciate all of the tools that Campbell and his team at Agriwebb bring to the table. Ranch management software that can still be used offline allowing for remote successes. Data that helps to make hard decisions a little more sound and perhaps keeping things in better perspective more readily, day to day data that is acquired without suffering through reams of paper and notebooks. Perhaps we have reached a landmark where the thumbdrive has replaced the shoebox.