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John Thiebes, with Riley and Kiril Sabo on the truck, feeding our herd of Rotokawa Embryo Devons, Red Angus mother cows and their Devon/Angus calves (and a few A1/A2 Jersey heifers) the last hay of the year, as we wait the impatient weeks for the first green grass of spring. April 2010.

John Theibes, one of the best "big brothers" our boys have ever had, gamely trying on 7-year-old Kiril's birthday crown.

Sabo Ranch Intern Blog- John Thiebes         April 20, 2010

                This will be the final full day working with the Sabo’s as their intern, and although my appreciation for ranching and all of its related sciences and arts has deepened, my ability write about them has not. So, in an effort to keep pace with some of the more esteemed agricultural writers, I want to embark from here on my own agricultural work having left with one last blog entry.

          The greatest highlight of this entire experience has been observing how a family operation such as this one actually works. Behind their reputation as producers of flavorful, nutrient dense beef are years of fine tuning a system that juggles land stewardship, animal husbandry, direct marketing, education, observation and local adaptation. On top of that you include trying to raise a family, mentor an intern, and find the time for the occasional game of ping pong and you very quickly fill a day, and then fill three months almost as fast. But the amazing thing about a system such as this one is that it never remains the same, and something that never remains the same never runs out of things to teach you.

          For my own farming and ranching endeavors I have taken away the lesson that none of these things happen overnight.  As Jenny says, “an overnight success, twenty years in the making”.  If you want to raise healthy animals then you need to steward healthy ground.  If you want to sell those animals than you need to create a market that will support it. The way to achieve a profitable and sustainable system like that is to educate yourself as to the factors which drive that system. 

          For instance:

          Good soil starts usually having something green growing in it, mostly grasses and legumes. That soil builds its health through cycles of intensive grazing and long rest.

          You can get healthy animals by creating a herd that is genetically adapted to meet both the local environmental demands, such as the severity of  the winter or forage availability, as well as the production demands that you place on them, such as the timing of calving and amount of weight gain.

           A good rancher understands that you cannot turn an ass into a horse by fighting nature. Only by working within the limitations of your environment can you create realistic demands of your animals. Anything else will result in a system that is both inefficient and labor intensive for you and the animals.

          But it doesn’t matter if you have the finest grass feed, organically raised, tenderized, localized, grassfed beef in the world, because if no one knows why they should consider buying your product over what they find in the supermarket, or doesn’t know that it exists in the first place, then all you have is a cow, not a profit. This is where talking to and writing for the public becomes essential to the viability of an operation outside of a conventional system. If you are selling beef in a manner that adheres to your own personal values and in a way that is site specific, then every step, including getting people excited about what you are producing, must be taken by you.

          The stewardship and the marketing must can take off at full steam. It seems to me that you can take this on at the greatest possible pace. You can never have too much grass or plant too many trees, just as you can never reach enough ears in spreading news that you can provide healthy food that was raised in a sustainable fashion. But if you start breeding livestock before you know what your land can sustain itself and that a market will support your finished product, then you are in danger of dropping all the balls at once. If there is one lesson to take from nature it is this. Things take time.

          But things also take doing. And it is in doing these things mentioned above that a farm starts to take on a life of its own. This summer I am going to take what I have learned from the Sabo’s and try it out on 3 acres of pasture just outside of Bozeman. The family that my friends and I are renting it from are giving us this opportunity so that I can implement the ideas and tools that I learned here at the ranch. The pasture is full of weeds and after trying spraying and grazing, the family was giving up. But after explaining that weeds are indicative of an imbalanced soil and improper grazing, they were willing to give it one more try.

          Now, we are raising chickens, sheep, goats and pigs as well as growing a vegetable garden and collecting waste food from restaurants for compost and animal feed, all within a system that is designed to take advantage of the local conditions of our rented ground.

          If there is anything more exciting than having been given the chance to work side by side with the Sabo Family, then it is to be able to take what they taught me and put it into practice in Bozeman.

The easiest way to get a bale of straw back onto the pile: Flying Knee Kick

I’m getting ready to milk Toffee. Before we milk her, we brush her down, wash her udder, put salve on her teats and then squirt out the milk that has been sitting in the teats. Toffee has been giving us on average 2 gallons of milk per day.

And then to work…

Another Rancher come down from the mountains to train with sword master Ben.

Sabo Ranch winter chickens and ducks, outside enjoying the sunlight and space in spite of the snowy ground. Photo: Kiril Sabo age 6-3/4

One week has passed since I first arrived at the Sabo Ranch and today, as I write, the sun is shining and the snow is slowly retreating, revealing what will soon thaw into the great mud fields of spring. The ducks happily make a great deal of noise (but not much else) and the chickens are beginning to lay more eggs as the day length increases. Inside the greenhouse the peach tree is beginning to blossom above dwindling supplies of kale and swiss chard. The dairy and beef cattle are turning last season’s saved bounty of grasses into milk and meat and in a few months, will give birth to calves so that the herd will continue to grow.

 The winter weather in Harrison, MT has been mild. Snow storms blow in one moment and then pass to reveal blue skies. Nights have been cloudy and cold, ensuring that in the morning, ice will have to be broken off the watering tanks, nature’s way of providing me with a certain level of intern job security. The sun is beginning to shine more often, powering solar panels and allowing the cattle to shift their energy use away from protecting themselves against the cold to putting on more weight and growing their calves. According to Jenny, the wind has been unusually still for this time of year and as evidence, the wind turbines outside of my cabin have remained, for the most part, in a state of motionlessness. It is amazing how aware you become of the weather patterns when they directly influence how much energy you can consume and also when they are the motor that drives your business, the business of turning grass into quality meat products.

The routine of daily life here at the ranch is sheltered on one side by the Tobacco Roots, at times veiled in clouds and at times stark against big sky. It is sustained and nurtured by South Willow Creek, whose waters wind through now dormant pasture but in the spring and summer will create a microclimate for excellent grass production. The routine has been designed to exist within a framework of practical self sufficiency, tempered by the realities that face a business whose ideals fly in the face of our multinational, industrialized food system. This framework rests atop a family economy that has struck a harmonious balance with the natural world. It is one that moves and grows at Mother Natures pace. It works to slowly build the soil over time as poisons and pesticides are replaced with patience and passion. It is within this framework that I am trying to learn as much as I can so that someday I can create a routine built around similar ideals.

But like any good routine, it is often thrown out the window. In grade school, these are called field trips. In college, these are called internships. On the ranch, these are called any number of things.

For instance, one such break in the routine occurred last week in the form of a visit to the veterinarian. We loaded up one of the horses to have his foot looked at because he had a severe cut. When we arrived there was already another trailer in front of us waiting to unload a cow into the chutes. An old time rancher poked and prodded the unseen cow out of the trailer and low and behold, the poor girl’s vagina was dangling inside out, outside of her body. I would later learn that what I was looking at was a vaginal prolapse, which occurs in pregnant cows when they are suffering from increased pressure in the abdomen, most likely associated with the approaching birth of her calve. The vet secured the cow and then proceeded to push it back in. After much effort on his part, everything was back inside and over with, or so I assumed. He looked around, asked for a volunteer and then in the same breath, picked me. What I then performed was something that I will never forget. He gave me a quick rundown of the tools I would be using for my end of the operation and how we would then proceed once it got underway. I was armed with a scalpel, a plastic cap and a pin. He moved his arm into the cow’s reproductive area holding a long plastic tube that had a plastic cap on the bottom and a removable needle coming out of the top. Once he reached the designated area with the tip of the needle, I cut a small X into the cow’s side, pulled the needle out and then capped the tube, securely fastening what had once been outside of her body to the side of her stomach.

 

Jules, log splitting completed, is ready for a hot woodstove on a cold winter morning.

Jules’ favorite Auracana hen, sitting in the laying box ready for her fresh morning egg.

Jules drives the manual shift Mitsubishi hay feeding truck with Kiril, Riley, and Jet the Labrador in the back

Jules feeds the birds in the chicken house, his daily task since he arrived.

Jules milks Jersey cow Lila

 Throughout my first week here on the Sabo Ranch I have done many significant things that benefit the ranch, ranging from occupying the boys, to feeding chickens and ducks, to driving cattle. The job I do the most is feeding chickens and ducks before my breakfast. It is a simple but essential task. I have to make a judgment about how much they are eating from the amount of feed that is left over from the day before, and check on general health for the flock.

On my first full day at the ranch one of the three horses got very sick with colic (accumulated sand in its intestines from eating hay off the ground in the bare corral). Because of this, Jenny Sabo was a little agitated and nervous so she gave me rushed instructions that I did not fully understand.  As a result I did not give the calves the correct feed.  After a bit we sorted things out and got on the right track.  Earlier that day there was a mother cow and her bull calf that needed to be moved to a lower field.  We droved them into a long fenced-in area and picked out the mother and her calf. We then pushed (scared) them into the trailer so they could be transported to a better grazing field, where the bull calf would not be able to breed the heifer calves.

In the first few days I was asking many questions so that I could get more acquainted with the place, the people and the way things work. However, after a while I became more comfortable and was able to asses a situation and make a good choice on my own. For instance when I noticed a tub of water tub that needed to be refilled I jumped to do it.

The work that is most challenging is milking cows. There are four dairy cows but only three are producing milk at this time.  All of these cows have calves that need to become more comfortable with humans, this is accomplished by grooming each calf with a curry comb, which I have started doing while Jenny milks the mother cow.

Over the next week I hope to master the art of milking and to become more independent with more things than just feeding chickens and cows. Something that I have been learning on the side is how to drive a manual transmission vehicle. I also hope to master this in the next week.

Jules practicing safe shooting with Mark's rifle. 8 shots in the bullseye at 70 yards, his first time shooting a rifle. What a ringer!

Jules at the edge of the Buffalo Jump at Harrison Lake. There is a steep 100 foot drop beyond the edge pictured here.

Entry Three

Febuary 11th 2010

By Jules Feeney

Kiril Sabo and Jules Feeney start a snow fort on a winter afternoon

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This is my first day on the Sabo Ranch and these are a few of my first impressions. Only some things are consistent. The cows and chickens need to be watched on a daily basis. The way in which the runts interact with the other animals effects the way the feeding is done. The overall rhythm of things is considerably consistent, every morning the cows and chickens are fed and checked on.

            The family is very much just a family with a significant amount of chores that need to be done. Kiril (age six) and Riley (age nine) help, play or work all the time. Riley seems to know everything there is to know about his ranch. Kiril is still learning the way things work from his brother. Both boys have their own set of things to do around the house. Every evening someone goes out to the chicken coup to collect the eggs.

The family could not have been more welcoming or better teachers. I look forward to more days of work and learning with this kind family.

Jules Feeney, age 15, calls the Washington D.C. area home. Jules will be spending two weeks with us for his Winter Special Session from the Field School.

Sabo Ranch remains fully committed to helping high school and college students experience life on a Montana cattle ranch. 

Jules Feeney will try his hand at driving the ranch pickup for feeding cattle, loading bales, milking cows, tending chickens and ducks, living off-the-grid, and eating in season in a Montana winter.  He will also attend a Bozeman Winter Farmers Market (as a farmer!), and watch a grassfed beef getting butchered, and cut up, at our local butcher “Montana’s Best Meats” for steaks and burger.

Before leaving- Jan. 26, 2010

Blog 1

by Jules Feeney

When I first decided I wanted to spend my winter internship in Montana at Sabo ranch I was expecting to do a few thing around and help out. But as the weeks went on and the time for me to leave came closer I realized I would be a real ranch hand doing everything and anything. So out of everything I want to learn to ride a horse because I’ve never actually ridden one before.

What I remember from the last time I was out on the ranch was the horse pulled sled riding. This a fond memory but not the driving force that has me returning as an intern. My dad has been encouraging me to get out in the world and work. We had talked about doing this in the summer but the time was never right. But when I had this opportunity with my school I decided this was my chance.

It’s had to say what I want to bring home with me before I’ve even seen what’s up for me to take home. However a sense of accomplishment and support that I can then provide for my family back home in the city life is something that sounds appealing.

The preparations were mainly thinking about my trip and preparing for the cold but also making sure I had the right clothes for the weather was another big part. But from what I’ve done in the way of packing and preparing I feel safe and ready for another learning experience.

Sabo Ranch has space for one Intern Sept-Dec. 2010.  Questions?  Contact us at saboranch@gmail.com, or 406-685-3248.