Life as a rancher can be unpredictable and grueling at times. With the wind-whipped prairie land always changing, every day brings forth new challenges and obstacles. Living on a small family ranch in Texas requires a great amount of upkeep and maintenance, yet it’s a job that I’ve grown to love. Over the decades, I’ve been able to ensure that my family and I are able to stay afloat mainly due to my skillful ability to restructure our ranch from time to time.
You might think that unless there’s an enormous storm or some other unexpected event, that there’s no need to restructure. That’s where you’d be wrong. Even without sudden outside forces, my ranch sees changes in weather, in drought cycles, and so on. Every season brings a new set of conditions, and the best way to stay ahead of the game is by frequent restructuring. If the wind blows the wrong way, I’ll have to restructure the fencing that holds in the cattle. If the heat of the summer exceeds temperatures of years past, I’ll have to restructure the water channeling system or certain sections of the property that can’t take the strain.
For instance not too long ago we had an unusually tough winter. The snow was particularly bad and the temperature was unusually low for our region. Naturally this meant that most of our cattle had to be moved to the lower and more sheltered parts of the ranch. The topography isn’t particularly conducive to any kind of easy maneuvering, so my sons and I had to spent hours manually moving the cattle to the correct areas. With our combined strength and knowledge of the property, we were able to successfully restructure our distribution of animals.
I’ve found that having the option to be able to restructure parts of the ranch is one of the most valuable tools that comes with life as a rancher. It takes foresight to figure out what areas of the ranch require reworking and it takes hard work to implement those changes, but it’s worth the effort. Without routine restructuring, my family and I would be facing steep losses in animals, produce, and more.
So here’s to keeping our heads above the winds of change and having the strength and perseverance to cope with whatever the prairie throws our way. Restructures have saved our ranch time and again, and I am truly grateful for our ability to stay afloat.