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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Ranch life New Mexico, from Silver City Sun-News
  • Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:26:29 -0700


We knew the York Ranch folks so had to send this on

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Work goes on, despite the chill of winter
By Holly Wise/Sun-News Bureau Chief
02/22/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_11759174
Editor's note: Ranch Tours is a continuing series on New Mexico ranches and
the cowboys and cowgirls who run them. The stories run every other Sunday.

PIE TOWN — Winter time on the York Ranch brings a whole new meaning to
the word "cold."

When I visited the ranch in November, ranch managers Jim and Janet Leslie
told me they were already waking up to 17-degree mornings.

In the high plains of Catron County and on a 186,880-acre ranch that sits
at 7,200 feet elevation, the weather can turn quickly and keeps the Leslies
grounded at the ranch during the winter months.

"It's so cold, you have to be here," Jim said.

Jim and Janet spend the winter breaking ice in the tanks attached to
windmills that pump water from 60 wells on the ranch. In some cases, there
could be three or four tanks to every windmill.

"There's no day off," said Jim. All winter, Jim said he, Janet, their two
cow hands and their grandson break ice in the troughs and feed the 1,300
mama cows that roam the range.

Water on the ranch is "pretty good," said Jim. In the 12 years the Leslies
have managed the ranch, a lot of improvements have been done on the water
system, Jim said.

On a ranch with "a lot of wide open spaces" windstorms of up to 35 to 40
mph come ripping across the plains. "The wind storms have destroyed
windmills," he said.

The weather starts to warm up around the first of June, said Janet, but
that's a change from years past. Years ago, it was reportedly 100 degrees
in May.

Most of the cattle that run on the York Ranch are Angus. The day I visited,
420 calves had been gathered. While I chatted with Janet and her
daughter-in-law, we watched the men herd the calves into several
tractor-trailers.

Jim said they were keeping back all the heifers this time.

When Jim and Janet started running the ranch, they were told they'd never
raise a 500-pound calf there. Most of the calves that now leave the York
Ranch weigh a reported average of 540 pounds.

"There's not many who would stay with this ranch," said Bob Crouch, a
cattle buyer who was on the ranch that day. "(Jim's) one of the best
cowboys in New Mexico."

Crouch started the Crouch Cattle Co. and began purchasing cattle in Datil
in 1988.

With the cattle market slumping, the price of beef is 30 cents less a pound
then last year, said Jim.

"It's not good for the cattlemen," he said. "It's going to get worse in the
next four years."

Four months out of the year, the Leslie's have to feed the York Ranch
cattle.

"Gas prices hurt," said Jim. "Oil prices run the feed prices."

Most of the York Ranch sits on land monitored by the Bureau of Land
Management, a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The BLM
administers 256 million acres of public lands and manages livestock grazing
on about 160 million acres of those lands.

The BLM manages nearly 18,000 permits and leases held by ranchers who graze
their livestock, mostly cattle and sheep, at least part of the year on more
than 21,000 BLM allotments, according to information from the BLM Web site.

The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is what the BLM bases their administration
of the public grazing lands on. The first grazing district issued under the
Taylor Grazing Act was the Wyoming Grazing District Number 1 on March 23,
1935.

The Division of Grazing was created by then-Secretary of the Interior
Harold Ickes. This division later became the U.S. Grazing Service
headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1946, the Grazing Service merged
with the General Land Office to become the Bureau of Land Management.

According to the BLM Web site, "together, public lands and the adjacent
private ranches maintain open spaces in the fast-growing West, provide
habitat for wildlife, offer myriad recreational opportunities for public
land users, and help preserve the character of the rural West."

The Leslies rest two to three pastures a year to allow replenishment.

While some ranchers are able to profit by guiding hunters on private land,
hunters are allowed access to BLM land because it is public.

"There ought to be a law against (hunters)," said Jim while Janet nodded
emphatically.

The ranch managers haven't fared well when it comes to the damage that
hunters do to the ranch and livestock. According to Jim, hunters go through
the ranch and cut fences, creating three months worth of work in repairs.

One year, three heifers were shot and one was found partially butchered, he
said.

Hunters are also to blame for shooting out windmill motors, solar panels
and water tanks. Someone stole solar panels, said Jim.

Elk, deer, bear, turkey, antelope and "quite a few lions" roam the ranch.
The ranch is currently "off-limits" to wolves, said Jim, though they did
have one "pass through."

Despite the rugged isolation of the high plains, Janet said the land is
being subdivided and people are moving in.

But not all are there to stay.

"Most of the people aren't countrified," she said. "The land gradually
weeds people out."

Because of the extreme temperatures during the holiday season, the Leslies
spend every holiday at the ranch and have had one vacation in 10 years.

As far as the future of ranching, the longtime cattleman doesn't see it
going anywhere.

"I think the United States can't afford for it to go anywhere," said Jim.
"They'll make it harder but I don't see cattle going anywhere — not in my
lifetime."

"We raised all the grandkids to like it, so I hope it lasts awhile," he
said.




  • [Livingontheland] Ranch life New Mexico, from Silver City Sun-News, Tradingpost, 02/22/2009

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