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Soapweed

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Big Muddy rancher

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Joined
Feb 10, 2005
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Big Muddy valley
You might want to take a trip over to Wheatland Wyo. on the 10th of January cause you buddy Kit pharo is going to be there. Just think what he could do for you. :wink: :wink: :cowboy:
 
If you are coming down for it, I'll jump in and ride along. He's a good guy; we just look at things differently. I admire the way he runs his own outfit. The trouble is some of his devoted followers don't do such a good job. They seem to lack the "master's touch". :?
 
I agree with you. I was to one of the"guru" and he was telling us the survival of the fittest stories. I take offense to guys from Arizona in their white pants and penny loafers telling people that raise cattle where it gets 40 below how to raise cattle. To many people take them to heart and don't adjust for the climate in their home area.
 
my father in law had a few things to write Kit recently. I am not sure if it will be published, so I will add it on here.


Dear Kit,
I feel the need to challenge you on some statements you have been making in your newsletters. You imply that unless our farm operations are run strictly as a business for profit, we will fail. If we don't run the type of cattle according to your specifications, we will fail. If we do not run our cattle operation according to how you instruct us, we will fail.
I would like to say that I will be 70 years old in the spring, and I have been farming as far back as I can remember. You might say, from the day I was born, the love of farming was in my person. I have never farmed because it is a business or for profit, but rather, it was a way of life I loved. Who can deny the pleasure a man feels in seeing a newborn calf?
Am I a failure because I don't see farming as a business? or for profit? When I'm out there sowing crops, harvesting crops, cutting hay, baling hay, feeding cattle, I'm totally indulged in the pleasure of it. It is my business, I have total control of it. I find tremendous pleasure in it, more now than ever as I understand the fact of the independence that I have. I'm rewarded according to my successes and I learn from my mistakes. I do things for my own pleasure. Isn't that in itself the reward, the promise?
I'd also like to say that in all the years of my farming, it's been a way of life in the sense of my independence, and I've lived free from government subsidies for many years. There is great reward and satisfaction in seeing what I have done with my own hands, through my own thinking, my own ideas. Is there no virtue in that? Am I doomed to failure because I make it a material thing? Is there not a spiritual reward? Besides, won't a person do a better job if he loves what he is doing and isn't doing it just for the money?
Seems our whole modern society is built upon making us dependent upon someone else rather than to be taught about the privilege of thinking for ourselves and seeking out our own way of doing things.

Jerry Plett
Lincolnville KS
 
Great letter :!: I have said that in ranching what works for one might not work for the other but their are many ways to do things "RIGHT. We all see some bad operations but different isn't always bad. I also agree that loving ranching goes along way to making it" profitable"
 
Soapweed, I remember touching on this subject long ago and I appreciatated your remark at the time. It was something along the line of, "if I have to run cattle like that to stay in the ranching business, I'm not interested. I get a lot out of gratification out of taking care of cattle and seeing them in good shape." That wasn't the quote exactly, but it was the gist of what you said as I recall. I really liked it and I agree wholehartedly. Wish I could remember just how you put it.
 
This brings up a topic of opportunity cost vs. real cost. These to things in my opinion are vastly different. Opportunity cost will never send you into bankrupcy but real costs now that is a different story.

Most farmers and ranchers are better business men/women than they are normally given credit for. Every once in a while someone comes along and tells them that things would be alot better if they made some changes to their operation.

I have never heard this Kit Pharo character speak but would like to just for entertainment puposes. I tend to agree more with Soapweeds theory of runnning cattle.
 

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