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Ropes, reins and PDAs: A Day in the life of a 21st-century cowboy
"A cowboy is a combination of many things. He's a lover of livestock, a grass farmer, a nutritionist, a veterinarian, an accountant and a good record keeper," Holloway said. "He's a land conservationist. He wants to leave the land better than he found it."
CHATTANOOGA, Okla. (AP)--It's 5:30 a.m. and the sun is still stretching awake, but Ken Holloway has already started his day.
He goes into the kitchen of his Coyote Hills Ranch near Chattanooga and cooks a hearty breakfast, usually including eggs, biscuits and gravy.
After chow, he checks the market reports and watches the news. He dons his cowboy hat and starts his day in the life of a 21st-century cowboy.
His life is an amalgam. He goes from high-tech to horses almost every day and he's comfortable with both.
"A cowboy is a combination of many things. He's a lover of livestock, a grass farmer, a nutritionist, a veterinarian, an accountant and a good record keeper," Holloway said. "He's a land conservationist. He wants to leave the land better than he found it."
Holloway, still uses horses but finds his pickup and a four-wheeler more expedient when it isn't muddy and wet in the pastures for chasing his Limousin cattle.
About 6:30 a.m. he gets into his truck and begins checking his pastures. He starts with the calving pasture, he has affectionately named the "Maternity Ward."
"Cows in this pasture are delivering baby calves soon," Holloway said. "I help deliver calves from February to September. Every morning when I come down here, I hope to find a newborn calf. I keep a record of when every calf should be born. I write down when they were bred and usually this is pretty accurate. I help deliver the calves; I have to leave them penned up in the 'delivery room' so the heifers will mother-up with them.
"I use a program called Cowkeeper," Holloway said. "This program is used to record all sorts of information about the cattle. This includes a name, calving ease, birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, milk-ability, maternal offspring, ability to calve and all sorts of information I need. It doesn't tell me everything, and I don't know everything. I don't know everything about electricity either, but I don't sit in the dark at night."
It's about 8:30 a.m. and he is still driving from pasture to pasture on his 4,000-acre property, checking the cattle and doing head counts. He explains he is checking for strays or injured animals.
"I have to get to the cows when they get up in the morning; you can tell a lot about them early in the morning," Holloway said.
"I can identify them by the tags on their ears. The tags have numbers, which are also tattooed into the inside of their ear. This way I can tell exactly what is missing."
The veterinarian in him comes out when he points out animals that he will artificially inseminate in the middle of the month. Holloway has a degree from Oklahoma State University in animal science.
"I am going to super ovulate some of them," said Holloway. "They will produce anywhere from 3-20 embryos. It is the only way I can justify having some of these animals."
Even more high-tech than the artificial insemination is the DNA testing of the animals to determine the best and the purebred for breeding.
"The best ones for breeding are homozygosis black," said Holloway. "Every animal these animals have will be black. We determine this through DNA tests. We send blood or hair samples to test for the red coat carriers gene to Genetic Vision in Wisconsin and they get results to us in a couple of days."
He was one of the first ranchers in the state to breed Limousin cattle.
"Limousin cattle just came to the United States in 1969," Holloway said. "I got started in the business in 1971. I was 506th to join the Limousin Association; today there are 20,000 members. The country had begun to get fat-conscious. The Limousin cattle can produce lean beef with less feed. Today, Oklahoma is the leading state in the production of Limousin cattle."
About 10 a.m. his foreman comes to let him know there are a couple of animals ready for breeding and he needs to round them up.
About 10:30 his cell phone rings for about the third time.
"I run my office out of my pickup truck," Holloway said. "Before cell phones, I had to call people until 10 at night after a long day."
His cell phone rings again with someone else wanting to ask questions about breeding.
"People call and ask questions and I help however I can. We have a lot of markers out there. If people get what they want from me, they give me what I need later."
He breaks for lunch at noon, and then drives to a back pasture. He mentions a big storm blew down one of his barns and caused a lot of damage.
"I had 23 neighbors come and help me clean up the mess around here after that storm," Holloway said. "We are a close-knit group. I know a lot of people. I was born in Frederick and have lived in Tillman County my whole life."
His knowledge of how to take care of his herd economically comes out when he explains some of the tricks of his trade.
"Instead of building barns in the winter, we build holes in the ground behind the large hills," Holloway said. "The cattle lie in them. It keeps the wind off them when it storms or is very cold. We also put concrete in the ponds so the cattle stand on the concrete and not in the mud. That way they don't drink muddy water."
Holloway's job is a lot of work and it isn't always a money maker.
"There's times when I wonder why I do this," Holloway said. "When cattle prices are good, I am more motivated. We have times when we have eaten on our net worth. We bet on the future. This almost applies to all Oklahomans as a rule.
"We have months with no rain. No one says it will never rain again, we just say we are a day closer to rain.
"The average cattle rancher feeds 121 people in addition to himself. The cattle business is like the wine business. The environment puts constraints on it.
"Our family is involved in everything we do. We have never had a vacation that didn't involve cattle. When we go to the national show, in Des Moines, Iowa, it is like a class reunion."
Holloway's father operated a ranch when he was a boy.
"I always told my mom that I wanted to be a good cowboy, just like my dad," Holloway said.
Holloway said being called a cowboy means a lot to him.
"It means that people recognize the heritage of Oklahoma and I get to be a part of that."
After lunch he spends the afternoon checking the pastures. Around 2 p.m. he's talking about his future and what is coming up for him.
"Every day is a great day. When you enjoy your job you never work another day in your life," Holloway said. "I don't plan onretiring, because I don't feel like I'm working."
Date: 7/20/04
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