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Like a cell phone cowboy
Arkansas
Sean Milliken believes most farmers and ranchers appreciate the simple life, just as he does.
"In the small, rural area of north-central Arkansas where I live, we're proud of the fact that there's only one stop light in the entire county," says Milliken, Searcy County agent with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
"Farmers and the folks in town find comfort in knowing the people we do business with on a first-name basis. And there's surely something peaceful about living in a place where you can see the stars so clearly at night you feel like you could reach up and grab a handful.
"But the simple rural life isn't so simple any more," he notes.
He says the high-speed, high-tech ways of the modern world have intruded in his county. Instant global communication and fingertip access to the World Wide Web is changing the way people do business, from the grocery store to the government office to the guy with the small office on the town square.
For the livestock producer, the same modern changes exist across the country, he says.
In the last century or two, the cattle industry has undergone major changes. The cattle industry has evolved in many ways, and ranchers have come along with it, often times leading the change.
"But there's one group that had, in my mind, resisted or at least lagged behind the winds of change--the ranch cowboy of the West. I know there are still many large ranchers in the country that have yet to trade in their cattle industry but has also evolved four-legged quarter horses for four-wheel Kawasakis. Ranchers on these big sections of ground still use the hot iron, they still know how to swing a rope and drag a calf, and they still know what it means to ride for the brand."
He says there's a large cattle operation in Colorado that still has a traditional fall roundup with cowboys, horses, gathering pens and branding irons, but now they bring in portable weight scales, computers and ear tag scanners for reading their cow's radio frequency identification tags and recording production data on their herd.
In Arkansas, there are satellite auctions that work "simply by watching videos of cows on your home television and calling in to place orders," says Milliken.
Meanwhile, he says, Arkansas producers have started buying bulls on the Internet.
"I think it's possible to hold on to certain aspects of our farm and ranch life and heritage with one hand and grab on to the necessary changes and technologies with the other.
"Today's cattle producers need to face the challenges and issues of the day as they always have-with grit and determination," Milliken said.
For more information on cattle production, contact your county extension agent. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture.
Date: 5/26/05
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