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On this ranch, younger and older generations continue the familROSEBURG, Ore. (AP)--When Doug Singleton heads out the door to work each morning, he's frequently joined by his young family. It's a family that's working together to make its livelihood out of ranching. There is Doug, a 1996 Glide High School graduate who is now 29. His wife is Jennifer, 27, a 1998 graduate of Roseburg High. The couple have four children: Nash, 4, Gage, 2, and twin sisters, Ciera and Terra, who are three months old. A hundred years ago, such a young family working the ground, raising lambs and calves, and growing a backyard garden was not uncommon. Today it is. With each passing generation, U.S. census reports show fewer young people get into farming or ranching on a fulltime basis. Most of the ones that do are born into it or marry into it. That's the case for Doug and Jennifer. He's the sixth generation on the 3,000-acre Singleton Ranch of pasture valleys and oak-covered hills east of Roseburg. Jennifer is a city girl who married the country life and has taken to it. Doug is the son of Lorris and Diane Singleton. Lorris, 60, is the ranch manager, and his father Bill, 87, and uncle, Charlie, 79, still live on the ranch. Doug has worked on the ranch and been around livestock since he was a kid. "I was in high school at some point working on the ranch when I figured out that this was what I was going to do," he said. He admits he couldn't do it without the understanding and help of the older Singletons. The ranch provides his family with a house and he has the use of the ranch equipment, barns and property. He in turn helps pay the ranch's property tax, helps work the livestock owned by the older Singletons and shares the work of managing the ranch land for pasture and hay. "It's damn near impossible to get started on your own," said Lorris. "But they've got quite a bit of help from the older people of the family, not financially, but with the fringe benefits. They help us with work and we help them." "With the way (land) prices are in Douglas County, I could never afford the property, and if I could, I wouldn't have anything left to buy livestock," Doug said. "It's just best to start working with somebody older and work your way in." The young man started with one ewe his parents gave him when he was in the third grade. He raised 4-H and FFA lambs, sold them and bought more sheep. He was given a bummer calf, raised it, sold it and bought more cattle. In the past 10 years, Doug has increased his livestock to 250 ewes, 75 cows and a few goats. Selling lambs, calves and goat kids provides his income. He also shears sheep around the county in the evening to earn extra dollars. "I would say he's doing extremely well as a father and rancher," said Jennifer of her husband. "There's been some hard times, but a lot more good times. He's an unbelievable rancher. He dreams ranching. He wakes up with new ideas." Lorris admits that over the years the older Singletons weren't ones to stray far from the ranch, but Doug hasn't followed that trend. He was involved in 4-H and FFA as a kid and has continued to broaden his knowledge as an active member of the Douglas County Farm Bureau and Douglas County Livestock Association. "I'm trying to keep up with the times," Doug said. "I'm out there listening to what others are doing, what the downfalls are, but also looking up to people who are successful." The young rancher said, however, that convincing the folks back on the ranch to break tradition and try something new has not always been easy. "I've had trust in Doug for quite a while, but sometimes I just never get around to doing it a new way," Lorris said. Lorris is finally turning the marketing of the ranch's lambs and calves over to Doug, who is using video to sell them. "I was a nervous damn wreck until it was over," Lorris said of the video sale. "But we'll be looking at it for the future." Doug has also convinced Lorris to do more burning on the ranch. Lorris is not an advocate of field burning because of the potential of the fire getting out of control, but he's trusted Doug to do more burning of brush and poison oak on the ranch, creating more pasture for the livestock. "There's quite an art to setting fire and not letting it get away," Lorris said. "Doug, for his age, is probably the best fire setter in Douglas County." Doug puts in long days of work and in order to spend time with his young family, he includes Jennifer and their children as much as possible. Nash started helping his dad this year, pushing sheep up the chute as Doug sheared the animals at the other end. "Nash told me he's going to shear sheep when he's older," Doug said. Nash is already a cattleman. He was given a heifer calf by his parents from their herd when he was born. That animal is now a mother cow and will have its third calf for Nash this fall. Gage was also given a heifer calf, and it now a mother cow. Its first calf was sold this summer. Both parents know that sheep and cattle can be spooked and can easily hurt a person so they are strict with their kids when around livestock. "We don't want them to get run over by a cow or a sheep, but for the kids to be out on the ranch with Doug, with their great grandpa, with their grandpa, with their uncle, will be forever memories," said Jennifer. "It's a little trying at times, but it's fun having the kids out with me," Doug said. "Sometimes you have to stop to take care of them. You still have to get your work done, it may just take a little longer." There's some disagreement with the older generations, however. "We're not in favor of having the toddlers out there," Lorris said. "Dad started me young, but not that young-- probably 6 or 8." Still, Lorris said he is happy to have his son making a life for himself and his family in agriculture. "To make it in ranching today, you have to have somebody behind you and we're behind Doug," his father said. "There's a huge acceptance from the older generation for us because there's not a lot of youth in agriculture anymore," Doug said. Date: 11/9/07
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