That's really what ranchers are: grass farmers. They just happen to use cows as combines.
Ranching is just about the most primitive form of agriculture, but today it is way complicated and a successful rancher has to know a lot about everything that touches on his operation.
But it remains something of a miracle that a cow eats the grass and the end product can be milk, or a steak. Around these parts it's all steaks.
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Ranching still has a mystique about it, and I know I'd like to try it. But I suspect that's only because I know next to nothing about it.
There is definitely a "mystique" to ranching. It is also very dangerous work. Thrown by horses, gored by bulls (and cows!), hurt on equipment. It's a hard way to make a living, and it's more a life-style than an occupation. Most ranchers wouldn't want to do anything else.
Two winters ago a neighbor's wife was chopping ice out of a tank and slipped, broke her hip, and had to crawl back to the house in a helluva sub-zero blizzard. Luckily it was only two miles and she was (is) a tough old buzzard.
Not much has changed when you come right down to it.
Joel Salatin (a big mover and shaker in the 'natural' farming world) says the same thing. It's all about the grass, and if you don't take care of it, nothing can thrive including us!
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