SOMETHING NEW

We're going to start something new at The Westerner.

As you know, on a weblog you link to an article, study, report, etc. and then either summarize or comment on the linked to item. This takes less space and keeps you from violating copyright law.

There is, however, some good stuff out there that is not available on the internet, or has not been published at all. That is where this new Saturday section of The Westerner will come in. I will post original items to this section. It can be fiction, non-fiction, book or cd reviews, poetry, or whatever. It must, though, be related to the issues this blog covers or to the western lifestyle.

Got a neat story of something that happened on your ranch or on a recent hunting trip? A good joke? A remembrance of a friend, relative or good horse? Want to sound off on a policy issue? Then email me at flankcinch@hotmail.com

We'll start this first edition off with two wonderful pieces by Julie Carter.


Cowhand dot com sends cowboys down the information highway

By Julie Carter

There are just some things a computer can’t do. And a cowboy who doesn’t know a darn thing about a computer will quickly tell you exactly what those things are.

However, technology is persevering even in the pasture. Implanted computer chips with the animals complete data imbedded in them are in use and making themselves quite handy in controlled situations. As a need to track cattle origins from the pasture to the meat counter tops a priority list, “data based cowboying” is on the rise.

Feed programs, breeding programs, market watch and cattle sales are a few items on a long list of things in the cow business that have gone computerized.

In all this, what happens to the everyday run-of-the mill denim-garbed leather-shod felt hat wearing, colt riding cowboy?

Four years ago Dan Roberts, a Texas cowboy, singer and song writer wrote and released an album and song called Cowhand.Com. The title cut takes a humorous look at the adventures of a cowboy who hires onto an outfit that is basically run by computers, not seasoned cowboys.

The misadventures of this technologically challenged cowboy who longs for the old days tell a story that was perhaps more prophetic that Roberts ever dreamed it would be. His intention was a witty take on the concept but the result was an outline of the real dilemma of crossing a cowboy with a computer.

The lyrics point out that no machine every shod a horse, pulled a calf, or broke a bronc to ride. The laptop in his saddle bags got dusty riding drag and all that talk about menus, a mouse and booting up had the cowboy telling his boss to stick that Pentium right in his AOL and pointing out that megabyte-ram-thing sounded inbred.

Book learnin’ as they would call it, isn’t foreign to cowboys, it just comes from books and takes place after dark when the work is done. My cowboy dad was a fiend for learning and was an easy mark for the encyclopedia salesman that somehow found us at the head of Muddy Creek where not many strangers trod.

We had not one, but several sets of encyclopedias just in case we four children needed to look something up. He also bought every update published for years after and several sets of assorted “how to” encyclopedias.

He learned taxidermy, beer making, electronics, mechanics, veterinary and many other useful things from his “how to” books. I often wonder what he would have done with the wealth of knowledge offered in today’s world with the touch of keyboard.

Computerizing the cowboy way will only go so far. Technology has been extended to providing data for the genetic, nutritional and medicinal history of a cow as well as her history of residence for her lifetime.

The good news for the cowboy is it still takes man to bring the cow to the corral.

The statistical information can be downloaded from computer to computer, from hard drive to cd or even sent to the printer. But the paper trail through the office will never completely replace the cow trail through the pasture.

And that cow? She is going to download her own nutritional history into the same green pile she always did.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© 2004 Julie Carter


Cow attacks make big city news

By Julie Carter

First I read the article. Then I let out a huge sigh. My mind raced from sarcastic thoughts to a despair that the world for the cowman is coming to this.

According to a Los Angeles Times story, the wilderness areas in California, specifically the Oakland –East Bay Parks in this story, are making the news because of “cow attacks.” Rated right up there with rattlesnake bites, mountain bike tumbles and twisted ankles, cow attacks are listed as a regular danger to hikers in the vast public parklands.

The public lands are leased for cattle grazing. Late summer calving is the norm there and momma cows with babies are protective. So along comes Jennie the Hiker who hikes right into the cow’s spot who is guarding her newborn and the next thing Jennie knows, she’s flying through the air, crash landing on a barb wire fence.

And so what’s new. That is what happens to anyone, Jennie the Hiker or Joe the Cowboy, if you get too close to momma cow with new baby. Try hiking next to a brown bear with a new cub and see how gentle she is with you.

I’m not without compassion for her plight. Really I’m not. What I am is very short in patience for people who expect unnatural things in a world they profess to be protecting nature itself.

The article goes on to say this guy who walked his dogs was chased by six different cows at different times. HELLLOOOO!! The dogs! Cows with new babies don’t much like dogs (to a cow—read that predators) and they don’t much care if Big Red is on a leash or not.

The very words used to describe the scenarios are as offensive to me as the attitudes themselves. Personal campaigns to eliminate cattle grazing come with descriptions of “the dangers and fearfulness of maternal bovines.”

Park officials contend the grazing is necessary for fire protection and maintaining grasslands. In public hearings four years ago, grazing was strongly supported by most the fire departments as well as other large public landholders, including the San Francisco Water Department which owns and grazes 40,000 acres of watershed.

Without grazing, selective burning and other methods of control are necessary to control accumulation of dry grasses. Of course the burning and resulting pollution are even less acceptable to the public. But whose thinking at this point?

All this aside, give me a cowhided break! I’ve lived around cows all my life. You bet a momma will eat toss you skyward if you make her feel threatened, especially with a new baby calf near by. But she would rather run off with the kid trailing behind her given the option.

Just this spring I went to investigate a report of twins born to one wild high headed very big crazy acting cow. She looked me over several times as I was snapping photos and trying to get a shot of both calves in the picture and her too. Not one of them was much interested in my photography. The calves were just hours old and she paced and pranced and danced until she had them both up and ready to go….and go they did.

I have to wonder just how often Jennie the Hiker types decide they are going to pet that oh so cute new born baby “calfie”--and then cry FOUL when nature acts natural.

Then the cattle business gets one more negative hit in the press from one more Nola Granola who just as easily could have been eaten by a mountain lion.

Anybody kicking the cougars out of the “public” parks yet?

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© 2004 Julie Carter