'Instant Montana ranch' shipped to Russia

Cowboys, quarter-horses and 1,434 purebred beef cattle — just add grasslands, and you've got a transplanted Montana ranch. Those livestock basics — plus some training in animal care — is what Montana cattle producers have shipped to southwestern Russia, where the landscape is similar to the grassy high plains of eastern Montana. It's part of a Russian subsidized deal to make that country's cattle industry more self-sufficient. "It's like an instant ranch," said Kate Loose, a representative of one of the Montana ranchers involved in the deal. Most of the cattle departed by aircraft, with the last shipment due to touch down Thursday in Moscow before heading to Russia's Voronezh region. The remainder — 545 cattle, five quarter-horses — plus a veterinarian from Choteau went by boat to Stevenson Sputnik Ranch, a partnership between rancher Darrell Stevenson and Russian investors. That livestock also was due to land Thursday. Sara Stevenson, Darrell Stevenson's wife, said the Russians have a different way of handling cattle than Montana ranchers: No fences, fewer cattle per cowboy — and much more direct government involvement. "Part of the subsidy is that they employ as many Russians as possible," she said. "And since there's no fences, instead of one cowboy, they need two to three herdsman for every 200 to 300 cattle." A rotation of Montana ranchers, working cowboys and veterinarians will teach Russian herdsmen how to care for the livestock in what Sara Stevenson called "cowboy training."...more

Karl Marx claimed the capitalists would sell him the rope with which they were about to be hanged. Actually we are doing better than that - we are also providing the cowboy to throw the loop!

The title of this piece could have been Kremlin Corrals Commie Cattle Company.

Instead of "Hey Pardner" it will be "Comrade Cowboy".

Enough.