Lessons in Existence
Kiwis and Tabosa Grass
Self Masters
It was
before daylight many years ago.
We spent
the night in Kanab and were headed home on that long, lonely stretch of highway
toward Flagstaff.
The speedometer reminded me that Utah
did have speed limits. The point was driven home when I looked in the mirror
and a single car light appeared on the far horizon. I slowed but repeated
glances told me the light was not just coming fast but was going to overtake
us.
Could it be
a state patrolman who had clocked us from a distance?
I was down
to the peanut farmer’s monotonous double nickels when the car caught up and
passed us going like a three legged rooster on fire. It was no state patrolman,
but I immediately recognized the vehicle and the shadowy profile of the driver.
It was our friend, Helicopter Tom, in his Blazer blitzing south at a high rate
of speed. Why he was in southern Utah
we never learned, but the vehicle was obvious. The two toned gold and white
Blazer with no chrome was Tom’s. In fact, I knew when the chrome strips were
ripped off which started when one of them was pulled loose in a four wheeling
incident. Tom had proceeded to walk around the vehicle ripping the others off
because he “never liked them anyway”.
For a while,
we tried to catch up, but he left us in his wake. I wasn’t going to go any
faster.
Lessons in Existence
Tom was a
fellow Grant County native, but I didn’t know him
until college. He was older and had spent time in the world when he decided to
return to school. When we did meet, he and Hilde were a pair. She was from New Zealand’s
south island, an “All Black” fan, and a kick in the pants. They had met when Tom
was flying a helicopter on contract with the New Zealand government shooting
game animals from the air. He was filling the roll of predator absent from the
man made environment of the island nation.
Tom related
how they had become an item and had informed her she should show up at daylight
the next morning to fly out to catch a plane home if she was going with him. He
was warming the Hiller up and about to pull the collective when he spotted her.
“Through
the predawn, I saw her wagging a suitcase up the road,” he remembered.
The rest
was “Tom” history, and, today, I have absolutely no idea where either of them
is or if they are even alive. I suspect, however, their lives were quite zesty.
We learned
from them a lot about New
Zealand. The fact that nation was a world
leader in pastoral sciences was always intriguing. It was even more so when the
fact that grasslands in the country are largely man made. The introduced game
and fish of the nation and its combined contribution to the national economy
was also a managed wonder.
The
inclination to make comparisons to New
Mexico has never stopped. For example, the island nation’s
demonstration of engineering natural complexities from around the world into
the fabric of their society was not an environmental disaster. On the contrary,
it promoted not just economic benefits, but created management practices that
preserved the marriage of original and introduced fauna and flora. Ask anybody
who has visited and they will say it is a place of wonder.
In terms of
further comparison, New Mexico
should take a chapter out of the New Zealand big game success, and
conclude, without remorse, that this state should become the poor man’s Africa for imported game. The success of Barbary sheep,
gemsbok, and ibex in the southern end of the state should be heralded not
shrouded in guarded, environmental conscience. Real opportunity and growth of
expanded tourism should be structured by expansion of the opportunity and
variety of game (and fish) available.
Likewise,
the relative advantages of agriculture in this state must be recognized and
encouraged for expansion rather than the management of retreat and dissolution.
A most incredible example of this is the world’s export share of New Zealand’s
dairy exports. Their producers contribute an astounding 30%. When the distance
and expense of transportation of those products is considered, that metric only
becomes more significant.
How do they
do it?
There was a recent conference held by the New
Zealand Grasslands Association that drew not just producers from that country
but a group of 22 Americans. I don’t know who the New Mexican was in that crew,
but it is reported there was one along. The Hay&Forage
Grower article reporting the event referenced the trip as transformative and
set forth five lessons that were learned.
The first
was to learn from your neighbors and your competition. New Zealanders have
become expert in matters of global trade as a condition of existence. They tend
to travel, but they also convene in groups among themselves and critique and
debate their own practices.
The second
lesson relates to being involved rather than being the tail that wags.
Producers are sitting on regulatory panels and commissions. As one farmer was
quoted, “I feel I have to have a seat at the table. Otherwise, I may be on the
menu.”
The next
lesson relates to “hiring it done”. That reminds me of my old friend, Jupe,
when he used to tell me “Let the cat skinners be cat skinners, and the well
drillers be well drillers, and the welders be welders.” The point is New Zealand
producers tend not to be burdened with excessive capital investments outside of
their core pursuits. They more likely hire their hay to be baled, livestock
hauled, and silage harvested. Any new paint on equipment was very limited.
Next was to
know your numbers. The suggestion was that operators there could relate their
production costs “to the nearest penny”. They were also very knowledgeable in
metrics relating to energy costs, production per land units, milk solids per
cow weights and matters relating to market trends.
The final
factor was producers no longer have safety nets. All government supports were
removed years ago and producers became independent. In response, they turned
inwardly and sponsored referendums for research and market development. They
also started investing in their own cooperatives that process and sell their
products. Government is not their shear pin for protection. They have assumed
that role themselves.
Self Masters
I consider my experience in California agriculture as seminal.
As the farm
manager of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company properties in the San Joaquin Valley, we were closely watched by Met
to limit any involvement with government. In their case, they not only didn’t
want federal assistance they went to great lengths to avoid any suggestion of
dipping into federal treasury funds. Their public image was too important to be
compromised with a headline even remotely suggesting they were seeking tax
payers’ hard earned money.
So, we endured
the yearly interrogations to avoid any improprieties. When we acknowledged we
had signed the federal mandate to comply with highly erodible land tillage
practices, Leo about terminated us! We finally convinced him it was a required
agreement that we signed not a bridge to a handout.
What we
became, though, was an American counterpart to the New Zealanders who
controlled our own destination without becoming entrenched in any form or
matter of agricultural welfare programs. I liked it without even knowing the
full consequences. We expanded our product line and became higher level innovators.
Similarly, the deeper we invested in integration the better farmers we became
and the more profitable our operations became.
That model,
however, is not the model I find myself in on the tabosa grass flats of federal
lands ranching. This model is not an expanding, robust platform of ingenuity
and adaptation. Rather, it is the antithesis of self reliance and it is seen in
the stepwise elimination of our numbers. You have heard me harp on this matter
repeatedly over the past several weeks, but it real and it must be changed. If
it isn’t, our current glide path will see elimination of our industry segment by
mid century.
There are
many forces trying to make that happen, but it cannot and must not be done
through federal oversight. Something has to give and the New Zealand
approach is a worthy model for adoption. It is also an acceptable approach to
counter the environmental bias in the management of western lands.
The
presence of man is not just natural. It is proper, and the end results will be
worthy of worldwide acceptance.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “When we
told Leo Rasmussen one of us might have to go to jail if we didn’t comply with
the highly erodible regulatory demand, he called for a volunteer! He would have been a highly effective
Secretary of Interior or Agriculture.”
2 comments:
I have waited a long time to hear a leader in Agriculture say what your column just stated. The BLM should give ranchers the ability to be innovative and grow. I too refuse to take government handouts. My Dad is responsible. He told me to never become dependent upon the government. In so many words, he also said that for me to use the power of government to extract money from my fellow man was much like theft.
New Zealand provides an excellent example (model in current terms) of what is needed in all aspects of the U.S. government structure. Thirty years ago New Zealand was broke with no end of the problem in sight but their leaders decided not to have any government programs that they couldn't provide with the money that they had to spend. Within a short period of time they cut government jobs by 2/3 and government expenditures by even more.
They solved the problem and as Mr. Wilmeth notes the agricultural producers now operate on a basis of capitalism with no government subsidies and the result is prosperity. I first noticed the effort of the New Zealand sheepmen when displays of New Zealand lamb appeared in Nevada grocery stores; this was the marketing effort of the producers not their government.
See the Hillsdale College Imprimis from April 2004 (Vol 33. No. 4) article by Maurice McTigue for a clear description of how they solved the problem of bloated government in New Zealand that was just like what we have in the U.S.
And please pass that article on to every politician with a request that they follow New Zealand's lead.
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