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How did a young man
from Lynden, Washington with three young children
and a town-raised wife end up owning a buckaroo cow
outfit in a remote location in central Nevada? The
story Mike Stremler related goes like this, “When I
was growing up in Central Washington all I ever
wanted to do was own my own cow outfit. I spent my
vacation time from college in Iowa with relatives in
South Dakota on the White River, taking care of
cattle. I read every book that I could find
relating to the livestock business. I figured that
the quickest money I could make to help buy a ranch
was shoeing horses so I went to a horse shoeing
school in Minnesota. To fill in the slow periods in
shoeing for my customers, I started a dairy cow
hoof-trimming business. I day worked for ranches and
took in outside horses to ride and train. I also ran
some cows of my own. Along the way, I bought some
real estate in Washington.”
Stremler was busy,
but he still was determined to find a ranch of his
own. He and his wife Barbara started looking. He
wanted a place where they wouldn’t need a lot of
farm equipment since he didn’t like to mechanic, so
they considered Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, and
Nevada. In 2001, they were looking at a ranch near
Lovelock, Nevada when the ranch they now own came on
the market. Stremler said, “We looked at this
ranch, which was in probate at the time. The former
owners, the wife shot the husband right here in the
kitchen and there was no will so probate court drew
it out for three years. During this time nothing
was done on the ranch and everything deteriorated.
But I liked what I saw and thought the ranch had
potential.”
This ranch could
run 500 mother cows with their calves year around
outside. It is a horseback outfit and is very
isolated with few neighbors. They could turn the
hay ground into permanent pasture, so they did not
need expensive hay equipment. Hay can be bought as
needed for saddle horses, bulls, weaned calves and
corralled culled cows. The ranch is 42 miles long
from north to south covering 380,000 acres. It is
primarily Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed
ground that is in an allotment management program
with 4 pasture rotations and 1,500 acres of private
deeded land.
Mike continued,
“That night in the motel I told my wife I thought we
should buy this ranch and she said, “You’re crazy.
Who are you going to be married to if you live out
there?” She couldn't imagine living so far from
town and moving away from her family in Washington,
but now she has grown to love this life!
We
signed the papers to buy the ranch and slowly but
surely started moving our stuff from Washington
State to here.”
It takes a special
kind of people to make a profitable endeavor out of
a place no one wanted. The Stremlers dug in and
began to put their ranch into working shape. Mike
recalled, “When we bought this ranch everything was
falling down. In the house you could see the sky
through the roof and dirt through the floor. There
was a yard full of old cars that we had to drag
off. The corrals and fences needed repairs. It
took about a year before we were here full time. I
would go back to Washington and trim dairy cattle’s
feet for a couple of weeks then come back and work
on the ranch.
“We took in pasture
cattle along with the 160 native cows that came with
the ranch. We also bought the ranch’s registered
Nevada cattle brand. Today we brand with a Lazy JV
Connected. The probate court attempted to gather
all the cattle they could to help pay bills.
Whatever they didn’t catch is what I ended up with.
We gathered wild cows and calves with no brands with
a rope and dogs.”
The first couple of
years were tough but the drought broke in Nevada and
the cattle did well on the outside feed. Stremler
ran cows for his neighbor then ended up buying the
neighbor’s native cattle. They improved the
irrigation system and the corral system for weaning
on their meadows. He moved a big metal shop from
Washington and reassembled it on the ranch. We
worked on patching up the house. They put
solar-powered pumps on their livestock-water wells.
Stremler says, “We practice a ‘golden rule’ I
learned in a Ranching for Profit seminar, ‘Don’t buy
anything you can’t pay for in one year.’” Slowly
the ranch began to take shape. The cash flow from
the sale of calves began to look better.
Land Management
One of the big
problems in the past on this ranch was the wild
horse issue. Stremler began to fence off the
private land and water out in the white sage flats
where the wild horses had been concentrated. This
fencing plus the horse gathers that the BLM did
using helicopters established a better distribution
and ratio of wild horses to cows. The land and feed
conditions for both wild horses and cattle improved
measurably.
Stremler
explained, “The trick to dealing with the Federal
land-management agencies is to know as much or more
about your ranch and the government regulations than
the agents do. I attended all the schools or
classes I could, such as low-stress cattle handling,
ranch management & finance schools, and livestock
meetings. I read all of the relevant Federal
regulations concerning BLM, USFS, wild horses etc.
It is mandatory for the livestock operator to know
the federal regulations and how to negotiate with
the federal government. It puts the livestock
operator in a much better position to answer
questions and address problems.”
He went on to add,
“We have gone through several different Federal
range conservationists in our ten years of owning
this ranch. Many times they come here knowing very
little about this country and the vegetation and
they are not here long enough to learn. One Range
Con told me that my cows were “hammering the
vegetation.” The problem was that the plant to which
she was referring is a variety of greasewood,
Bailey’s greasewood, that naturally grows in a
stunted-appearing version and the only animal that
will eat it is domestic sheep of which we have
none. Horses, cows, and sheep have different eating
preferences concerning vegetation. Once you observe
and learn these preferences you can present a valid
case. When the federal agencies come to the ranch I
go with them. I have taken most of the same range
management classes they have. I want to speak the
same language they do. I engaged in a cooperative
monitoring program with them. Then I write
everything down, send them a copy, and keep our own
records. You never know when you will need this
information. It is much better to attempt to get
along with federal land-managing agencies than to
fight them. Know the rules and have a strategy.
Knowledge is the key.”
The Cattle
Operation
The main source of
income on the Stremler ranch is cattle. How they
handle and market these cattle is the key to their
success. Stremler said, “We run cattle outside
year-around primarily on BLM. We save our private
land meadows for our saddle horses, heifers, bulls,
and weaning our calves.
I have tried to
learn and ask advice from everybody I could on every
aspect of ranching. For instance, we use a
management tool for the breeding program on our
first-calf heifers called
a 48-hour
calf removal or 48-hour weaning, the Wiltbank
Method. We do this when their calves are all over
six weeks old.
This temporary, 48-hour removal of calves from cows
prior to breeding has been shown to
cause the cow to
cycle and they will breed back much better and the
calves will be born closer together. We keep the
calves in a weaning lot with an electric fence next
to the cows where they can see each other, but they
can’t get together. Then they mother-up just fine
after the 48 hours. This program gives us a 96-98%
rebreed on our first-calf heifers.
“We found that
weaning first-calf heifers’ calves in August works
for us. The reason for early weaning is these young
cows go into the winter months in much better shape
than if you had a big calf sucking the cow in fall.
We wean calves on the older cows in
September/October.
“Our heifer calves
weigh around 400 pounds at weaning. The steer
calves weigh around 450. We sell on the Superior
video auction in July, so I lock in a price in July
on my calves with the delivery date in November. We
sell the rest of our calves that we can’t class up
for a video load through the Nevada Livestock
Auction Barn in Fallon.
“We separate the
cows with heifer calves from those with steer
calves. I want the heifer calves to travel with
their mother in the roughest part of the ranch in
the Stillwater Mountains on the west side. By doing
that, when I select my replacement heifers in the
spring, they will know the country and how to travel
to feed and water. We usually keep the heifer calves
with their mothers over winter and then market the
heifer calves we don’t want to keep in the spring.
“The steer calves
remain in the flats so they are easy to gather when
it comes time to ship in November. This ranch is a
cow/calf operation we do not keep calves over as
yearlings. We are sure to leave enough grass for
next year. Our cows are fat and we have a good calf
crop each year. We practice low-stress cattle
handling and have very little sickness. We do very
little doctoring on the weaned calves. Healthy
Calves are our cash crop.”
Mountain Lion Hunting
Stremler told
another aspect of the ranch, “We got the ranch and
cows in fairly good shape after a few years and I
don’t need to feed cows in the winter months so I
have time to pursue mountain lions with my dogs. I
had done a fair amount of bear hunting in Washington
and some lion hunting. This country is surrounded
by good mountain lion habitat and some years the
lions are a problem, killing calves for our
neighbors and us.
“One day we were
hunting lions in the Stillwater Mountains and had
just treed a lion that had been killing our calves.
A couple of fellows who owned Nevada High Ridge
Outfitters were hunting in the same area. We struck
up a conversation and they later asked me if I would
like to be a sub-guide for their outfitting
business. They would arrange and book the clients.
So I got a sub-guide license and take their hunters
mountain lion hunting. This arrangement has been a
good supplement to the income for our ranch.
“I use the Plot
breed of hounds. This particular pack of dogs is
part of a strain that have been bred for lion
hunting for about sixty years and they will catch a
lion for my clients if the conditions are right. We
are over 90% successful.”
The
Family
Stremler says, “One
of the big reasons that this ranch runs as well as
it does is my family. Barb helps with the ranch
work, but a big part of her time is spent taking
care of our six children.
“Our three older
boys, Christian 18, Cole
16, and Clay 14, can all ride, rope, work
cows and hunt mountain lions. We home school our
children, so in the morning the boys do their
homework for the day, then our outside work starts
around 1:00 pm and we work until it is dark.
“For social
activity, the two older boys are in High School
rodeo and Clay will be next year. During the rodeo
season we travel around the state of Nevada to a
different rodeo each weekend. This is good for the
boys and for my wife who gets to visit with rodeo
kids’ parents each weekend.
We have not
encouraged my three boys to continue in the ranching
business. I would like them to cast out in the real
world for a while and find out what they want to do.
Then if they decide that they want to ranch I am
sure we can work out a deal.
“We have three
younger children that we adopted.
Cassidy will be 11 in May. We adopted her through
Christian Homes Of Abilene in Texas. Her mom picked
us and it was quite a surprise to me when Barb
informed me that we were getting a little black
child. After she arrived from Texas at 5 pounds 11
ounces it was an instant fit to our family. We were
as proud as if she were our first. Three and a half
years ago we decided to adopt again. This time we
went through the foster care program in Reno. There
is a real need for parents for minority children.
We adopted Craniesha who is nine, and her
half-brother Drew who is five. It took a little
more time to adjust with older children but all
worked out well. All of the children work on the
ranch irrigating and riding. The decision to adopt
originated as a way to share our blessings and as a
result we have been blessed with three very special
kids.”
The down side of
the Jersey Valley Ranch location is an
hour-and-a-half drive on primitive roads to town or
to medical service, no mail service, and no public
school for the children. Blown pickup tires, gas,
and diesel costs are big expenses. The ranch does
have electric power and telephone lines that were
brought in years ago by a previous owner. This
allows the residents to have a telephone and
computer. But the remoteness of the ranch is what
keeps a lot of people out of this country and is
what makes it affordable for people like the
Stremlers to ranch. This remote country only
appeals to a certain kind of people. Mike Stremler
and his family have the ambition and pioneering
spirit to make a successful ranching business for
themselves using their minds, hard work, and their
faith.
Contact
information:
Jersey Valley
Cattle Company
Mike and Barb Stremler
PO Box 1078
Winnemucca, Nevada 89446
775-635-5445
For
mountain lion hunting information:
Nevada High Ridge Outfitters
P.0. Box 1323
Lovelock, NV 89419
(775) 538-7047 - Gary
(775) 273-7122 - Keith
E-mail:
nvhighridge@sbcglobal.net
http://www.nvoutfitters.net/
Article by Mike
Laughlin
mikelaughlin@hotmail.com
Photos by Lee Raine
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