summer vacations texas

america's heartland is madepossible by... farm credit -financing agriculture and ruralamerica since 1916. farm credit iscooperatively owned by america'sfarmers and ranchers. learn more at farmcredit.com â  croplife america -representing the companies whose modern farming innovations helpamerica's farmers provide nutritious food for communitiesaround the globe. hi i'm jason shoultz.

do you like steak on thegrill at those summer barbecues? well, thank anamerican rancher. let's head for the wide openspaces on america's heartland this time for somestories about better beef, texas longhorns, and stoppingmodern day cattle rustlers. come along to californiawhere state officials are taking a hard line oncattle theft using technology and old westtraditions. if i said "longhorns" you'dthink texas.

but we'll take you to alonghorn cattle roundup in ohio. then... a kansas family tracesits ranching roots back more than a centuryand changes the color of its cows tomarket their beef. and we'll introduce you toan idaho couple adding elk to the ranching operation ontheir land. it's all coming up onamerica's heartland. ♪you can see it in the eyesof every woman and man♪ ♪in america's heartlandliving close to the land♪

♪there's a love for the countryand a pride in the brand♪ ♪in america's heartland♪ ♪living closeclose to the land♪ ♪♪ if beef is a regular item onyour dinner table, well, you're not alone. americans will consume morethan 25 billion pounds of beef each year. and those numbers are justone indication of how

important cattle ranching isto our economy. how many ranches? well, there are some 750thousand ranching operations in the united states raisingmillions of beef cattle for market. and while "steak" is thenumber one pick in choices, ground beef is the big winnerwhen it comes to beef being used in a wholevariety of recipes. and don't forget millions ofburgers being sold at fast

food restaurants around theworld. midwesterners top the listof beef consumers in the u.s. followed by folks in thesouth, west, and then the northeast. the average american will eat more than 65 pounds ofbeef a year. there are hundreds of breedsof cattle around the world. ranchers may choose to raise acertain breed because of climate landform, or a particular ofbeef that's in demand.

and if you've ever spent timewatching hollywood westerns, you're probablyfamiliar with a certain breed that once roamed wildin the american west. our sarah gardner sets outto find some "longhorn" cattle. but not in texas. come on girls, come onsweethearts... whooo. darol dickinson and his wifelinda started their longhorn cattle career in colorado. but it's here in ohio thatthe family found its fortune

in beef with the dickinsoncattle company. raising cattle is grass andmanagement and water, and things like that; so, this isgreat cattle country here. we're in the ohio rivervalley grasslands. it's wonderful grasscountry. the family ranches on morethan four thousand acres and welcomes visitors with farmtours in the summer. buyers and visitors alikecome to see the longhorns. do you think that's a prettycow there?

i think she's beautiful. she's black and whitespackled; she's got curly horns; she'sgot a sweet disposition; she raises beautiful calves. [cow moos] darol, along with his wifeand children oversee the "meat" of the business here:raising and marketing registered cattle. we sell all natural texaslonghorn beef.

we sell semen, frozen bullsemen from our very best bulls. the "science of selection"has also made it possible for the dickinson company to clonesome of their prized cattle. well, this is the cow thatwas used for the clones. this is shadow jubilee. and she'd be a little over 84inches tip to tip, on her horns. and she just had a new calfhere three weeks ago. the other cow behind her isjester and she was international champion lastyear.

and she just had a new babycalf about three weeks ago. the ranch also raises twoother unique breeds. buelingo cattle adapt wellto the open range of the west and central plains. you'll also find watusicattle here. originally from africa, thisbreed is not as well known in the united states. joel dickinson is theranch's herd manager, overseeing a cattleoperation that's grown from

40 head in 1989 to more thana thousand head today. joel and his crew will roundup the newborn calves. to check on their weight, givethem vaccinations, and tag them. you just lift the skin up. put the needle under theskin. where, here? yep. and then we're giving itjust a half a cc. a little more, a littlemore.

right there, that's prettygood. after vaccinations, joeltakes a picture of each new calf on his iphone. those digital photos aretransmitted to the ranch office where joel's mom enters the dataon the company website. so, it's red and whiteheifer 5409. we have the largest internetpresence of any breed of cattle or breed associationin the united states. we sell about 90 percent ofthe cattle online.

what are people looking forin a longhorn? they've got to have beefquality; they've got to have prettyconformation, pretty color, a good disposition, raise alarge calf. and longhorn cattle, they gottahave pretty, twisty horns. [cow mooing] darol says economics andconsumer demands have changed his industry overthe past 40 years. when we first started, itwas really important

for cattle to be very fat. and fat was important, andfat wasn't a bad thing. today, people talk lean. so, texas longhorns werecriticized years ago because they weren't fat enough. now they're complimented becauseof their high protein, low cholesterol, low carb,low fat content. and he expects even biggerchanges in the future. well, in the future, we'regoing to see less grain

available to feed alllivestock. so, it's being used for ethanoland export and other things. so, the cattle of the futureare going to be cattle that eat cactus and grass andbriars and low quality fiber. so, that's where the texaslonghorns really excel. do you expect that one day,the kids will take over and continue the ranch? well, the 13-year-old grandson,i asked him the other day. i said, 'what do you thinkyou'll do in life.'

and he said,'well, grandpa, i don't know.' but he said 'i may have to takeover the ranch.' and i said, 'why do you saythat?' and he said, 'well, have younoticed how old my dad is?' well, you met him today.he's about 36. so, he's alreadythinking about booting his dad out andtaking over. with young folks pushing theirway into the family business, the dickinson's see continuityto their life on the land.

something to be handed downto the next generation. you do well what you like todo, and you like to do what youdo well. so, our family enjoys thiskind of a business. despite the longhorn cattlestampedes that you've seen in hollywood westerns,ranchers say that texas longhorns are usually quitegentle and easily worked on foot as well as horseback. they do say, however, stayout of the way of those

horns when the cattle turnto look at you! i mentioned earlier thatranchers may choose to raise a certain breed of cattlefor many reasons. climate and consumer demandare just two of them. and ranchers have been cross-breeding cattle for a long time working to get the bestattributes of separate breeds. our john lobertini takes usto a cattle ranching operation in kansas whereone historic farm family did some "color changes" in theirefforts to deliver better beef.

the flint hills are the lastremnant of the tall grass prairie in north america. you have to go to the serengetiin africa to find grass like this. joe hoagland's white hatmakes him stand out even in the wide open spaces ofeastern kansas. hoagland and his family havebeen trailblazers in the ranching business since thelate 1800's; and flint hills grass is justthe beginning of this story.

this is very nutritiousgrass. there's a lot of calcium inthis grass which is good for growing bones and a lot ofprotein for developing the meat in the steers. but hoagland doesn't raisecattle like everyone else. he herds them with honda'sinstead of horses and this is livestock of adifferent color. black herefords to be exact. this british breed of cattleis traditionally red.

there is this perception inamerica, that a black hided beefanimal is the superior one. we see that in the sale barn. time after time the redhided animals are discounted. so the hoagland's did whatpeople in agriculture do; they tried something new. john, you got a good countof 'em didn't you? breeding red-hided herefordswith the wildly popular black angus breed.

after several generations ofgenetic work, ranchers learned how tocapture that coveted black hair but end up with a cowthat's still a hereford. you get ten cents a pound,if it's a 500-pound calf, why that's 50-dollars. so, you know that doesn'ttake long to add up if you got a hundred cows, you'veproduced a lot more income. you know black herefords arenew to cattle ranching; the first were bred back in1994.

but today there are breedersin more than 25-states. and that numbers is expectedto multiply in the years ahead. the hoaglands say, thisisn't just a black hereford; it's a better hereford. you can see his father orhis sire, his grand sire and his greatgrand sire. the best are registered andtheir genealogy documented in detail. the angus bloodlines addsome kick to a meat that's

already a popular choice formany consumers. and ranchers say the hybridsproduce bigger offspring while consuming less feed. we're seeing longevity inour cows that i find remarkable. a cow that's 10 years old thathas an udder like a young cow. we produce more meat becausethe cattle are more productive, bigger framed and productiontechniques are improved. more meat fromfewer cattle. 28-year old dirck hoaglandknew from an early age he'd

probably take over thefamily business. but instead of getting adegree in animal science, he mastered in business. you need to have backgroundsin marketing. you need to understandfinance, you need to understand howto manage people. really in a lot of ways acattle ranch is a factory. a factory the family runslike a well-oiled machine. the heartland grasses of theflint hills provide a rich

pasture land for the hoagland'sunique cattle operation. it's land that's served thefamily for more than a century. land the hoagland's view asa window to their past and america's heritage. the views and the vista's yousee here are exactly what they saw in coveredwagons moving west and traveling acrossthe prairie. this is pretty much apre-columbian view of america. hereford cattle were broughtto america in the early

1800's from their place oforigin in herefordshire, england and consider this: a thousandpound cow can produce 4 tons of manure ina year. hi i'm paul robins andhere's something you may not have known aboutagriculture. when it comes to beneficiallivestock you can't do much better than cows. the cud-chewing bovineprovides everything from food to fertilizer.

are you up for some icecream? cheese? maybe some yogurt? thank a farmer and a cow. but when did thispartnership all begin? well, let's head across theatlantic. all modern domesticatedbreeds of cattle descended from wild ox-like animalscalled aurochs that once roamed over large areas inasia, europe, and north africa. we're talking 30 thousandyears ago.

the aurochs were a favoriteanimal for hunters since they provided food and hidesfor clothing and shoes. fast forward to 6,000 bc andearly man started luring wild cattle into communitiesand domesticated them. scientist says the herdinginstincts of the cattle made that easier, along with thenatural curiosity of the big bovines. the fertile crescent of themiddle east was one of the first regions to benefitfrom domesticated animals

both for food and as beastsof burden. and from there the goodnews, or should that be "goodmoo's" thank you, spread across asia, europe,and africa. africa is still home to alarge number of cattle about 230 millionanimals. the u.s. has about 100 millioncattle. but it's india that leadsthe cattle count worldwide with about 280 million head.

that's a lot of methane. there's good money in cattleranching and, as you might expect, there are somefolks who would like to benefit from great beef prices withouthaving to do the work. now you might have thoughtcattle rustling was a thing of wild west days gone by. but it's alive and well in manyparts of the country and today stopping the thieves requiressome old and new skills. back in chicago, i neverthought that i would be

punching cattle, mostlybelonging to other guys. yeah, using trucks forrustling is the latest thing. in the 1939 western "code ofthe cactus" cattle rustlers are using trucks to menacecalifornia ranchers. and when the sheriff triesto track down the rustlers, the first thing he does is check thepaperwork on the cattle. who did you say them cattlebelonged to? i didn't say. oh, a smart aleck, huh?

fast forward 70 years, notfar from the oregon border, just like the sheriff did in"code of the cactus," a cowboy hat wearing investigator isdoing the exact same thing. pasture to pasture movementout of that county has to be inspected before they leave. truck driver jeff giessnerwas delivering a load of cattle when he got stoppedat a weigh-station checkpoint. he's not getting questionedby the long arm of the law. these guys actually work for the

california department offood and agriculture. and today they're checkingbrands and paperwork on trailers of cattle. and giessner's paperworkis not quite in order. now jeff giessner is not acattle thief. but for not carrying thecorrect slip of paper the ranch he works for will paya fine. so why so strict? we lose probably around1,200 - 1,300

head of cattle everyyear due to theft. this equates out to about amillion and a half dollars' worth ofcattle. cattle theft's alive andwell in california and probably throughout the westernunited states, still today. from sprawling ranches wherebeef cattle graze to dairy operations where cattle arelined up by the hundreds. cattle are a valuablecommodity. and it's impossible to keepthem under lock and key.

so as long as people havebeen raising cattle, thieves have been rustlingthem. i'd say the cost was around300 to 400,000 dollars. dairy farmer margo souzaknows all too well what kind of impact cattle theft canhave on the bottom line. in 2006 nearly 200 dairycows were stolen from her farm. the fact of the matter is,my dear fellow, they're planning on raidingyour lower pasture tonight. how do you know that we havecattle in our lower pasture?

because they get informationfrom your own outfit. and just like in the movie,the theft at the circle h dairy ranch was aninside job. the herdsman responsible foroverseeing the cattle was actually stealing andselling them. what had he been doing? he was selling the cattle topeople he knew. they were stealing cows andselling them, trading the animals.

you know he'd have people inhere making deals. at night or during the day? well even during the day andwhen i was gone. so it was going on rightunder your nose and you didn't even know. right. margo's surprise at the betrayalwas no surprise to john suther. 95 percent of the time it'seither an employee, a neighbor or a friend of anemployee

that's participating in thetheft. stopping rustlers these daysisn't done with shootouts. some things have changed. it happens at places likeauctions where cattle are bought and sold by thehundreds. it turns out it's notdna testing, satellite tracking,or infrared cameras that are the best way to combatcattle rustling. in fact, these days the waythey do it is really the way

they've been doing it sincefolks have been trading cattle: by using branding. brands are the marks burnedonto the side of cattle using a hot iron. every ranch has a specificbrand for identification. in fact, there are 23 thousandbrands recorded in california alone. at the auction yard stateinspectors take a close look at the cattle coming in forsale.

so if somebody came in withtheir truck and they didn't have the right paperwork,what do you do? basically we impound thecattle. you impound the cattle? we impound the cattle. they are not goin' into theauction. they don't go to theauction and they can't leave the sale yard until we figureout who actually owns them. wouldn't be hard forsomebody to go rustle up a

cow, throw it in the back ofa trailer, and try to claim it as theirown? not at all. not hard at all. if they don't have a brandinspection, a brand on them, it's not hard to claim onefor your own at all. so it would seem like a surething that all cattle get branded but surprisinglythey don't. i would say probably, onlyabout 50 percent of the people

that own livestock in californiaor cattle in california brand. more so in beef cattle thanprobably in dairy cattle. because dairy cattle aren'tleft alone in vast pastures, often dairy owners believethat branding isn't necessary. they're betting that they won'tend up as theft victims. but margo sousa's experienceis a lesson for all cattle owners to keep close trackof your animals. fortunately for margo thethief was caught after john suther's investigation.

but brand inspectors continue towarn livestock owners, if your cattle getstolen and aren't branded - don't expect a happyhollywood ending! if you ever need any help! send me a wire! [laughter] you may associate cattlerustling with the american west, but the problem goesfar beyond u.s. borders. australian ranchers battlecattle rustlers down under

and some parts of centralafrica have had a problem with cattle rustling formore than a century. head for the high country inidaho and you're bound to find sheep ranches andplenty of cattle as well. but staying profitable inthe ranching business these days demands that you lookto diversify your operation and create additionalsources of income. our rob stewart says, forone family that's been ranching in idaho for morethan a century that meant

running other animalsbesides cattle on their land. [whistling] some six thousand feet abovesea level, the teton mountain ranch isclose to the sounds of nature in the scenery ofthis majestic valley. and you've had people fromall over the world. from india, from europe,everywhere. everywhere, we have. almost every place in theworld.

kent and pauline bagley arefarmers here in eastern idaho. and while the family has beenworking this land for decades, the "wildness" of the region isstill evident today. we gotta watch out for thebears and the elk and the wild grouse that might jumpout of the trees. but these horses do prettygood. crops and cattle have long beena part of this farming operation but the family decided todiversify, adding saddleback vacationsfor visitors and expanding

their livestock herds toinclude bison and elk. it's really tough to farmand ranch in teton valley because of the winters. and we figured we can bringin the elk, and we are looking at therecreation, looking into the trail ridesand pack trips. and we figured that this wouldbe a way we can share this withpeople. they seem to be very curiousanimals.

they're very curious. they probably like your blueshirt. they'll come andinvestigate. they're wonderful watchdogs. anything that comes onto theplace that's different, we know it, because we cantell by the way they act. but these animals are morethan just something to "see." wild game consumption in theu.s. and abroad provides a ready market for the lean meatof animals like the elk.

for beef cattle, we can puta lot of weight on them, and that's what put the fator the marbling in the meat. the elk aren't designed thatway. we can't force feed them so muchto put a lot of weight on them. in addition to elk meat,ranchers also sell the antlers which the animalsshed naturally each year. even the furry "velvet" ofthe antlers provides a valuable commodity. we'll sell the antler. we have alot of market for the antler.

what is it used for? a lot of it is ornamental. it's used for chandeliers,for furniture. this whole piece isconsidered the velvet antler until it- until it calcifies. so the whole thing isconsidered the velvet antler. and it is used for a dietarysupplement all over the world and also it's in the us. well, it's going to be anice day for us today.

the herds of bison, elk, andcattle along with the natural beauty of the regionhave provided a significant draw to city dwellerslooking to have a different kind of vacation experience. it was amazing. we couldn't believe it whenwe got to the very top. and we went to our secondlocation, and we saw how far we havetraveled. it was mind-blowing to know thatwe did that much on our horse.

i mean, it's great to getaway from the rough, fast lifestyle with thecity. when you just come out here,you know, you can go like four hours by, and it feels likeit's been 20 minutes. you know, you don't wasteyour time- you just take your time andslow down. and it doesn't matterwhether they are attorneys, or doctors, or whatevertheir way of life is. to get them on a horse andget out and share this,

show them the elk that wehave. and to have a school groupcome out and listen to the elk bugle and see the sparkle inthese little kids' eyes, "that's an elk. i've never seenan elk before." that just gives you thatinner joy. continuing an agriculturaltradition is important to this multi-generational farmfamily. making a difference in thelives of their visitors and in protecting the landthey've been given.

we want it to be takencare of. we take joy in seeing itlooking good. we love it. it's our life. and that's going to do itfor us this time. we thank you for travelingthe country with us on this edition ofamerica's heartland. we're always so pleased thatyou can join us. have you checked out ouramerica's heartland website yet? we got video from allof our programs

and lots of otherinformation as well. you'll find us atamericasheartland.org and look for us too on some ofyour favorite social media sites thanks for being with us andwe'll see you next time, right here,on america's heartland. you can purchase a dvd orblu ray copy of this program. here's the cost: to order, just visit usonline or call: ♪you can see it in the eyesof every woman and man♪