homa, Kansas, New Mexico, Colo- rado, Nebraska, Iowa, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. They also have international operations in Canada. The drought of 2011 forced them
to sell about half of their Texas cow herd. But fall rains enabled them to enhance their program with good wheat pasture grazing. “It’s always raining somewhere,” Bonds says, describing the benefits of wide- spread stocker programs. The Bonds Ranch was recognized during the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention with the Beef Magazine Stocker of the Year award. He got his start at running cattle
early. “My father bought the Saginaw
ranch in 1933. But he died when I was 2,” says Bonds, who is in his early 60s. “The ranch foreman, Pete Burnett, helped raise me. He was a good cowboy and a great man. He would be my father fi gure and my best friend. I was extremely fortu- nate to have had him in my life. He taught me about the history and heritage of the cattle business, sit- ting on the back porch after a hard day’s work.” Jo literally danced her way into
Bonds’ life. “She was a ballerina and still teaches ballet at the ranch,” he says. Missy, who like Pete attend- ed the Texas Christian University Ranch Management School, has been active in cattle production and marketing for several years. Her sisters are also using their col- lege experiences: Bonnie, with her family’s own ranching program, and April, who has returned to the ranch to use her MBA to help ana- lyze what business activities can be improved.
TSCRA serves small and large ranches Bonds learned early the value of
tscra.org
would cost to pave every caliche or gravel road in rural Texas just to prevent dust. “EPA is trying to reinterpret the
Pete Bonds, right, visits with TSCRA Honorary Director Gordon Richardson at the fall meeting in Grapevine.
being involved with TSCRA. He be- came a director in 1992 and served on numerous committees over the years before becoming second vice president in 2011. “It didn’t take long to see how TSCRA and its staff were a major voice for all sizes of ranches,” he says. “We have 16,000-plus members
and most of those have 100 cows or less. They also benefi t from what we do in Austin and Washington, just like larger operations. TSCRA was started in 1877 to stop cattle thieves. That’s still one of our major goals. But equally important is what it does to try and stop ‘thieves’ in Austin and Washington from steal- ing our land, our water rights and our way of life.” The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and its long arm of regulatory control worry Bonds. He and other have spent countless hours in attempt to thwart EPA ef- forts to invade individual ranch operations. “The EPA scares the hell out of
me,” he says. “TSCRA and the beef industry have been able to prevent a lot of regulations. The dust laws they tried to put into effect, I don’t think the public realizes how crazy that was. I can’t imagine what it
law. They want the authority to con- trol any surface water. We fought and got it stopped — so far. If not, if a rancher wanted to hire a dozer and clean out a stock tank, he would have needed an EPA permit. TSCRA members, our staff in Austin and NCBA’s efforts in Washington have prevented this from happening.” Then there were the child la-
bor laws the Department of Labor wanted to enact that would have prevented young people under 16 from doing many common chores on the farm or ranch. Helping round up calves on horseback and many other ranch tasks would have been forbidden. TSCRA, National Cattle- men’s Beef Association (NCBA) and other state and regional cattle asso- ciations got those proposed regula- tions thrown out. “Animal rights activists re-
main a threat to the cattle busi- ness. HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) has lots of money and a large membership. Many of those members think HSUS is helping dogs and cats. But a very small percentage of HSUS money goes to animal shelters. It is used for HSUS lawyers and lobbyists who are continually working to place limitations on livestock pro- duction.”
Brand your cattle TSCRA special rangers recover
millions of dollars in stolen cattle and ranch property every year. And a cat- tle brand helps land rustlers in jail. “Every animal we own is branded,” Bonds says, noting that the ranch’s turkey-track brand is also used on cattle in the many other states where they run stockers or cows.
MORE December 2013 The Cattleman 79
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