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Leaders and thinkers ponder the state of ranching 100 years from now
Pete Bonds, Saginaw rancher and president
of TSCRA
Most people think the heyday of the big ranches was in the 1800s. I think it’s yet to come — some of the ranch-
ing companies of the next 100 years will be huge. I really don’t know who will own the land,
but I think that in this country and in other countries, we’ll have large family-run ranches, not necessarily corporate ranches, that will
manage a huge number of cattle. There will be an advantage for young people who want to stay in this
industry. The size of the next century’s ranching operations will offer the managers economic advantages and we’ll see them run with less labor. Even today, some of the largest ranches in the U.S. are running 1,000 head to 1 ranch hand. They are able to do this because they have developed gentler cattle, which I predict will continue. There will always be the rancher with 100 or fewer head of cattle. Those
people will ranch because they want to ranch. They’ll probably be closer to the metroplexes, so they’ll have the advantage of a job in town and cattle in the country. Genetics and the ability to monitor the conversion of feed and grass into
Compiled by Ellen H. Brisendine
beef will change our industry. It wouldn’t surprise me to see calves being weaned at 800 to 1,000 pounds, go through a short preconditioning program and then on to the feedyard where they’ll be fed for a lot shorter time than we do in this century. We’re just on the cusp of really being able to mea- sure feed conversion. When we are really able to measure that easily and on a widespread basis, it will be standard operating procedure for bulls and replacement heifers to be tested and added to the nation’s herd. When that
90 The Cattleman December 2014
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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