Building A Reputation

Ranchers face a lot of obstacles, but, there's wisdom borne out of the hard times.

The Askin family raises cattle and sheep on rental ground in Wyoming and Montana, Image by Robert Waggener

Fresh thinking combined with an entrepreneurial spirit led Sage Askin down an unconventional path as a successful young rancher.

The polite, soft-spoken Wyomingite wasn’t interested in sharing his story publicly, however, unless, in his words, “the sole intent was on helping other young ranchers begin their careers.”

Sage has a little experience when it comes to the obstacles young farmers and ranchers often face. One of the biggest, he notes, is finding the land on which to start an operation.

Today, without 1 acre of their own, he and wife, Faith, are proof it’s possible to have a successful and thriving operation without land ownership. They are also proof it’s not easy. There are lots of things the Askins think about on a daily basis, but, one point never leaves their minds: Reputation is everything.

The 30-year-old Sage came to his way of life with a strong work ethic learned from family. His aging grandparents still run cattle on a ranch in eastern Wyoming. His father put in long hours working for other livestock producers in the region, while his mother helped make ends meet cleaning houses, laboring at Burger King and managing a horse barn.

Sage was convinced at an early age he wanted to ranch. He armed himself with as much knowledge and equipment as he could. He raised 4-H and FFA steers, using part of the proceeds to buy tools for fencing and machinery repairs. And, he grabbed hold of all of the knowledge he could during his time as a student at the University of Wyoming.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rangeland ecology and watershed management, and five minors: agroecology, forestry, reclamation and restoration ecology, soil science and wildlife and fisheries biology. He paid his way through school working as range technician for a conservation association, a coal mine blasting crew member and a ranch intern, where he and others practiced Allan Savory-type holistic grazing management. That experience helped define his production philosophy.

“In ranching, you have to be a holistic manager,” he believes. “A biological system is always dynamic. If you manage for one thing today, you are managing for a snapshot in time that may not be representative tomorrow, much less five years from now.”

Choices and Reputation

Sage found himself in a great position in 2014. He had graduated college and leased a ranch in western Wyoming, managing the cattle for 75% of the proceeds.

“Faith and I had just started dating, and, we sold that first set of steer calves for $3.48 per pound,” Sage recalls. It was December 2014 during the height of the cattle market.

Sage made enough money to purchase 300 sheep. By the time he and Faith married in 2016, the flock numbered 1,000.

“We thought sheep would complement the cow herd by not using the same forage base. Also, cattle were so expensive at that time, we thought sheep would be a better investment,” he notes.

When the lease arrangement ended because of the sale of the ranch, Sage took 1,000 ewes and leased a high desert operation in southeast Wyoming. He began running sheep on shares for other ranchers, in addition to his own flock.

During a three-week period beginning Christmas Day 2016, tragedy hit. Four blizzards killed half the ewes. Sage remembers it as the “winter death apocalypse.”

In those trying days, the young producer showed with his actions that his belief in the importance of reputation was a core value.

“We had to make the other ranchers whole,” he says. “That meant giving them all of our living sheep. Faith and I took a huge hit, because we were still making payments on half our flock. We’re still digging out from that, but, we’re getting closer.”

P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

It was an especially hard lesson, Sage explains, but one they learned from.

“That taught me that you don’t have any control over luck, the markets and weather,” he says. “We now do an enterprise analysis before jumping into any opportunity. “Had we run a best- and worst-case scenario before putting 2,000 sheep on the same rangeland, we would have identified weather as a big risk.

“I would like to blame our disaster on Mother Nature. But, the whole thing was my fault, and, it’s something I’ve come to terms with. It comes down to sound management.”

Diversified operation

Today, the couple has five successful enterprises. They custom-graze cows, custom-graze stockers, run sheep on shares, lease cows and are developing their own heifer program. The work is going on across two ranches in Wyoming and one in Montana. They graze on about 50,000 acres under their management and additional acres managed by others. This vast area allows them to run nearly 5,000 head of livestock, mostly owned by others.

Of this, they custom-graze about 450 to 750 cow/calf pairs and 400 to 1,000 stockers. They are also slowly rebuilding the sheep herd. They own about 100 ewes now and run nearly 3,000 more on shares.

Concerning the latter, Sage says, “Other producers own the sheep as an investment, and, we get two-thirds of the lamb crop. We’re all rewarded for excellent management.”

The growing heifer development program is one of their latest ventures to improve cash-flow and make their overall business more sustainable.

“We try to purchase undervalued commercial heifer calves over the winter that we believe would still make good cows. We then use a two-part breeding program,” Sage explains.

First, they artificially inseminate (AI) all heifers using semen from low-birthweight bulls to help ensure calving ease.

“Thirty days later, we ultrasound all of the heifers and sell the pregnant ones,” he says. “We use AI and cleanup bulls to expose the rest of the heifers to synchronize with the cow herd for May/June calving. We keep those heifers to build equity in our leased cow herd.”

The Askins lease about 250 cows and now own about 110 heifers, which are in addition to the pairs they graze on shares.

Resource management

Though traveling between the three ranches in eastern Wyoming and Montana takes times and money, Sage says, “Cash-flow has been an important key for us. Instead of relying on one check in the fall, which I believe is a major risk to any young person starting out in ranching, we’re getting a lot of little checks throughout the year. That helps us get from Point A to Point B.”

Additionally, he notes, “We’re using enterprise stacking to better manage and utilize range resources. We have learned that it’s a real waste of land to only run one type of livestock.”

Enterprise stacking is the use of two or more enterprises on the same land to utilize resources better and boost income.

In Sage’s case, this means they graze sheep in addition to cattle on ranches that historically only had cattle. On one ranch, goats have been added to the mix to bolster grazing efficiency and, ultimately, profits further.

The Askins use a combination of Savory’s holistic-planned grazing, Jim Gerrish’s “Management-Intensive Grazing” and their own growing skill set to make it all work.

“We’re focused on ecosystem health,” Sage stresses.

Learning the expectations of lessors and keeping one’s word have also been crucial to their accomplishments. “A businesslike ranching or farming is based on reputation, and, for most of us, it’s also based on equity,” Sage says. “When a young person hasn’t had time to build either one of those things, it can be a major challenge.”

Because of that, he emphasizes, “It’s vitally important to focus on reputation from the start. The biggest thing people look for is honesty and the ability to follow through with what you say you’re going to do.”

Intensive Grazing Management Tips:

An intensively managed grazing program is a key to Sage Askin’s success.

On rangelands, livestock is not in the same pasture at the same time two years in a row. Grazing must be staggered to allow cool- and warm-season grasses to go to seed in designated pastures each year. Some pastures are rested the entire year.

This means there is something green and actively growing from early spring through late fall, including cool-season species like wheatgrasses, bluegrasses and sedges, and warm-season plants such as
prairie sandreed and blue and hairy grama.

On the Askins’ home ranch in east-central Wyoming, they move cattle every one to three days during the spring, utilizing portable electric fencing to create 100-acre paddocks.

“We rely on quick movements since cool-season grasses don’t perform as well with close grazing,” Sage says.

In areas dominated by old, rank warm-season grasses, he notes, “We’ll do targeted, close-to-the-ground grazing in the spring to help stimulate plant growth.”

To best manage warm-season grasses, they allow plenty of rest after use.

To maximize the land’s potential during the long-term, they hire a private rangeland monitoring consulting company to help track trends.

“We want to determine if we’re going in the right or wrong direction, because most of the changes in a warm-season grass community occur slowly,” Sage says.

Intensively managed grazing is paying dividends. Sage notes they see healthier grasses and higher production. The native forb community is more vibrant, big bluestem (a warm-season grass) is reestablishing in some areas, and habitat for wildlife is improving.

“We believe rangelands in our part of the country should have a good blend of cool- and warm-season grasses. We love cool-season grasses in the spring and winter because they carry much more nutrition, and, we love the warm-season grasses for their production characteristics,” Sage says.

On the ranch they live on, they also manage a 160-acre pasture under pivot irrigation. About 70% of the field is in alfalfa, with tame grasses occupying the rest. When hay prices are high, they’ll harvest the first cutting for sale. But, typically, Sage says, some is cut and baled for winter feeding, while the rest is grazed year-round.

To maximize the grazing, they created 5-acre paddocks with portable electric fencing, moving as many as 300 cow/calf pairs or 1,000 steers through the paddocks on a daily basis.

“During the growing season, we’ll achieve about 60 animal days per acre in grazing, and, we’ll take about another 60 animal days per acre off in hay,” Sage says. “Then, we’ll swath-graze during winter, taking another 100 animal days per acre or even 150. The winter windrow grazing is working very well for us.”

For more information:

> Askin Land & Livestock

> Jim Gerrish Management

[PF_0319]

P[B1] D[728x90] M[0x0] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
DIM[1x3] LBL[magazine-article-red] SEL[] IDX[] TMPL[standalone] T[]

Past Issues

and
P[R3] D[300x250] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]