AoR 154: National Grazing Lands Coalition & Summer Tour in the Pacific Northwest

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>> Welcome to the Art of Range, a podcast focused on rangelands and the people who manage them. I'm your host, Tip Hudson, range and lifestyle specialist with Washington State University Extension. The goal of this podcast is education and conservation through conversation. Find us online at artofrange.com.

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Welcome back to the Art of Range. My guest today are Bill Fawkes, who's with the National Grazing Lands Coalition in the central region, and he's a retired or semi-retired extension specialist with Texas A&M. And we have Jack Field, who is a rancher in Washington state, and folks may have heard him before. Long-time podcast listeners will know that he also does a few other things, but he's been doing some work with the National Grazing Lands Coalition. Particularly organizing a tour in the northwest that we'll get around to talking about today. We've got these people on because I don't know as much about the National Grazing Lands Coalition as I would like to, and my guess is that other people probably don't as well. But it really has grown significantly, I would say, in the last five years. It has become a pretty significant organization. So, I think I won't say anymore than that because I'd be over-grabbing my headlights, but Bill and Jack, welcome.

>> Thanks, Tip.

>> Thank you, Tip.

>> Glad to be here.

>> Yes, interestingly, I think Jack probably has some longer history with this, but Bill, why don't we start with you? Where did the -- what is the National Grazing Lands Coalition, and where did it come from?

>> Yes, well, the National Grazing Lands Coalition actually began back in 1991, Tip, as the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative. There was a meeting held in Bozeman, Montana, back then. Called a group of representatives from state and national agricultural, conservation wildlife, and scientific organizations all came together. Basically what it was, there was concern at the time about the declining level of technical assistance that was being provided to ranchers, to land stewards during that time. NRCS was starting to really kind of focus more on conservation compliance, some program establishments and things like that that came along with the 1985 farm bill. And producers and these organizations came together and said, "We need to really try to focus a little bit more on trying to pull back some of this technical assistance on the ground. Help with our land stewards." So, that's kind of where things came from. And at the time, when it first came together, six national organizations basically sponsored the beginning the National Grazing Lands Coalition. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Forage and Grassland Council, the American Sheep Industry, the National Association of Conservation Districts, National Council of Beef Association, and Society for Range Management. And so, that was kind of how things started back in 1991. But it was a small group at the time when it first started as far as folks actually working for the Grazing Land Initiative.

>> And what was the -- even then was the geographic scope mostly national?

>> Well, it actually in some senses was. When it first started off, there were 22 states that were actually participating in the conversations. So, and that roughly is where we are at now. It may have added one or two since then. Primarily there's a pretty good representation in the great plains with the private land states and the great plains. Pretty good representation in the southeast. The northeast is growing, and as you could expect out west where we're dealing with a lot more of the public land states, they're not quite as represented as some of the other regions in the country, but we are slowly but surely starting to grow that way.

>> Yes. And there is some history out here. This is what I was -- my brain was connecting with the GLCI. But Jack, let me know if I'm thinking correctly, I want to say that just before I came on with the Washington Cattlemen's Association, we had a position that was partly soft money funded that was GLCI, and it was a somewhat short-lived position that's a difficult way to make a living where you're supposed to a job but you got to spend most of your time trying to generate the funding, do the job. Do you know any more about that, Jack?

>> That was, I think you're correct on that. My time at Washington Cattleman's from mid-2004 through 2016, early on we had a small GLCI account where some funds had been generated. I used to talk with Ray Legerwood and folks at the conservation district about that. There were certainly some opportunities but I was aware of the acronym. Never really had much to do with the entity, but I got connected with it through a previous colleague, Ashley Lyon, that used to be with National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Was their environmental counsel. I had worked with Ashley on a variety of issues. She's now helping Abby with the tour, and we were talking about some sustainability stuff, I think, back around NCBA last year, and she mentioned that there was going to be a tour coming up. So, I thought that if they were going to come to Washington, we wanted to make sure they at least came and visited a few of our progressive producers to try to show them a little bit of the variability in Washington state. So, that was how I got roped into this and basically volunteered you to help me, Tip.

>> Yes. Yes, I'm excited about the tour. Bill, that history does go back a little bit deeper than I realized. Ninety-one was a little while ago. I think I was a freshman in high school that year.

>> Yes. It's been a long time in growth. Initially there was a little bit of funding that came through the federal government as a line item that provided opportunities for some small grants and things like that with the Grazing Land Coalition and the Grazing Land Initiative as it used to be called. And it was kind of a one person shop there for a while. We had an active board obviously, but as far as capacity for the organization itself, it was pretty much an executive director. And that's kind of where it stood for the longest time. But over the last, I guess, five or six years there's been a couple of folks. Mike Gola used to be the executive director and was working. And Kim Stein who's in Nebraska. I was working with her for, let's say, the last five or six years. But over the last two years really the board and leadership in that GLC and with the support of the organizations that have been partnered with us for the last -- well since 1991, they came to the idea that it's time to go ahead and start to try to build out some capacity within the national organization. Now I wanted to go ahead and bring up, Tip, that yes, we are the National Grazing Lands Coalition, but that's an umbrella over what is our state coalitions. And as I said, there was 22 states originally that came together in this conversation. It's grown just a little bit, but each of those states has their own 501c3 set up. They are their own entity working in the state because as this was evolving, the powers that be recognized that the real continuity and connection is at the state and regional level. So, we have under the National Grazing Land Coalition, many states that have their own coalition set up and running, and even in some places, down here where I'm at in Texas, we've got regional coalitions again set up functioning. Really provides the opportunity for that one on one, on the ground technical assistance which is what was the whole idea. But like I said, over the last two years, there's really been an effort to ramp up capacity at the national level to bring support to those states and their efforts.

>> Yes, how would you say -- what would you say is the current mission, I guess, of the National Grazing Lands Coalition, and to what extent are the individual states any different than that? I mean we talked some about where it came from, but do you feel that sort of the goal of the organization has changed any over time?

>> You know, the goal of the organization probably hadn't changed terribly. How we kind of define and look at it maybe has a little bit. Our mission, we've got a very straightforward mission statement. It's to promote ecologically an economically sound management of private grazing lands for their adaptive uses and multiple benefits to the environment and to society. And that's what guides us. I put it a little bit differently. There's a lot of organizations out there working on a lot of different things. The National Grazing Lands Coalition really is one that is focused on the people and the land. And those who stirred the land and the land itself. So, that's where we kind of cut our teeth in this idea of providing technical assistance and guidance in that area. We do it based on, and you can look at our partners, SRM, and other groups like that, we do it based on sound science and working in partnership with trade agencies and trade organizations and other groups like that.

>> Yes. I was pondering that. I think I do want to affirm that that is a somewhat unique -- the word unique probably doesn't. I heard somebody one time say that uniqueness does not admit to degrees. It's either unique or it's not. I think it is unique in that these other organizations like the Society for Ranged Management have a more specific mission that supports this but is different. Like the Society for Ranged Management is a scientific society. They just do support and publish research on rangelands. Including rangelands that are not grazed. The Grazing Lands Coalition, in my impression, and from what I'm hearing, is that it exists to support specifically the health of grazed lands and the people that depend on grazed lands. And again, sort of on the other side with the NCBA or groups like them, their objective is advocacy for ranchers. And of course they do good stuff through the Public Lands Council and other efforts to promote sound management but of landscapes. But I do think NatGLC is unique in having that as the primary mission.

>> Yes. I'm kind of proud of that just as one person within the organization. But we really are land steward people and land focused. Trying to keep people on the land, working the land. Keep it doing the things that it does because not only does it provide for those people who are taking care of it and branching off of it or other uses off of it, but it provides so much more. And we'll probably talk about that a little bit later, Tip. But there's so many things that you and I and others that have dealt with rangelands for years know that everybody else in the world thinks that those are just marginal lands out there, but they do so much for society as a whole. And I think that one of the things that we're trying to do within NatGLC is to elevate that message to the populace so that they understand the value that is provided by these lands. That they may be flyover to a lot but they're very important anyway.

>> Right. Right. People see them as flyover country. The leftovers from the homestead era. But they are quite important. Yes, we've done lots of stuff on the podcast about the importance of rangelands. The public benefits separate from their value as grazing lands. I feel like I should know this but I don't, are there active coalitions in every state now?

>> No. There's not active coalitions in every state. Like I said, in the west, especially where things are much more of that public land out there, there's not as many states out there that have active state coalitions. That is changing. I know that there's conversation going on in several states. Washington being one of them. Nevada, several others. There is one active in California. And so, there is some representation out there. The Great Plains has the vast majority of the state coalitions. Obviously that's where almost [inaudible] are held. Southeast is growing, and now with our good friend and colleague Troy Bishop up in the northeast, the grass whisperer, that's really starting to take hold up there too. So, if I were just looking into the crystal ball, Tip, I'd tell you I think that things are going to be changing a little bit over the next few years in seeing more of these state coalitions coming on board.

>> Yes, I think that would be good. It feels like the time is right for that. I just sort of have this sense maybe like you do that that's coming. And I think one of the reasons why it's coming is that you're seeing -- I think I said this before, but we're seeing more and more integration of livestock back into other sectors of agriculture where they've been really segregated for a long, long time. But in the interest of -- between renewed interest in soil health in response to problems and interest in integrating livestock back into cropping systems for the nutrient benefits and maybe spending less money on fertilizer, it feels like there are a lot more, what we would have called dirt farmers, that have an interest in putting livestock back into the system. And my hope is that that will result in more interest in groups like this that are promoting creative stewardship, innovative methods and seeing that produce some benefits really at the national scale.

>> Yes, sir.

>> You mentioned that there has been some federal funding to support this, mostly because of the connection within RSCS, and providing technical assistance to private landowners. What are the other sources of funding for NatGLC, and what do you spend money on?

>> Well, most of our efforts, like I said, have been in the past federally funded pretty much programmatic types of things where there are identified needs by the agency that NatGLC kind of takes the lead on. I'll give you one example, and that is our working effectively with livestock producers, which is a training program that was developed. And this in RCS came to National Grazing Lands Coalition said we really need training opportunities for our new and young employees. And it's really focused on communication skills and gaining that confidence of working directly with producers. And sometimes these folks are coming from different types of educational backgrounds. Maybe they haven't had an opportunity to work with somebody like Jack, who's out there on the ground every day working it. And those conversations can sometimes get a little bit off kilter when you're speaking the same language but not necessarily understanding it in the right way. So, this particular program, that's an example of where NRCS said, "We've got a need, and we want to work and have our partners with NatGLC put together this effort." And so, that's been a very successful training program over the last year and a half, two years, where folks are coming in and really getting into the opportunity of one working with somebody in the communications world to help them think about that. But two, and most importantly, spending time on the ground with ranchers and having conversations. And that's where they're really starting to learn this. So, that's an example of one thing. We've also had other types of training ideas. We're currently working on a bison training idea or curriculum. We've got some other things that have been identified with that. There's also been some specific types of things. We worked with NFWF in the southeast with our colleague down there, Chris Workman, who's the southeast program manager. They're doing some work looking at technology drones and cameras and other kinds of things that are targeted that way. And then here recently, we've actually started to expand out into partnerships and with corporate. And so, we'll talk about it probably a little bit later in the conversation, but our legacy landscapes program is in partnership with Nestle Purina Petcare as well AgriWebb and Regrowth and NatGLC. And that is a public private partnership that's starting to go and grow. So, we started off, like I said, probably close to 100% federally funded, but we're starting to spread our wings a little bit and diversify and finding that there's lots of opportunities kind of beginning to come to the table looking at different ways of moving conservation onto the ground with the people who are caring for the ground. That's the whole purpose.

>> I knew of this program that you described. The working effectively with livestock producers but didn't know much about it. That's really intriguing, and I think that it's exciting. You know, we who have been more in the middle of agriculture for a long time have sometimes been critical of people coming in like natural resources professionals who come in and don't have any agricultural background. But on the other hand, I think it's tremendously exciting that you have people that don't have any kind of existing cultural tie to agriculture who are inspired by it and want to be part of that. And as you mentioned, one of the limiting factors is being able to speak the same language and just understand the world of farmers and ranchers in order to best help them. I'm excited about that.

>> Yes, we are too. Abby Levan and Tom Shay are leaders within NatGLC on that particular program. They've been doing a great job. I'll tell you though, I was a little bit disappointed when I didn't get the invitation to participate in the [inaudible] course that was held in Kona, Hawaii.

>> Yes. Sign me up for the next one.

>> Right. Exactly.

>> I don't know whether I'm jumping the gun, but it queues up the question in my brain, for people who are not farmers and aren't professionally involved in providing support for farming and ranching, should they be involved with NatGLC, and if so, how or why?

>> Yes. That's a great point, Tip, and my answer is going to be absolutely yes. And there's several reasons for that. You don't have to be in the farming or ranching community to be active with the National Grazing Lands Coalition or to be active really in the agricultural industry if you're interested in the long-term resilience of our lands and those types of things. And so, NatGLC, we've got some core strategies that we really focus in on. And I think what it does is those strategies and pillars actually provide an opportunity for those who may not be directly involved with agriculture to get involved. Our four core pillars are, one, to promote the value of healthy grazing lands. And this goes back to what we were talking about a little earlier. There's tremendous value in these landscapes besides just the production that most people think about. The production of high-quality protein for human consumption or for your pets or things like that. There's a whole lot more going on out there. And so, NatGLC was one of our pillars who really focuses in on this idea. We want to be the voice of good resilient management on our grazing lands because of the value that they provide so much more. You probably know, and others probably know this, one of the big things -- one of the most growth-oriented programs that's going on in the state of Texas right now, and elsewhere I would assume, is bird watching. Where do you go to see birds? You go out into open space. The open space in Texas is 95% privately held. And so, people who are looking to try to do that, those people may not have any ties to agriculture except for what they purchase off their grocery store shelves, but here's an opportunity for them to get involved because conservation of those healthy grazing systems can provide opportunities for what they're interested in and it being bird watching. The other thing, number two, and I'm just going to keep going until you tell me to stop, Tip. Number two is we advocate for the needs of grazing land managers. And so, that's a major issue that we knew. And there's a lot of people that are out there that recognize the value that our land managers and stewards bring to the table. So, here is another opportunity for them to get involved. Number three, we really look at communicating the message of stewardship. Again, so for those people who may not be directly involved with agriculture but love the idea of open space and all that stuff, there's an opportunity because this communication is absolutely critical. We need to break into this to the conversations, and Tip, you and I have dealt with this in academia for years. We talked about the rural urban interface and all of the things that are going on there. So, all of these folks -- I'll give you a perfect example. For the national audience, they may not know exactly where I'm talking about, but there's a little town in central Texas named Kerrville, Texas. And Kerrville sits out in the Edwards Plateau, and Monday through Thursday, Kerrville has a little regional airport that you may see one or two little Cessna airplanes sitting out there. On Friday, the tarmac is covered with private jets upwards of 60, 70, 80 people flying in from Dallas, from Houston, from San Antonio, wherever it is that they may be, coming out to that little piece of heaven that they own out there in the Edwards Plateau to get away. So, these things are going on. So, communicating this message of stewardship and the value of taking care of that has ripple effects across the population. Then our fourth pillar really is the development of national and state partnerships. And that's a key one. One that NatGLC is working, especially now as we're starting an effort on some fundraising here to really make connections with a much broader audience than what we may have traditionally thought of is interested in NatGLC, and finding them very receptive to the conversation.

>> A couple of things you mentioned, particularly bird watching and people flying out to get onto these wild open spaces because it's good for the soul. It reminded me of, we just did an interview with Peter Bick with the Roots So Deep documentary series, and some of the stuff that they was measuring as differences between healthy grazing lands and not so healthy grazing lands were all these things that you've mentioned. And also all of the things that are mentioned in the report that Jeff Goodwin's taskforce put out a little while ago from the Society For Ranged Management. We did an episode on that a while back, but these five rangeland or grazing land ecosystem services of biodiversity, water, food and fiber, wildlife, and carbon are all of the things that are measurably better when you have lands that are managed well. And they're all of interest to people whose livelihoods don't depend on those lands. But like with birds, they were measuring an order of magnitude more birds both in terms of species diversity and actual numbers of birds on healthy land versus unhealthy land. There's a lot going on there that I think people are beginning to pay attention to, and probably some evidence of that is the number of people that are not in agriculture that are paying attention to things like that Roots So Deep documentary series.

>> Absolutely. I'll share another little story with you. I was at a conference a couple of years ago, and it was not one that we typically would go to in our profession, but I was listening in on a panel discussion and had a group of medical doctors out of New York, and their point was that they were prescribing to their patients to get out in nature and be able to do just the things that you just discussed. Be out in an open space, good air, and all that stuff. And it is. It's good for the soul, and there's value starting to derive for those kinds of experiences. And that is also, perhaps, the opportunities that are coming along for diversification for our producers, our land stewards out there if they so desire, and it fits into their operational plans to diversify and open up new revenue sources. Because people are willing to pay for open space and the ability to enjoy the things that sometimes some of us that have been out in it kind of take for granted on occasion. And as Jack said earlier this morning, also having to work at it, out pulling a heifer first thing in the morning.

>> Yes. So, when you're right in the middle of it, you sort of lose track of what some of these other benefits are. And one of the things that I hope NatGLC does for farmers and ranchers is inspire them to feel like what they're doing is important because it's easy to lose track of that. Estate planner are always talking about working on the business and not just in the business. And when you're working in it, especially with owner operator situations like is the case with lots and lots of cow calf producers, you just go from doing the next thing to doing the next thing, and you don't very often get to step back and look at what are the -- it feels a little bit esoteric to think about what are the public benefits of what I'm doing? But they're there. And I think we're increasingly finding ways to reward that kind of stewardship on the part of farmers who have been faithful for a long time with good management. Well, tell me about the tour. I don't know who's best to begin talking about that, but has there ever been an NatGLC tour in the west maybe is my first question? I know the west is a pretty broad [inaudible].

>> That's a Bill question. The one thing I could say is not since August 1st, of 2004. That would be when my knowledge went back, but we're really excited and proud to show a little glimpse of what we have here in the Pacific Northwest and be able to hopefully give people a little glimpse into the diversity of operations just in a couple county area.

>> Yes, so Tip, I'll follow along with Jack there. So, as far as I know, I do not believe that there has been a NatGLC tour in the pacific northwest. These tour ideas, the bus tour ideas, really have kind of evolved here over the last decade or so. And it kind of falls along the lines of how we are set up as an organization. Traditionally most organizations will have an annual meeting, SRM, and CBA. Others will have an annual meeting once a year. NatGLC has an annual conference where we come together. It's once every three years. So, our last conference was in Tucson, Arizona, this past December, but before that it was three years before in Mrytle Beach, South Carolina. So, we don't get out year over year into the conference type of thing, but what's evolved out of that, and I think is what's a great idea is that in the interim between those conferences, we do have our bus tours. And so, the year before the meeting in Tucson, they had a bus tour in Vermont. A group of people went up towards the northeast and grazing and things that go on up there. So, we're following along that same line. And this year, like I said, I don't recall a bus tour ever in the pacific northwest from NatGLC. I think this is going to be a first.

>> Yes. I'm thrilled that the first tour in the west is going to be in my backyard, and this might be a good time for Jack to talk a little bit about why Washington is unique. For frequent podcast listeners, I've mentioned multiple times that having grown up in the south/Midwest right on the Arkansas, Missouri border, my perception of Washington state was that there were likely a lot of trees there and lots of forests. But most of the east side of the state is ranged land and farm ground. And of course, I didn't know at the time that because we don't have many of these features geographically in Arkansas, that there is a really steep rain shadow on the east side of the Cascade Mountain range. This will not be a surprise to anybody who lives in the west because we have those kinds of rain shadows everywhere, but this one is a little bit unique. Jack and I live in Ellensburg and Yakima respectively, and those both sit right on the edge of that rain shadow, where if we go 40 miles to the west you're in the middle of [inaudible] forest in the mountains, and there's 100 inches plus of precipitation. But where we live it's sage brush desert. And actually you go a little bit further east and it goes all the way down to about five inches of annual precipitation in shrubland grassland in the center of the Columbia basin. Jack, I'll let you preach for a minute.

>> Well, just to add onto Tip's, the impacts and the orographic influence on each of these different operations that we're going to have a chance to visit with over the two days on the tour, I think, will be very evident. Like Tip had said, many times when I talk with people and they say where are you from, and you tell them Washington, the first thing everybody thinks is about the space needle and Seattle, and the fact that it rains it seems more days than not in western Washington. But much like Tip had said, once you have a chance to explain to people and talk a little bit about getting out of that Puget Sound area or off the coast, and over to the east side of the Cascades, we have amazing diversity, and the operators and operations that we're going to have a chance to take a look and visit with over the course of those two days will be able to demonstrate their wide variety of management, the challenges, and some of the difficult things that they run into that some folks may take for granted, and other producers may learn that, wow, we didn't realize you had to worry about hauling semi-loads of water or some of the challenges associated with the grazing objectives and how that overlaps with sensitive species, plants, or other mutually agreed upon objectives. So, we've got some really neat opportunities. This is going to be a little bit, maybe one step out of the traditional GLCI because each of these operators that we're going to be visiting with from S. Martinez, to Beard Ranch, and then finally the Stingley Ranch, they all operate on a portion of public land, but they also integrate a very significant portion of private lands. So, we've got that even mix and a good way for people to see how that's done. The first stop that we're going to have is going to be with the S. Martinez livestock. And for anybody in Washington state or the pacific northwest, and certainly if you're a sheep grower, if you hear the name Martinez, you know and think of sheep. That's going to be the main stop that we see. Nick Martinez is going to be there and talk to us at one of their camps that they have set up. At the moment, we don't have an exact location nailed down just because we're not sure we'll they'll be in regards to the grass. But that's, I guess, a great example, and everybody on the tour will understand that we don't always get to set our schedules and have our livestock move around our schedules. Sometimes we have to set our schedules around the grass and the livestock. And I don't think that's going to be a big surprise for anybody. But it will be exciting for people to see that. But the other important thing to remember is with the Martinez family, they're a multi-species operation. So, they also have a significant red angus herd that they operate and graze near their headquarters in Moxee along up on four service ground near White Pass. And on some [inaudible] properties in the Wenas, which is an area located between Yakima and Ellensburg. Quite a bit of diversity in the grazing. They offer opportunities to see a great multi-generational family. The sheep, the dogs. That is sure to be a fun stop. We're also going to be seeing Kyler Beard, who is the owner and operator of Beard Ranch Inc. Kyler grew up in agriculture, and his grandparents were Frank and Charlotte Beard of Beard Rodeo. Anybody that's watched or been around any professional rodeos over the last 30 years certainly would have seen Frank and Charlotte and many of the Beard family, whether it be at the national finals or the Ellensburg Rodeo or rodeos around the west. But Kyler, he started his operation as a young man that used to custom graze yearlings and stock cows. He's grown that into a very successful operation. He now grazes on a large chunk of private land. He's also the manager of the Full Barn Range. And Kyler also grazes the Teanaway Community Forest. That's a large private public partnership in Kittitas County with a variety of challenging management objectives that Kyler and Tip will certainly be able to speak to. Tip has been a party to many of the Teanaway meetings. The Teanaway Community Forest is something that the Washington state legislature, as well as our department of natural resources and department of fish and wildlife, have invested time and resources in to help along with the National Forest Service, to come up with goals and objectives that would meet each of those individual entities operations plus the interface of the private lands that are scattered throughout the region. So, it's a great opportunity there. It's got a variety of challenges associated that they need to be managing towards in regards to sensitive plants, water quality, threat and insensitive animal or wildlife species, a variety of different fish. All three of the operations that we're going to be seeing have to deal and manage with [inaudible] depending upon where they are in their operations. All three of these operators are going to be located in the western two thirds of Washington state which means they are both federally and state listed. So, that makes it a little more challenging in the event of deprivations or harassment issues because these producers are limited in regards to the tools that they have to respond to those challenges. But as you'll see as we get out on the ground and talk to all of the different people associated with each operation, they take these challenges in stride. They're great team players. They work hand in hand with the land managers. They're not the kind of people that when somebody says we need to have a meeting to come up with a plan, they're not kicking the dirt and complaining. They're ready to go to the table and help come up with a very well thought through and mutually agreed upon objective. The final stop that we'll have is one that Tip has spent I would say decades of his time working on, and that'll be the Stingley Ranch. They'll be the Thursday stop. The Stingley Ranch is located in Ellensburg, Washington, and they graze on the Kittitas, on the Puget Sound Wind Farm in Kittitas County. And they've been partnering with our department of fish and wildlife on a very extensive grazing program with the objective to manage and enhance shrub step, to create a targeted area for elk habitat, so we can hopefully mitigate some of the impacts that a very large elk herd just east of Kittitas County has created on private property and the pressures that have been placed on agricultural producers. The Stingley operation is one that they've got cow calf operation, and they run throughout Kittitas and at times of the years into Grant County. They're ones that have been working tirelessly on collaboration with our department of fish and wildlife. And many times when you talk to livestock producers and people in rural parts of the state here in Washington, you don't necessarily find a lot of people that are willing to sit down and proactively work with land managers to the degree that these three entities in operations have. I'm really excited. I think this is going to be a great day, and I hope everybody on the tour has the opportunity to learn and take a little something away from central Washington that they didn't know was there before.

>> And I'll add if it motivates anybody, to push them over the edge to go ahead and sign up for the tour. And this has some of the most spectacular scenery in the entire country. And I think I'm not exaggerating that claim. This valley is beautiful. It sits right on the edge of the Stuart Range which is kind of a spur of mountains that comes off the Cascade Ranch, but it looks for all the world like the Tetons. Only it's not on as many post guards. So, it's a lesser-known spot, but it really is beautiful. Yes, it'd be a really good place to visit for folks that haven't been out this far west and particularly not out to the northwest, which is different than more of the near west in the Great Plains. It's really impressive geography, beautiful scenery. Washington state has maybe more crops grown than any other state just in terms of the total number of things that are grown here. And part of that is because of this geographic diversity. It's a spectacular place to visit, and I'll stop promoting here now.

>> Well, I'm going to promote for you all because I remember as a student years ago driving up out of Pendleton, Oregon, heading up across into the Columbia River basin into eastern Washington on our way to a meeting in Spokane. It is absolutely beautiful.

>> I hope that as people come into this they're able to also, whether it's a small producer or a large producer, that I feel like there's going to be something here that's going to be of interest for everybody. Our stop with Kyler Beard at Full Barn Ranch, he'll be the second stop after we stop with Nick and the S. Martinez crew wherever they're going to be located somewhere south of Kittitas County. But with Kyler we're going to have a stockmanship demonstration. Kyler is one of the most talented individuals in terms of horsemanship and stockmanship, starting and handling dogs. He is a wizard or a savant when it comes to handling livestock, thinking through and developing systems to quickly, effectively, and easily manage, move, and work cattle. So, Kyler will have an update -- will give us a stockmanship demonstration, a dog demonstration, and he'll also be able to talk quite a bit about the irrigated pastures, the rotations, and the planning that they've put in at Full Barn Ranch to how they can maximize their operation. Kyler has the goal of effectively operating without having to feed supplemental hay if possible, and he's come extremely close many times out of the year. And by doing that, he's now sacrificing performance for condition on his livestock. So, what Kyler does an excellent job in is understanding the needs of a plant, the carbohydrate reserves in the roots, what he needs to do and how and when he needs to properly graze and when he needs to rest, so they can make sure given the rotations that they have between private land, Teanaway Community Forest, that they can maximize their irrigated pastures and be able to create the most pounds of beef. They not only run a fall herd of cow calf pair, but they also will put together and market one to two sets of yearlings. And many times Kyler buys what many would call significantly high-risk cattle. He'll buy 300 pound free weight heifers and get them grouped up, backgrounded, put together, and market them somewhere weighing about 500 pounds, which a lot of people would look at that and say, "That's the last thing I want to try to touch," but Kyler and his crew have done a fabulous job and really have a good model in maximizing animal performance and ensuring the highest level of health. So, I hope that that's going to be a fun stop and a good thing where regardless of your operation, whether you've got 20 head or 2000, you'll be able to see and maybe learn something that they could take home and use with their operation.

>> Yes, and speaking of learning something, if somebody wants to learn a little bit more about Kyler, he's one of the only ranchers I know who's got an active presence on Tik Tok. At least he did up until recently. We always talk about people telling their story, but most people don't actually do it. And Kyler, I think, has been pretty successful. So, if you're not a Tik Tok addict, I don't recommend taking up the habit. But if you are, you can improve your feed by looking up Kyler Beard.

>> And I think too that point, Kyler just sent three loads of yearlings to a feeder sale in Toppenish this past Tuesday evening. And what Kyler likes to do, and he's showed me, I've integrated it into my operation, is Kyler really stresses training the cow. Whether you're just going to go out and vaccinate your cows, you're going to pre-condition the calves, you're getting ready for chipping, training. It's just like if we're going to put a baseball team together, we don't just grab a mitt and go out. We try to practice, do some drills. What Kyler will do is he sets everything up, works the cattle through, and when he works cattle, you don't say well we're going to be working them from one until 2:30 and then we're going to be done and gone. It's we're going to be working cattle. We're going to train them as long as it takes to train them but to watch the cattle and see how they respond whether you're just taking them through your working facility or across the scale or through the process to load, it's pretty funny. He likes to take videos, and a lot of times people will stop by when he's doing things, and he used to get really, really frustrated. If say he's working on training cattle, if Tip and I were to show up and lean up against the fence talking and Kyler is in there working, he used to just give you just daggers, and you knew you were just in the doghouse. But he's kind of settled down since then and realizes that when people come up, they may not know what he's doing. They're interested to see, and Kyler realizes that that's probably going to happen at the next stop where the cattle go. So, we just need to work through this and deal with this new challenge, this new wrinkle, and still make this as successful for the animals. And by doing that I think he's moved his stockmanship literally to the next level. And Kyler he's up there with the Bud Williams in terms of being able to manage cattle and getting the right results out of things where we've got the opportunity to maximize performance.

>> That's pretty high praise. So, people should sign up for the tour. Bill, we're recording on March 28th, and I think the tour starts on the 10th of June. Is the tour full? Can you still get people to sign up and where do they go to sign up?

>> So, the tour is not full, and we will be -- the actual tour itself is June 11th and 12th, so I'm sure a lot of people will be arriving on the 10th. And we'll be located there in Richland, Washington, at the Lodge at Columbia Point or the Marriott at Columbia Point. And if folks are interested in this, participating, I would point them to the National Grazing Lands Coalition website, grazinglands.org. And there is a tab on the website that you can get to events and the bus tour is there. Yes, that's kind of how we're going to get everybody together. And I encourage folks who are interested even if you come from the far southeast or the far northeast or the plains, to get up and see some of this diversity in grazing that we have in this country. I'll tell you just one thing about it that's exciting when it comes to grazing in the United States. We've probably got darn near everything that you could imagine. From grazing the five inches of precept that you all are talking there down in the southwest deserts to grazing 60, 70, 80 inches of rain a year in other parts of the world. So, I'll tell you a funny story. Recently I was up in Boise. We had -- Country Natural Beef Cooperative had a program up there and was visiting with us folks. And I gave an example of drought being one of the major drivers that we have here in Texas, and most of the folks that were there from Washington were on the other side of that rain shadow that you all were talking about, and they said, "No, drought is not a word that we know. We need to get rid of water." I was like, "Well, send it our way." But anyhow, that's how you could get signed up on the website there. And really look forward to having a full group up in Washington in early summer. I think it's going to be a perfect time of year to be up there.

>> Yes. It's real easy to get to. This is not that far away from Spokane, but Tri-Cities has an airport. So, we mentioned that the tour start location is in Richland. Richland is one of the three cities that are called Tri-Cities. And there is a Tri-Cities Airport which has reasonably priced flights that will get you out anywhere.

>> Yes, Pasco has got good flights, direct flights, I believe to Salt Lake and kind of around the area. So, it should be good, but just like Bill had said, Tip, it's going to be great weather in June. It'll be a great time to take a drive. Things are still going to be green, and people might want to see a little of it through the windshield.

>> It's almost as good as going to Kona.

>> Almost as good as going to Kona. There you go. Well, I'm in. I'm in.

>> The lunch will be better.

>> Excellent. Bill and Jack, thanks for joining me. We look forward to the tour, and I hope people will sign up.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you much, Tip. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you. Jack, glad to be on with you today, sir.

>> See you guys in June.

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