Recently, I was asked to talk about what it is like to be a female rancher.
I was flattered to be asked, but I don’t know the answer.
I do know what it is like to be a human rancher and I know that I admire many women who also are ranchers.
In fact, 36 percent of the farmers and ranchers in the U.S. are women and they manage almost half of America’s ag land.
Globally, we produce more than half of all food.
In Montana, we all benefit from amazing female leaders in agriculture.
If you want to know about improving soil health or the rewards of raising sheep, talk to Linda Poole in Malta.
If you want to learn how to organize a grassroots rancher’s organization and effect meaningful change, talk to Maggie Nutter in Sunburst.
Trina Bradley of Dupuyer will look you in the eye and tell you everything you need to know about the impacts of grizzlies on her ranch life.
Colleen Gustafson, on the Two Med, graciously hosts and educates non-ranchers for months at a time without strangling them, all while maintaining every fence, buying every bull and killing every weed on her ranch.
Adele Stenson of Wibaux and Holly Stoltz of Livingston find innovative solutions to ranching challenges and then — even harder — find ways to share these innovations with hard-headed, independent cusses who want to do it our own way.
In fact, I’ve noticed that often women seek novel innovations to deal with a ranching challenge.
If a man happens to be around, she might even run it past him.
It’s rubber band ranching – stretch with an idea, contract to assess it, then stretch again to implement it.
Long ago, my friend Michelle and I promoted the One Good Cow program at the Montana Stockgrowers Association meeting.
We asked cattle producers to donate one cow to ranchers who had lost so many in blizzards and floods that year.
As we stood on stage in a room full of dour, silent men, I remember finding the one person I knew and asking what he thought.
Just as he would bid at a livestock auction, he barely nodded his approval.
We ended up gathering more than 900 cows from across the nation and giving them to 67 producers.
One Good Cow was a good idea.
Now I don’t seek approval for my ideas so sometimes my rubber band doesn’t contract to assess one before I stretch into action.
That’s how I got myself into producing shelf-stable, ready-to-eat meals made with my beef and lamb.
This is a good idea, too.
I hope.
I wonder if it is easier to ranch as a woman in some ways.
Society pressures men to know all of the answers all of the time, but If I mess up, I try to learn from my mistake and move forward.
When Imposter Syndrome hits or we can’t find a solution to an unsolvable problem – the effects of climate change, commodity markets or competing demands from family – secretly faking it until we make it gets lonely.
The downward spiral of loneliness and the pressure to be perfect can lead to suicide.
Male ranchers kill themselves 3.5 times more often than the general public.
Female ranchers kill themselves, too, just a little less often.
I’m fortunate to have good friends who love me even when I’m far from perfect.
We laugh together, they remind me that I have a few good attributes even when I forget, they tolerate my weirdness and celebrate little successes.
They stave off loneliness.
They know all ranchers try our best, we appreciate a little grace, and a warm fire feels good to our cold fingers.
Lisa Schmidt raises grass-fed beef and lamb at the Graham Ranch near Conrad. Lisa can be reached at L.Schmidt@a-land-of-grass-ranch.com.
