West Texas Rangelands
West Texas RangelandsWe hope to provide a variety of information from current news stories, prescribed burning, wildfires, brush control, and cow-calf management!

Why I Ranch…Ray Pfeuffer

by

I dedicated a series on West Texas ranchers called “Why I Ranch.” Each month I will highlight a rancher in West Texas and ask them to share their story about the ranch life.

Ray Pfeuffer

Ray and Sandra Pfeuffer make Ranch Life look easy. They have raised a beautiful family. They work hard. They are active in 4H. And, oh yea, they ranch in West Texas. Here is the other half to Ms. Sandra’s answers 🙂

How did you get your start in ranching? My family has always ranched, going back to the 1800’s. It was never our sole source of income, but I have done it my entire life.

How important is agriculture to your family? It is very important to all of us. All of my kids have grown up around it and love working with livestock. I feel I am doing something worth while, helping raise food for our country and other countries as well.

What makes ranching in West Texas so unique? The weather probably, but then again the weather is not normal anywhere, anymore. I like that multiple species can still be raised in most places, barring coyote problems.

Do you feel like there is enough emphasis on agriculture in K-12 education? It seems as if there is not. I believe society as a whole has gotten so far away from the land, they have no clue how food is produced.

Who did you learn the most from along the way? My dad, Billy Pfeuffer, my uncle, Franklin Pfeuffer, my grandpa Raymond Wersterfer and a neighbor growing up in Comal county, George Lackey.

Why I Ranch…Sandra Pfeuffer

by

Sandra Pfeuffer

Did you know that Texas female operators have increased approximately by 50% and the number of acres they manage by about 15% since 1997?  For August we are featuring Sandra Pfeuffer.  Sandra and her family ranch just outside of Christoval in Schleicher County.  Her family is extremely active in 4-H and there isn’t much that this woman doesn’t do.  As I am sure you could say about all women ranching and raising families in Texas – they do it all.  Here is Sandra’s story…

How did you get your start in ranching? I have always been exposed to ranching because my Mom’s side of the family has always ranched. My mom married a carpenter and she stayed at home and raised 7 children, took care of the homestead and made sure we stayed active in 4-H and/or FFA when we were growing up.  However, my actual start in ranching, was when I married my husband Ray in 1996.  I was working at Tyson Foods in Seguin, Texas and he worked for his dad, who had an earth moving business, and ranched on the side.  The Pfeuffer Family, like my mom’s family had been ranching since they immigrated to Texas.   In 1999, my husband encouraged me to quit my job at Tyson to be a stay at home mom, aka full time ” Ranch wife”, I remember my boss telling me I was making the “biggest mistake of my life, you will never be happy as a rancher’s wife, you  won’t be able to provide insurance for your family, you will never have enough, because every successful rancher had a wife who worked a “real job”, you will get bored.”  I am glad, I took his advice with a grain of salt, and still decided to retire from my”real job” and begin my life as a rancher’s wife.  Doing whatever my rancher husband, needed me to do.  For the record, I am happy, we do have insurance, we usually have enough, I still work, just don’t get a paycheck, and I am hardly ever bored.

How important is agriculture to your family? Agriculture is our life, our income is totally dependent on agriculture. Agriculture has provided our children with valuable lessons and values, that we hope they will pass on to the next generation.

What makes ranching in West Texas so unique? I have always said “That being a rancher is like being a quail.  Something is always after you.”  You have to be vigilant and keep watch on the water, the weather, the predators, the market, the cows, the sheep, the goats, the horses, the fences, the bills, the tax collector, the list goes on and on. When you ranch, something is always going to happen that causes you to take two steps back, and you need to be ready, so when it happens you can quickly step forward again. We try to be very proactive controlling brush, Ray spends most of his time improving the land, we want to have as much grass as possible to make it through the drought.  Being in West Texas is unique for many reasons.  The weather, you never know what the weather is going to be like. Most days your praying for a rain, and then there will be that day when a massive cold front blew in overnight, it’s freezing, and your out fixing water gaps that got knocked down in the rain over night, using every ounce of strength, to try to stand up a fence gap with shit and everything else frozen on it, while trying to be thankful for the rain you just received. Definitely, have to be careful what you ask for in West Texas.  Lightening, I have lived in four different areas of Texas, the lightening in West Texas is by far the most impressive, it can definitely have you gathering spray trailers and neighbors in a heart beat.   But the most unique thing about ranching in West Texas is water.  Most, West Texas ranches utilize well water, so water definitely determines what your day will be like.

Do you feel like there is enough emphasis on agriculture in K-12 education? NO!  I don’t think children today realize how important agriculture is to our society.  I am thankful for programs like the Extension Service and the Farm Bureau that are trying at the elementary levels. But, I would like to see more effort at the middle school and high school level when the kids are starting to actually think for themselves. We really need to impress on them the importance of agriculture and reinforce what we attempted to teach them in elementary school.

Who did you learn the most from along the way? My husband, he has been doing this his whole life. It is what he does and what he is good at.  He has trained the kids and I well.

Why I Ranch…Dr. Jake Landers

by

Dr. Jake Landers

After a 30-year career with Extension, I hope I have half the brains, sanity, and passion that my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Jake Landers possesses.  Dr. Landers set the bar pretty dang high and it is an honor to learn from him in the pasture and in the classroom.  As I said in an earlier post, Dr. Landers morphed into a Range Father of mine overnight.  The second I met him he was my hero.

Dr. Jake Landers served as an Extension Range Specialist at the Texas A & M Research and Extension Center, San Angelo in 1979.  He developed techniques and procedure for individual plant treatment of brush and prickly pear cactus for ranchers in 17 counties.  He initiated prescribed burning as a procedure for managing rangeland to reduce undesirable species and stimulate grasses.  He wrote short articles for newspapers and magazines and continued writing after his retirement from the Extension Service.  He was recognized as the outstanding person in Range by the Texas Section of the Society for Range Management in 1990 and Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award by the parent society in 2016.

Jake described himself as a gentleman rancher at best, but I beg to differ.  His Dad was in full charge until Jake was 60, and his brother Fritz assumed the duties until they divided up 20 years later. Since then Dr. Landers has helped decide when and where to graze and when and where to burn, control mesquite and pricklypear. Dr. Landers is not trying to make a profit, but he is still learning and operating by experiment.  Most of which I am convinced is adaptive management, but Jake makes it look so dang easy, fun, and effortless that it is more stewardship than anything.

How did you get your start in ranching?  I learned a lot about raising sheep, goats and cattle growing up on the ranch until I was 18. I had intended to get a degree and come home to ranch. But the drought and other interests kept me in school until I was independent of making a living  on the ranch.

How important is agriculture to your family?  Agriculture was important growing up because it was 95% of our income. Now it is important as an enjoyable experimental hobby.

What makes ranching in West Texas so unique? Speaking more of the Edwards Plateau, the mix of vegetation allows raising of cattle sheep and goats while keeping a viable white tailed deer herd for hunting.

Do you feel like there is enough emphasis on agriculture in K-12 education? Not in the least. My experience with teachers in conservation workshops indicates that most do not have an adequate background in agriculture to provide the information.

Who did you learn the most from along the way? I learned about plants mostly on my own. I learned a lot working on programs with county agents and a lot about burning from Larry White, Range Extension Specialist at Uvalde.

Why I Ranch…

by

Frank and Sims Price Ranch

In 2012, Price Ranch was recognized for their range management when they were presented the Outstanding Rangeland Stewardship Award by the Texas Section, Society for Range Management and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. And it was recognized as a 2013 regional Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) winner during the 2013 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.

How did you get your start in ranching? The Price family began ranching in 1876. Frank Price has managed his family’s ranch for 40 years, first in partnership with his father, and then in partnership with his son Sims in 2011. Together, they run their cow-calf operation on 68,000 acres. Sims and his wife Krista are the fifth generations of Prices on the ranch, which they operate in four counties. The ranch operates with three primary income enterprises including sheep, cattle, and hunting. 

How important is agriculture to your family?  The Price family has two primary goals. First, the ranch is operated as a separate business, self-sustaining, and is expected to show an annual profit. Second, but equal, their goal is to leave their natural resources in the best possible condition for the next generations.The family is dedicated to these goals. They have recently started using Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) dollars to make continuous improvements to the ranch, and they also use controlled and prescribed burning to their benefit by adjusting their livestock grazing charts to include speed of moves, flash grazing, animal density and total deferment.

What makes ranching in West Texas so unique? In a normal year, they receive 18 inches of rainfall. These last two years have been abnormal, with exceptional drought and devastating wildfires, particularly in their area,” said Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President Joe Parker, Jr. “Even though they had to reduce their herd to protect their land, they still found lessons in flexibility during the adversities. The Price family’s experiences with wildfire lead them to be a leading voice in Texas on inter-agency cooperation in fighting wildfires. We are glad to have his practical and sound leadership in such an important area.” The father-son partnership at Price Ranch represents the fourth and fifth generations of Prices to ranch in west Texas.