About this program

Ranching requires a mixture of financial sense, marketing savvy, sheer physical strength, and a touch of animal psychology. Prairie Public Television’s Ranching Perspectives gives us all a glimpse at the lives of the original rural business person. This hour-long documentary shares the perspectives of 10 North Dakota ranch families who deal with the same opportunities and challenges facing other enterprises, plus the daily care and feeding of hundreds of large animals. In addition, viewers will get an eye-full of some of the most beautiful countryside in North Dakota.

Ranching Perspectives shows the world from the vantage point of people grounded in traditions they must modify to meet the needs of a modern world. To keep their operations viable, ranchers have had to manage bigger and bigger operations, bring in off-ranch income, and try to predict the fickle whims of consumers.

The complex issues ranchers face today are different than those their parents encountered. Ranchers today have more labor saving devices but more animals to handle. "We have to manage so many more acres and head of cattle than our parents did," says Kevin Fugere, a Sentinel Butte rancher, "and you still need outside income.

Markets are more plentiful but complicated to access. Some ranchers, like North Dakota Stockmen’s Association President Jeff Dahl, are joining with other ranchers in alliances they hope will give them a premium price. The cattle have to be raised following strict guidelines, but Dahl says it can pay off in a good sale price for the calves.

Ranchers have tried to raise leaner calves to follow consumer tastes, only to find consumers have changed their minds. "The consumer said they wanted leaner beef," says Dahl, of Gackle, "but they found they needed the fat for the taste". So now ranchers are trying to breed in qualities that will give the consumer enough fat for taste, but not too much.

North Dakota ranchers have been working together to develop producer-owned meat packing plants and those hopes continue. Meanwhile, some small family-owned businesses are selling their own meat with some success. The Bachmeiers, near Granville, sell buffalo meat and hide products around the country and the Dammels, Medina, market a variety of dried beef products and are developing a frozen meal line.

Ranchers are finding their land has a rich recreational value, but it’s a mixed blessing. The landscape and wildlife offer ranchers the chance to bring in extra income by hosting hunters and other visitors. They can also sell their land in small parcels for vacation property at four times its value as ranch land. However, that makes make the land too costly for those wanting to expand their ranching operations. "Our ranches are going to outside interests for recreation and other things, and there’s no young people can afford to buy a ranch and make it pay," says rancher Bill Lowman, Sentinel Butte." It’s hard to see because the country needs young families and business people on it, and we’re going away from that."

Lowman, like other ranchers, brings in outside income to supplement their ranch. In fact, Bill and his wife Joanne run four businesses, one of which is also Lowman’s hobby. He’s a cowboy poet, and he performs for groups around the region. "I hate gossips," Lowman says, "but I can turn something I heard at the coffee shop into a poem, and they look up to me, because it’s an art form."

While some ranching traditions are changing, cattle have helped keep Native American traditions alive in North Dakota. "Back before the cattle ranchers came, our people had horses here, and we used them for everything. They’re almost sacred to us," New Town rancher Kyle Baker says. "They saw ranching as a way of keeping the horses, not having to move to town. If you have cattle, you have to have horses."