Betty Jo Gigot, Editor and Publisher

On CALF’s third trip to Hereford, Texas – our designated small town with large plans – we found that once again they’ve outdone themselves. In my experience, many small cities across the High Plains have chosen not to be their area’s agricultural hub, perhaps looking to be a little more sophisticated. Branching out from their mainstay of cattle feeding, the Hereford community has enticed dairies and ethanol plants, along with all kinds of suppliers for the agriculture complex into the area, transforming a stagnant economy into a vibrant one. The people of Hereford should be very proud.

Anyone read Time magazine’s March 26 article titled “Why the Buffalo Roam”? I have had it on my desk, thinking I would get over being absolutely amazed at 1) the photo of a Canadian rancher sitting in his living room with Bailey, a full-grown bull buffalo (that could certainly become a bit messy) and 2) the conclusions the article made about bison ranching. According to Time , eating bison is good for the planet, unlike those cattle that consume corn that costs all of us with the runoff from pesticides and fertilizers. The author incorporates his horror with confinement cattle feeding, which he considers one of postwar America’s biggest ecological blunders. On the other hand, he writes, bison eat grass that grows freely, and their manure is a natural fertilizer. How about that! And, in order to harvest the animals more humanely, they need to be shot from a distance so that they don’t know what hit them. The author’s only major concern with bison ranching is that, in trying to make the bison easier to handle, ranchers might cull the more “lively” animals, messing with Mother Nature by breeding out some of their bison-ness.

June 1, Superior Livestock Auction will officially change hands. We here at CALF News have worked closely with Superior since its beginnings and want to offer our condolences to Buddy Jeffers’ family and our best wishes to Superior’s new owners, Dwight and Helen Mebane.

On a personal note, my uncle Pino Pfingsten died the other day. He was 93 so it was not such a surprise, although my aunt Leota did say that she thought Pino must have had a premonition because he had sold some land recently. Pino was a horseman and a cowman and a throwback to all things the West stood for. Stories at his memorial service recalled bucking horses with bedsprings on their feet and ladies chasing both Pino and his horse with brooms. One of my favorites was when he married my aunt. Someone asked him, “Can she sew?”

“No,” Pino replied.

“Can she cook?”

Again his answer was, “No.”

“Then why did you marry her?”

“Because she can sing and she makes me laugh?” he replied. She made him laugh for 67 years, or at least kept him on his toes. We buried him on a barren hill near Capitan, N.M., in a pine box with a lone lady singing “Empty Saddles in the Old Coral.”