These ranchers have also endured several years of bad weather. A very severe drought last year put a big dent in the hay harvest. This forced many ranchers to sell off a portion of their herds because they could not afford to feed them. Some of the hardest hit sold almost their entire herd. This spring and summer were very good for hay production, with plentiful rains in most places. Just when it seemed like we might get a break, Atlas walloped us with a devastating blizzard.

[Editor’s note: The recent blizzard in South Dakota killed hundreds of thousands of cattle, which adversely affected many family ranchers. This article by PCA minister Brian Carpenter shares some of the issues facing these family ranchers. He also provides a way for people to donate funds and cattle to assist these families. All the information is available on the site address provided.]

Agriculture in general, and meat animal producers in particular have come under a lot of criticism in the last few years. There is a lot of talk on the internet about the evils of “Big Ag,” so called “factory farming” and “corporate agriculture,” as well as what’s been labeled “monoculture farming practices.”   The treatment of hogs, chickens, and cattle has also been sharply criticized in recent years.

Perhaps some of that criticism is warranted, perhaps it isn’t. But regardless of how you feel about these issues, it would be good to take a step back and take a look at the people we are trying to help.

These people are not “Big Ag” or factory producers by any stretch of the imagination. These are ranching families, some of whom are running ranches that have been passed down from generation to generation for over a hundred years. Some of these producers are young families just starting out who own cattle but rent the land they are grazing on. Some have been able to cobble together enough money to buy their own place. Some are working for a larger rancher and are managing both their own cattle and their employer’s cattle on the same ground.

These cattle are not raised in confinement pens. They are not raised on corn. They are grass-fed, free range cattle. The people we are trying to help are small, family ranchers who are humanely raising grass-fed, free range beef. That should make some of the critics happier.

These ranchers have also endured several years of bad weather. A very severe drought last year put a big dent in the hay harvest. This forced many ranchers to sell off a portion of their herds because they could not afford to feed them. Some of the hardest hit sold almost their entire herd. This spring and summer were very good for hay production, with plentiful rains in most places. Just when it seemed like we might get a break, Atlas walloped us with a devastating blizzard.

There has also been a lot of internet chatter to the effect that we’re all Tea Party Republicans out here who are being hypocrites if we receive any aid from the Federal Government.

Well, first of all, it’s a bad idea to paint an entire region with a broad political brush. True, we tend to be more conservative, but there are plenty of elected Democrats serving at the county, state, and federal political levels in the Great Plains region. Most of us have what we believe is a pretty balanced view of the government’s role in our lives. Lots of us believe that the government does rightly have a significant role to play in our society. There are things that need to be done. Some of those things are things that individuals can’t do for themselves, like regulating interstate commerce, protecting the general health and welfare of the people, constructing an interstate highway, or helping a region recover from a disaster. We tend to take the philosophy that the government should do what needs to be done. We just want to be careful that what the government is doing is actually needed, that they’re doing it as efficiently as possible, and that there aren’t unintended negative consequences. We aren’t the wild-eyed, skinflinty kooks that some seem to think we are.

Second of all, organizations like Heifers for South Dakota were started in order to help families apart from any government help. Those who donate funds or cattle are helping to reduce the need for government to come in and spend taxpayer’s money. And we’re doing it faster than government can do it, with a more personal touch. It’s kind of hard to accuse us of hypocrisy if we’re putting our money where our mouth is.

Something also must be said about the character of the men and women we are trying to help. I have been a pastor in this area for almost ten years. I moved here from Ohio. When I came to Sturgis, I remember remarking to some of my friends back east, “It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from here.”

What I discovered was the hardest-working, most capable, self-reliant people I have ever met. They are very reluctant to accept help. But they are very happy to give help when asked. I have personally witnessed ranchers cleaning state highways after a blizzard with their own equipment and fuel because the State and the County just had too much on their plate. I watched one rancher plow seven miles of highway to get into Sturgis and then start digging out our street with his loader. Then he did my neighbor’s driveway. My neighbor is a widow, and her driveway was drifted in with 8 feet of snow. He didn’t know her. He just did it just because I asked him to.

I have it on pretty good authority that a North Dakota rancher has donated 200 head of cattle to one family to make them whole. He lives in the oil patch and has had a very good year. He contacted an acquaintance who lives in the area and told him to just pick a family for him to donate to. That is, conservatively, a $300,000 gift to a total stranger.

Some of the most interesting correspondence has been sent our way by suffering families. I just want to close by sharing a little bit of it.

One rancher wrote, who had lost nearly his whole herd wrote in and said,

“We have lost most as well, and I ask that if anyone has mentioned our name (name withheld) to be donated to, please give what was to be sent to us to the (name withheld) instead. 

Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for what you are doing. God Bless you!”

I don’t know about you, but those are exactly the sort of people that I want to be helping to restart their lives.

To read more and to know how to donate, go here.

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]