I have a bone to pick. For the last couple of months a number of commercial and government agricultural extension publications have printed articles on ranch and farm labor. Whether this is because of the attention focused on the need for immigration reform or the ever increasing cost of labor on an agricultural operation it is missing a key component, us.
The ladies, the wives, girlfriends or significant others in the position as non-hired ranch or farm laborers are being ignored. Whether a small family ranch or a corporate-run operation, the ladies are not accounted for or given credit for their contribution as far as I read and understand these reports. It appears the ladies have been given a spot right next to must have own horse in the cowboy needed ads.
Cowboy needed: must have own horse, and partner who feeds, drags, checks, rides herd, moves cattle and good with bookkeeping. A partner who can run to the vet when medicine runs out, fix a meal for the branding crew right after she washes up from helping at the fire. A partner who can take vacations by herself because the cowboy can't or won't get away from the ranch. The typical ranch hand doesn't get two weeks paid vacation and sick leave each year. And some agricultural producers do not like to leave their place because they think something bad will happen if they do.
Seminars are being offered on how to attract and keep new agricultural workers with benefits that have no cash-out-of-pocket expenses for the operator, like free pasture for the extra animals a cowboy might bring along. Or a side of beef offered every year to supplement the rural pay scale. But the ladies, wives, or significant others of these supposed only-male ranch hands are not considered or factored as part of the agricultural operation. But ask any ranch woman what she does even if she has a town job and you will get a list that involves machinery, animals, and barbed wire. Yet these ladies are not addressed as ranch laborers. Well I suggest a change.
Every woman who rides herd, checks calves, feeds animals, helps move machinery or runs to the vets needs to be considered as part of the overall ranch labor costs.
Get acknowledgement from commercial and government publications that they are part of the ranch and farm labor force. They should receive some consideration on the pay scale beside all the outdoor activities they could want or recipes for preparing yet another meal with beef. They should be thought of as more than the cowboy's other extra horse.
What it is ranching ladies want I could not imagine from such a very diverse group of strong women, but starting with giving credit where credit is due would be nice. Acknowledge that agriculture asks a lot of a couple no matter if an owner or a hand on an operation.
Me, I like what I do and don't ask for public acknowledgement as a motivator but I cannot let another commercial or government publication set the precedent that an agricultural worker is a male and works alone. What ranching women want I will think about while I finish dragging this field and feeding the cows.
n Marie Johnson is a Carson Valley rancher.
