Day Four

The adventure continues. Next on our dock was two schools to see, one south and one north. The Barony campus near Dumfries and the campus in Aberdeen. 

The kid and I seem to still be getting along. 

Before we started our Thursday morning we had our standard two link sausage breakfast. A staple in Scotland is Haggis, the ground meal at the top of the plate. Haggis is comprised of a lot, mainly sheep organs and oatmeal. Not bad, but not terribly tasty either. 

The drive down to Dumfries was spectacular, snow, sunshine, and rolling rural farm ground. The Barony campus is comprised with old and new buildings; all well kept and ready for action. 

Heather showed us around. 

The school's main agricultural focus is on dairy and the feed that goes with it. 

Dairy cows are a different duck. Often you have to bring them in and tend to their hooves. This is one way of doing it!

They also teach a bit of forestry, including sawmilling. 

We had lunch on campus. Irn Bru is the Pepsi of Scotland. 

Then we took a field trip with the students to a local farm. 

Here, they focus mainly on fattening cattle. 

Down south, the main crop they use for high protien feed is silaged maize. 

Around here, any big truck is called a lorry. They use this guy to haul fat cattle to the slaughterhouse. 

That afternoon we jumped on a train and headed north to Aberdeen. About a five hour venture. 

Friday morning we met up with Phil who gave us a grand tour of the school and the area. 

Less dairy up here and mainly beef cattle. 

Similar systems for working cattle as us. They call a squeeze chute a crush, however. Also, almost all their paneling is galvanized. 

90% of all the cattle getting fattened live under a shed. The UK in general is not a big fan of feedlots. Keeps them out of the rain, I guess. But the air is stale and damp in here. One thing you see on almost all the cattle being fattened are shaved backs. The main reason for doing so is to keep them cool. Interesting. 

Up north, no maize is grown. But a lot of barley is. This is mainly for malting at whiskey distilleries. But if it doesn't make malt, they feed it to cattle. 

After a tour around the SRUC Aberdeen farm, we went to the local sale barn. No small matter. 

The barn in Aberdeen is grand central station for all things farm. It's also where producers come to socialize, just like in the States. 

This is probably the biggest sales ring in the Scotland and likely the UK.

They grow their cattle big. These Charolais average 682 kilograms, which is 1500 pounds. That's a big T-bone. They didn't go for cheap either. As far as I can figure, about $3300 a critter! The locals said that was incredibly high. Just like in the US, the biggest driving factor in the market is the low cattle numbers. 

Giddy up. 

Fun stuff. We're pretty much done with our college tours. I think Dante likes what he sees. We'll see which school best suits his fancy. Now we'll head back to Edinburgh and see some history. Let's ranch.

Scotland

One of the perks of the priesthood is jumping-in on random adventures with other Catholic Cowboys. This time it is with my buddy Dante Dawson from Wheatland, on a trip to Scotland.

Dante is a young man finishing up an ag degree down in Casper. Through FFA, he learned of a study abroad program with the Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) that he hopes to take part in. When he told me that he was planning on going over to check out the different campuses, I gladly offered to be his chaperone. We landed in Edinburgh first thing Tuesday morning. Let's ranch. 

Craig Davidson and Dante have met at the FFA national congress in Indianapolis the past couple years. Craig is involved in recruiting international students to the SRUC program. For our first couple of days, he's been our tour guide. Good man. 

Driving on the left side of the road is wild. Think I'll stick to the back seat.

SRUC has several campuses spread across this great land. Our first stop was at the Oatridge Campus, outside of West Lothian. 

Craig passed us onto Alister who showed us around the campus. The school prides themselves on teaching hands-on, practical agriculture skills. 

These tractors have been taken apart and put back together more than they have seen action in the field. Though the technology has far surpassed this era of Massey's, it is still good for students to learn the basics of mechanics. 

Same with welding. Here they get to gain experience in blacksmithing if students so desire. 

Count me in.

Most of their campuses have farm ground attached to them. We strolled around the 500+/- acre plot. Beautiful!

Then we toured their cow barn.

And sheep working quarters. 

Later that first evening, we hitched a ride up to the town of Peebles. Once a month, Craig and his crew offer a dinner and talking session to local farmers. Downtown Peebles is pretty iconic Scotland. 

I went with the Shepherd's Pie, made with lamb. I wasn't disappointed. 

The talk that evening with quite interesting. Here we heard two local farmers speak about their experience and challenges in farming today. Enjoyable, but I had a hard time staying awake after 36 hours of no real sleep. 

Thankfully, we got a good night's rest at the Merriott Hotel in Edinburgh. This is my kind of continental  breakfast. 

Our first stop the second day was to some of the SRUC research facilities associated with their campus located at the University of Edinburgh. 

After we got suited up, Abid showed three of us around their poultry research facility. 

SRUC has some of the leading agriculture research centers in all of Europe. Here they are doing a several week study on meat birds. These chicks are about 28 days old. 

They are also leading the way in bovine research and innovation. 

This is a breed of Luing cattle, which was famously developed by the Cadzow brothers on the Island of Luing in Argyll off the west coast of Scotland. This breed is a cross with the Beef Shorthorns and the Scottish Highlander, combining the fleshing qualities of the Shorthorns with the rugged hardiness of the Highlander. Kinda cool. 

SRUC is also quite involved in environmental sustainability and wellbeing concerns. This is what they call the GreenShed, which seeks to capture the methane gas that cattle produce and use it to hydroponically grow crops in a green house. Interesting. 

Here, they can close the doors and extract all the air out of the building, including the methane gases that cattle naturally exude. 

Through this compressor system, they extract the gas and pump it into the greenhouse, which somehow helps their plants grow. 

For more information. 

All the country seen here is part of this campuses farm ground. 

Pretty fun. So far we have been blessed with sunny skies. The temperature during the day hangs right around freezing and in the higher elevations there is snow. We have a couple more campuses to visit in a couple more areas around the country.

The priesthood is far from boring. Full-on on following Jesus Christ is an adventure. Traveling to Scotland with a buddy to check out ag schools may not be a standard part of the priesthood. But radically being open to opportunities that God puts in your midst, is. We'll keep ranching and see what the rest of the week brings. 

Humility

Gratitude leads us to authentic humility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L7UjteO_gg

Gate Guy

I'm a gate guy. My biggest pet peeve in life is a poorly functioning gate. Gates that drag or are hard to latch and unlatch drive me crazy! Hence my emphasis on good gates around our ranch. They may not be perfect, but they work well for us.

Good gates can be functional and still have character. A secret ingredient to obtaining both virtues is used pipe and weathered corral boards. 

We've had this archway up for the past couple of years. She's just been waiting for two complimentary swinging gates. I was planing to build the gates off site and over time. But having two free days after new years, I came up with a different plan. We'll just build them on site. 

This pile of pipe has been our saving grace throughout the corral project. The Etchemendy Ranch in Douglas can't be thanked enough for contributing 60 joints of 2 7/8" to our cause. May God reward you!

We first drug our hand selected sticks over to the job site with White Horse.

Having built beforehand the same style of clamping hinges on the other gates, we hung up two for each gate. One high and one low. 

The goodness of building the gates on location, is that we could overshoot certain cuts and trim them up later. The big vertical uprights, we just sat on the ground and ran them past the top hinges. This was a big time saver rather than trying to hit the right heights while balancing heavy pipe. 

Then we welded two horizontal structures all the way across, without breaking them in the middle. Again, this saved time, but also allowed for greater accuracy between the gates. 

This gate system really is the crowning jewell of our entire corral rebuilding project. Throughout the past couple of years, we have honed our skills in working with pipe. We pretty well have saddling joints and preferred welding rod and temperatures dialed in, at least to our standards anyway. 

After the horizontals were in place, we welded two pipe verticals at the center of the structure, leaving three inches between the two. Then we welded 45s from the center of the soon-to-be individual gates and 5' up the vertical hinge posts. Saddling those to the adjoining pipe definitely took some time. 

When it was all welded in place, we cut out the center section making the one gate into two. 

By building everything in place, both gates stayed true to each other. At this time, we also cut off the extra sections on the vertical uprights, making the weight of each gate be carried by the the hinges and allowing them to now swing freely. 

Then it was time to fill in the center of each gate. This is where we were really able to get creative. Through divine providence, we had saved six rough cut 2"x12" fir boards off of Grandpa's old loading chute. After doctoring them up a bit, they were ready to be put back into action. 

After we cut the brackets and drilled the holes, we welded them onto to each gate. 

Then custom cut each board for its new place in life. 

Once we had them properly spaced, we drilled and bolted up each board. 

Attention to detail is key when working with old pipe and weathered boards. We made sure this beautiful moss was put on the top of the most used gate, so all who enter can appreciate God's goodness. 

The dog hunts. Why I go to extra lengths and use the upright posts of the archway as the pivot point, is because it allows the gate to turn in about a 300 degree radius. It also keeps the full width the of the gate opening intact. With a little grease, these gates almost sway with the wind. 

Our latching mechenism is simple yet profound. This is the chain Grandpa used to get in and out of these corrals all the years that he played around down here. Here's to you Grandps. 

Giddy up. 

Every scribe trained in the Kingdom of God brings forth from his storehouse both the old and the new (Matthew 13:52). I dig it. God is ever ancient and ever new. In Him, nothing is ever over. Everything is just beginning. This old pipe and lumber thought their better days were gone. Now they have a new and better purpose. Even the Lungren Brothers ranch name is resurrected. It's no different for us. Just when we think our better days are gone, God's Spirit enlivens us with a new mission. Of course we have to be open. Just like a gate, if we are droopy or hard to unlatch, God's grace is fairly ineffective. But if we are ready to open when He knocks (Revelation. 3:20), God can do marvelous things in our lives, no matter what stage of the game we are in.

I love life. Jesus didn't come to earth so that we can worry about the future. He came that we may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). Even the priesthood is all about eternal life (John 6:54), both now and in the new world to come (Mark 10:28-30). This is ranching, Catholic style. Whether you have cows or not,  let your light shine (Matthew 5:14-16)! It gives glory to God and encourages others. Not to mention, it's fun. The Crosses in our life are real. But if weathered with Christ, they lead to the Resurrection. So, do not be afraid to follow Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30). He has nothing but your best interest in mind. 

We've done a lot of work in this barnyard to get to this point. There's always more to be done, but that's the nature of ranching. Getting to a point like this is worth taking time to thank some folks. First of all, God. All good things come from Him (James 1:17). He has led this entire project. Working down here has also brought me closer to my ancestors. I'm thankful for my Great-great-grandfather Bernard Neiber, who homesteaded this place before the turn of the 20th century. I'm also thankful for my Great-grandfather William Murdoch, who picked up where Neiber left off and utilized this exact space for lambing. I'm always thankful for my Grandpa Edward Schmeltzer, who developed this land into the barnyard it is. And of course, Mom and Dad. Without your steadfast encouragement, hard to say where I'd be. Thanks for letting me play around. It keeps me grounded in the Father's love and focused on my priestly mission. Let's ranch.