NEGATIVES NEVER MAKE POSITIVES
I spoke about goals earlier and when people disagree it’s because of a different goal or outcome desired. I think it will be worth a little time discussing some of my goals before I upset you or waste your time.

In the “Here we go again” post I said I like the environment, animals and people so I would like to visit about each a little more.

I consider myself an avid environmentalist. I am not worried about the earth, she will get along fine no matter what. The thing that is important is keepin it so us humans can have a good quality of life. In much of the world the ecosystem thrived because of grazing animals and all that was a part of the system. No matter the climate grazing animals were a part of maintaining or rebuilding the ecosystem. It looks to me like we need grazing animals, and beings we have cities and fences, we humans are now in control of what nature took care of before we took control.

If you think about it our cattle have replaced the Buffalo, sheep and goats have replaced the deer and elk, and the human has replaced the wolf and bear. If we go about it right and manage our livestock properly, we can do a great job of keeping the environment thriving with our grazing animals, and also turn excess farming production into high quality protein. It needs to be a balanced system and supply and demand help keep the balance. It’s a great system and we are getting better at understanding the importance of manure to keep the system going.

I have never been without animals in my life. My wife says I worry about animals feelings and well being more than humans. I don’t feel that way, but I do feel like when you take on the responsibility of caring for an animal and putting a fence around it, we must do our best to give them a high quality of life, and for them to perform for us they must be content and in a relaxed way much of the time. I get a lot of satisfaction out of the study of animal behavior and how to get them to do as good as possible in the environment I create for them. Being able to understand how to keep an animal doing well, staying healthy, and living a quality life is real important to me. I don’t think a wolf thinks or cares about these things. So, I feel that no matter if I have my animals in confinement or out on the range it is my management that creates quality. I am working on improving my stockmanship, and trying to control my wolfmanship.

I’ve never been without people in my life either, and I really like most of them. The reason we are where we are is the ability to reason. Then we have the ability to discuss and improve ideas with communication. For some reason I have been given the opportunity to share some of my ideas with you. I want you to know I won’t be offended if you don’t agree. I know I am really whole heartily trying to do my best to give you something that will improve your quality of life, as well as animals you come in contact with and the environment.

Remember we all have different goals and ideas of what we want for an outcome. We may even have the same goal, but different skills so we go about it differently to get the same end product. The main thing is to try to figure out what works best for you, without to much negative.

I’ll finish with a story. I was Visiting with Milly Hunt Porter, an author of horse books several years ago, and we were discussing some horseman being hard on people. A popular saying was ” I’m here for the horse and whatever is left over you can have”, or something like that. (I am not sure it was not misunderstood in the way it was said). She asked Tom Dorrance ( a real good human to animals and people) if that’s the way he felt and he got real serious and animated like he would when making a point and said “Oh no, negatives never make positives”. That really stuck with me and I feel it is real important to keep things positive. So, that’s my goal with people, animals and the environment.