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CapitalPress.com
April 24, 2015
People & Places
Rancher markets ag sustainability
Beth Robinette puts
her background to
work to help others
through co-op
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By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
CHENEY, Wash. — Beth
Robinette believes in the
long-term sustainability of
her family’s ranch, and she
has the tattoos to prove it.
She has tattoos of a steer
with the cuts of beef on her
arm, a cowgirl riding a buck-
ing bull, her family ranch’s
brand and, on the calf of her
right leg, she has several spe-
cies of grasses with their root
structures.
“If you’re going to pick
something to put on your
body, you have to pick some-
thing that’s really important to
you, and the ranch is the thing
that’s most important to me in
the world,” she said.
Robinette is “marketing
opportunities organizer” for
Lazy R Ranch, which her
great-grandfather began as a
dairy in 1937, and her grand-
father transitioned to beef
production in 1950.
In the mid-1990s, her fa-
ther and partner, Maurice
Robinette, decided to transi-
tion to holistic livestock man-
agement, in which the ranch-
er makes decisions based on
economic and environmental
factors.
“We’re really focused on
using our cattle as a tool to
heal the landscape, support
and feed our community and
also make a living off of,”
Robinette said. “Livestock
are a really important piece of
land restoration.”
The Robinettes keep 50
cow-calf pairs and 50 year-
lings each year.
Robinette recently re-
ceived a certificate from the
Savory Institute, which em-
phasizes holistically managed
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Lazy R Ranch marketing opportunities organizer Beth Robinette stands on her family ranch April 8 near Cheney, Wash. Robinette is a firm
believer in using livestock as a tool to restore land and in creating opportunities for local farmers to break into institutional markets.
Western Innovator
Beth Robinette
Age: 27
Current location: Cheney, Wash.
Family: Married, 1.-year-old step-
daughter
Education: Interdisciplinary major in empowering family farms and
profiting from sustainability from Fairhaven College of Western
Washington University, master’s degree in business administration
from Bainbridge Graduate Institute of Pinchot University
Websites: http://www.lazyrbeef.com/.
LINC Foods: http://www.lincfoods.com/about/
livestock and allows her to
teach other ranchers about
it. She realizes it might be a
tough sell for some long-time
ranchers, but Robinette fore-
sees a shift in agriculture as
older ranchers retire.
“I think the new generation
taking over (is) looking to do
things a little bit different,”
she said.
Robinette also handles the
direct marketing of the ranch’s
grass-fed beef, primarily
selling halves, quarters and
custom cuts to customers.
This allows the ranch to set
its prices based on expenses
and not the market, she said.
It’s still a fairly unusual ap-
proach, she said, but interest
is growing as more custom-
ers seek to know more about
their food.
“There’s a lot of
hand-holding, because this
is a totally new way of eat-
ing for a lot of people,” she
said. “Your typical beef
consumer is used to getting
something on a Styrofoam
tray at the grocery store. ...
There’s a lot of customer
education that has to hap-
pen, and you have to be
willing to do that.”
Robinette also helped
start a farmer- and work-
er-owned co-op in Spokane
— called Local Inland North-
west Cooperative Foods, or
LINC — to connect farmers
with institutional markets
such as school districts, uni-
versities and hospitals, which
are typically difficult for local
farmers to access.
Neighbor James Dilgard, a
rancher, works with Robinette
through LINC. She offers a
good sounding board for ideas
and shares her experiences, he
said.
“She’s young and en-
thusiastic, I think we need
that back in agriculture,”
Dilgard said. “She’s very
passionate and very caring
for her cows, her land and
educating people.”
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Subscriptions
Kids know difference between country and city smells
Mail rates paid in advance
By RYAN M. TAYLOR
1 year U.S. ...................................$49.49
For the Capital Press
Cowboy
Logic
T
Ryan Taylor
OWNER, N.D. —
Ranch kids get exposed
to a lot of different
scents — some good, some
not-so-good. Being younger
than us old folks, I suppose
their sniffer is a little keen-
er, just like their tastebuds
are more sensitive than the
tastebuds of oldsters like
me, who pour the salt and
pepper and Tabasco on our
food.
Like me, our children
like the country life. They
share our appreciation for
the smell of fresh mowed
alfalfa, the juneberry and
chokecherry blossoms, the
Ponderosa pines and the
smell of the earth after a
cool rain.
A country thing
My wife likes to hang the
sheets and quilts and pillows
out on our clothesline. That’s
a country thing, I suppose.
We’re far enough off the main
road and we get so little traffic
that they don’t get chock full
of road dust. They smell like
a little slice of heaven when
they are put back on the beds.
I walked into our sons’ room
for bedtime prayers the other
night after the bedding had
been hung out and the smell
of freshness actually hit me as
I walked through their door.
As you might imagine, that’s
not always the case in their
room. No matter how hard
they try, I don’t think anyone
can put that smell in a dryer
sheet or stick it in a bottle of
laundry detergent.
I must’ve taught our kids
to like the smell of horses
because I’m not sure that’s a
completely natural reaction
to the smell of a sweaty horse
with the saddle just removed.
Cattle have a smell, too, and
they don’t mind that. The
ranch dog has a particular
odor if he found something
dead to roll in or drag into
the yard. That one we tend to
avoid.
Other odors
But I’ve never heard them
complain much about other
strong odors. The smell of
gasoline on my hands if I’ve
been using gas to wash the
grease off some grimy parts.
The smell of diesel if I’m not
paying attention when I fill the
tractor and it overflows a bit
onto the hood. The odor from
the ear tag ink pen when I’m
making ear tags for the calves
in the pickup. Of course, I do
open the windows to ventilate
those unhealthy smells.
When we’re hauling
manure out of the corrals,
spreading it out on the fields
and adding some natural nu-
trients to the pastures, they
don’t even wrinkle up their
noses.
That’s why we were so sur-
prised when my wife and I got
dressed up to go to a film fes-
tival in Bismarck. We packed
up the family. They were go-
ing to get to see one of their
favorite old babysitters while
we went to see the films and
go to the event afterwards.
What stinks?
We had just shut the doors
on the car when our 8-year-old
said, rather indignantly, “Why
does it always stink in here
when you guys get dressed
up to go somewhere?!” In his
mind, he was trying to figure
out the correlation between
Mom and Dad getting all
gussied up, and the smell in
the otherwise neutral-smell-
ing habitat of the family car.
We both laughed when we
realized what he was talking
about. I guess we don’t wear
perfume and cologne that
much in our daily ranch life.
But splash and sprinkle a little
of that on for a night on the
town and it was more than his
youthful sniffer could bear in
the confines of the car.
I’m not sure if “stink” was
a word used to market either
her perfume or my cologne,
but that’s the new descriptor
we’ll be thinking about the
next time we get dressed up.
And we’ll know the opin-
ion of at least one member of
our family who ranks the of-
fense of the “going-to-town”
odor somewhere beyond the
bearable things like horse
sweat, manure spreading or
spilled diesel.
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Calendar
Friday, April 24
Forestry Map and Compass Workshop, 9
a.m.-4 p.m., University of Idaho Extension
Office, Coeur d’Alene.
Saturday, April 25
Sheep Days, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oakville Re-
gional Event Center, Oakville, Wash.,
.60-2.9-.828. Sheep, alpaca and llama
shearing during weekend. Bring your ani-
mals for shearing, foot trim and drenching.
Oregon AgFest, 8:.0 a.m.-5 p.m. Oregon
State Fairgrounds, Salem.
Sunday, April 26
Sheep Days, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oakville Re-
gional Event Center, Oakville, Wash.,
.60-2.9-.828. Sheep, alpaca and llama
shearing during weekend. Bring your ani-
mals for shearing, foot trim and drenching.
Oregon AgFest, 8:.0 a.m.-5 p.m. Oregon
State Fairgrounds, Salem.
Monday, April 27
AgChat Foundation Regional Meeting, 8
a.m.-5 p.m. Northern Quest Casino, Air-
way Heights, Wash.
Tuesday, April 28
AgChat Foundation Regional Meeting, 8
a.m.-5 p.m. Northern Quest Casino, Air-
way Heights, Wash.
Oregon Blueberry Commission Budget
Hearing, noon-2 p.m. Chemeketa Events
at Winema, Salem, 50.-.64-2944.
Friday, May 1
Forest Landowners of California Annu-
al Meeting, 8 a.m. Holiday Inn, Auburn,
Calif.
Saturday, May 2
Forest Landowners of California Annu-
al Meeting, 8 a.m. Holiday Inn, Auburn,
Calif.
Wednesday, May 6
Roots of Resilience, Rejuvenating Grass-
lands through Grazing Management, 9
a.m.-5 p.m. Washington Family Ranch,
Antelope, Ore., .60-220-510.. On May 6,
attend our Grazing Conference to Create
Resilience, Improve Production, Increase
Profit and Enhance Quality of Life.
Thursday, May 7
Roots of Resilience, Rejuvenating Grass-
lands through Grazing Management, 9
a.m.-5 p.m. Washington Family Ranch,
Antelope, .60-220-510.. Learn detailed
information on Planned Grazing, Placing
the animals in the right place at the right
time for the right reason or Learn about
the importance of Monitoring — Are you
taking full advantage of your most scare
resource — rainfall?
Saturday, May 9
Garden Expo 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Spo-
kane Community College, Spokane, Wash.,
509-5.5-84.4. Over 250 garden-related
vendors, gardenexpo@comcast.net, www.
tieg.org
Wednesday, May 13
19th annual Distillers Grains Symposium, 7
a.m.-11 p.m. Sheraton Crown Center, Kan-
sas City, Mo.
Thursday, May 14
19th annual Distillers Grains Symposium, 7
a.m.-11 p.m. Sheraton Crown Center, Kan-
sas City.
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Index
Drought ............................... 4-5
California ................................ 8
Dairy .................................... 1.
Idaho .................................... 10
Livestock ............................. 1.
Markets ............................... 14
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon .................................. 9
Washington ..........................11