Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2019)
NEWS Wallowa.com Wednesday, March 20, 2019 A17 Ellen Morris Bishop Liza Jane McAlister clamps an ear-tag onto a Corriente heifer that’s only a few hours old. “Last year I used orange tags for boys and white tags for girls. This year I’ve gone with blue and pink. It’s much easier to remember.” Adele Schott gets ready to help her ranch team rope calves at the Chief Joseph Days Ranch Rodeo. 6 Ranch and mother-daughter ranching By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain I n 25 years of rais- ing Corriente cattle on their 6 Ranch, Liza Jane McAlister and her daugh- ter, Adele Schott, have never had to pull a calf. Corrien- te’s are lithe, athletic cat- tle, descended from animals brought to the Americas by Spanish Conquistadors. Their calves arrive as com- pact small bundles, eas- ily and properly delivered head-fi rst into the world. There has never been a need to assist with the delivery, a practice known as “pulling a calf” that involves reaching into the cow, slipping loops of a fi ne-linked “pulling chain” over the calf’s front feet and assisting the birth by slowly pulling the calf out of its laboring mother. Mature cows whose calves are breach-birthed—pre- sented for delivery back- wards or sideways—need this help, as do many fi rst- calf heifers. Pulling a calf is exhausting, but an essential process. Bovine midwifery is not an easy job. And it’s one that McAl- ister and the 6 Ranch has completely avoided for a quarter of a century, along with never calving in cold, snowy, freezing weather. “Our cows calve in May,” McAlister said. “just like elk do. Cows and their calves have grass to eat, the ground is warm, soft, and easy to stand up on, and the weather is usually pretty nice.” This year is an exception. Last fall, McAlister invested her savings in 20 more Cor- riente cows from a trusted ranch in New Mexico. In New Mexico, elk calve in March when it begins to get warm and grass greens-up. So do Corrientes. But now the New Mex- ico bunch are in Wallowa County, where March is cold, snowy, wet, and pretty inhospitable. “I’ve been going out every two hours at night to check on them,” a tired McAlister said. “There’s no need to pull calves, but if they are born in the snow they might not be able to get up. If it’s really cold they could freeze to death, or if they are delivered into a big puddle, or their head is stuck under a fence, they are going to need help.” So far, each of the cows has moseyed into the barn and delivered her calf on a nice cozy bed of straw. No worries. Like many successful ranches, the 6 Ranch does things differently. Their Cor- rientes are grass fed and hor- mone-free. Adele is the 6th generation of this ranching family. It’s not that Schott always knew she was des- tined to be a rancher. “When I was in high school,” she said, “I was like a lot of kids here. I thought I was too big for Wallowa county. I wanted to get out and see the world and do other things.” She spent her junior year as an exchange student in Argentina. “It was a dif- ferent world,” she said. “It was one I didn’t belong in. It was urban. There were people everywhere.” After high school, she tried col- lege.” It didn’t really fi t me,” she said. “So I found jobs, mostly day jobs, on other ranches.” Then she went to Culinary School. And then she came home. After spending a tough win- ter and spring calving out cows in six feet of more of snow near Troy, Adele came back to the 6 Ranch, along with her new husband, Mark Schott. Like may younger ranch- ers, Adele and Mark are looking for a unique, and more profi table niche, in the ranching business. “The most challenging thing about ranching?” Adele said. “It’s how to make money doing the things I love.” The Schotts have stepped away from the traditional cow- calf operation, and now buy young steers in the spring and raise them for grass-fed beef. “To succeed in ranch- ing today, you have to think outside of the box,” she said. “But doing what you love is priceless.” CASA advocates sworn in Courtesy Photo/Erin Taggart First-time Court Appointed Special Advocate, Michael Moore, takes the oath of duty from the Circuit Court Judge, Wes Williams in Wallowa County Circuit Court on March 13. CASA volunteers advocate for abused or neglected children in court or other settings. Joni Herb joined Moore as an advocate the same day. According to Wallowa County CASA director. Erin Taggart, the CASA team is now at 100 percent coverage, up from 60 percent coverage in August. The addition of the two will provide every child who comes into foster care in Wallowa County their own personal advocate. Since Supporting Wallowa County SHOP SEASONAL SAVINGS Agriculture 1944 ON HOLIDAY ESSENTIALS BARGAINS OF THE MONTH ® While supplies last. Enterprise Public Library hours and services ENTERPRISE CITY LIBRARY HOURS: Monday – Friday 10 a.m. — 6 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. — 3 p.m. Phone: 541-426-3906 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EnterprisePublicLi- brary/ Services, programs, and circulation materials include: 49.99 59.99 -10.00 SALE PRICE MAIL-IN REBATE* Audio Books (“Books on Tape”) True Temper® 6 cu. ft. Wheelbarrow Interlibrary Loan: Get any book from anywhere.. T 556 746 25 *Limit 1 per household. Consumer responsible for taxes. Movies (DVD) M-F 8AM-6PM • SAT 8AM-5PM • SUN 9AM-3PM Large Print books Adult, Young Adult, and Children’s fi ction and non-fi ction. Story Time for PreSchoolers The Enterprise Toy Library And more. G RAIN WALLOWA COUNTY Hurricane Creek Road Enterprise, Oregon 541-426-3116 G ROWERS Sale Ends 3/31/19
