I have operated a commercial cow/calf operation nearly all of my adult life. That follows having grown up, depending on who you talk to, on cow/calf ranches operated by my parents, all my aunts and uncles and grandparents on both sides of my family tree. The cow owner lineage goes back much farther than that. Since most of us Westerners got here because our ancestors lived east of here where there were just farms, I can’t say those generations were ranchers.

Unlike all my predecessors, I attended college and graduated with an Ag degree. Colorado State University sent me into the worl...