Island vacation = cattle quandaries in a new light
January 17, 2011
In previous posts to this Black Ink blog, there have been mentions of this Miranda gal. Perhaps a few readers are wondering, does she EVER work? Why hasn’t she made a peep yet?
Well, I am Miranda and I’m here to tell you that I do indeed work and keeping quiet isn’t my strong suit. I’ve been absent from this discussion because I was on vacation. My husband and I got married in college and took a grand road trip for a honeymoon, but in celebration of our first milestone anniversary (our 5th) we saved our pennies and left behind the Nebraska winter for our first island vacation, to Hawaii’s Big Island to be exact.
We did our research ahead of time and one thing that intrigued us about this destination was that more cattle than people inhabit the largest island of the volcanic chain. (Could be describing our central Nebraska county—well, minus the island and volcano parts, of course.) “Sounds like our kind of place,” we thought.
I’ll spare you all the details about the perfect weather and beautiful sights, but either because we’re used to putting in some miles to get anywhere or we just plain love a good drive through the countryside, we spent quite a bit of time checking out the lay of land in our tiny rental car. I was forever asking to stop and take pictures, like this:
I couldn’t help but think about all the folks I’ve talked to in cattle country who say things like,“We’ve got to have cattle that withstand these cold northern winters,” or “Of course, we have to find cattle adapted to this kind of heat.” In Hawaii, the average temperature only varies by a few degrees all year long (average highs 79 to 83, lows 63 to 69). Rough, huh?
Then while I was musing about how easy it must be to ranch in Hawaii, a little voice in the back of my head reminded me that I hadn’t seen any bullracks, packing plants or salebarns that are common place in my part of the world. Yes, that rosy picture gets a little dose of reality when one ponders things like loading cattle onto boats and market access.
May your bottom line be filled with black ink,
Miranda
To learn more about ranching on the Big Island, read the Angus Journal series, “Big Island Beef”:
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