Who wants to be average?
Average is that place in the middle.
It’s the best of the worst, or the
worst of the best.
~Bob Moawad~

Whatever it takes! I’m not sure how many times in my life that phrase has crossed my mind or how often I’ve uttered it. To achieve anything you have to have that sensibility that you’ll stick with whatever it takes to get the job done and succeed doing it. Ranching is the true ‘whatever it takes” profession. When you work with Mother Nature you don’t have the luxury of tabling decisions to the next week, or waiting to take a meeting to see what the committee thinks. Cows are going to calve and you have to do whatever it takes to get that calf out live and healthy even if that means your up all night in extreme weather, and when hay needs baled, your window of time gets very small.

There are times when I envy the world of nine to five, but more often I feel sorry for those who don’t get to know the accomplishment of what really physically working through a day is like. I can’t remember the last time I was bored, I’m sure you are like us, there are never enough hours in a day and days in the week. When I see people on the news protesting really insignificant things, I always wonder where they find the time, I find it tough just to get to the grocery store.

What got me started thinking about this phrase was when I came across the book titled “Whatever it takes”, because this is such a familiar phrase, I of course became curious enough to open it up. The lead said that the book was “A gift to inspire and celebrate your commitment to excellence”; I found this very intriguing and continued to investigate further. It is after all, the beginning of a new year and I’m always looking for new ways to be inspired and motivated. This is just a little book, but it applies to ranchers lives in a large way. In one section called “The Drive,” the author writes “We all get 24 hours a day. It’s the only fair thing: it’s the only thing that’s equal. It’s what we do with those 24 hours. We can waste them, or we can choose to consistently fill them with good. Preparation, practice, hustle, grit, initiative and drive-these are all old-fashioned words, but they have built the world”.

This little book is worth searching for, it will brighten up a bleak January day and inspire. The author is Bob Moawad, and it is published by Compendium Publishing. Turning back to our own Western Cowman book, this issue also contains some interesting articles to keep you riveted on those frosty January evenings. The article “Pauper’s Pay” is about employees on the ranch, a tough problem for many. Cow size, everyone has a different opinion on the ideal size cow, we’ve tried to nail it down some in the article titled “How big is too big and how small is too small”. In the piece “Ranch Reflections” we take a peek into how the world outside of agriculture perceives our industry, it is a commentary I think you’ll find very fascinating.

As the world unfolds into this New Year we at Western Cowman want to wish all of you a Happy, Peaceful, and Prosperous 2008. Happy Trails...