As anyone who has ever cared for livestock at a commercial scale will tell you, animal husbandry requires a wide range of skills. Ranchers must be animal behaviorists, veterinary technicians, bovine (or ovine, caprine, etc.) midwives, meteorologists, accountants, irrigators, carpenters, mechanics, marketing specialists….

Where have you learned to ranch? How long did it take you? Author Malcom Gladwell suggests that mastery of any skill requires an investment of at least 10,000 hours – that's five years of full time work (or maybe three years based on how many hours most ranchers work). My friend Jim Muck, who farms near Wheatland and manages the Student Farm at UC Davis, says, “Farmers and ranchers have to be generalists. We have to have the ability to see patterns and make decisions based on what we see, hear, feel, and touch. We use skills that cannot be taught in a classroom, but must be learned by doing and experiencing.”

Like Jim, I find that I learn best by doing - hands-on training, at least when it comes to ranching, is usually preferable to sitting in a classroom.  I also find that I learn best from a combination of rancher-to-rancher sharing and expert instruction. This kind of learning, at least for me, provides a faster return on that 10,000-hour investment. Our Winter/Spring 2019 workshops offer this unique combination!

Be sure to check out my Livestock and Natural Resources website (https://ucanr.edu/sites/Livestock/) and the Foothill Farming website (https://ucanr.edu/sites/placernevadasmallfarms/) for up-to-date details about workshops and meetings!