Our ranch encompasses a cow-calf, yearling operation and custom feedlot in southwest Idaho. My husband and I both were raised on livestock ranches in Weiser, so our industry roots run deep. Our children have been very active and involved in the ranch and feedlot, with both girls developing registered Angus and Hereford

herds. Our son, Sam, prefers to “run grass calves,” but still competes with his steer at the Washington County Fair. Shane will be a senior at Kansas State University, majoring in animal science. Dana will be a senior at Weiser High and is currently narrowing her college choice, and will major in animal science, as well. Sam, a fifth-grader, focuses on building forts, football, hunting and following in his Dad’s footsteps.

When asked to write a narrative of a “normal” day here, I randomly picked a Tuesday in May. It occurred to me as I wrote out the day, each day finds its own rhythm, but all the days flow because of the purpose and passion our family lives.

5:45 a.m. – Up with a pot of coffee, Magnificat and quiet time. Much needed before the day begins.

6:30 a.m. – Kids up and going. Sent them out to feed show heifers and 4-H steers. Breakfast, lunches, homework signed…only two more weeks of “school schedule”! Put a roast in the crock pot for supper.

7:45 a.m. – Up to feedlot to weigh and ship two loads of heifers and steers. Rode pens while crew finished up shipping and paperwork. Brought down two steers to scales for the local butcher to harvest.

11:00 a.m. – Back to my office to make payroll tax deposit, check balances and get a receivables deposit ready for the bank. Made calls for the upcoming Weiser River Cattle Association Turn-out Golf Tournament. Emailed Jodie Mink sponsor logos.

11:45 a.m. – Picked up the feedlot crew for lunch at the Farmer’s Co-op Café. Dropped by the bank with a deposit. Picked up a part at Hollingsworth’s for the swather.

1:15 p.m. – Checked cows and salt in three pastures.

2:00 p.m. – Helped load bulls to be Trich tested at the vet clinic.

3:00 p.m. – Headed to town to pick up Sam & Willie for guitar lessons. Stopped for Twisty Cones at Jeb’s for snacks. “Lucky Number Tuesday” at Bi-Mart—always need toilet paper on Tuesdays! Won a package of beef jerky, which Sam had half-finished before we turned down our lane.

4:45 p.m. – Home for chores and start supper. Homework finished. Did I mention only two more weeks of school?!? Answered phone and email messages. Dana will finish preparing supper while I head to play for Confirmation Mass practice in Fruitland at 6.

9:15 p.m. – Home from practice. Read with Sam as we are in the middle of Lincoln’s Last Days. Prayers.

10:00 p.m. – Read the Idaho Statesman, talked about today’s highs and lows with Bruce, and made a plan for tomorrow. Finished the night with Magnificat and thanks!

Every cattlewoman’s day is different, but we all have one thing in common—to care for our animals and raise delicious and healthy BEEF!

~ Julie

There are two life lessons my parents started teaching me at a very young age. The first was how not to throw like a girl; the second was to evaluate the facts and come to a decision on my own. That lesson of open-mindedness has allowed me, on several occasions, to be an informed rather than ignorant participant in discussions. This has come in handy working for an industry with so much opposition to the way cattle are raised and the nutrition of beef.

Spending my days advocating for the beef community, it’s easy to know our facts. Cattle producers are the original stewards of the environment. Beef is an excellent source of ten essential nutrients.

However, I have a cousin who lives a vegan lifestyle, and encourages the rest of us to do the same. I frequently get emails from her on the latest science supporting veganism, but rather than rolling my eyes and moving them directly into the trash folder, I often take the time to read them. As an advocate, I need to know what the other side is saying. As a human being, I’m curious. I read testimonials. I watched The China Study. And a year and a half ago I decided to take it to the next level. I felt I needed to give myself a bit more credibility in the discussion, to combat the “but you’ve never tried it” argument. And that is when I dubbed ‘Meatless March.’

Already unable to eat dairy products, I eliminated all animal protein from my diet. I became a vegan—at least as far as food consumption goes. I replaced my scrambled eggs and fresh fruit breakfast for vegan protein powder mixed with almond milk. I bought the Forks over Knives cookbook and traded in my extra lean ground beef for quinoa and lettuce. For a full month, I tracked calories and recommended daily values, while I ate my way through fruits and vegetables, trying to find ways to replace the protein and nutrients I was avoiding from meat with raw alternatives.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who fancies himself a triathlete. He made a comment about how “meat is gross,” and I promptly started in on what he would certainly call a rampage about all the health benefits of beef, especially for athletes. Phosphorus, which builds strong bones. Riboflavin, which converts food into fuel. Iron allows the body to use oxygen appropriately. And 48 percent of the daily value of protein comes from just three ounces of beef. Let’s not forget protein preserves and builds muscle. All of these seem pretty important for someone who is planning to swim 1.5 kilometers, bike 40, and run 10 in the Spudman Triathlon.

Of course, his response to my education was, “They pay you to say that.”  And I replied by telling him of my Meatless March experiment and outlined for him exactly what it did to my body.

The first couple of days I had to remind myself I wasn’t eating animal proteins. I loaded extra vegetables on my spinach salad and ate my way through a few handfuls of mixed nuts. By the end of the first week, I was craving the nutrients I was lacking. A tablespoon of peanut butter was certainly no substitute for steak. During the next two weeks, I noticed definite physical changes. The pink in my cheeks was replaced with pallor, and I developed alarming dark circles under my eyes. I was sleeping poorly, was irritable, cranky and exhausted.  Workout recovery time lengthened and stamina decreased, and by the end of the fourth week I had gained seven pounds.

Yes, I do get to spend my days promoting cattle production and beef consumption, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe in it. I may have cousins and friends who choose not to eat meat, but I know they would feel a lot better if they did. Incorporating beef as a regular part of your diet provides you with better energy for an active lifestyle. It also reduces your risk of injury by strengthening bones and building muscle, and helps protect cells from damage.  Beef supports nervous system development, improves brain function, and helps maintain a healthy immune system. Workouts are more effective when fueled by a higher-protein diet. Beef makes a difference!

For more nutritional information about beef, check out these Beef Nutrition facts or check out this pdf ProteinsAreNotCreatedEqual.

I’ve always been fascinated about nutrition, specifically the relationship between what you put into your body and what you get out of it, and this experiment illustrated to me that while fruits and vegetables taste great and are good for you, they simply aren’t enough. Beans and broccoli and almonds just can’t provide the nutrients beef can for the same caloric intake, and your body—regardless of your physical activity—needs those nutrients to function properly at optimal levels. That’s what Meatless March taught me.  Beef fuels me.

~ Britany

When I married my husband, I knew I’d never live in town or drive a beetle car. I’d need four-wheel drive and it’d be easier to see across my field than into my neighbor’s window. I knew there would be dirty boots by the door. On our honeymoon, we bought a sign that reads, “Please remove your spurs before getting into bed.” We anticipated cattle and hard work, but we pictured it with the bliss and naivety with which every newlywed couple enters into marriage.

Enter reality. No matter what time of year it is, there is always a potential for hay slivers in the sheets. I learned how to cook on a budget. I made a lot from scratch. Actually, it’s been sixteen years and I’m still doing that.

The reality is that we all have dreams and ideas of what life will look like. We imagine how it will transpire and it is beautiful!! Everyone is healthy, the work gets done in record time, and nothing ever breaks down or slips past a fence. Dreams are good for creating a hopeful platform as they propel us to keep going. Yet, I certainly never pictured tractors breaking down, bailing hay through the night to beat a storm, or feeding cows while having the flu.

On the flipside, I also didn’t imagine that ranching would rope me in and dally itself right to my identity. I had been raised in town. Please don’t stop reading. City girls can go country!
I met my husband in college at a country dance that someone coaxed me into attending. I gave him my number and didn’t think I’d hear from him, but I did and we started dating.
He took me riding, moving cows, and showed me everything I never thought I’d know about ranching. He didn’t get embarrassed of my lack of knowledge or ability, but kept encouraging me to try. It wasn’t until later that I realized this was in his favor, as now all my training came from “his” way of doing things.

So I married him and he carried me off to our first little trailer home.
Older than most of the dirt that held it together, it felt like a mansion.

Then something unexpected happened. Instead of me working for years alongside my man to get ready for a place of our own…we had a baby. Ahhh. Yes, it was wonderful. She is wonderful. But it is hard to ride pregnant, especially while still a beginning rider. Then we had another baby and another. Motherhood is the most amazing thing that could ever happen to a person, but also a fair amount of work. We didn’t have family around, so it was up to us to bring these babies everywhere we went. Our oldest daughter spent much of her first birthday in her daddy’s saddle, on his lap, while working cows. (That was a good horse.) I’ve ended up growing up in ranching along with my kids.

True, I never really knew what I was getting into, but I wouldn’t change it. Well, not most days. Guess what? Those dirty boots by the door? They aren’t going anywhere. They are mine.

~Marci

Marci is a city girl gone country. She married her cowboy and never looked back. While life may be different than what she first imagined, it’s also better than expected as well. She and her husband are raising their three kids on the ranch, and she has grown used to all the boots by the door.

…not to be confused with Finger Steaks if you’re from the West. I’m from the Midwest so I didn’t know what Finger Steaks were until I moved to Idaho. Technically these aren’t the traditionally Finger Steaks recipe, so I’m sticking with calling them Steak Fingers. These Steak Fingers use Cube steak, whereas I believe Finger Steaks use Sirloin steak. Okay, best to just get to the recipe…

If you do an Internet search for recipes for Cube steak, a lot of times you’ll come up with Chicken Fried Steak. I call these the junior version of that.

Cube steak is tenderized, rectangle in shape and thin. It’s also economical and relatively lean as it comes from the round. I’ve actually been experimenting to come up with some other recipes to use this cut of beef. I admit, it’s one of the last used in our freezer, but it’s worth giving it a try.

Chicken Fried Steak can seem a little thick and bulky to me at times, so one night I decided to slice up the meat before breading it. It was definitely a good choice. These turned out delicious!

Even though this cut comes tenderized, slicing it helps break down the cut even more. I found the Steak Fingers to be really tender and easy to eat.

I dipped the meat in a egg wash. I used a 2-3 eggs with dashes of seasoned salt and pepper. You could throw in some cayenne or any other spices you like. This is how I love to cook. A little of this, a little of that. Fortunately this is a recipe that you don’t need exact measurements.

Next I dipped the meat into flour and the same seasonings. Then back to the egg wash and into a third bowl of Panko bread crumbs. You don’t have to do the second dip, but I love the crunch the Panko adds.

Into the oil they go. Try not to put too many in at once as adding the meat lowers the temperature. You don’t want to crowd them either and have them stick to each other. I just kept an eye on them and turned them when they were golden brown.

Oh my goodness; just looking at this photo makes me hungry again! They were so, so good.

I usually buy large bags of potatoes, but as a busy mom of four, sometimes convenience is the winner. I’ve found these Steamables on sale a few times and decided to give them a try. They were really good, and I did love how quick they were. 6-7 minutes in the microwave. Can’t beat that! They are easy to throw some seasonings on and serve right after cooking. I’ve also smashed them after they were cooked and put them in the oven to crisp them up a bit.

Feel free to pin!

If you haven’t tried cooking with Cube Steak, I suggest you give it a try. I’ll have a few more recipes to sharing using this cut of beef too. So whether they are Steak Fingers or Finger Steaks to you, these are definitely good to eat!

~Maggie

Hello! I’m Laurie, a 4th generation rancher from south central Idaho. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and are staying cool this summer.

4th of July weekends are always very busy for Idaho’s farming and ranching families, and ours was no different. With second cutting hay a week or two off, we marched off to Nevada and the Silver State International Rodeo, an invitational rodeo open to contestants from their respective states who placed 5-15 and did not qualify for nationals. This provided not only an opportunity to spend time with other rodeo families, but also to brand a bunch of cattle on the ranch we have in Nevada. We also visited Western Nevada Cattle Feeders in Lovelock.

While many families reach for the cereal box for breakfast, this feedlot uses cereal in their feedlot rations, or more simply put, they feed it to cows. They take a product, Fruit Loops in this case, that cannot be used by the company or the consumer, and feed it to a cow. A cow’s feed ration is specially formulated by a nutritionist. They decide what ingredients can be used based on availability and nutrient level. The cereal replaces traditional grain or carbohydrates sources and provides energy for the animal. In turn, that cow ultimately provides a healthy source of protein for people—beef! That’s pretty amazing if you ask me!

~Laurie

Laurie and her family farm and ranch on land homesteaded by her husband’s family in 1908. She is passionate about the industry and the Western lifestyle. Stay tuned to hear more about her family and their adventures with hosting a foreign exchange student.