A Day in the Life of a Young Montana Rancher
By Cyd Hoefle
It was a typical day for Jake Brown. The sun had barely peeked over the mountain and the temperature was brisk as he stepped outside his home, whistled for his dog and started the ATV. His dog, Duke, bounded toward him and leaped onto the passenger seat just as Jake put the 4-wheeler in gear. His day had started and he had a long to-do list.
The pigs were at the top of it. Jake checked his sows, tossed them feed and headed for the piglets. With a keen eye, he looked over the small passel with satisfaction. Several of them meander over for a quick scratch behind their ears and a sneak at the bag of treats they knew Jake had in his pocket.
He’s proud of his hogs, which have grown from a couple of sows to seven in just four years. In that short time, with selective breeding, he has earned a reputation as a successful pig farmer and started a business called JB Show Pigs. He farrows in late January and by the end of March he sells as many as 35 pigs to kids in the area for 4-H projects. He feeds out the rest of them to sell as butcher hogs later in the summer. The money is earmarked for a number of things, including helping to pay for his Ford 350 pickup truck and expanding his hog and cow herd.
Jake glanced once more at his prized hogs and headed for the cattle barn. There, he threw several 50-pound sacks of cake in the back of his pickup and departed. Several miles down a county road, he took an abrupt left and started into Moccasin Mountains to check on the cows, which are on summer range.
He slowly passed by his grandmother’s homestead. She was the first of the Browns to live on the beautiful ranch. Now in her 80s, she lives just a short distance from the main house and still tries to stay abreast of the ranch’s activities. Decades have passed since she’s lived in the original house, but the stamp of her life is still evident.
Jake continued up the rocky road, carefully maneuvered around boulders jutting out in the road and finally caught his first glimpse of the herd. One of the black angus cows reaches the pickup before Jake even turns the engine off. He jumps out laughing.
“Hey Trixie!” he said as he scratched the cow across her back. She nuzzled him, moved in for more scratches and accepted the cake from Jake’s outstretched hand.
Trixie is playful. She’s gentle as a kitten and seems to enjoy Jake’s attention as much as he enjoys giving it. But time was slipping away, and he needed to move on. He looked over the cows, checked the water and headed back down the mountain, but not before he gazed over the landscape with deep appreciation.
“Just look at this country,” he said. “Isn’t it beautiful? In every direction! I’d like to build a cabin up here someday just to have a place to get away.”
Back at the house, he checked to see what the plan was for the afternoon. His dad and brother-in-law have been harvesting all morning. He hoped his dad would let him take a shift on the coveted John Deere 9650 combine. Jake loves to drive it, but so does his dad. He’s pretty sure he’d end up baling.
The Browns started harvesting their grain as soon as the haying was done and hope to finish the 950 acres of winter wheat in the next couple days. The hail storms that have recently been peppering the area have made them anxious to get their grain in the bins. In addition, Jake will soon be spending days away from the ranch. School starts in less than a week and football practice has already begun.
Jake has a knack for seeing a need and filling it. He’s adept at a multitude of skills. He’s a good mechanic, efficient plumber and carpenter, and he’s great with livestock. As a third-generation rancher, the lifestyle is in his blood and he can’t see himself doing anything else.
“I just love it,” he said. “I don’t have bad days living here and doing what I do.” Content to work on the ranch, he laughingly said that his worst day is when it’s raining too hard to go outside.
The Brown ranch is remote, in the foothills of the North Moccasin Mountain Range, 30 miles north of Lewistown and 30 miles east of Winifred. Cell phone service is sporadic at best, and to reach the family by landline, they would have to be in the house. Most of the day they are not.
Jake lives on the ranch with his parents, Pat and Shelly Brown, and his sister and brother-in-law, Kymberly and Colbee Craig. The help of each family member is essential for the ranch to sustain itself. There’s always something that needs to be done and Jake’s proven himself to be a good hand. But there are a few things that can’t be ignored, the first being his education.
He’s a junior at Winifred High School. Living 30 miles from school makes a day away from the ranch a long one. Jake plays two positions on the Roy/Winifred six-man football team. On practice days he leaves the ranch at 7 a.m. and returns more than 12 hours later. But he’s as committed to football as he is to the ranch. It’s not only important to the team, it’s important to the community.
“Jake played last year against Absarokee, healing from a broken tooth,” Jake’s mom, Shelly said. “He broke his front tooth the day before. I knew he was hurting out there, and I know he has a very high pain threshold, but it was hard to watch.”
“We won, too, didn’t we, Mom?” Jake said with a laugh.
When Jake talks about his parents, he immediately gave credit where he thinks it’s due. “My parents have been the biggest influence in my life,” he said. “They have taught me life lessons through ranching.”
It’s hard to believe this capable 6-foot-1 young man is only 16. Mature beyond his years, Jake learned to drive years before he was legal. Like most ranch kids, driving lessons came early, and he was driving machinery before he was old enough to get his driver’s license.
“Jake is very good at every job we give him,” Shelly said. “But he is very good with the cows and is exceptional help at calving time. He has a passion for baby animals of all kinds, from the baby pigs to the baby calves.”
His parents and sister, Kym, agree there isn’t much he wouldn’t try. “Just give him some time,” Kym says. “He’s a thinker. He always figures things out.”
Kym and Colbee, who met while attending Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, married after graduation and settled in Powell for two years before deciding to return to the ranch in January. It’s been a good move for them and their infant daughter, Peyton.
“We love being back with my family,” Kym said. “This is where we want to raise our daughter, close to her grandparents and Jake. He is such a good uncle. He’s definitely grown up since I’ve been gone.”
There’s not much down time on the Brown ranch. In January, the cows and heifers start calving and continue for several months. After the calving and farrowing, there’s branding and seeding. The Browns plant over 1,500 acres of winter and spring wheat every year.
They also move 400 cow-calf pairs to summer grazing scattered over a 20-mile radius in a checkerboard arrangement of pastures. Bulls are turned out and gathered up. Haying is finished just in time to start harvesting. In between, water wells are monitored, fences mended and equipment maintained.
However, it isn’t all work and no play. Hunting season plays a major role in the recreation of the family. The ranch is the perfect habitat for a plethora of wildlife, including elk, deer, a variety of upland birds and even mountain lions. Jake scored his first elk at age 12 on land owned by his family. You can hear the pride in his voice as he tells about hunting mountain lions; getting up with his father at 3 a.m., bundling up against the sub-zero temperature and tracking through heavy snow all before heading off to school.
Winters are long and harsh at the Brown ranch. Snow falls so heavily in February that Jake misses most of the month of school.
“Oh I don’t mind missing a few days,” he said with a grin. “The teachers know I’m working. So that helps.”
And of course there’s football. The Browns are avid fans and huge supporters. They follow the Roy/Winifred Outlaws to all of their games, cheering on Jake and his teammates.
“We do keep busy!” Shelly said. “Like all ranches, there’s always something to do. Pat and I feel truly fortunate to have both our kids here with us and to be on the ranch that has been in the family for so long.”
“We hate to see Jake leave” she added, anticipating his graduation from high school in two years, “but we’ve encouraged both of our kids to get out and see the world. Get an education and then if you want to come home, then that’s great.”
Jake’s still thinking about where he will go and what he will study. He’s smart, articulate and a self-starter. At an event in Lewistown in June, he took it upon himself to draw up a poster that demonstrated how many byproducts are produced from a beef carcass. Posted on Raised in the West Magazine’s Facebook page in June, it was shared over 275 times. Asked what inspired him to do that, he answered, “I just thought it might help.”
As ranchers persevere and strive to pass down their places to the next generation, it seems safe to say the Brown ranch will be in good hands.