It is a short walk from the bunkhouse to the heart of Idaho agricultural history…
and an even shorter journey to its future. Flanked on one side by the Continental Divide and the other by the towering Lemhi Range, the Cummings ranch is ideally situated to bridge the past, present, and future.

Acquired a year ago through a special lease/gift from The Auen Foundation of Palm Desert, Calif., the Cummings ranch itself is steeped in tradition. Known for many years as the Hot Springs Ranch, the 925-acre spread was primarily a commercial hay operation. Under its new mission, the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center—the formal title accorded it during a June 2001 dedication—will become a model cow-calf ranch, eventually accommodating 300 to 400 head of cattle, and hay/pasture sufficient to sustain that herd.

The ranch lies at the foot of the Continental Divide. Photo by Mel Coulter.

In every sense of the word, it will be a working ranch, explains ranch manager Brad Williams, who brings a wealth of experience and education to the position he accepted in February. “I want to reduce the costs and increase the productivity by improving irrigation and growing/harvesting more forage…The bottom line will be black, not red.

“We’re looking at the economic viability of agriculture. If we can produce more of our commodity at a competitive price, we can sustain the industry. People in the industry want to stay on the land, but you can’t run at a deficit just to keep it in the family.”

That is where “model” comes into play. The Cummings center will assimilate the best in current cow-calf research and management practices and apply it to a live operation that mirrors private cattle ranches. “We will take the science that comes from the University of Idaho and apply it to the ground in practical situations…learn-ing what will work for the industry and what will not,” Williams says. “We will demonstrate new practices developed at the university. What works here should be adaptable to the entire Intermountain West.”
Under its new mission, the Cummings center will achieve unique status; it will be one of the few—if not the only—of its kind in the West, a place where university research will be combined with hands-on educational opportunities for students, demonstration projects for the industry, and yes, cattle production for profit. Eventually, UI students will have an opportunity to live and work on the ranch in internship capacities and become better prepared to manage/operate similar private enterprises.

“One of the overall goals for the ranch,” explains Dick Battaglia, head of the UI Department of Animal and Veterinary Science and superintendent of the center, “is to have a very credible way of generating and disseminating information that helps resolve problems the commercial producers are experiencing today. What we didn’t have before was a real working ranch, operating like cattlemen would operate it with the number of cattle they would manage.

Above: The Williams family, (from left in photo) Brad, Bryce, Charli, and Shannon, will tend to daily operations at the 925-acre working ranch north of Salmon, Idaho. Photo by Mel Coulter.

“This is the first large-scale beef herd that we’ve ever had. It also will serve as a center for internships, graduate research, field days, and extension/outreach. We want to position this as the cattle producers’ ranch so they feel comfortable visiting and touring the ranch and working with researchers. It is a comfortable, wide open place for interaction,” Battaglia says.
The gift, transferable to the UI in 2004 if operational standards are met, will be the first such addition to the university system in nearly 50 years. The value of the lease during the
transitional period is $619,000; the actual value of the ranch is placed at $2.6 million.

The UI College of Agriculture wasted no time introducing the research component to the Cummings ranch after the lease was consum-mated in September 2000. Amin Ahmadzadeh and Greg Johnson, reproductive physiologists at the university, began a project that evaluates the effects of the hormone estradiol cypionate on the ovulation patterns of cows. Their project will show whether the addition of small doses of the hormone enhances pregnancy rates and increases profitability in a commercial breeding program. The existing herd has been divided into three groups to study conception rates.

Although a few new fences are needed to segregate cattle for research projects, the ranch is remarkably well suited for the university’s ambitious plans. The perimeter is completely fenced, and about two-thirds of the land is irrigated by hand and wheel lines. The rest of the grass is sub-irrigated. Williams, whose background includes considerable experience with irrigation practices, has gotten to know the ranch’s systems on a first-hand basis. He changes 54 hand lines, of varying length and up to 4 inches in diameter, and he maintains the 4 electric and 2 diesel pumps that transport water from spring- and river-fed ditches to lush green pastures and hay fields.

Below: The Cummings center will provide a unique, hands-on, opportunity for cattle research that hasn’t been available to Idaho ranchers before. Photo: © Pam Benham. All rights reserved.

One of his concerns, as a steward of the land, is to ensure that water leaving the ranch and emptying into the Salmon River is as good as it was when it entered the ranch. “We want to make sure that what leaves the ranch is the cleanest possible. That’s part of my background—irrigation water management.”

A member of a military family, Williams moved frequently as a youth, but was indoctrinated early to the ranch lifestyle while living in Utah. He moved to Rexburg, Idaho, in 1975, graduated from Sugar-Salem High School, and then returned to pursue a degree in animal science from Utah State University in 1986. He applied that education on his family’s commercial cow-calf ranch at Teasdale, and eventually went on to become a range conservationist for the State of Utah and then for the Utah Association of Conservation Districts.

Managing the Cummings center has become a family affair that also involves wife Shannon, the Lemhi County extension educator, along with 12-year-old daughter Charli and son Bryce, 9. Shannon assumed her duties in January and commuted to her office in Salmon from their home about 30 miles away in Tendoy until moving to the ranch in May. She holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s in human resource management, both from Utah State University.

“We will take the science that comes from the University of Idaho and apply it to the ground in practical situations…learning what will work for the industry and what will not… What works here should be adaptable to the entire Intermountain West.”

Brad shares the College of Agriculture’s ambitious vision of making the Cummings Ranch a true showcase for livestock science. In the near future, he expects to assist in developing a general management plan for the ranch that includes specific plans for nutrients, irrigation/water/forage balance, maintenance, and development. He also hopes to increase the herd size to about 400, as the ranch’s capacity is better understood.

Toward that end, the university embarked on a modern-day cattle drive with a unique, philanthropic twist. The drive, or campaign, launched last winter, is designed to increase herd size through donations of high-quality heifer calves, bred heifers, or bred cows. Of equal importance, Battaglia explains, the cattle drive also will demonstrate widespread support by Idaho cattle producers for the ranch and its education/research/extension mission. That support from the cattle industry, combined with input from the ranch advisory board (consisting of cattle producers from across the state), is critical to the ranch’s success.

Clyde and Ruby Nelson of the Nelson Angus Ranch in Salmon donated the first heifer which has since calved.

Battaglia and the ranch advisory board hope the cattle drive will increase the UI herd by 100 at weaning time of this year and provide a solid base for a variety of research projects that connect research, education, and production.
 

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