Good morning!! What a pleasure to be here intermingled with such distinguished company. I am amazed at the information available at this meeting. As you heard my name is Mike Spearman, I am here representing the L Cross Ranch, located in the south central part of Colorado known as the San Luis Valley and a small community known as La Garita. It's a huge valley that lies at about 7500' in altitude. Surrounded completely by mountains, some reaching 14,000'. Our cattle graze up to about 13,000' in the summer. You must cross over a pass to leave the San Luis Valley. I have been the Manager for the L Cross Ranch for about 20 years. Currently the L Cross is made up of what were five smaller ranches when I became the Manager in 1981. During the past 20 years the L Cross has undergone about 5 ownership changes, however, my wife Caren and I seem to stay with the ranch regardless of whose name is on the Deed. It has been a wonderful place to live and raise a family, though challenging at times. Our ranching business is divided into about 4 enterprises: We run about 450 Hereford cows, which we breed to Registered Angus bulls. Thus generating a new crop of F-1 black baldie calves each year. Our steer calf crop is typically marketed in July by way of the video market and delivered about the middle of December each year. The heifer part of our calf crop is held over the winter, and then marketed the following year as bred heifers and feeders. Leading to our second enterprise, which is, bred heifers. At or about the first of April we select which heifers we will breed and sell and the balance are spayed and become stockers. We pelvic measure the heifers and score their reproductive tracts. We then begin synchronizing the heifers and preparing them for breeding around May 1st. The heifers are then artificially bred to selected Angus sires with low birth weight EPD's. We attempt to have all the heifers contracted for October delivery by June 1st of each year. Our third enterprise is a stocker operation. We bring in about 400-500 heifer calves each fall and winter them on the ranch. Some of the time is spent outside on pastures and some time is spent within our small feedlot if a more rapid gain is desired. On about April 1st these heifers are all spayed and turned out to grass. Our target is to market the heifers by way of video as the different groups approach 750 lbs, regardless of the time of year. However, the heifers are typically sold in January or July for later delivery, by way of video market. Our last enterprise is our hay business. We raise grass hay, alfalfa, and Oat hay on the ranch. However, all hay sales are internal and charged to whatever set of cattle consumes it. Adding value, that's our goal. Well enough about the ranch I have been asked to visit with you about the two best and the two worst decisions that I feel we have made on the ranch. Actually I found this to be a somewhat difficult task. Oh, not talking about the two best decisions, that appeared easy. But when I started trying to think of the Two Worst decisions, that was more difficult. You see most of us are more than willing to expound on our good decisions, down to the finest detail. Because that s talking about things that worked! Well enough about the ranch I have been asked to visit with you about the two best and the two worst decisions that I feel we have made on the ranch. Actually I found this to be a somewhat difficult task. Oh, not talking about the two best decisions, that appeared easy. But when I started trying to think of the Two Worst decisions, that was more difficult. You see most of us are more than willing to expound on our good decisions, down to the finest detail. Because that s talking about things that worked! Those are our success stories! But bad decisions, that's another matter!! Who wants to talk about those! They are the failures! Excuse me! The learning experiences. It seems sometimes that I have spent a lifetime learning by trial and error. Well that sure gets old and many times very expensive. Well I guess I seemed to be walking around one day "scratching my head", "trying to remember" a poor decision. When my wife offered to help, then my son offered to help. Suddenly I was inundated with reminders of things I had done wrong over the years. I finally told them to stop! That fortunately I was only asked to talk about "two" poor decisions and certainly they had given me an adequate number of mistakes to choose from. It's those two worst decisions that I would like to discuss with you first today. In the early 1990 s we experienced two extremely rough winters in a row. And in the third year we had a lot of early snow and seemed it would happen again. Well as most of you know when we have those harsh winters our death loss at calving goes up, and life in general gets pretty unbearable. We start calving about the first of February and when the snow gets deep our temperatures plummet ! Our valley creates an air inversion that just won't let it warm up ! Two in a row seemed to be just too much! I began to think every winter was going to be just like that. However, we have enjoyed 9 easy winters since then. But when spring came I decided to keep the cows from the bulls an extra 30 days. For our ranch, our particular set of circumstances, this was a bad decision. I had spent the previous 8 or 9 years trying to group our cows calving into February and March and had been relatively successful. And it certainly was easier to have them grouped when I waited until June to turn in the bulls. But again, for our ranch, at our altitude, and with our set of resources, this was a mistake in my opinion. The results were that 1.) we weaned younger calves, which was detrimental to our weaning weights, which intern decreased the size and weight of our heifers the following spring. Which in turn decreased the number of heifers available for breeding and sale the next summer. In order to sell steers at the same weight it required taking them into the next calendar year, which in turn created tax consequences. 3.) Our pregnancy rate in the fall was lower because the bulls were not as efficient on our Forest and BLM permits as they were at home. We go to the high range about the middle of June. Prior to this change we experienced about 80% of the cows being bred before we even went to the mountains. 4.) We were taking smaller calves to the mountains and predator problems increased. And despite the change we didn t save any significant amount of feed. You see in the SLV most of us have cleaned up our irrigated meadows by January 1st. We must then start supplementing with hay from January through the middle of May. Whether the cows are calving or not. So the only feed money available for saving is the difference in the ration precalving and postcalving. That savings was minimal and certainly not enough to cover what we were giving up. I suppose we saved a few more calves, but the winters have been easy ever since. As a result I decided to return to February calving. That's when I discovered that this was a near impossible task. Moving cows backward with calving dates. You can gradually move them but it takes a long time. And your calving season will be spread out for a long time. I truly believe it would be easier and cheaper to sell the cows and buy back early calvers. The other "worst decision" that I am "willing" to talk about today is when I purchased yearling bulls out of sires with low accuracy EPD's. I started reading about and studying EPD's about 13 or 14 years ago. Realized right away that we had a great new tool to assist us in bull selection. It seemed that I had learned just enough to get me into trouble. I had run across this really nice set of attractive yearling bulls. Their growth history was phenomenal. They were huge and just yearlings ! I was afraid that their birth weight genes would be too large. I have always tried to use bulls with an EPD for birth weight under a +4. Well with my new knowledge I looked at the sires EPD for birth weight. It met my criteria. I couldn't believe it ! The young bulls I was considering buying had wonderful weaning weights and yearling weights and were extremely full of muscle, and now to believe that they had low, low, birth weight EPD's was unbelievable. Yes "too good to be true". It took a year or two for me to discover what I had overlooked. The accuracy percentage for the sire of the bulls I purchased was very low. In other words he wasn't proven at all. And as I followed his numbers over the years, as his accuracy number grew, "so did his birth weight EPD"!!!!! I had not studied the numbers all the way through. It just took me a couple of calf crops to figure out that I had made a terrible mistake. Now accuracy of EPD's is the first number that I look at, not the last. That's two of my worst mistakes, but as my wife and son pointed out I could go on ! I could talk about the time I let cattle get shipped from the ranch without payment. I'll never do that again! That mistake necessitated me becoming an expert on Agisters Liens and having to go through the very expensive judicial system to try and recoup our money. I could also spend a good deal of time explaining to you about the hazards of picking up two sticks of dynamite after they had been lit. But that's a story for another day. I told you earlier I would much rather visit with you about what I think have been our two best decisions over the years. Decisions that have positively effected the sustainability of the ranch and protected the resource base of the ranch. They are much more enjoyable to talk about. It was about 15 years ago when I realized that we did not have any real marketing goals. We simply raised a calfcrop every year and hauled the calves to the sale on or about the same day in November every year. It really impacted me to see that the heifer calves brought so much less money than the steer crop! So I began to work to see how we could add some value to our heifer calfcrop. Simultaneously we were trying to build a cowherd of black baldy females, because I believed that they were the best mother cows in the country. And I still believe that !! But black baldy heifers, of a size, quality and weight that we desired, were very difficult to locate. So we made the conscious decision to become producers of black baldy calves. We build a cowherd of high quality Hereford cows and began breeding them to Registered Angus bulls. We had made a production decision based on a goal. We developed a program that produced a product that the market place was asking for, high quality F-1 black baldy bred heifers. At the same time our steer crop of black baldies was also a product that was highly sought after by the feedlot industry. These steers were genetically qualified for the Certified Angus Beef program as well as the Certified Hereford Beef Program. Currently there are a great many different Alliances and programs for all kinds of different breeds and crosses of cattle. I believe that the importance of our decision to change was not so much that we began producing black baldies but more importantly that we selected a program with a goal and stuck with it. We selected a direction and had a target to shoot for. Once we had established a target, it became clearer, what other decisions needed to be made on the ranch to better guide us toward that target. 1.) When we were going to calve 2.) what weaning weight did we need to achieve 3.) when and how should we market the steers 4.)How much weight did our heifers need to gain throughout the winter to be ready to breed by the first of May 5.)Should we institute a synchronization and AI program 6.) What criteria should we use to determine which heifers should be bred and which should be spayed and become stockers. Each of these decisions had to be made, but now it was easier, because we knew where we were going, we had a target, we had an end goal in sight. A program, once put into place, would determine what breed of cow we would need to run , what breed of bulls that we would need, thus determining what our calfcrop would look like. The calves are all similar genetically, they are all F1 crossbreds. The color scheme, black body and white face, would be consistent. Our goal is to produce calves that are like "peas in a pod" if possible. You see we initiated the program without any real preference of cattle breeds. We initiated the program because we knew what product we wanted to end up with. We established the "target" then figured out how to get there. Time has shown us that this has been one of the best decisions we have ever made. Our time is now spent on fine tuning the program to better meet the needs of our customers, whether they be buyers of bred heifers or buyers from the feedlot looking for steers that will perform well for their particular programs. The L Cross Ranch is truly customer driven ! The other "best decision" that I would like to talk about today is of a very different nature. It's not about marketing cattle, or producing cattle, it s about the "Land" that we manage. Like those of you here today I have been blessed to make a living doing the work I love the most, ranching. And the Good Lord has allowed me to do this work in a very wonderful place. On a beautiful ranch, high up in the mountains, surrounded by flowing streams, and amidst an abundance of wildlife. He has allowed me to raise my family in this beautiful place. And in the twenty years I have lived there I have developed a real appreciation for this very special place in the world. For it has so much more to offer than just good cow pasture. There are many special places like this in the West and especially in Colorado. But I, like many of you have seen a trend in the past ten years. We have seen the population explode in the west, we have witnessed areas being developed that we thought would never be at risk. And when we moved to La Garita twenty years ago I thought that I had found a place that would remain unspoiled forever. What I eventually learned was that it had simply not been discovered "yet". It seemed like all of a sudden when I realized that there was a new sub division on three sides of the ranch. Suddenly I had to develop new people skills. How to get along with a group of people who just acquired a 40-acre tract and had no idea what to do with it. And "frankly" were really irritated when my cows showed up in their front yards. They couldn t grasp the concept that they would have to fence my cows out if they didn t want them there. During this period of time the owners of the ranch began to see the financial value of subdividing the L Cross, we like many of you were certainly not getting rich in the cow business. Nearly 8 miles of Carnero Creek and its accompanying riparian areas run right down the middle of the L Cross. On a daily basis deer, elk, antelope, and mountain sheep depend on a trip to Carnero Creek for drinking water. Not to mention the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout , a threatened species, which inhabits the creek along with a multitude of other species, which depend on the riparian area. The areas Elk and deer populations depend upon the local foothills for spring calving. There is nowhere else to go. Deep snow to the west and population centers out in the nearby San Luis Valley. After 20 years of life on the L Cross it really bothered me that many of the beautiful attributes of the ranch and it s wildlife would be lost forever if subdivision continued to encroach. Please do not miss understand me, I am not anti people or anti development. Development will need to occur now and in the future. But it became important to me that along this road to development, we must be able to protect some of these very special places, so that future generations can occasionally see what things use to look like. An occasional open riparian area where elk and deer could graze and bring their young into the world without being disturbed. A place where livestock could graze instead of being covered up with condominiums. A place where the water flowing from the streams is being used to grow green grass in La Garita instead of being exported to a large metropolitan area somewhere far away. I sincerely believe that the L Cross Ranch was, and is, one of those special places that God has created and it that it warranted being protected and not taken out of agricultural production. It was time for a very important decision to be made. I approached the then owners of the L Cross, who had already decided to either sub divide or sell the ranch. A sale would result in either case. I told them that, if given time, I thought that there might be another approach for them to harvest their investment. I explained to them that there were groups and organizations that might assist us in developing and selling a conservation easement on the ranch. And that if we could accomplish this that they would receive full value for their ranch without having to sub divide it. I never ask the owners to settle for less than the appraised value of the ranch. However, I believe that both owners were conservation minded, because they elected not to sell or sub divide immediately but to allow me time to explore this potential new concept. A decision was made at that moment that will effect the land that we call the L Cross Ranch forever !!! Time here today will not allow me to share with you all the events that took place in the two and 1/2 years following this decision. The process was long and grueling. There were countless set backs and disappointments, many sleepless nights wondering if the eventual outcome would be worth all of the effort. There were many deadlines and ultimatums put in place that had to be dealt with. I contacted two entities to assist me in this effort to protect the L Cross, The Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management. After I first went to TNC with the proposal they then proceeded with a biological survey to determine if there really was enough issues of biological importance to warrant their involvement. I went to the BLM because they border the ranch on two sides. And if they purchased a part of the property, by way of land exchange, they would be able to allow more public access to other BLM properties. Myself and representatives from the Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management all met one day and went for a six hour horseback ride, so that I could better show them the true value of the ranch to the wildlife in our area. When that ride was over TNC and the BLM both agreed that we needed to find away to protect this wonderful area. Then began the long arduous task of figuring out how to fund a project, which everyone recognized as being worthwhile. Bottom line is it eventually happened, everything finally came together. And as a result of all those dreams, all of those meetings, all of those miles traveled, and all of the deadlines met, a plan was developed to protect a special piece of the world. All as a result of a decision to delay the sale of the ranch and pursue the remote possibility of procuring a conservation easement, a beautiful piece of the landscape of La Garita, CO was protected from sub division development and it's precious water rights were protected from sale, forever. And yes to answer your first question, the ranch was indeed sold in the end, as was initially intended. But the new owners, Steve and Shelley Marmaduke, are indeed conservation minded. They never wanted to own the ranch to subdivide it or to sell its valuable water rights. They simply appreciate the fact that the L Cross has so much more to offer than just good cow pasture! Indeed I see this as the most important decision we have ever made on the ranch. As a result this special mountain ranch will remain in agricultural production in perpetuity. There you have it, in my opinion, the two worst and the two best decisions that we have made on the L Cross over the past 20 years. As I mentioned earlier I do truly see these mistakes as learning experiences, we will continue to make mistakes but hopefully we will learn from each of them. Every ranch is different in it's nature, each has it's own set of circumstances, each a different set of resources to work with. Every cattle cycle and every new year brings a new set of variables and new challenges. Certainly September 11th has changed our world again, dramatically. But we adapt and we continue forward, we are ranchers, we don't understand any other way. Each of us is to busy trying to make "two blades of grass grow where there once was only one". Thank you for listening and I look forward to any questions that you might have for me.