Sheep Industry News April 2022

Meet The Exec. Board

Bronson Corn, New Mexico Region VI

A rancher fromNewMexico, Bronson Corn might need a hypnotist of his own to make people forget his remarkable turn as a backup dancer to "Luke Bryan" during the Saturday afternoon lunch at the 2022 ASI Annual Convention in San Di ego. As one of a select few volunteers who appeared on stage for the entirety of Dr. Al Snyder's hypnotist act, Bronson was put through a series of role-playing adventures that had him driving a car, dancing and more. Fortunately, he's no longer answering calls from his cowboy boot. It was a moment that won't soon be forgotten, even if Bronson can't remember a minute of it.

I DON’T KNOW HOW I GOT ROPED INTO THAT. I hope I don’t ever have to answer that phone call again. I wish there was no such thing as a smartphone, so there wouldn’t be any video or photos of that. At the time, it was kind of like a dream. But then I woke up and it was no longer a dream. Everybody was giving me a hard time. I don’t mind making a fool of myself to get someone else to laugh. I’m absolutely not a dancer. I dance a lot like a whale out of water. I'M A FIFTH-GENERATION RANCHER here in Roswell. I've got sheep, cattle and goats and a little feedlot operation. My wife, Barbara, and I have our own operation, but we run all of the sheep together with my dad (Mike Corn is a past president of ASI and owner of Roswell Wool). We run them all as one unit and that way we don't have to fight as many coyotes with sheep scattered out over so much different country. We like to keep them centralized. I WAS PRESIDENT OF THE NEWMEXICO Wool Growers at the same time that my dad was president of ASI, but I was president for four years. There was another man who was going to take the position but he couldn’t at that time, so they asked if I would stay on for another two-year term. Right here around Roswell used to be the epicenter of the sheep industry, especially the fine-wool sheep industry. Some of the finest wool that has ever been produced was produced right here in Roswell. There’s been a lot of struggles in the sheep industry in New Mexico. The predators have eaten us alive, and that’s caused a lot of people to get out of the industry. FROM AN ECONOMICAL STANDPOINT, you can’t have a ranch out here and just run cattle on it. And you can’t have a ranch out here and just run sheep on it, either. The terrain of this country is so diverse that the two of them work well together. There’s country here that cattle just can’t graze, and that’s a big part of why I want to stay in the sheep industry. The

combination of the two gives you full utilization of the land. And that’s part of why I wanted to be on the ASI Executive Board, so I can promote getting back into the sheep industry in this area. And some actually have. There’s a couple of cattle ranchers down here who are bringing two loads of ewes back into New Mexico on a ranch that ran sheep 20 something years ago and are now getting back into it. So, that gives me hope. FROM THE TIME I WAS A KID, I HAD A PLAN to spend two years at New Mexico State University and get an ag economics background, and then transfer over to Texas Christian Univer sity’s ranch management program. And that’s what I did. The main reason I wanted to go to New Mexico State for just two years was because I wanted to learn to be more technologically savvy before I went to TCU. That ranch management program is a pretty intense program, so I needed some more experience before I just stepped right into it. It's a one-year program, but you’re only in the classroom about half the time. The rest of the time, you’re on these field trips going to a bunch of differ ent operations all over the Southwest and nearby states. We went to New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. The main things you get out of the program are contacts and knowledge of the economical side of ranching. They don’t teach you the hands-on side of it at all. It’s based on the economic side of ranching. The students already know how to deal with the livestock, but learning the business side is just as important if you’re going to make a living in ranching. THE PART THAT I’M MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT and that keeps me going when things seem to be stacked against us is that I want to give my kids (Garrett, 11, and Madison, 8) the opportunity to do what I’m doing. I love everything about what I’m doing – even the stuff that sucks sometimes. When everything is pushing against me, I can’t see myself doing anything different because I believe this is what God made me to do.

This is a series of articles spotlighting members of ASI’s Executive Board.

18 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org