Sheep Industry News September 2023

President’s Notes BRAD BONER ASI PRESIDENT

Inspiration From the Past

M y wife, Laurie, and I attended the annual Sheep Wagon gathering recently in Douglas, Wyo. It is tradition to start off the week of activities surrounding the Wyoming State Fair with this incredible event. More than 175 people attended the cookout that provides the fixins, while each person brings and cooks their own center of plate protein on one of the several provided grills. There were 30-plus wagons on display representing many different builders that obviously left their mark on history through their imagination, common sense and impressive skill set that allowed them to produce these amazing mobile homes. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of innovation and efficiencies that were built into these icons of the prairie. Many of them had a born-on date that exceeded 100 years ago. What incredible vision and thought was put into their mak ing that still to this day rivals their more modern cousins. All this historical stimulation got me to thinking about the last 100-plus years of the sheep industry in this country. The resilience and innovation of our ancestors who had the intestinal fortitude to, not only survive but thrive, given the uphill battles they faced is awe inspiring to me. They experienced many of the same challenges from Mother Nature and with fewer of the tools we have at our disposal today. Yet they were able to figure out how to successfully cohabitate with her in the long run. They embraced any challenge that stood in their way and therefore were successful in developing systems to transport and market their products to the developing markets east, west, north and south across the vastness of this young and rapidly growing nation. Try for a moment to imagine figuring out a way to get wool and lambs produced by your sheep hundreds to thousands of miles away to the end consumer who would be willing to purchase them. There were no roads, no trucks and only a few railroad depots in the developing West, and yet these obstacles did not deter them from becoming successful entrepreneurs. They were indeed, resilient, innovative and resourceful with an amazing work ethic. They were driven to succeed by a vision of the future that was much, much bigger to them than any obstacle in their path. Their unwillingness to let anyone or anything outside of themselves determine their success in whatever issue presented itself to them is, to say the least, awe inspiring. In today’s world – with all the outside influences we experience daily – it has become harder to stay focused on what we need to do to solve the issues confronting us. It is helpful for me to draw on the experiences and wisdom of our forefathers who were unapologetic and undeterred in going about the business at hand. They were masters at ignoring the unproductive noise around them in order to complete the task at hand. I believe we will move further down the road to achieving our goals and vision for the success of the generations to come behind us by emulating our ancestors. Until next time, keep it on the sunny side.

4 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org