The Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches has been improving the lives of at-risk children
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1546265
The Best Lesson in Teamwork You'll Ever Get T he Ranchers at the Ed Van Ness Farm certainly earned their paychecks this past summer! The work program at the Youth Ranches is designed to help young men and women learn the value of hard work, responsibility, and integrity. The farm program offers one of the widest skill sets; Ranchers learn everything from roping and riding to driving tractors and vaccinating animals. Recently our youth helped run a weekend clinic at the farm, which included vaccinating and tagging calves. In order to accomplish this, volunteers from the Great Florida Cattle Drive and Operation Outdoor Freedom teamed up with our Ranchers and farm staff to round up our herd. Working as a team, the riders pushed the animals across multiple pastures, even crossing the Boys Ranch archway road to funnel the herd into the pasture closest to the pens. The pastures rang with shouts and hoots and whistles as the riders spread out, watching for stray cattle trying to break from the herd. Farm Director Jeff Parker, from his position at the edge of the herd, saw a cow drifting a little too far out. He shouted into the clear morning for Rancher Paisley, who was the rider closest to the wanderer. Paisley turned at the sound, and saw the animal Mr. Parker was gesturing to. She tapped her horse with the heels of her boots and they set off to herd the cow back into line. "Nice job, Paisley!" Mr. Parker shouted. With the cattle in the proper pasture, it was time to start separating the calves from the mothers. This was all done on horseback, which was a great opportunity for our youth to see the skills they practice Above and facing page, left to right: Ranchers (from left) Jed, Aaron, LJ, and Shirley get ready to work on the calves in the pen. LJ and Aaron hold down a calf while Lindsey tags its ear. Ranchers and volunteers on horseback drive the cattle across the Ranch. Paisley (front) and Aaron keep an eye out for stray cattle so they can herd them back towards the group. 1 0 T H E R A N C H E R FA L L 2 0 2 6