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Ranchers from all across the Centennial Valley help J Bar L ranch brand young calves in August 2012. Branding is especially important in Western states, where grazing of public lands is vital to raising cattle. Cattle can easily wander or get mixed with other herds and being able to identify an animal's owner by a brand is critically important. ??Mark Boone, president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association, says the more environmentally focused philosophy used at J Bar L Ranch, first enshrined by Zimbabwean biologist Allan Savory, has seen a "steady increase" among Montana ranchers, especially with the newer generation, college-educated ones looking for ways to improve range productivity. ??Boone, who manages the VX Ranch, has read Savory's book himself, and his sense is that ranchers "use what fits" their operation. "I haven't heard, 'It didn't work out'," he adds, but ranchers do have to "tweak" things when Mother Nature "throws curve balls." This year, he notes, "drought has changed grazing plans entirely, with some shipping cattle to other states."

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Ranchers from all across the Centennial Valley help J Bar L ranch brand young calves in August 2012. Branding is especially important in Western states, where grazing of public lands is vital to raising cattle. Cattle can easily wander or get mixed with other herds and being able to identify an animal's owner by a brand is critically important. ??Mark Boone, president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association, says the more environmentally focused philosophy used at J Bar L Ranch, first enshrined by Zimbabwean biologist Allan Savory, has seen a "steady increase" among Montana ranchers, especially with the newer generation, college-educated ones looking for ways to improve range productivity. ??Boone, who manages the VX Ranch, has read Savory's book himself, and his sense is that ranchers "use what fits" their operation. "I haven't heard, 'It didn't work out'," he adds, but ranchers do have to "tweak" things when Mother Nature "throws curve balls." This year, he notes, "drought has changed grazing plans entirely, with some shipping cattle to other states."