(thoughtful acoustic music) - We met in, let's see, it must have been 1960.

And to this day, I remember exactly that I walked in the back door, into the kitchen.

He was sitting on his stool and he had on a burgundy-colored, cashmere sweater and slacks, and I just went, (chuckles).

That was it.

- Well, my number one priority has always been and will continue to be to take care of the land.

If I take care of the land properly, then there in turn, the land will take care of my cattle and will take care of my family.

- There ain't no cowboys anywhere else in the world that do it the way we do it here, traditional, of taking care of the livestock that takes care of you.

You keep the cow alive and pretty quick, she's gonna keep you alive by feeding you.

It's a great tradition.

Ya dang sure don't get rich doing this, but you have a good life usually.

- Well, I didn't really grow up as a cowboy.

I'm not a cowboy, I just found the hat.

And it's a tough business, 'cause the tricky part about it is making money.

(chuckles) - I think what people tend not to realize is the fact that farmers and ranchers are the greatest stewards of the land ever.

They realize that they have something God-given that they need to pass on to generation after generation.

- Oh, pretty much everything you've seen us do so far has not been something that's easy to do, man.

- And so then, we would swim our cattle across the middle fork of the San Joaquin at Miller's crossing and that was, (sighs) it was like an art.

- There are a lot of different cattle ranchers.

You have the more progressive who are going into four wheelers and getting away from using horses.

It's becoming more of a cattle farm.

They're more about the money than the tradition.

(suspenseful music) - We were together most of the time, most of 50-some years, but we never married.

Mike loved cattle ranching, he loved farming.

He did both for many years and at one time, he was one of the largest dry land farmers in California.

He loved it.

(cattle mooing) - [Announcer] Production funding for "American Grown: My Job Depends on Ag" provided by James G. Parker Insurance Associates, insuring and protecting agribusiness for over 40 years.

By Gar Bennett, the growing experts in water, irrigation, nutrition, and crop care advice and products.

We help growers feed the world.

By Golden State Farm Credit, building relationships with rural America by providing ag financial services.

By Brandt Professional Agriculture, proudly supporting the heroes that work hard to feed a hungry world every day.

By unWired Broadband, today's internet for rural central California, keeping Valley agriculture connected since 2003.

By Hodges Electric, proudly serving the Central Valley since 1979, and by Valley Air Conditioning and Repair, family owned for over 50 years, proudly featuring Coleman products.

Dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow our nation's food.

(thoughtful orchestral music) - My name is Diane Bohna.

I'm a cattle rancher in Raymond, California.

I operate the Three Bar Ranch along with my husband, Abe and we have been in this for several years.

I am a fifth generation cattle rancher, and I come by that by the way of my father, Henry Bohna and Elizabeth Bohna, which Elizabeth Cates, they homesteaded here probably in the 1800s to late 1800s.

So my roots go very deep in this area.

My life as a child was very unique and at the time, I might not have known how very, very lucky I was, but we would be in the winter here in Raymond and in Coarsegold, California and I started out as about three years old and we would take our cattle down to what's called Stubble in the Valley.

And we would do that sometime, probably around May and when we would drive them down, it was very hot.

So what we would do is we would start out at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon and we would drive them in through the night to get them down to Stubble.

In doing that, one of the experiences that I remember is the fact that you're driving by the light of the moon, and the light of the moon against the golden grass is absolutely stunning.

It's almost like it illuminates into a daytime setting.

But when you're driving the cows along at a very slow speed, you would hear the rattlesnakes start to rattle.

(low rattling) And I'm just a little bitty kid and I remember asking my father, "Oh my gosh, what do I do?"

And the very simplistic answer that he gave me has been a life's lesson.

He said, "Stay on your horse."

And I thought, "Well, that makes sense," and I've really lived by that.

(music swells) - When Mike came home, he took over his dad's operation.

I mean, his dad said, "You do it" and in essence, hired him to run his business and Mike started his own.

The first thing Mike did, he had saved his money.

He's always been saving money, and he bought, I think it was about 50 head of cattle.

Got taken to the cleaners, first step out.

And that was his beginning and he ran his dad's operation.

His dad did not pay him, he did not expect a salary.

But he always said Dad bought him all the cigarettes he wanted to smoke.

That was his pay.

(chuckles) And that's when he took off.

(thoughtful piano music) (cattle mooing) - We're going to Nevada for the summer.

Nice, green feed.

Good weather.

Then they'll come home.

- [Interviewer] Scott, how long you been workin' out here?

I was curious about that.

- [Scott] For 16 years.

- [Interviewer] How did you and Mike come to know each other?

- I come out here to visit my parents who live in Auberry.

I was in Nevada, time I grew up up there, and I was tired of freezing my butt off every winter in Nevada, so I come out here too and heard that they were looking for help.

So I stopped in here to talk to Mike and he wasn't here, so I left my name and number and I went back to Nevada.

And then I went and met Mike in a field in Nevada where he was shipping cattle one year, and he offered me a job and I took it, and I've been here ever since.

(thoughtful piano music) (truck rumbles) - I have known Mike for pretty close to 50 years and Mike was one of a kind.

Either you loved him or you didn't, kind of a deal.

But I'll tell you one thing.

If you dealt with Mike, whatever he told you, his word was his bond, he was good for it.

(music swells) - The cattle industry isn't the easiest thing for a person to get involved with.

There are seemingly ups and downs, financially, that sometimes it's hard to plan ahead.

You see the cattle out in the hills or in pastures and you think, "Well, how easy, how easy they've got it.

Look at the grass, look at the feed they've got."

And where's the cattleman?

There's just these lovely animals out there and the next thing you know, you go to the grocery store and you buy your meat, and go home and enjoy it.

And you have no idea what goes on between raising that baby calf to the point where it's ready to go to slaughter and is providing nutrition for your family.

And it's been work every moment of the way.

(cattle mooing) - When you talk about cattle ranching, this is one of the very few industries that my first statement would be, "We've not changed in over 200 years," when it first got started here in California, when they were building missions on the coast and the vaqueros were bringing cattle up from Mexico.

Now, fast forward, there are a lot of things that have changed, but you still need a cowboy.

You need cattle, you need a good dog, and you need to take things into your own hands when need be and run this operation.

That part has not changed in 200 years.

(dramatic orchestral music) - [Interviewer] So when you see calves like that, when will you wean 'em off their mom?

- These will still get weaned, spring, they'll get weaned next fall.

- [Interviewer] Okay, so they'll stay with their mom that whole time.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Interviewer] Even when you ship 'em over to Nevada.

- Yes, I ship them as pairs to Nevada.

- [Interviewer] Okay, and when you put 'em in the truck, they don't ride in the same place but that doesn't matter, they know who they are?

- No, once you unload 'em in Nevada, you put 'em in a corral or hold them all together for however long it takes.

Sometimes it can take up to two hours and you make sure everybody, all the babies find their mamas, and then you ease 'em out.

(resonant music) - Adios, amigo.

- Okay.

(thudding) - [Interviewer] You have to take some pride in... - [Scott] You do.

- [Interviewer] Knowing that you're growing food for people.

- Yes, you're growing the crop.

You wanna grow the most quality crop of calve you can.

One, to get the best profit you can, but also to put out the best quality beef you can.

You want to have antibiotic-free, no steroids, just good quality, solid beef.

(cattle mooing) Something that the American or anywhere in the world, they'll enjoy.

(thoughtful music) I feel you're never gonna replace the horse for working cattle.

- [Interviewer] Why is that?

- Because when you're going to gather the cattle, if you're on a four wheeler, four wheeler can't move sideways and turn a cow back.

Gotta make a big ol' loop, and then you get your cattle stirred up more.

But if you go to gather these cows with a horse, they're all gonna walk right down here to water and then you can ease them along down the fence line and turn them out, and just have a more calmer cattle, which is obviously gonna gain better weight, be happier cows, and not be hoorahed so much.

(sweeping orchestral music) - [Interviewer] Statistically do they have, is it 50-50 on male or female being born?

- Yup, mm-hmm.

- It is?

- When we brand a field of cows, if we brand 100 head of cows in a field, there'll be generally 50 steers, 50 heifers.

Thereabouts, little variance here and there, but it's generally a 50-50 deal.

- [Interviewer] And so the heifers, that's how you expand your herd.

You keep those heifers, and you take good care of 'em and you probably sell some of 'em, 'cause-- - Yeah, we sell 75, 80% of the heifers because we only keep the best of the best to keep the best quality cattle we can for the herd.

- [Interviewer] And when you say best, what's the barometer on that?

- [Scott] I go by a long back, muscling, straight backs and just-- - [Interviewer] But it's a visual thing.

- [Scott] It's a visual thing.

(resonant music) Generally try to sell 'em around, 500, 550 pounds.

And they'll go somewhere.

This time of year, supposed to be having green grass here but if we ever get some rain, we will.

And then a lot of people turn them out here and then they'll bring them off at 700 pounds, and then they'll go back to the east somewhere and usually be on a wheat field, and then go into a feed lot and then go into the food chain.

And then usually, around 1,200 pounds is when they wind up going to a grocery store near you.

(thoughtful music) - My father got us into it.

He'd fed cattle in Arizona and had a operation down there and really got into in California in the 60s.

He built a feed lot here on right interstate five, at that point with a partner and ended up buying him out.

So I was always on the periphery of it, but I was not really hands-on because I was going to school and didn't really get involved in the day-to-day operations of cattle until I was probably in my 20s or so.

(resonant guitar music) The tradition, I don't know if that will go on and on, or not, but I hope it does.

I really hope there's a spirit of the west and a spirit of being on the frontier and trying to always improve things, and you're trying to improve your herd or your techniques.

But it's not an easy (chuckles) business, really.

(cattle mooing) As far as the popularity of the product in general, I think it is pretty good because we went through a period there where we were getting criticized a lot on nutritional issues, which was really false criticism.

But we've been able to counteract that and I think people now don't view beef as a detriment to their health.

And we think it's really an attribute to your health.

It's got protein and iron and zinc and a lot of things that you need.

So we need to keep hammering that home with the public that that eating beef is good for 'em.

(bright music) - Mike was more than just a cattleman.

He was a very astute businessman.

He was involved with community.

Mike was a charter member of the board of the San Joaquin River Trust.

The river project was very special to Mike.

He didn't believe that people really understood what this whole Valley was about.

- He was very aware about how important it was to protect the whole ecosystem of the river and the properties that abut the river.

And he was very effective because he had kind of a strong personality.

I remember going to Fresno City Hall and there was a committee of the council that we met with, and he carried the weight of the subject and he told them how it should be, no uncertain terms.

That was his starring moment on the board.

(resonant music) (gate creaks) (bull huffs) - Every animal has its own personality or disposition and bulls, it's kind of interesting how they seem to be aware of what is coming down the pike.

- Usually what happens is, those bulls get to fightin' and if you're too close when they decided to stop fighting, they're not really looking where they're goin'.

A lot of times they'll just, psh, go right over whatever's in front of them.

And if you happen to be in front of them, (clicks tongue) it's not a whole lot you can do about it.

Hold on, I guess.

(bull moos) - Within our ranching community, we have a family bond.

You might not be blood, but it's a family feeling that you have, and so when there is a challenge, say for instance like the Creek Fire this year, now there are circumstances where you don't have time.

And a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, he did not have time during this Creek Fire to react fast because the fire was faster, and he lost about 90% of his herd.

It was really heartbreaking and devastating to his family, his future, et cetera.

And myself and fellow other permittees, we got together.

And we decided that we needed to help in some way.

- We knew right off the bat.

I mean, we were at Huntington when the fire started and we evacuated out of there on Saturday morning, and we knew right away.

Well, I shouldn't say that.

I still was in hopes that they were gonna get control of the fire.

By Sunday afternoon, Sunday morning, we were pretty sure that cattle were in trouble.

The fire was raging.

It had done some scary, scary things.

We were just hoping that they could find a spot somewhere to get out of harm's way.

If they could drop to the lake, maybe.

We just didn't know.

When we got to our permit on Saturday, they reluctantly let us in, but we were gonna be in active fire, some active fire.

When we got up there, everything was devastating.

It just, black sticks, you know.

There was no forest where we were.

Right off the bat we found two dead cattle, all burned up.

(thoughtful music) Our first live bunch, it was only about six or eight head.

(bird sings) But there was one down in the meadow and we had to euthanize her.

And then my son was actually in the side-by-side and he found a big group of cattle.

So we got that, about 60 head in one group.

And we got those, but we were in ash and fires here, and there's still trees burning.

My daughter-in-law put together a crew to veterinary inspect all the cattle that we had got down the previous day.

We got back down on the way down.

My daughter-in-law sent my wife a note.

It said, "Everything's inspected, 90% call."

Which I didn't understand.

A 90% call, what does that mean?

And we got down here.

Out of the 81 head that we had either seen or gathered, we only ended up keeping 12 of those.

The others were either dead or had to be euthanized.

(gentle guitar music) Two days after that, Jill and I were sitting right here in the house and really, real close friends of ours drove in and I went out to greet 'em, and they passed right by, and they went down here to the crouse.

And then right behind them was a big truck and a trailer.

And now I was confused, I didn't know what was going on.

Truck pulled up to the unloading shoot and they started unloading cattle.

And right away, I recognized some of the brands on the cattle from neighbors and friends.

And as low as things had got, Jill and I looked at each other and tears started flowing again, but tears of appreciation.

And while they were unloading the cattle, I asked Gary, I said, "What's goin' on?"

He goes "Oh, it's just a lot of people that think an awful lot of you guys."

They unloaded 40 head of cattle and had all the paperwork.

They had met up down at Harlan Ranch and got all the paperwork done on it, and they gifted us 40 head of cattle.

(thoughtful music) - Ranches like this, more often than not are becoming vulnerable targets.

Everybody wants to move to the country.

It's amazing right here at home, Clovis, Fresno, Madera, how much land is being turned into housing developments.

Currently, this particular ranch, our ranch is being circled by home development.

Whether this ranch will survive in the future, I don't know.

Cattlemen are tough.

The cattleman will find somewhere to be.

It may not be right in your backyard anymore, but it will survive.

All the farming, including the cattlemen, are going to continue on.

(thoughtful piano music) We need them.

You need them, I need them.

And more and more people are beginning to realize that.

(hopeful acoustic music) - [Announcer] Production funding for "American Grown: My Job Depends on Ag" provided by James G. Parker Insurance Associates, insuring and protecting agribusiness for over 40 years.

By Gar Bennett, the growing experts in water, irrigation, nutrition, and crop care advice and products.

We help growers feed the world.

By Golden State Farm Credit, building relationships with rural America by providing ag financial services.

By Brandt Professional Agriculture, proudly supporting the heroes that work hard to feed a hungry world every day.

By unWired Broadband, today's internet for rural central California, keeping Valley agriculture connected since 2003.

By Hodges Electric, proudly serving the Central Valley since 1979 and by Valley Air Conditioning and Repair, family owned for over 50 years, proudly featuring Coleman products, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow our nation's food.

(engine rumbling) (rocket whooshing) (bright music)