"It's Not Hollywood At All": How Veeder Ranch Battled Historic Blizzards, Found Hope in the Middle of the Storm
USFR-Grit With Grace North Dakota Blizzard.
Once you reach the far western portion of North Dakota, the rugged ways of ranching on the cusp of the Badlands can be challenging, no matter the time of year.
“No calf out there is older than 2 weeks old,” says Chad Scofield, a rancher in Watford City, N. D. “Most of them have been born in the last six to seven days.”
This year, calving in the middle of a blizzard came with a battle that was unlike anything many North Dakota ranchers had ever seen.
“We were told it was coming,” says Gene Veeder, who owns Veeder Ranch and ranches along with his son-in-law Chad. “I guess the magnitude of it just kind of was a slap in the face.”
Veeder Ranch is a family operation that’s relied on this land for more than a century.
“Having that long, hard blizzard for a couple of days, and then another one, I don't remember that ever happening like that in April,” says Veeder.
The family portion of the ranch is still intact, as Chad is married to Gene’s daughter, Jessie. They all live on the family ranch, raising the next generation.
“We didn't know when I was growing up here in the 90s whether it was going to be a possibility for me to raise a family out here, honestly,” says Jessie Veeder Scofield. “It was a totally different economic time."
Jessie’s husband, Chad, has worked on the ranch for several years, but has only been full time for a few years. Now that their family is fully immersed in the ranch life, Jessie is grateful.
“Every day we come to the work we're doing in the family, that we have here, from a place of gratitude,” she adds.
McKenzie County, N. D., is unique with the median age in the community hovering around 35.
“It is because of the economy, because there are jobs here and the oil activity, especially, brought that to McKenzie County. It brought a lot of fourth and fifth generations back to the family ranches, and that’s been incredible,” she says.
Battling the Blizzard
Carrying on those traditions here, is what Jessie strives to do, even when Mother Nature pushes livelihoods to the limits.
An area stricken with dire drought conditions, the blizzard warnings stirred up emotions the week before Easter.
“It's like gratefulness and fear all sort of balled into one,” says Jessie. “I think everyone in McKenzie County and in western North Dakota was feeling that, because we haven't seen snow like this for years.”
Both hope and fear entered the picture as the forecasts became closer and closer to reality. Then, just before Easter Sunday, the Veeders saw a blizzard of a lifetime.
“I think it lasted three full days, and it was bad. Like right here where we're standing, we would have been standing in about 3 feet of snow,” says Chad.
Record-Breaking Snow
As snow piled up, even trying to wade through the snow to get to their tractors was a feat. Typically, the Veeders would enter their pastures on horseback, but the conditions were too extreme this time.
“Just walking from the house to the barn here on the first storm, where we're standing right now, I had snow to my waist. I was almost panicky because I had to get to this building to get to the tractor to get out,” says Veeder.
“The snow was so deep coming across this road, that I was pushing it with the front of the tractor, not even the bucket, just the actual front of the tractor was pushing it,” Chad adds.
With blinding conditions and snow that was measured in feet, not inches, the first storm was bad enough. Then, just days later, another storm hit, this time as the Veeders were at the height of calving.
“That was hard for us, because we knew that we were going to have calves out there. We did the best we could to give them shelter and get bedding down for them, but if they were born in the night during the weather, we just couldn't save them,” says Veeder.
Already exhausted from the first storm, the Veeders did everything they could to prepare for the second.
“What we did is we put them in our lowest, most protected areas and had lots of hay and stuff for them to lay on and got them out of the wind,” says Veeder.
Losses from the Storm
Even though the Veeders did everything they could to help protect their livestock, the blinding conditions were followed by ice, as the back-to-back blizzards were intense. The Veeders only had about 20 minutes after a calf was born to save it.
“They were just wet and cold and couldn't get dry,” says Chad. “And the cows were all confused about who was the mom for each calf, and it was just kind of pandemonium.”
“My brother was here, too, so Chad, my brother and I were in the two tractors out there, and we had multiple calves in the tractor trying to get them warmed up,” says Gene.
Gene’s brother came back from Texas just to help during the storms, and even with extra help, it was a battle to save the calves.
“We were out in the tractors, looking for calves,” explains Chad. “I think we picked up four or five of them. And then a couple of them were able to get back with their moms, and now we are left with three bottle calves still.”
With the brutal conditions, some of the newborn calves didn’t survive the storm.
“We're still probably going to be calculating the losses,” says Jessie. “It was certainly more than we wanted to lose, but gosh, we could have lost more.”
Ranchers across North Dakota found calves that were lost in snowbanks after the snow melted from the storm, and the losses are hard for even this seasoned rancher to weather.
“It doesn't have anything to do with dollars,” says Veeder. “I get a lump in my throat telling you about it. These cows that you raise, you kind of get a bond with them. And then you see them go through all that, and their (calf) just dies in a snowbank in 15 minutes.”
Sacrifices to Save Lives
Veeder Ranch lost around 10 calves, but it’s the lives they saved that the family celebrates.
“We had every family member in our entryway with a heated floor, and we were scrubbing those calves down, getting them dried off and getting them fed and trying to pick them up,” says Jessie.
Jessie’s two girls, along with her sister and her two kids, did everything they could to save each precious life on the ranch.
“One bottle calf, the girls named her Strawberry, and now she's in the barn doing really well. So you feel kind of victorious with all of those little victories that you get in the process of being kind of desperate,” says Jessie.”
While ranchers will continue to battle the thoughts of what else they could have done to save their livestock, there are many calves that lived because of the sacrifices the Veeders and other ranchers made during the April blizzards. And signs of life are spread all across area ranches, in more ways than one.
“You have to just be in the moment, do what you can and be able to look past it into a more positive situation and know that it's coming and believe that it's coming,” says Jessie.
Relief in the Form of Moisture
Better days are exactly what’s ahead. An area that had faced a harsh drought for two consecutive years, saw moisture that was not just needed but crucial this year.
“We were in such incredible drought,” says Gene. “We were getting our business taken from us with a drought. We're talking about this blizzard, but I felt worse about the drought than I do this blizzard, honestly, I do. It was a hopeless feeling.”
While the blizzard robbed them of some new life, it also brought blessings in the form of moisture.
“It means not having to sell the cattle for us,” says Jessie. “(Having moisture) to grow the grass that didn't grow back in the fall means we’ll be able to keep our herd. It’s huge.”
The moisture from the blizzard was extreme, but it saved their herd. Some of the animals they were already forced to sell due to dire drought conditions. Relief is just one of many emotions running rampant as the weeks of brutal weather have made ranchers here tired, both physically and mentally.
“I worked hard enough that my body feels like 90 years old,” says Veeder with a smile. “But never once do I complain because my dad worked way harder. And my grandpa worked way harder.”
Heavy Dose of Grit and Grace
For ranchers across the Plains, weathering the extremes is simply what you do.
“Both my grandparents homesteaded in this area. I don't know how they did it. I can't imagine so,” says Veeder. “The Yellowstone thing, there’s not enough dollars in livestock today to live that kind of lifestyle. You have to love it. You have to love getting up every morning looking at your cattle and having my grandkids come in and appreciate it and my kids appreciate these. It's not Hollywood at all.”
Ranching may not be glamorous like pictured in popular movies or television series, but it creates lessons that last a lifetime, and it requires a heavy dose of grit and grace.
“We had a lot to be grateful for in this situation,” says Jessie. “We have family around us, we have a lot of help, we had the right equipment, we had the moisture. For me grit is just being able to see past it, you know, see past the hard time and into the next step. And the next step is going to be better, we're going to do this, we're going to have a plan.”
