Welcome to Blair Hunewill’s Cattle Call blog!  I’m very excited to be a part of this, and look forward to sharing some of my thoughts and experiences as a young producer.  The purpose of this blog is to discuss current issues that I feel are important to the cattle industry and of particular importance to America’s young producers.  In this first blog, I will be introducing myself and giving some of my background.

I’m a sixth generation California rancher, descended from Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill from Maine.  After trying his luck as a gold miner, NB decided he’d rather try something else, starting a log mill in Buckeye Canyon west of the Bridgeport valley in California’s Eastern Sierra.  His logging operation soon expanded to include cattle.  The cattle were raised to supply beef to the then roaring mining city of Bodie.  NB moved down into the valley and built our ranch house in 1881.  During his lifetime he accumulated various homesteads to expand the ranch to it’s current size. 

Stanley Senior in center on a two-rein horse in the early 1900s.

Sometime during the early years the Circle-H brand was registered and has been in use ever since.  Ranch life continued on until the depression when the time came to take drastic measures to ensure the survival of the Circle H.  From the dark days of the Great Depression came the Hunewill Guest Ranch, a business that saved the ranch.  The guest ranch continues to be a very important part of our family business.  Today we raise Red Angus cattle, lease pasture to cow/calf pairs and stockers, and have a profitable herd of stocker cattle.  Like all ranchers in the Bridgeport Valley, we ship/drive all our cattle to a ranch at a lower elevation where winters are less severe (and they are VERY severe in Bridgeport).  Our cattle winter in Smith Valley, Nevada, sixty miles to the north.  

Taken in the early 1900s before we acquired our Nevada winter ranch.

Growing up I had the same great childhood many ranch kids are lucky enough to have.  Even so, I really didn’t know if I wanted to come back to the ranch full time after college.  Halfway through my senior year as a business student at the University of Montana I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do with my life.  Talking to my father he told me, “why don’t you come back and work on the ranch until you figure out what you want to do.”  Taking his advice, I came back after graduation in 2005.  My friends from business school all moved to cities and got high paying jobs, and I was jealous of them.  A year after graduation, I was the only one from my group of college friends that enjoyed what they were doing with their life.  Now, four years after graduation I can honestly say there’s nothing I rather be doing with my life than ranching.

Blair Hunewill bringing in weaned heifers to be sold to Harris Feedlot

I’m fortunate enough to be part of the small percentage of people that truly enjoys their job.  Sure, there are plenty of times when I’m engaged in a task that’s not the most pleasant of activities, but that’s ranching!  I get the most enjoyment from my job managing our small stocker herd.  I love doing the marketing of the calves, buying at the auction and watching the cattle grow.  Being a little bit of a nerd, I like tracking average daily gain, cost of gain, wintering costs, and per head expenses. 

I took my first overseas trip in 2005 after graduation.  My college roommate of four years and I spent a month in Europe, doing the standard backpacking on a budget sightseeing adventure.  Since 2005 I’ve traveled to 25 countries on four continents, saving up all year to travel.  In January/February of 2009 I traveled solo through five South American countries during a six week trip.  It’s not easy to travel on a rancher’s pay, but I live a thrifty life and save up all year for the next adventure.  My other hobbies include; hiking, shooting/reloading and photography. 

So now that I’ve introduced myself, I look forward to writing on a number of topics relevant to other young producers.  I’ll be blogging about issues affecting cattle ranchers in the United States today, as well as some topics that hold special interest to me.  Some of these include; ways for younger people to become producers, becoming a low cost producer, low stress handling benefits, issues affecting our generation of producer’s, estate planning and occasionally sharing some of my images taken on the ranch.      

Blair Hunewill traveling through Bolivia’s Altiplano in 2009