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Chapter 2 77 Ranch
- Texas A&M University Press
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ChApter 2 77 ranch InTexas we are losing productive, open-space land faster than any other state in the nation. Our legendary wide-open spaces are becoming cluttered with suburbs, shopping malls, and miles and miles of asphalt. The landscape is literally changing before our eyes. As a result,caring for the land and the resources is no longer enough.Today’s most effective stewards must also be evangelists, spreading the good news of land stewardship to an ever-growing audience that has no relationship with the natural world. Gary and Sue Price have embraced the challenge of communicating stewardship ’s message with the same zeal that they have embraced the challenge of managing the native Blackland Prairie that is the core of their 77 Ranch. On the ranch, they have succeeded by carefully observing the world around them, working with the natural forces that are in play, and moving deliberately toward the future. It is with their eyes on the future that they have opened their ranch gates and welcomed fleets of yellow school buses to the 77 Ranch, so children can experience life beyond the artificial habitats of concrete and carpet grass. As Gary notes, “If we don’t get kids on the land and make some connection , there will be consequences. You never know when it’s going to turn a kid on, where he or she sees something they’re exposed to and it turns their head ChApter 2 [ 16 ] around.” Of course, their hospitality and their outreach are extended to adults as well, with equally positive results. Turning heads and turning hearts is stewardship on a grand scale,making the Prices influential far beyond their fence lines. —David k. Langford, Vice president emeritus, texas Wildlife association [54.163.62.42] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 10:27 GMT) [ 17 ] Gary price will be the first to tell you that family is what you make of it. Blood runs thick, but in his own case, the deeper connection between people comes through the land. Gary and sue price’s 77 Ranch is a shining example of that. on the rolling plains of navarro county in north central texas forty miles south of Dallas, the ranch is a mosaic of native prairie that has never seen a plow and land that had been plowed until the soil wore out—making it property prime for rehabilitation. the prices run their operation with an eye on how nature worked before the land had been farmed. Following that principle has allowed Gary and sue to make a good living. Most of all, though, Bluebonnets at 77 Ranch (photo by chase Fountain) ChApter 2 [ 18 ] the 77 is a testament to Lee Low, the man who established the ranch decades before the prices bought it. although he passed away in 1987, Lee Low remains a constant in their lives, from his portrait hanging on the wall of their living room to the name of their son—Gary Lee—to their reputation around the community of Blooming Grove as progressive cattle ranchers with an encyclopedic knowledge of native grasses. Lee Low conveyed that rare sense of stewardship that wedded economics to environment. the prices embraced his philosophy and have since taken it to the next level. Lee was not related to Gary, who was raised in the nearby town of Desoto. But he just as well could have been. ever since the day Gary’s parents brought their eight-year-old son to meet the man partial to overalls and a rumpled hat, and he mounted Gary on a horse named Budweiser, Gary grew up under Lee Low’s influence.He hunted,fished,and rambled around the 77 Ranch with Lee and did plenty of exploring on his own. in the process, he learned a lot about ranching and about life. “that guy up on the wall is my mentor,” Gary said, fixing his deepset eyes on the oil portrait of Low by the fireplace. “We spent a lot of time together on horseback. We rode together, worked cattle together, and were very, very close. He taught me to ranch looking down the line twenty years from now.” Lee Low was raised in the arid plains near san saba, one hundred miles west of Blooming Grove. He began ranching in navarro county in 1922, bringing some of the first Brahman cattle into the area. He practiced intensive rotational grazing, an efficient, effective method of grazing cattle, in the 1940s, long before it...