RURAL COUNCIL GROVE
For the Buller family, life centers around ranching, growing their own food and being self-sustaining.
Liz Buller, along with her husband, Brad, and children Laura, 9, Daniel, 23, Benjamin, 21, know all about ranching and cattle. The ranch near Council Grove is about 2,000 acres and was started by Buller’s parents, Raymond and Dorothy Schlesener. Buller’s father died in 2006, but Buller’s mother, Dorothy, still lives at the ranch and helps with the numerous chores. Buller said her dad was a true cowboy — a hard worker who loved working on the ranch.
“They worked long and hard,” Buller said. “My dad liked that physical labor.”
Before arriving at the Buller’s doorstep to knock on the front door, guests are greeted by Lucy, the family’s milk cow, a goose, a cat, dogs, chickens and a lamb. Speckles, the family’s new puppy that is half great Pyrenees and half red heeler, eagerly bounds to visitors with her speckled face and spunky personality. Blackie, the family’s border collie runs to greet visitors as well, tail wagging and full of spunk. There might even be a few stray cattle that wandered out of the fence mingled in the rest of the animals.
Upon knocking on the door, Laura, who is home-schooled and in 4-H, will happily and without reservation show visitors all her prized animals. Liz Buller, Laura’s mother, was raised on the ranch. She left for a while to go to college, met her husband and eventually returned with her family to help on the ranch. They’ve been there ever since.
The family raises chickens for the meat and the eggs, has the milk cow for cream, milk and butter and raises Angus cattle and has registered Angus bulls. Buller said homegrown and home-raised food tastes a lot better — especially when it comes to chicken eggs.
“A lot of people don’t realize chickens eat meat,” she said, adding that along with vegetation, chickens eat worms, grasshoppers and bugs. All of the Buller’s chickens are free range chickens — they are not caged. The chickens also are fed a yogurt and corn mixture — something they enjoy eating.
Right now, calving season is in full swing at the ranch. Cows are checked at night and those close to delivery are herded to the “maternity ward” in or near the barn where they can safely give birth. Thursday morning a calf had to be “pulled” because the mother was having a hard time giving birth.
More than 70 calves have been born already with at least that many more expected. The cow pens are full of calves bounding along with the mothers waiting to give birth.
“We try to get all the cows home to have calves,” Buller said.
Managing a ranch is hard work. The family’s routine of chores, which ranges from feeding animals to birthing calves, takes place seven days a week, 365 days a year regardless of weather. Laura isn’t hesitant to help with everything from feeding the animals to helping with births. She beamed ear to ear on a recent Thursday afternoon as she showed off her rabbit, her lamb and a newborn kitten in the garage with its mother.
Ranching isn’t all that Laura has picked up from her mother. She also is learning how to quilt and knows how to stitch embroidery and knit. She proudly ran back and forth from the kitchen in her home to gather various pieces of her embroidery work Thursday to show. Laura often works on her pieces while her mother reads to her at night.
“I read to her every night,” Buller said.
Inside the barn, chickens roam around, and a cat lounges in a pile of hay. Laura moves into the pen inside the barn to show her sheep and pushes a large calf out of the way to get to the pen. She warns that the calf may kick or bite. The calf does neither as it eagerly awaits attention, licking visitors as they go by. The calf spots the bottle in Buller’s hand and moves in to partake. It settles for a gentle patting instead, for it has outgrown the bottle feedings. The bottle is for a younger calf in another stall.
Laura gathers a lamb that is with its mother and pats it while the older calf in the pen next door enjoys hugs from Buller. Laura balances the lamb with the rabbit she also is holding, still beaming while she tells about her prized animals. In another pen, Laura demonstrates how to tell the sex of a calf. She gently feels on the calf’s belly.
“It’s a heifer,” Laura exclaims with pride to her mother.
At the end of the afternoon, when Buller and Laura finished giving a tour of the ranch, it began to rain, and the air began to crisp in the coolness as the wind picked up. No matter. The chores still had to be done. There is no rushing out of the rain here. The lamb seemed to be the only thing that noticed the rain as it bounded up and down when hit by a raindrop.
Buller’s mother was using a pitchfork to feed the horse and cows. Laura was putting the rabbit away and preparing to help with the chores. Buller was busy chasing Speckles, who hasn’t learned yet that it’s not appropriate to chase the chickens and the other livestock. Another day was coming to a close at the Buller ranch. In the middle of calving season, however, it likely was far from over.
meluvu (anonymous) says...
Nice story but more research should have been done perhaps comparing other farm/ranches to the Buller family farm....the people that ranch the correct way know how to and keep their fences in repair so the cattle are contained and not out on the roads. A good rancher feeds their livestock a quality diet and does not skimp on nutrition. A good rancher's skills, managerial skills, and feed management skills are superior. A good rancher grows quality hay and not something inferior or filled with weeds. The visit may have been homey but clearly there are things not understood or seen by a reporter and a cameraman.
The Gilberts, have lived 4 miles south of The Bullers for close to 9 years and are 4th and 5th generations also trying to save the Family Farm. They have spent hours mowing hay with the two little boys to encourage them to carry on the tradition of managing a family farm. They have had baby calves learn to stand, walk and come back from nearly freezing to death, in their house to save them. And most important they love their neighbors and having their respect and friendship is high-priority for the Gilbert Family. There are times when you need to have the camaraderie and helping hand from a trusted neighbor.
All Farm Families deserve respect and support in this day and age of corporate farms...but especially the ones who keep the age old traditions of running a farm/ranch the RIGHT way!
April 16, 2009 at 8:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )