From left, Joann Miller and Jessica SwappPhoto and article by Mary Alice Murphy

The Silco Theater served as the venue for a panel discussion on "Women in Ranching: Past and Future" hosted by the Silver City Museum and featuring third-generation rancher Joann Miller and New Mexico State University Cooperative Service Grant County Agricultural and 4-H Agent Jessica Swapp.

Erin Griffith, museum interim educator, said she is one of only eight paid employees at the museum, where much of the work is done by dedicated volunteers.

"The first time I went through the Ranching Exhibit, I was brought up short when, after passing photos of cowboys, I encountered a photo of two women ranchers," Griffith said. "So, I thought, what does reality look like in the ranching world."

She contacted the Copper Cowbelles, which is the local female counterpart to the Cattle Growers Association. "I found and asked Joann Miller and Jessica Swapp to speak to us."

Miller started with the history of her family in ranching. Her great-grandfather, Christian Flury, left Switzerland and arrived in Virginia about 1870. He married Anna Buresch, and they began their journey west, with a plan to go to California.

After a train trip to San Antonio, Texas, and a trip continuing on to El Paso, Flury worked with Spaniards in a grape vineyard and soon started a small dairy.

They decided to go up the Rio Grande Valley in a covered wagon in a large group. They veered off toward Cooke's Peak and law enforcement advised them to take cover from Indians. They made it into shelter just in time into Fort Cummings. They continued their journey and stopped in Silver City, New Mexico. The Flury family homesteaded 320 acres of land five miles east of Silver City. It became the Club Ranch, which is still operated today. 

Three daughters were born to the Flury family, Maggie, Flora and Annie. 

Around the turn of the century from the 19th to 20th, a young cowboy found the girl of his dreams. "Instead of giving her a box of chocolates, he gave Flora Flury a brand, the Tangling Y brand, which was well known in Texas, but not registered in New Mexico. Flora had no livestock to put it on."

They got married on July 16, 1902 and moved to a property south of the Kneeling Nun Mountain and homesteaded 160 acres. "Tom acquired a milk cow and branded the cow and her calves with the brand."

Years later, Flora came into some estate money from Switzerland and purchased cattle and the VO brand and gave the Tangling Y back to Tom.

They had three girls, Ruth, Marguerite and Genevieve. Tom purchased the T Box Ranch, after winning a coin toss. They built a large rock house and their herd continued to grow. The girls attended the Little Red School House, which was built by the Harrington and Turner families. Ruth was the teacher and the girls traveled by buggy to the school. 

In the mid-1930s, the family moved to the Mimbres River and built a new home and headquarters. Tom grew corn, which he traded to Fowler Lumber Company for lumber. "He built the barns and buildings we use today." Tom also had a slaughterhouse and sold beef and pork to the Santa Rita store. 

"My grandparents worked side by side for many years," Miller said. "They would leave the house at daylight on horseback and return late in the evening. They might brand some calves, gather cows, and always check the waters. They would market their cattle with their neighbors on the river by gathering their cattle and all would drive them down Lampbright Canyon to the rail head at Whitewater, a drive of more than 20 miles. My grandfather died in 1957, and my grandmother continued to operate the ranch as they always had."

Miller said the role of women in agriculture today is not much different from that of the past. "It may be riding and helping gather the herd, branding, cooking and packing a lunch to feed the cowboys."

Brands are special to a ranching family, she said. "David, my son was given the Tangling Y brand, and we brand our bulls with this brand. My brand, the VO, is used on the cows and calves and was given to me at birth by my mother and dad. All the grandchildren have brands and are proud to have them. We operate the ranch today, and it is a delight to work the land as my family has for many years. We have a love for the land, the cattle and the way of life. Women in agriculture must be strong and willing to hold up their end of the deal, because so many areas on the ranch need attention all the time."

A question came from the audience. "What did a day at the ranch look like?"

Miller said she, as one of the three daughters of Flora and Tom, spent a lot of time with their grandmother. "We have had a lot of changes. For instance, we don't have to drive the cattle; we have trailers to ship them. We market our cattle through Superior Livestock online. We have certified cattle. We give them flu shots when they are branded. We still ride horseback to gather the cattle. Another change, when the windmill goes down, we replace it with solar power. It's a great life."

Another questioner asked how long their cattle had been certified. 

"Probably about 15 years ago, we started it," Miller said. "If an animal is sick, we cut it out of the herd and quarantine it. We don't use antibiotics and we wean the calves for 45 days. IMA Global certifies our cattle. They are English Cross cows. We run black Angus and Hereford bulls. The Angus are near the Kneeling Nun and the Hereford in Mimbres."

A man said he left the area in 1959 but has returned. "Did the blowfly cause trouble?"

Miller said she remembers when it was going through the herds and creating screw worms. "We doctored them with smear, which smothered the larva."

Swapp agree with Miller that brands are important. "I got ours tattooed on myself. I've been here about four years with the Extension Service."

She presented statistics, including that the numbers of women in agriculture are growing and sometimes exceeding the number of males.

"In 2016, 49 percent of the 4-H members are female and 51 percent male," Swapp said. "In 2017, 45 percent of FFA is female. FFA is based in the schools, and 4-H is outside the schools, but they are similar and work together. Of the most recent enrollment in the School of Agriculture at Texas A&M, which is about 1,200 students, 58 percent of the students are female. We are seeing a strong shift of women being in agriculture. Yes, in the not too distant past, 79 percent of females felt there was gender inequality, even though both genders agreed that women are an integral part of agribusiness. In New Mexico, 40.5 percent of producers are female. In Grant County, it's 44 percent that are female."

She said she grew up on a ranch that has been in her family near Luna, New Mexico, for more than 100 years. "After I got my degree at NMSU, I went to Texas A&M for my masters in agribusiness and communications. After graduation I worked for a time for Olam Spices, at their plant in Las Cruces. I specialized in paprika, visiting the farmers and the fields and giving them help and buying from them. It's similar to peppers, but it's high color and low heat. I supervised the paprika fields. It was a shock to the company when they hired me, as I was their first female in the position."

"The reason I came back to Grant County, as an NMSU Cooperative Extension agent, was to be closer to my family and because I fell in love with a handsome cowboy," Swapp said. "Mom was always the prettiest cowgirl. She had studied cosmetology and her hair always has to be done and her nails polished, no matter how long it takes."

She showed some photos of her at work. In one, she had her hand up the back end of a cow determining whether it was pregnant or not. "The boys always asked me why it looked so easy when I did it. I said it was because I had a long skinny arm and I could reach far in."

In another photo, she is shown feeding a calf with a bottle after its mother died giving birth. "I will always be an avid defender of agriculture and ranching. Women in agriculture probably have manure on their boots and work with the men on a daily basis."

Swapp said that New Mexico has a lot of video programs aimed at women in ag. "The New Mexico Cowbelles, of which the local Copper Cowbelles are affiliated, advocates for ag and ranching."

She said she recently began a podcast, called the Grant County Extension Connection, which explores through interviews the roles of ranching in the community.

A woman said she understood the growing of vegetables and fruit during the summers, but "how did you feed people in the wintertime?"

Miller said: "We always had a milk cow, chickens, beef and pork. We made bread; we canned a lot; and we dried fruit and vegetables for the winter. We cooked on a wood stove."

A woman asked both panelists what favorite thing they remembered happening at the ranch.

Miller said: "I've always like branding the baby calves and getting them back to their moms. We rope them to brand them. It's a special thing, because everyone has his or her own special job. Mine is taking care of the ear tags and vaccinations.

"Our son is a perfectionist," Miller said. "He always tries to make a perfect brand. Fall is another one of my favorite times, taking the calves off the cows, keeping them healthy and sending them off to the sellers."

Swapp said what she was going to say she didn't remember, but it was told to her and had always been a favorite time. The family was branding and ear-tagging calves. I was little and I was out there in the middle of things. I was doing my own thing. I had been collecting the pieces of ear. By the end I had quite a few, so I asked my mom to make a necklace out of them for me."

A man in the audience said he had gone to veterinarian school at Colorado State University. "I was in practice 57 years. When I was in school, out of 48 students, four were women. Now out 60 percent of those in veterinary school are women."

He said he ended up with a job in California, eventually built a hospital with six veterinarians.  He noted that a to of women veterinarians specialize in horses. "Now everybody knows that women are smarter and more caring." 

Swapp showed some photos. One was of her with her arm up the back end of a cow determining if she was pregnant. "Now we have ultrasound. But the guys always wanted to know how I could do it so easily. I always said it was because I had a long skinny arm."

An audience member asked Miller if they had cattle on BLM, state or federal land.

"Yes, we have a lot of cattle on public land, but also on deeded land," Miller replied. "Grazing has always been good to prevent serious wildfires."

Swapp said her family pays grazing fees on forest land. "But they rotate the cattle around. After the Wallow Fire, our grazed allotment wasn't as heavily impacted as areas that had not been grazed. Also, we put water on our allotments, which benefit not only our cattle but also the wildlife, especially during drought seasons."

A woman in the audience asked what the herd sizes are. Swapp said when she was growing up, their herds were 300 to 400 head. "Now, it's down to about 100, due to depredation and drought."

A woman said when she lived in California, she was part of a small cattle operation. "How do you keep from falling in love with the babies?"

"Yes, they are cute and neat, but we have to move forward," Miller said. 

"We do love them," Swapp said. "We will do everything to keep them alive. When I was a teenager, we had a doggie, whose mom didn't accept him. I named him Ferdinand. When Dad castrated him, I bawled most of that day. Yes, it's an emotional day to see the cattle go on the truck, but it's part of the circle of life. My daughter shows pigs, and yes, she stays and watches when they are selling the pigs. We have a big job—feeding the world."

A man asked if there were any aspects of agriculture where women are still excluded.

A woman noted that sales brokers all seem to be men,

Swapp agreed that agriculture and ranching are still a bit of a man's world, "and we're just coming in and filling the gapd. Being a female in this industry, you just have to take charge."

Miller said in her generation, it was always 50-50. "David keep up with the marketing trends, buys the feed and keeps an eye on the weather. I take care of the books to make sure we have the money to pay the bills."

A man noted that most people say that a successful rancher has a wife that works in town.

Griffith announced the next museum forum would take place on March 21 at the Silco with Don Turner giving a history of rodeo, with the title of Blue Denim and Blue Blood.