On Urgency and Importance
If a range fire is bearing down on your house, it’s urgent to get out of its way OR buffer its roar, sparing your home. The decision to get out of the way or fight it is urgent too. But most importantly, after your urgent action is taken and you’re safe, figuring out WHY the fire came across the prairie in the first place and HOW to create more resilience for the future is paramount.
Here are a few random examples of urgent and important actions that build resilience for YGB:
- Urgent: When a box of beef is about to fall from a shelf to crash on the floor we dedicate all resources to catch it
- Important: Build the shelves and stack boxes so the boxes don’t fall!
- Urgent: Getting beef delivered to all our customers on-time after we have a flat tire
- Important: Stopping to visit when a customer wants to know who we are and what we do.
When we created Yellowstone Grassfed Beef we knew it was important to patiently build resilience for our ranches, simultaneously nourishing ecology, economy, and community. At times I’d say building resilience for our ranches is also urgent.
It may not seem to all in MT, but most of this state, the northern great plains, and intermountain west, are in the grip of an unprecedented spell of warmth and drought, which started in August, 2011. While the prairies and forests in this massive region are literally starting to burn up, urgency will reign.
But now, more than ever, it’s urgently important we take the time during this drought, between fires, and until grass grows again, to realize we have the resilience to manage towards and we do have influence. A definition of resilience that resonates with me is “the ability to bounce back quickly and whole after extreme adversity.” You, by choosing YGB, are helping create important resilience more than you know. Thank you.
Happy Grazing,
Zachary Jones
5th generation Montanan rancher
Co-Founder, YGB
