Changing for the Future
In the 20-plus years since the “Old Walter White Place” became Long Pines Land and Livestock, there have been 5 U.S. presidents, Facebook and Twitter came into existence, and cell phone ownership in the U.S. has gone from 32% to 97%.
Long Pines has seen similar dramatic changes: almost a doubling of acreage, substantially increased grazing capacity due to range management, the move to Irish Black® and Irish Red® cattle, Bettin Yer Smart and Mia Lil Pink becoming national and world champions respectively, a few years of outstanding hay and grass production, and one of the worst droughts on record during 2021.
While a large barn/indoor arena with a few outside pens was built several years ago, the main working facility remains the old corrals and buildings built more than 60 years ago. “It’s been our long-term goal to upgrade the buildings and corrals. With needing to sell down on cattle and some horses due to the drought, we now have time to devote to planning and building,” says Deb Brown, Long Pines owner.
Sterling Brown, Deb's son, is spearheading the new facilities. They will be moved from the current creekside location, which has always been prone to mud and ice, to the nearby hillside where the barn/area is.
In August, Deb purchased Over The Edge in Camp Crook, SD. The grill and bar will eventually become outlets for Long Pines beef and other products. The new Little Missouri Customs meat processing facility in Camp Crook opens the door for Long Pines to have a true “pasture to plate” system.
“Our plan is to test various animal feeding regimes, and connect the dots between our cattle genetics, feeding, finishing and eating quality,” says Deb. There are even plans to test supplementing cattle with used vegetable cooking oil from the restaurant, which has shown benefits in university feeding trials.
Long Pines indoor barn/arena was completed in 2016 and will be the anchor of the new livestock handling and pen system. The older buildings and corrals along the creek will be phased out.
Sterling and his crew are creating a new set of cattle and horse pens, using the “big barn” as the epicenter.
The hip-roofed, stone foundation red barn has been a landmark for many years. But its usability has dropped as animal handling practices, building techniques and the ranch have changed.
During the early days of the ranch, smaller outbuildings and the corrals along the creek were what past owners could afford and made use of the higher rangeland to block the wind. But it also has definite disadvantages for today’s uses.
