6th generation Texas rancher Tucker Brown reviews ranch life scenes from films and television including 'Yellowstone,' 'Lonesome Dove,' '1883,' 'Heartland,' 'Open Range,' 'Comes a Horseman,' and 'Cowboys & Aliens.'
Follow Tucker Brown on all platforms at @tuckerbrownrab
Or check out his ranch's website: www.rabrownranch.com.
Follow Tucker Brown on all platforms at @tuckerbrownrab
Or check out his ranch's website: www.rabrownranch.com.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I love Lonesome Dove, but the water moccasins may be the most dramatic thing I've ever seen.
00:04Water moccasins can be aggressive, but not that aggressive.
00:08Hey, I'm Tucker Brown. I'm a sixth generation rancher from North Texas.
00:11Today, we are going to be looking at some movies and TV shows that show ranch life.
00:16First, we're going to look at a scene from Yellowstone where a calf is born.
00:24It's like a breech.
00:26Can you get her up?
00:27No, we'll pull it while she's down.
00:31They did a pretty good job of showing the urgency that you have when something is going wrong.
00:36The stress that it can cause and some bad things that can happen.
00:39Cowboys and ranchers are needed because that is a situation that can happen.
00:42And kind of a life or death situation for the calf and the cow.
00:45Really, the only thing that they may have missed or kind of moved to Hollywood, right,
00:49was that when a calf is born, it can't get up and run away.
00:52It looks like a baby giraffe.
00:54It can't really stand.
00:55Its legs are really wobbly.
00:57Normally, it takes a calf probably 30 minutes to be able to get up.
01:01The mama turns around and licks it dry and that's kind of their bonding moment.
01:05And on this, they mentioned that it was breeched.
01:07So normally, a calf comes out two feet first and then the nose.
01:11But if you see anything besides two feet, something's wrong.
01:14And it looks like that's what happened on that scene.
01:17In a perfect world, and what happens on 98% of our calf births, is that no one's there.
01:22There's no stress involved.
01:23It's just her, the calf, and nature.
01:25The ones we have to watch would be what we call a heifer.
01:27So a heifer is a female bovine that has not had a baby yet.
01:31And so when it's their first baby, we're a little different than most ranches.
01:35We watch them and check them every four hours.
01:37So through the day, through the night, we rotate times.
01:40We check them every two hours.
01:42We check them every three hours.
01:43So through the day, through the night, we rotate times.
01:46They'll show signs of labor.
01:49That'll start out with a kink in their tail.
01:51And that's when we know that they're starting labor.
01:53We'll give them two hours and then there should be a water bag.
01:56And then we'll give them two more hours and there should be two feet.
01:59We'll give them two more hours and there should be a calf on the ground.
02:02A lot of the jobs in ranching are trained on the job.
02:06I grew up watching my dad do it.
02:08And so whenever I was a little kid, you know, my job was to find the kinked tail.
02:12Normally their tail hangs really flat just against their behind.
02:15When they start to become uncomfortable with those labor contractions,
02:19what they'll do is they'll just raise that tail a little bit
02:21and it will put a kink in it, which is pretty easy to spot whenever that's happening.
02:25They did a pretty good job of making it look super real
02:28besides the part where it gets up and runs away.
02:29Because I would be quite startled if that were to happen to me.
02:33I'm kind of riding the coat of coat tail of Yellowstone as I'm doing it.
02:36In our way of life, we've wanted people to know more about it.
02:39And now more people are interested in the cowboy way of life than ever in my lifetime.
02:44So this is a scene from Monesome Dove where cattle are crossing a river.
02:53Scene starts out really well to cross water like that.
02:56Cattle like to follow each other in a line.
02:58So whenever we're moving them,
02:59that's why all the old pictures you see of the cattle drives, they're all strung out.
03:02So they do a good job of that.
03:03They've got a cowboy up front that goes in the water first
03:06and kind of leads those cows in.
03:08So they get them going and then it's like a vacuum cleaner.
03:10The rest will just like suck in behind them and follow through.
03:25Crossing water can be a scary thing and a dangerous thing if not done correctly.
03:30If you've never swam with your horse, you don't know if your horse can swim or not.
03:33And I've been in some wrecks where the horse doesn't feel like he can swim.
03:37And if a cowboy falls off a horse in the water,
03:40a lot of times the horse is looking for, while he's swimming, he's looking for something to get on.
03:45And so there have been cases where when the cowboy comes up out of water,
03:49all the horse sees is something to get on.
03:50The guideline or the code is if the horse starts to have trouble,
03:54just to slip off the back and hold on to the back of the saddle.
03:57Gets the weight off the horse and then he just kind of pulls you to wherever you're going.
04:02I remember as a kid being worried.
04:04I could feel what he was feeling of like, I don't know if I want to cross that or not.
04:09I don't really know if I've never swam with this horse.
04:23Clearly the water moccasins may have been a little more for the drama of the movie.
04:28We do have some water moccasins down on the creeks and rivers of the Brazos,
04:32but I've never seen however many that was in the same point.
04:38I love Lonesome Dove, but the water moccasins may be the most dramatic thing I've ever seen.
04:49There's definitely a connection between a cowboy and his horse.
04:51I call it chi, the energy that we can feel from each other, between animals.
04:55I know horses and cattle can feel that from us.
04:57It takes me to be calm to help him be calm.
05:00If he starts to feel my heartbeat, then it's just a windstorm that gets worse and worse.
05:05If you haven't been riding them very long, that connection isn't very strong
05:08and you don't know what that horse is going to do.
05:09That horse doesn't know what you're going to do.
05:11We call it getting wet saddle blankets.
05:14So if you get that horse, ride that horse enough to where he sweats,
05:18it makes that saddle blanket wet.
05:20That's when you start to understand each other.
05:23I think Lonesome Dove does a pretty good job.
05:25It is funny because there's a couple generations here battling.
05:29They love Lonesome Dove, but they do not like Yellowstone.
05:32You know, Yellowstone is kind of my generation's most popular film, like this was to them.
05:37It is drama. It's not a documentary.
05:39I think we have to remember that because that is important.
05:42And I could look at this snake scene and talk to anybody who loved Lonesome Dove
05:46and we can both agree that that's not real.
05:48And there's things in Yellowstone that we can do the same thing.
05:51But times have changed and I think films have changed too,
05:54to get to an audience that wants to know more about our lifestyle.
05:57Next, we're going to watch a herding scene from 1883.
06:06Cattle are fast and they're survivors and they know how to get away.
06:09And it does take a team.
06:10I mean, if they were gathering wild cattle,
06:12I see why they had that many people in this scene.
06:14The Texas Longhorns came from the Spaniards and were an icon of Texas for a long time.
06:20And from what I remember, they loved the Longhorn because they could travel long distances.
06:24The Chisholm Trail, the Good Knot Loving Trail,
06:27that went all the way up to Kansas and to the north where they didn't have much beef.
06:31They could either sell the cattle in Texas for $4 a head
06:35or they could trail them all the way up to the north for $40 a head.
06:38And so that's what started those drives.
06:40Those Longhorns could travel that distance and they could gain weight on eating concrete.
06:46And the breeds are a little different today
06:48because of the efficiencies that maybe Angus brings in or the size that Charley brings in.
06:54And there's obviously more breeds than that,
06:56just like dogs that have different strengths.
06:59It's the same way with cattle.
07:00They're coming out of the south with a few more.
07:02We'll marry them here and push them on.
07:07Makes you wonder what the rich folk doing, huh?
07:11Well, they ain't doing this.
07:13Gathering and moving cattle is very much a skill set.
07:15Being able to ride horseback is obviously super important.
07:18And being able to do that without having to think of how to ride
07:23is extremely important in moments where you're moving really fast.
07:26If you're having to think about how to ride,
07:28you're probably not going to be able to get the job done.
07:30And so whenever I'm gathering or moving cattle,
07:32I'm trying to think what the cattle sees
07:33or where the pressure is and how that will move the cattle.
07:37They move from the front.
07:38And so even if I'm at the back,
07:39I still have to focus on the leaders of the herd to see what direction they're going.
07:43If there's some brush over here and I know,
07:46oh, Sally up front wants to hit the brush,
07:48I got to keep an eye on her because if she goes, they all go.
07:52There tends to be a boss cow.
07:53And so cattle handling probably in the last 20 years
07:56has become more popular of learning how to do that.
08:00Back in the day, they really had to know
08:01because they were traveling hundreds of miles
08:04and had to be really good at it.
08:06Barbed wire came up, that kind of stopped.
08:08And we didn't have to do a very good job at it.
08:11But now whenever we see how stress levels impact production
08:15called low stress cattle handling,
08:16if we can handle them in a slower, smoother manner,
08:22then we have lower stress, which means happy cows,
08:25which means more production, more beef, more dollars to the rancher.
08:29And in a time where it's more difficult than ever to make money on cattle,
08:33it's extremely important for the rancher to do that.
08:35Next, we're going to see a scene from Heartland
08:37where there's a young lady riding horses.
08:44So this is very much a circus act.
08:46It's not something used on the ranch.
08:48I have stood on the back of my horse just to say I could
08:51or to show the docility of the horse that I'm riding.
08:54But this is very much like a circus trick,
08:56so used for entertainment at rodeos.
08:58A lot of times that's something that people have never seen before,
09:01like riding two horses with one foot on each one.
09:04Extremely skillful, not really something I want to try.
09:17So the horse market fluctuates just like any other market.
09:27So right now it's pretty popular.
09:28Since COVID, there's been a lot of people want to get away from the city
09:33and buy a ranch and have a horse that they can ride.
09:37They don't want to train a horse.
09:38They just want a horse that's ready,
09:39that they can put their children on, their grandkids on.
09:43And finding that horse is, you know, how do you find it?
09:47How do you test its docility?
09:48And so I have a horse that I call Snapchat that I put my girls on.
09:52I can put my four-year-old and my one-and-a-half-year-old on there
09:55and just to prove it's gentle, that he's broke, that he's bomb-proof.
10:00All of those words that people would be looking for
10:02when buying a horse for their children.
10:04I mean, that movement did make land prices go up astronomically,
10:09which makes it a little harder on the ranching production side.
10:12That connection to the land is something I think we all have.
10:16I mean, we're able to sell horses for more than we've ever sold them before,
10:20which has been great for us.
10:21It's sure enough easier to sell what the customer wants to buy
10:24than it is make what you want
10:25because there's some extremely talented cutting horses
10:29that work really well with cattle.
10:31But then if you have a bomb-proof horse, like my horse Snapchat,
10:35that if I throw my girls on him and put him in a sale ring,
10:38I mean, he would just sell really high
10:41and make some other guys mad
10:43where there's another horse that's extremely athletic
10:46and they call it Cowie, really Cowie,
10:48that knows what that cow's going to do before he does
10:51so he can get to the right spot.
10:52That may not sell as high as this less athletic horse,
10:58but you can do anything on him.
11:11A lot of them that do this, they'll kick one horse aside
11:14and then they'll hang off the horse upside down
11:16and drag their hands across the ground
11:18or they'll do a handstand on the horse
11:20and all of these acrobats horseback while he's running around the arena,
11:24which again, extremely impressive.
11:26I don't know if I've got the abs for that.
11:29Next, we're going to watch a scene from Open Range.
11:32You know, folks in Fort Hammond country
11:34don't take the free grazers or free grazing.
11:38They hate them more than they used to hate the Indians.
11:41With respect to folks, you mean ranchers like yourself?
11:44Free grazing was a long time ago and definitely more out west.
11:48Different ranchers' cattle ran together on the same ground.
11:51Your right was to graze wherever you wanted.
11:54There ain't no free graze cattle
11:56going to take the feed off my cattle on this range.
11:59Free graze is legal.
12:01Times change, Mr. Spearman.
12:03Most folks change with them.
12:04A few holdouts never do.
12:06As the U.S. Constitution changed of being able to own land,
12:10manage what you had.
12:11You heard this man talking about his place
12:14and he didn't want feed being taken off of his.
12:17That transition was probably pretty hard for people to understand
12:20from like, why can't I graze there?
12:22I've grazed all of this my entire life
12:24and now you're telling me I can't
12:25because this one person owns it?
12:26A few years back, a free graze outfit came through.
12:31One night, the cattle got stampeded.
12:34The wagons caught on fire
12:36and one of those boys was shot off his horse
12:38in the middle of it all.
12:40Shot in the back, was he?
12:43He's taking ownership of that land
12:44and he's like, I have this feed that I need to take care of.
12:47Cattle sequester carbon
12:49and help increase the health of the soil
12:51when grazing is done correctly
12:53and the free ranging is really hard to manage.
12:56Cattle eat about 3% of their body weight in grass a day,
13:01so cattle are 1,200 to 1,600 pounds
13:05and you could get 30 to 50 pounds of grass a day from one cow
13:08and if you eat too much, it doesn't come back
13:10and it looks like this concrete floor.
13:12Taking ownership of that, I believe is extremely important
13:15in making sure that you're being sustainable
13:18and grazing it correctly and giving it enough rest
13:20and free range grazing is really hard to manage.
13:24Long, long time ago, big herds,
13:26they would stay in one spot for just a little while
13:29and then move and they wouldn't come back there
13:31for a really long time
13:32and that allowed the grass time to be able to come back
13:35and so that helps the soil, it sequesters carbon,
13:39it's good for the wildlife.
13:40We need that piece for nature to work correctly.
13:43This is another clip from Yellowstone
13:45where we will see them building some fence.
13:58When there's not cattle work to be done,
13:59there's always work to be done like this.
14:01We don't get into ranching to build fence.
14:03That's not a job we love.
14:04Ranches are more likely to hire fence companies
14:07to do these jobs now than before
14:08just because of how fast they can do it
14:10and the ranches don't have to buy all of this equipment
14:13to do so.
14:1450 years ago, when cowboys were needing a full-time job,
14:18they would stay and do what they call
14:19the spring or the fall works
14:20where they work the cattle or ship the cattle
14:22and then if they needed a job between then,
14:24they would work for the ranch in doing something like this.
14:27What the fuck you doing standing there?
14:28Start wrapping wire.
14:29Hell, I'm leaving tonight.
14:31Did you spend my week's wages at the bar
14:33for all I give a shit?
14:36All these great ranches that you worked at, Walker,
14:39why not go back to one of them?
14:40Barbed wire allows pigs to go under,
14:44wild pigs or deer to jump
14:46and in some cases, then that wire won't allow for that.
14:50You just want to be able to stop the cows
14:52and maybe some horses
14:54but barbed wire has been kind of the picture of
14:57ranching for a long time.
14:59We have some pretty cool technology.
15:01It's invisible fence, basically.
15:02It's like an invisible fence for a dog.
15:05We use these collars that go around the cow's neck
15:08and it shows their location.
15:09With a computer and a GPS and this tower,
15:12we can create invisible fences
15:14and whenever the cow gets close to that fence,
15:17that collar will beep at them
15:19and if they continue, it will release a shock
15:22just like they have for dogs
15:23and so that becomes their fence line.
15:26We have to train those cows to respect that.
15:28Well, I reckon I got a fondness for the farmer's daughter.
15:32I guess we got that in common, don't we?
15:46I'm gonna tear your fucking heart out through your throat, Walker.
15:49A lot of times when it's hot
15:50and you're doing the job you don't want to do,
15:52there can be some discrepancies between whoever it is,
15:56whether it's the boss and one of the workers.
15:58I've never seen a knife pulled out.
16:00Up next, we're going to see a cattle herding scene
16:02from Comes a Horseman.
16:10There's a lot of cowboys that love this part of the job
16:12of being able to show off that their horse will get them there,
16:14their ability to rope.
16:16That's the fun, exciting part
16:18that a lot of cowboys really like.
16:20In a perfect world, you don't have to do that
16:21because your cattle are gentle enough
16:24and your cowboys are good enough
16:25to be able to bring them where you want them.
16:27There are cases where this has to be done.
16:30To catch that animal, the rope has to be pulled out.
16:33Busting through the brush, holding your rope,
16:35trying to keep those limbs off of you,
16:36all of that looked really good.
16:38One of the funny parts that made me laugh,
16:40they were just swinging their rope
16:42as they were running at the beginning.
16:44There's no cows, but they're swinging the rope.
16:47You'd be made fun of a lot if you were just swinging and running.
16:50I did find it interesting they showed that guy missing.
16:53I kind of liked it, honestly.
16:55It's because a lot of times these movies want to show,
16:57like, always catch.
16:58But it's a difficult thing to learn,
17:01how to get your horse trained well enough
17:03to get you in the right spot and you not to fall off.
17:06And then once you rope it, then what?
17:08You got an 800-pound animal on the end of this rope,
17:11and what are you going to do?
17:23There's a couple different things.
17:24You tie on or you dally is what the two options are.
17:27And dally just means you have a saddle horn
17:30and you wrap the rope around the horn.
17:33And you have a little bit more control of the rope then.
17:35But in these wild places where you don't want to rope it,
17:38lose your dally and lose your rope,
17:39what they'll do is they will literally tie that rope on
17:42to the saddle horn.
17:43They can dally on it too, or they can just let go
17:45and it will hit the end of the rope.
17:47But if something goes wrong,
17:48you can't just undally and let go.
17:50That's one of the pride things
17:51that a lot of cowboys from different regions
17:53will battle each other over.
17:54Do you tie on or do you dally?
17:56Which one do you want?
17:57That's wrong.
17:59So now for some reason,
18:01we're going to watch a clip from cowboys and aliens.
18:11I don't know where to start.
18:13I've never ran into an alien
18:15when I've been out on the pasture.
18:17Never had to shoot one down.
18:18I have like wondered if...
18:19I've felt like I've been watched before,
18:21but normally it's like wildlife that I end up finding
18:24that feeling their energy.
18:26But yeah, this is...
18:28It's funny.
18:41The only time I ever get thrown into a sky
18:43is when my horse tries to buck with me
18:44and I don't stay on.
18:45I've met a lot of people that have done that.
18:48I've maybe not been flown up that high before.
18:50There was one time I thought
18:52I would...
18:52extraterrestrial was happening.
18:56Gosh, so it was during Heffercheck actually.
18:58It was a midnight.
18:59I mean, it's quite peaceful
19:00once you get past the fact
19:01that you had to wake up and go out there.
19:03But I was like seeing this string of lights.
19:05I was like, I have never seen anything like that.
19:08And I just kept trying to come up
19:09with the reasons of why it wasn't
19:11some type of extraterrestrial.
19:13The next day I brought it into the crew
19:15and I had a picture of it.
19:16And I was like, guys, you'll never help me.
19:19What is this?
19:20Turns out it was Elon Musk
19:21and his string of satellites
19:23just going across the sky.
19:24So that's my only alien activity
19:27that I've ever thought I've seen.
19:29But Elon got me.
19:30I will make the strong stance
19:32that Cowboys vs. Aliens,
19:35not a true documentary.
19:36I wish more people knew about ranchers
19:38of like they are
19:39some of the original environmentalists.
19:41Because if we don't take care of our land,
19:42then we're not taking care of our ranch.
19:44We have that obligation
19:46to take care of those animals,
19:48to improve the soil,
19:49because what's being put on my table
19:52is the same thing that I'm sending
19:53to the rest of the American public.
19:54And I wouldn't give anything to my family
19:56that I wouldn't want
19:58the rest of the United States to have.
19:59As a rancher, we have a really cool job,
20:02like one of the coolest jobs in the world.
20:04And I love it if you can't tell
20:05because I really do love taking care of them.
20:08I love being out there with my family
20:10and the fact that I can raise my girls out there
20:14and give them that connection
20:15to the land that I have.
20:17Yeah, that's the dream.