FEATURING: Agee Smith

Agee shares stories of his experiences on the family ranch. Fourth-generation Nevada rancher and managing partner of the Cottonwood Ranch in the remote O’Neil Basin, Agee Smith, talks about his family ranch’s evolving approaches and positive experiences. Agee shares photo slides and stories of how he and his children are changing the way they steward the land and expand their business.

From the 2022 Wild Ride.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fourth generation Nevada rancher Agee Smith brings his forward-thinking approach not only to the family business but collaborative stewardship efforts around the region. Agee is the managing partner of the Cottonwood Ranch located in the remote O’Neil Basin of northeastern Nevada. After high school graduation, he attended University of Nevada, Reno, joined the Marine Corps in 1971, and served in Vietnam for two years. He graduated from UNR with a Bachelor of Animal Science in 1977, and returned to help manage the ranch. In 1995, the Cottonwood Ranch changed its management and grazing program using Holistic Resource Management as a way of thinking and managing, taking into consideration and working with the people, land, animals, and plants (above and below ground). The ranch is a founding partner of the Stewardship Alliance of Northeast Elko (SANE), a holistic approach to resource management with a commitment to ecological sustainability, economic resilience and preserving the social and cultural diversity of rural resource based communities; the Shoesole Resource Management Group, a consensus-based decision making model that encourages diverse participants to consider the economic, environmental, and social impacts of a decision before it is implemented; and a participant in ROGER, a Results Oriented Grazing for Ecological Resilience group. Always interested in learning more, Agee continues his education with classes, workshops, and seminars including Ranching for Profit School, Holistic Resource Management courses, Low Cost Cow/Calf Production School, Bud Williams’ Low-Stress Livestock Handling, Lost River Grazing Academy, BEHAVE training by Fred Provenza, and Nevada and Colorado Range Management Schools. Agee also has an eclectic passion for reading about and learning history.

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Filmed in front of a live audience at the Western Folklife Center’s G Three Bar Theater in Elko, NV, on Jan. 28, 2022.

Made possible by Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the multitude of staff, artists, volunteers, and community members working behind the scenes to make this show happen.

Brought to you by the Western Folklife Center, using story and cultural expression to connect the American West to the world.
www.westernfolklife.org

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