TEAM BRANDING
Not enough leaders wanted to ease gas pump pains
BY BOB BEERS

On the road is a pretty painful place for a fiscal conservative to find himself this fall, but that’s exactly where I was over Labor Day weekend.

If you hadn’t heard, I am running for governor. So, Labor Day weekend, I embarked on the traditional circuit for statewide candidates — a series of fairs and parades from Elko to Fallon.

After the Elko parade on Friday, I attended the Elko fair through Saturday, where I saw my first Team Branding Competition. I felt like a European at an American football game — I could tell it was exciting, but had no idea what was going on. Fortunately, I was sitting with Eureka rancher and Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea who was able to explain the rules.

When woodsmen have a fair, they see who can chop through logs the fastest. When Iowans have a fair, they see who can grow the sweetest corn. When range cowboys have a fair, they hold a team branding competition.

On the ranch, one of the biggest jobs facing cowboys is rounding up and branding all the new yearlings, often over a landmass tens of thousands of acres. Working together, they need to isolate each cattle from the herd and brand it with the symbol of the owning rancher. These are the skills tested in team branding competitions, where a team of four cowboys have to brand six yearlings as quickly as they can.

Sunday, I attended the 4-H Livestock Auction in Winnemucca. As I watched, I gained new appreciation for grocery store meat prices. It turned out my per-pound calculations were quite high — a tribute to the charitable nature of the auction. The sellers are youngsters who have raised the animals to learn ranch and farm skills, and the proceeds from the sale of their animals often find their way into savings accounts until college.

Late Sunday afternoon, we drove to Fallon, stopping in Lovelock to put gas in our rental car. While I had been out meeting Nevada voters, the pricing gremlins had snuck in and cranked prices for regular gas to $3.09. 

That’s when I came up with the idea of asking the governor to call the Legislature in for a day to suspend the state portion of gas taxes for two months. It wouldn’t amount to much, but for many Nevadans every little bit helps.

Alas, not enough political leaders endorsed the idea and it died. Perhaps the place where it’s getting tough for fiscal conservatives is not “on the road” in general, but Nevada specifically? LW

Reach Bob Beers at bobbeers@bobbeers.net.