RIDING WITH THE LOCAL USED COW DEALER - 7

"I like this job because

it depends on you," Steve said. "How hard you want to work, that's how much money you'll make. I want a decent income for me and my wife, and I help people out when they need it, if I have the money."

"One thing they can count on in this area," Steve said, "if they call, I'll come. Sometimes they get spoiled - if they call and I haven't shown up within two hours, they might call again, wondering what's the matter."

We made another stop. Another dead steer. "This is quite a loss for a little guy who's only got a few cattle," Steve said. "Now he might not make a dime on this bunch he's feeding. He'll feed them for eight or nine months and not make a dime. Farming is the biggest gamble."

"Most of the farmers don't do it for the money," he ventured. "They do it for the life we lead out here." The stubble in the fields shows that the farmers here raise corn and beans, and alfalfa for the cattle.

Animals are dying all the time, calls come in all day long to Steve for pick-up. I wondered how he knows when he's done for the day. "When the legs are sticking out the top of the truck," he said, "that's a load."

"These dirt roads - I know them just as well as people know their streets in the city," Steve said. "I can tell where I am just by the groves of trees out here."

"I've had plenty of practice driving these trucks," he said. "I've never had an accident and I don't plan on it. I pray a lot. I've had close calls, but it hasn't been my fault."

"One thing I like about the job," Steve said, "it's so unpredictable. It's not always the same, it's always different. I never know one day to the next where I'm going."

"I don't know if you've been paying attention," he said. "Only about a quarter of the places we've driven past are actually lived on."

"Wow, that's a sick-looking horse," Steve said, pointing. "If they don't do something with him, I'll get him. I can tell when I'm driving, I see certain cattle, I can tell they'll be calling me, I'll be getting them."

We picked up another dead steer. "I should call my answering machine," Steve said, and he did. There were messages for three more pick-ups, but all of them were in the northern part of Steve's area. "I'll pick those up tomorrow," he said. "I can only drive so many miles. Odds are by tomorrow I'll have some more to pick up in that direction, and I'll start the day up there."

"I like the smell of cattle and horses," Steve said. "Some people like to smell flowers. I like cattle and horses."

"There's nothing I admire more than a horse that works hard," he continued. "A horse has a heart and a life and a brain, a horse has a personality just like a human."

To be continued....