Balls Deep (2016–…): Season 2, Episode 3 - Ranchers - full transcript

Hank: "You talk about your lamb chops
and the woolen clothes you wear,

but never a word or never a care
for the man that put 'em there.

I've summered in the tropics,
had the yellow-fevered chill.

I've wintered in the Arctic,
known every ache and ill.

Been shanghaied on a whaler
and stranded in the deep,

but I didn't know
what misery was

till I started herding sheep."

**

[ Lamb bleats ]

The Western ranchers earned a
weird reputation in recent days

from the Bundy Ranch Stand-Off
in Nevada...



Our battle is about
who owns this land.

...to the stand-off

at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge
in Oregon.

It seems like sheep-
and cattlemen across the West

are drawing the short end
of the stick

as far as public opinion,

and how they're treated by
the various government agencies

which administer
all the lands out here.

To find out how land disputes
like this have arisen,

in a land so spacious

you'd think think
there's room for everyone,

I decided to spend my spring

with a sheep rancher named
Hank Vogler in central Nevada

to try to figure out
what's going wrong on the range.



[ Banging ]

[ Thudding ]

[ Bang ]

Hank: This is filariae --
make a sheep fat,

make a cow fat,
make anything fat.

This is all sheep feed.

90%, 95%, maybe 98%
of this field

is black sage.

Here -- Smash that on your hand
and then smell it.

Whew! That's sagey.
Yeah.

It's very strong. yeah.
Yeah.

You can sell this
to high-school students.

[ Laughs ] No.
Oh.

See there?

That's really pretty,
right there, to me.

I don't know about you.

Thomas:
They're all looking at us.

Yes.
[ Chuckles ]

That's weird.

The heat cycle is 17 days,

so in the first 17 days,

most of these girls
will have a lamb.

How many of these ewes
have lambed, or...?

Seven, he said.
Seven? Oh.

But it's seven today,
might be 25 tomorrow.

Might be 50 -- I mean, they
really start shelling them out.

Yeah.

You want a ride?
Sure.

* I started up the trail
October 23rd *

* I started up the trail
with a 2-U *

Lambing season is
the busiest time of the year

at Hank's ranch.

He has to have a full crew
in order to shear the sheep

before they give birth...

Huh.
There he goes.

Looks gory.
Ugh.

I'll bet,
when you come sliding out,

you weren't terribly cute
either.

[ Sheep bleats ]
...and watch them give birth,

make sure the babies don't
get separated from the moms.

Eventually,
they castrate the boys,

clip the tails off the girls
and the boys,

and send everybody
up to pasture for summer.

Most of Hank's workers,
he gets from South America,

where there's still thriving
shepherding industries,

so people have experience,
know what they're doing up here.

Also, typically from places

with a weak local currency
against the dollar,

so getting paid minimum wage
isn't as hard a burden

as would be as somebody
from the States.

[ Hank speaking Spanish ]

All right.

How long will they, uh, they'll
stay up here for -- the summer?

Three years.

Oh.
That's a long term.

Oh, boy.

But you go from abject poverty
to middle-class in one contract.

[ Sheep bleating ]

Hank:
I'll tell you right now --

this is the shittiest job

that I know of on Earth.
[ Whooshing ]

Come on. Psst!
They're gross looking.

Don't want to touch you.

You stay out in the hills
with those sheep,

and pretty quick,
you're talking to your horse,

you're talking to your dog.

And you can't
get Americans to do it

at any price that I've found.

In 32 years,
I've had maybe three Americans

apply for the job.

I think one of them
lasted nine days.

[ Sheep bleating ]

[ Whistling ]

I don't know why they came up
with the phrase "herding cats,"

because herding sheep
is just as fucking irritating.

Aah-haa!

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Fuck.

Fucking black sheep!

[ Breathing heavily ]

Ah, fuck.

[ Dog barks ]
Good boy.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
nope, nope, nope, no, no, no.

Ah, shit.

Back to the water.
Back to the water.

[ Breathing heavily ]

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

I am not in good shape.

What do you think about
when you're out here?

Yeah.

Do you get bored?

How long do you think
you'll do this for --

how many more years?

[ Grunts ]

Damn it!

Hank: Well, we all know
what's going on --

We're micromanaging everything
from downtown Disneyland,

A.K.A. Washington, D.C.

You know, we're both getting
pretty gray-haired

and pretty long in the tooth.

Maybe this will
make our hair turn black

and our teeth come back, huh?

[ Chuckles ]

Hank's on his phone a lot more
than I would have guessed

a, uh, rancher needs to be.
They're an integral part.

Like, in dealing with the... In fact,
the first allotment that I ever owned...

...tangled mess of bureaucracies
that sort of surround him.

I'm telling you,
the liquor industry's

subsidized by the government.

They're driving us to drink.

He's now talking to a guy from
the Bureau of Land Management

who owns a lot
of the state of Nevada,

a lot of the land around him,

and have a lot of rules
that he has to abide by,

um, just in order to go about

the regular process
of raising sheep.

They've got all those suspended
AUMs -- voluntary suspended.

Can you spell "hypocrisy"
without laughing?

[ Cellphone beeps ]
What -- What are AUMs?

"Animal Unit Months" --
It allows you

to run five sheep
or one cow and calf

for one month.

Okay, it's like a permit or...?

Well, that was
the caveat they made

with all these people out here

long before anybody
in this room was born.

[ Sheep bleating ]

Lot of the problems with
ranching out West these days

have to do
with the area's history.

Um, back in the frontier times,
this was open range,

which meant,
if you had sheep or cattle,

they could basically eat
any grass they could find

as long as it wasn't specifically
on somebody else's land.

Unfortunately,
as more people moved in,

there's greater competition
and dispute over,

you know, whose animals
were eating where.

The government stepped in,

passed the Taylor Grazing Act
in the '30s,

which created
a grid-system of allotments,

so that ranchers could buy
an allotment, pay grazing fees,

and that's where
their animals would eat.

Unfortunately,
as bureaucracy goes,

the rules for these allotments

have grown more Byzantine
and arcane

as the years have piled up.

Now you have situations
like the Bundys',

where they've run up such a debt
to the government

over land
they believe to be theirs

that they've used forever,

that they would rather
take up arms

than have to sell the farm
and move into the city,

just like John Vogelin
in "Fire On the Mountain."

My boy killed this sheep...
Uh-huh.

...when he was about 15.

Who, by the way, has decided

that working in the mines
in Elko is much simpler life

than trying to deal
with all the bureaucracy

and everything I have...

From ranching, really?
...than ranching.

Is that you?

A long time ago --
many years ago.

My grandparents were
a tremendous influence on me.

He was the son of a German immigrant.
Mm-hmm.

And my grandmother was
an Indian squaw,

and he traded a horse for her.

A lot of competition to be the
drunkest Indian in the family,

so I always thought maybe
I'd go the other way.

And this is private land

up through this bottom.
Mm-hmm.

This ranch
is 99% federally owned.

We're tied at the hip
to all federal ranges.

I mean, there's no survival here

without participation
of the federal government.

Whether it's a right
or a privilege,

once you are
on one of these ranches,

you're locked in.

For a guy who lives
some 15 miles

from the nearest
native English speaker,

Hank's extremely outspoken.

He writes columns
for Ran magazine

and Progressive Rancher.

He does a weekly call-in
to his friend Trent Loos'

"Rural Routes Radio" show.

Now put your microphone
right on your face.

Yes, dear.
He's even started speaking

at political symposia like
"Range Rights and Resources"...

Hank Vogler.
[ Applause ]

...trying to articulate,
I guess,

sort of the sense
of disenfranchisement

and even persecution felt
by ranchers like him

and rural Americans
in general...

It -- It's a joke.

We have to take
our country back.

...a group I never
really thought of

as a distinct minority.

Though, in sheer terms of
numbers, they definitely are,

especially compared
with the suburbanites

and city dwellers
who run all the agencies

that regulate their use
of the land --

from the Bureau
of Land Management

to the Environmental
Protection Agency.

Hank: If there's
an endangered species out here,

it's me and the rest
of the sheep herders.

You know,
you spend your whole life

putting something together.

You know, you start out
with two cows and seven sheep,

and then, all of a sudden,

somebody comes in
because they have an agenda,

and they start putting you
out of business.

Thomas: Yeah.
You wind up --

It's pretty easy
to make a Cliven Bundy.

It's pretty easy to make...
Waitress: Hello, how are you?

...an enemy.
Yeah. Hi.

And -- And when you have
no place to go,

you -- you feel like
you have nothing to lose,

so you do crazy things.
Right.

Corned beef hash.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

[ Cellphone rings ]
Oh, sorry.

It's okay.

I don't know
who the heck this is.

Any E-mail or -- or...
I'm in the restaurant. So, we're in Ely...

...which is the next-biggest
town to Hank's ranch.

He's here because there's --

He's got an annual meeting
with the forestry department.

...C.O.
How'd it go?

You can't put the turd
in these people's pocket.

He's also dealing
with multiple bureaus

at the Department of Labor,

trying to get two of his
sheep lambers up from Peru

who are part of the H-2A
Guest Worker program...

I think her name's
Sally Mitchell.

...which is just
a whole tangle

of government red tape
that he has to deal with

just to get his men
into the country

and be able to work
on his ranch.

Only 2% of the people
bring in H-2A herders,

'cause it's such a hassle.
Thomas: Oh.

But I can go to El Paso
and talk to Paco.

Paco'll tell you --

[ Mexican accent ] "I don't
need no stinkin' green card."

[ Normal voice ]
They come up --

I can get a bus load of them
in a second.

[ Muffled ] Why don't you?
Huh?

Mm.

'Cause I don't
look good in orange.

Damn it, Thomas.
[ Chuckles ]

I don't want to, because --

'Cause people are
watching you, yeah.

Because somebody would
certainly say something

and put me in jail.
Okay.

So -- So I try and be
legitimate about it.

Hank: Why did you send me this guy
if his passport was out of date?

Did you take a scan of it
when he came here?

Did his former employee
scan you a copy of this?

I always send a scan.

You're supposed to be
working for us,

so, I'll do my best --
I wished you folks would, too.

Thank you, Linda.
[ Telephone beeps ]

Oh!
Preparing to scan.

Rock and roll!

Uh-oh. "Scanner communication
cannot be established."

Ooh.

* Foot in the stirrup and my hand
on the horn * We have issues.

* I'm the best darned cowboy
ever was born *

* Singing ki yi yippee
yippie yi, yippee yay *

* Singing ki yi yippee

This shouldn't have anything
to do with satellites

or anything like that,
should it?

* Well, I started up the trail
October 23rd *

Mm-hmm.
"Now scanning."

Hank: Oops.
Poor Juan's upside down.

All right,
so what do we save Juan as?

"Juan in a million."

Fire in the hole.

[ Whoosh! ]
You hear that?

Thomas: There we go.
Problem solved.

Fire in the hole.

Thomas:
Do you ever get breaks?

Do you go into town or anything?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

But I feel like
that would drive me crazy.

Sheepers get --
Yeah, what happened?

[ Car dinging ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Okay, okay.

**

- [ Speaking Spanish ]
- Yeah.

Thomas: Stillbirth?

Yeah.
Oh, no.

[ Breathing heavily ]

Ah, ah.

Two legs.

Shit.
[ Exhales sharply ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Okay.

Oh, God. Please don't let
the head come off, too.

It's coming off.

Ah.

Does that stuff
still upset you to see,

or, uh, do you get used to it?

[ Engine idling ]

[ Indistinct Spanish chatter
over laptop ]

[ Both laughing ]

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

Thomas: Really been hit hard
with the circle of life today.

We watched lambs born,
lambs die,

lambs not even be born
because they're already dead.

The mother died,
killed with that knife,

which is now being used to eat
dead lambs with spaghetti.

Some, like, real heavy
daily shit for minimum wage.

[ Chatter continues ]

[ Sheep bleating ]

**

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Is something broken?

[ Whistles ]

[ Lambs bleating ]

Hank: You know,
people that think that --

that this, all this,
is just an easy-peasy,

you know, it's not.

Every year, there's --
something goes wrong,

something is different.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

I don't care what you do,
you always have problems.

Thomas: This is like
the little adoption facility.

This would be
the foster home, yes.

These will all be paired
with new moms?

Hopefully.

[ Lamb bleats ]

Jesus.
That's cute.

**

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Hank: See, now they're
locking her head in there.

She'll sit there and fight that
for a little while,

and then when she calms down,

they'll then --
they'll bring the lamb in,

get him started, or...

Thomas: How long
does that usually take?

Like a day or so, or...?

Two or three days.

You know,
some of them a little longer.

Wow. Those lambs are really
punching at their, uh, teats.

I didn't realize how violent
the nursing process was

from the lamb's end.

Okay, sweetie.

We're gonna put
this lamb on here.

Come on, now.
Come on, sweetie.

God dang it, you're supposed
to look professional.

[ Laughs ]

Not everybody can do it,
but when you start doing it --

No matter how many
thousands of times

that you tell yourself,
"This is the last day,

"I'm not doing this anymore,"

you go to sheep camp,

beautiful smells at the top
of a mountain,

and all the little lambs
are playing King on the Mountain

and talking and blatting
and playing.

[ Sheep bleating ]

It's like Mozart.
It's like a symphony.

It erases six months of hell
in six seconds.

[ Lamb bleats ]

You did that just to make me
look stupid, didn't ya?

[ Chuckles ]

But we don't let them starve --

feed them on the bottle,
whatever it takes.

Hey, I gave you your big chance,

your big debut on TV,
and what'd you do?

Humped up.

**

**

Hank: So many lambs!

Which one are you
gonna bite first?

Thomas: It's finally docking day
for this band of sheep.

Uh, that is the end
of the lambing cycle.

All the lambs get clipped

and then put up into
their summer pasture

to get fat for fall --
when they get eaten.

[ Lambs bleating ]

[ Bleats ]

It's like a circumcision mixed

with, uh, that first trip
to the doctor,

so they give you,
like, 80 shots.

None of these guys know
what they're in for.

**

Got him.

Okay.

Do I got a guy or a girl?

Sort of, kind of.

Is this -- Like that.

You ready?
Yeah.

Easy.

Contrary to popular belief,
we don't get up in the morning

and see how to be cruel
to our animals. Yeah.

We do what we have to do
to make everything better.

If you don't take
the tails off of them,

they get little sores
under their tails,

they get maggots,

and they eat into them,
and they die.

Now, put them down
through the hole, Thomas.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You don't want to drop him.
God damn.

Just take this pine tar,

and we mix it with some
veterinary-approved chemical.

It kills flies.
Mm-hmm.

So, it's all for a purpose,
you know?

Thomas: Stubborn.

About 1,500 lambs from now,

you'll have this
figured out, Thomas.

Hank:
This is a buck lamb.

This is so when you see them
coming down to race,

when you're separating
to ewes and the lamb,

you can use that mark.

You cut off the bottom third
of the scrotum,

and you just kind of push...

Push those two out, yeah.

And then you just put your mouth
over it, grip, and pull.

With your teeth?
They just come out?

Oh, God. I can't believe
that's how it's still done.

Well, you can put
the rubber bands on them,

and if you ever watch them when
they cut them with the rubber bands,

there's lambs laying around
everywhere kicking their belly.

Those poor little animals
flip and flop

and roll around for days.

You're basically
letting that rot off...

I don't like it either, buddy.

...and then,
if the rubber bands are old,

or something's
not working right,

then you got to give them
a shot for tetanus.

This is quick, easy,
and the lambs just run off.

If they come up with a faster,
better way, I'll use it.

Push them into your mouth.
Now pull them backwards.

Pull them backwards.

Just pull, pull.

There they go.
Oof!

[ Gags ]
You missed one of them.

Spit it in there.
[ Speaks muffledly ]

We're gonna eat them, by golly.

[ Spits, gags ]

Slowly push down.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Oof.
[ Speaks muffledly ]

Put them in the bucket.

[ Gags ]

How do you do that so --
I mean, you just get used to it

after enough times
that you don't gag?

[ Muffled ]
You don't think about it.

[ Spits ]

Come here.

They did pretty good, by golly.

These lambs look pretty nice.

When you look at
the situation in Nevada

and the open range lands
in the West on paper,

it's, uh, kind of easy
to take the government's tack.

There's this huge, lawless swath
that needs order imposed on it,

otherwise people are
just gonna come in,

use the resources willy-nilly,

and effectively ruin the land
for future generations.

However, when you come out here,

see the people who live
in this landscape,

the hardships they face,

and why they do
the things they do,

you realize that
everybody's operating under,

you know,
very natural incentives.

The rancher out here
has an incentive

to keep the land
in proper working order,

because that's his livelihood,
and we've got an incentive

to allow him to do so
to the best of his ability,

because that's where our food
and our clothing comes from --

at least, the food and clothing

we're not already importing
from Asia or South America,

you know, if it takes
importing people

from South America to do so.

It's possible that in 50 years,
we'll look back

at ranchers at this time
and the way they operated

the same way
we look at the Native Americans

who once ran this land,
as you know,

kind of in greater attunement
with the earth around them.

But maybe that's just
the transient nature of life

out here in the West.

As the great Western novelist
Edward Abbey said,

"Men come and go,
cities rise and fall,

civilizations
appear and disappear --

the earth remains,
slightly modified."

Or, as Big Country sang,

"In a big country,
dreams stay with you,

like a lover's voice
on the mountainside."

So, take your pick.