We are happy to debut this latest feature; "The Basin's Dirtiest Jobs". We hope to highlight some of the dirtiest jobs in the Basin and introduce you to some of the hard working folks from our community who get dirty every day or have to deal with undesirable substances, perform nasty tasks or deal with all manner of muck, slime, dirt, guts, oil; you name it. If it's a Dirty Job, we want to tell you all about it.
Feedlot Operator
A wise old cattle rancher once told me, "Anytime cows are involved there is bound to be a dirty job somewhere." Not all aspects of cattle ranching are dirty, but when you're dealing with five thousand cows, things can get a little messy. Just ask Greg and Maggie McKee of McKee Farms in LaPoint. Started as T&L Livestock by Greg's father, the late Larry McKee and the late Tom Anderson, Greg and Maggie are carrying on the McKee family legacy of cows, horses, mud, poop, feed, cattle doctoring, and fun. The McKee's own and operate a large feed lot in Western Uintah County, hosting more than five thousand calves each year from October through June.
While most cattle farmers are calving out the yearly crop of new calves in late winter/early spring, McKee Farms is still working on the previous year's herd, fattening them up for sale and butcher. Greg and Maggie buy calves every fall from Basin cattle ranchers and keep them in the feed lot until May or June when they're ready for slaughter.
"We get calves that have just been separated from their mothers." explains Maggie. "We wean & background them then feed them until spring and market them through what we call our "sister states", such as Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska." "Backgrounding" is "a management system where recently weaned calves or yearling cattle are grazed for a period of time before they are placed in the feed yard. After they reach a desired size, or at the end of the "grazing" season, they are sorted into uniform loads or pen-size lots and placed in a feedlot."
Maggie says the first 90 days the new calves are on the lot are one of the busiest times for their hands, Greg, Jim Huber and Chris Walker. "Chris will drive the feed wagon and Greg and Jim follow along on their 4 wheelers. Usually all the calves will run up to the feeders to eat, but the ones who stay behind and don't come for the food are the ones who need medical attention. So, Greg and Jim will rope them and doctor them."
To a guy like Greg cattle doctoring is second nature and just part of life. He says, "You can't be squeamish if you own cattle. I doctor my calves myself. I see a lot of pink eye. I pop cysts, give shots for pneumonia and check for hoof rot regularly." Cattle themselves are not the cleanest of animals and checking for and doctoring ailments is not always a clean job, although most vaccines are easily given as a quick shot and the animal is released as quickly as it was roped and tied down.
The dirtiest part of the job would definitely have to be dealing with all that cattle waste, but again, it's just part of life for Greg. "Greg's been around the cows since he was 5 years old." tells big sister Kari Morris. "To him, this is just what you do every day." Pens are cleaned out regularly, but Greg says that with modern machinery, it's really not that bad. We say he's only being modest, however. Poop is poop and dealing with poop is definitely a DIRTY job. McKee Farms has grown over the years and now includes a fertilizer business as well as thousands of cows. Greg McKee's job may seem dirty to the rest of us, but to him, it's just business as usual and proof that a man can take pride in his work no matter the task. Greg's sister, Kari, sums it up, "This is really the only life Greg knows. He worked side by side with dad [Larry McKee] since he was a kid up until Dad passed away in 2005, so it's just life to him and it's also important to him to carry on this legacy and continue to work the farm. I think Dad is proud of him." 
If you have ideas for "Dirtiest Jobs" please send them to Jennifer@TheEdgeMagazine.org
with contact information if you've got it.
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