Many years ago in a prior millennium I met a stranger in a bar in the small town of Akron, Colorado. Our conversation meandered from one subject to another and soon I asked him what he did for a living. He looked me square in the eye and said “ I grow grass”. I replied “Oh, you are a grass farmer”. To this he shot back “No son I am a rancher, I grow grass and harvest it with cattle”. Well I had certainly never thought about cattle ranching that way but it sure made a lot of sense.

In the years following the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of cattle were driven into the southwestern United States. By the turn of the century, the majority of the vast grasslands had been decimated by over-grazing. The results were widespread erosion and changes in the native vegetation. The grass species, which hold the soil together and help retain moisture were replaced by brushy type plants and cactus. The names of some of these weeds evoke images of what they are like. Cat-claw, Wait-a-bit, Creosote, Greasewood, and Mesquite are but a few of these troublesome species. They use up all the moisture from the scant precipitation that falls on this desert area of the country. An infestation of Creosote will use forty-three thousand gallons of water, per acre, per year. This profuse use of the available moisture prevents the native grasses from ever making a comeback.

M&M Air Service of Beaumont, Texas has been doing its part to rid the southwest of these invasive pests. For more than thirty years, M&M has worked with ranchers and land managers in the war against brush. One weapon that has emerged as a lethal one is the aerial application of Spike. Back in the 1970s chemical giant Dow-Elanco began working on a herbicide chemistry that would control woody species. The result was Spike 20P. Formulated in twenty-percent active ingredient pellets, Spike kills the woody species by preventing the root system from absorbing nutrients. In essence the plant starves to death. The Spike pellets require one-half inch of precipitation to activate them and get the herbicide into the root zone. This can be a problem in the arid southwest where it may take up to two years to get control. Once control is achieved, the results can last thirty years or more.

Spike is applied at rates as low as one and one half pounds of total material per acre. These low rates are achieved through the use of a Duke Metering System. This unit consists of an electrically driven cylinder which rotates in the bottom of the hopper. The cylinder has grooves in it which pick up the pellets and drop them into the spreader. Rate is changed by adjusting the RPMs of the cylinder. Proper calibration is essential to achieve the desired results.

M&M suffered the loss of pilot John Burrell in an accident while applying Spike in the mountains of New Mexico in early November. After John’s funeral, owner George Mitchell, Jr. asked me if I would go finish the jobs that John was working on when the accident occurred. I agreed and we started making plans to head west.

The first hurdle we needed to clear was in acquiring our New Mexico applicators license. I had never been licensed in that state and George’s had recently expired. Testing is administered in Las Cruces on Mondays. I picked up N205RM, an Air Tractor AT-502A, in Beaumont and headed for The Land of Enchantment. I arrived on Sunday and met up with George, driver Jeff Daniels, and computer tech Larry Mills. We figured we would take the test Monday morning and be working that afternoon. Little did we know what an ordeal we were in for.

In the offices of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture on Monday morning we were told that all of our paperwork had not been processed and we could not take the test. We were dumb-struck! It would be a full week before we could be tested. The next seven days were perfect weather wise. Warm days and calm winds combined to make for perfect flying conditions, but we spent the time confined to the four walls of our hotel rooms. Finally, Monday rolled around again and we were waiting for the doors to open to take our tests. All exams were passed and we were again shocked to discover that we would have to wait a few more days before the actual licenses could be issued. We received our licenses just in time for the first major snow storm of the season to hammer the state. We were dead in the water again. Two weeks and not the first pellet was on the ground.

Eventually the blizzard cleared out and we were set to go. The first tract we were to do was flown out of the Las Cruces airport. The rate would be one-half pound per acre so heavy loads would not be a problem. Fuel endurance would limit the size of the hopper load. Every two and one-half hours would demand a fuel stop. With the short winter daylight periods, three loads per day was all that could be expected.

When I arrived at the treatment area I was amazed at the difference between it and an adjacent tract that had been done three years previous. Thick grass dominated the treated area while a sparse stand of Creosote was all that grew on the pasture I was about to work on. Ranchers told us of long dried up springs flowing water again after a watershed had been rid of the water greedy brush.

We completed the first job in short order and were forced to shut down for the Christmas Holidays. George had been put in the hospital for treatment of a blood-clot, so Jeff and I spent Christmas visiting with the Boss and having dinner at the Best Western, while Larry made the short drive home to San Angelo, Texas to spend the holiday with family.

The day after Christmas found our crew headed west to Demming, New Mexico. Here we would fly off of a dirt road at the base of the Clark Mountains. This was the ranch where John had his accident and I had mixed emotions about finishing his job. I decided it should be a tribute to him to complete what he had started.

Next our little convoy headed for Dell City, Texas. We would be working in Dog Canyon at the base of the Guadaloupe Mountains. The ranch is in New Mexico, but the flying was out of Dell City, which is only a couple of miles from the state line. This is some of the most desolate country in the United States. Dell City is end of the road-middle of no-where country. There is a NAPA store that also serves as the only gas station, a small grocery store and the Spanish Sisters Restaurant. It is ninety-three miles to the closest hotel, but you do have a choice. It’s 93 miles to El Paso, TX., 93 miles to Van Horn, TX., or 93 miles to Carlsbad, NM.

On our first night we elected to go to Carlsbad. That was a bad decision as the second major snow storm of the season hit that night. The next morning we got back through Guadaloupe Pass by the skin of our teeth. Arriving in Dell City on New Year’s Day we found N205RM under a blanket of wet snow. At the Spanish Sisters the locals informed us that this was their first snow in fifteen years. They swore we had brought it with us and welcomed us to come back anytime. That night we made the trip to El Paso. The next morning it was so cold that the engine controls were frozen stiff and we could not get started until midday when they finally thawed out. That night we made the trip to Van Horn. We figured we might as well use all of our options.

Finally, we finished of Dog Canyon and was on our way to Alpine, Texas. This Big Bend Country is in my opinion, some of the most beautiful in the country. It is rugged, mean and unforgiving, but has a real charm about it. We only had four loads to do here and it appeared to be a easy gig. We got the first three loads out the first day and shut down for the night. The next morning the third major snow storm of the season hit with a vengeance. Once again the locals told us we should add Rain/Snow Makers to our business cards. The only pestilence we had dodged so far was a locust plague.

We finally got the contract done and headed east. As I motored over West Texasin the AT-502A, with tailwinds pushing my ground speed to over 180 knots, all I had to do was look down at all those cows harvesting that grass. It had been quite a road trip.