Chopping wood, feeding chickens and wrangling cattle might sound
like work, but to some folks it's a vacation.
Guests come from as far as Italy and Japan to get hands-on
ranching experience at G Bar M Ranch on Brackett Creek near Clyde
Park, said Mike Leffingwell, a fourth-generation rancher who runs
the ranch with his wife Maria.
"They want to be out here working these cattle," said
Leffingwell, 44.
Agritourism — visiting a farm or ranch — is gaining
popularity.
CNN reported earlier this month that FarmStayUS.com lists 700 farm and
ranch stays nationwide — twice the number it started with one year
ago.
Twenty of the listings are within 50 miles of Bozeman.
Before coming to G Bar M this month, Annette El-Sherif and her
13-year-old daughter, Lexie, of Wayne, Ill., had never been to a
working ranch. During their stay, they learned to ride horses and
move cattle. They milked goats and shoveled manure.
"You're never bored here," Lexie said.
No dude ranch
People pay up to $276 a day to stay at the G Bar M.
The G Bar M has 50 horses and runs 150 head of cattle on 60,000
acres of owned and leased land. It has goats, chickens, herding
dogs and barn cats. Guests can participate in cattle drives,
branding and artificial insemination, depending on the season.
"If they want jobs, I'll give them jobs," Leffingwell said. "If
they want to relax, they can relax. It's whatever they want to
do."
G Bar M is "authentic Montana," according to its website. It's
no dude ranch.
"We don't have a swimming pool," Leffingwell said. "There's no
golf course. We're basically a family that takes guests into our
home."
Cattle-ranch cooperative
At least 20 working ranches in Montana and Wyoming have signed
up with Montana Bunkhouses Working Ranch Vacations, a service that
pairs tourists with the ranch experience they're looking for.
That way, the ranch can continue to go about its daily business
without having to concentrate on drumming up guests.
Tourists call Karen Searle, owner of Montana Bunkhouses, and she
sets them up with the right ranch at the right time.
People who want to help calve during the day and go trout
fishing in the evening might go to one ranch. A family who wants to
go on a classic cattle drive might go to another.
"I guess you could call me a matchmaker," Searle said.
She said Montana Bunkhouses is the only cattle-ranch,
agritourism cooperative in the United States. She started the
business 10 years ago.
Leffingwell's family first began accepting guests at G Bar M in
the 1930s. But now, Searle does his booking.
"The number of ranches in Park and Gallatin counties just making
a living on cattle, you can count on two hands," Leffingwell said.
"We're a small ranch. The way we survive is with the guest
business."
Sheep farm stay
But not all farm stays focus on the cowboy way of life.
Serenity Sheep Farm Stay in Belgrade offers accommodations for
guests who might be looking for a slower pace, cheaper price tag
and place where they can literally count sheep to lull themselves
to sleep.
For $99 per night, guests can sleep in a sheepherder's wagon and
help with the farm chores — milking goats, feeding pigs, gathering
eggs from the chickens or working in the garden.
"I do my chores, and they're welcome to join me," owner LaVonne
Stucky said.
Stucky and her husband have 40 acres of land near the East
Gallatin River that their ancestors homesteaded. They have sheep,
turkeys, chickens, beef cows, dairy cows, a llama and a miniature
mule named "Lula Belle."
"She's a mule with an attitude," Stucky said.
For 20 years, Stucky raised sheep and sold wool.
She opened the farm up to curious city folks last summer as a
way to make more money.
"Our first guests were a young couple from New York City," she
said.
Farm-fresh food
Part of the draw of farm stays is the food.
The ingredients are often the freshest you can find, and you can
see for yourself just how they made it from the pasture to your
plate.
"People are interested in finding out a little bit more about
where their food is coming from," Leffingwell said.
A recent family-style lunch at the G Bar M included farm-fresh
eggs, chicken they raised themselves and vegetables from their
garden.
Guests at Serenity Sheep Farm are invited to pick vegetables
from the garden and gather eggs from the chickens to cook their own
meals.
Farm and ranch stays are a way for people to get back to their
roots and reconnect with a more traditional way of life, Searle
said.
"The experience we share is authentic — that day-to-day, roll up
your sleeves, ‘What are we going to do?'" she said.
Kip Losey, a guest at G Bar M from Idaho City, Idaho, started
one of his recent vacation days on the ranch at 6 a.m., chopping
wood and fixing the flagpole.
"I wouldn't come if we didn't have chores," he said.
Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com
or 582-2628.
