Katie Baltzor rides her side-by-side among the black angus cattle she raises near her home outside of Hines, Oregon. Anna King/NWPB hide caption

Anna King/NWPB

HARNEY COUNTY, ORE. - Late bloomin' rabbitbrush – wads of swaying ochre – stud the roadsides and steep eroded-basalt buttes rising up from the basin floor outside of Hines, Oregon.

In a broad open field, horses munch standing hay as Katie Baltzor watches her black angus cattle on this fall day.

We've ridden out here in a side-by-side vehicle – it's like an overgrown golf cart with a pickup bed in the back made for rough ranch work.

All the animals are quiet. Happy. With their heads down grazing.

"You see that horse, how he's got speckled colors?" said Baltzor with a smile in her voice.…