The Elk Who Joined the Credit Committee
Forty elk filed into my pasture one dusk, stood in a half circle, and stared at me the way my old loan committee used to.
If you have never been looked at by forty elk at once, you have never really been reviewed. It happened on a gray October evening at my place outside Greeley, when I walked out to the hay pile with a flashlight and a bad feeling about the fence. I topped the rise, and there they were, a big semicircle of cows and calves and one huge bull, all facing me in the half light, motionless, with the grave stillness of people who have already made up their minds.
I stood there. They stood there. I could hear my own coat creak. And I had a flash of recognition so sharp it made me laugh out loud. Seven men and women had sat at the front of a room, years back, to decide my loan requests, and they had looked at me exactly that way, with a mix of curiosity and polite doubt. The bull lowered his great head a few inches, which was just the way the chairman used to when he was about to ask about collateral.
So I did what I used to do in that room. I gave a presentation. I told them about my fences, my hay, and my water, and I pointed with the flashlight to the pasture, as if they might want to see it. I mentioned that the grass was good and the stock tank was full. I said I welcomed their feedback. One of the cows blinked, and I took it as a favorable sign. A calf sneezed, and I took it as a procedural objection.
After about ten minutes, the bull turned and walked off, and the whole committee followed in single file. They did not eat my hay, and they did not break a fence. They simply approved the premises and left. I told this story to a Colorado Parks officer later, who said elk are very curious and that wildlife groups, like the state agriculture people, advise ranchers to give them space. I have kept my distance ever since. But every fall now, they come back at the same hour, and I wave, and I say that the application is still pending. Over on farm.FM, I read that a rancher in Montana had the same thing happen with moose, which seems about right.
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