After serving as a U.S. Army Ranger, Jeremy Clark went searching for a less stressful but still adventurous way to transition to post-military life. He became a cowboy.
More specifically, Clark and his wife, Heather, started ranching, opening C-4 Cattle Co. near Grand Bay, Alabama, along the Gulf Coast. They began raising cattle for their family and to meet their son’s nutritional needs, building a herd of Texas Longhorns.
“We bought our first four cows before we even had a fence up and we jumped right in,” Jeremy Clark told RFD TV’s Market Day Report. “So, it’s been an exciting journey over the last couple of years getting started.”
C-4 Cattle Co. quickly grew into a successful meat-producing business, boasting more than 130 acres of land, but the Clarks yearned for more, wondering what they could do to help veterans.
Vets to Cowboys Is Born
In 2021, they established Vets to Cowboys, a nonprofit organization, to help other veterans realize their ranching dreams. The program pairs veterans with seasoned cattle ranchers as mentors, teaching them the ins and outs of agriculture.
For veterans, ranching checks several of the boxes missing from the military: hard work, physical fitness, challenges, responsibility, dedication and service. Ranchers also need strong leadership skills to operate a large-scale agricultural operation.
“Veterans specifically have a lot of the same values that cattlemen and people in agriculture do,” Heather Clark said. “A lot of what they learn in the service transitions into agriculture jobs beautifully. So, we’re able to combine that resilience of the warrior with the spirit of the American cowboy.”
Some veterans feel lost after the service, a sense of what do I do now? Many likely don’t even consider a career in ranching, but Vets to Cowboys gives them a shot and renews their sense of purpose. Ranching also forges community bonds with other ranchers, building teamwork and camaraderie that they felt in the service.
Getting Youth in Ag
Another goal is to provide younger veterans with a sustainable path into ranching.
“That’s what we want to do with Vets to Cowboys, work with other (ranchers) in our area so they don’t have to start blind, they have somebody to teach them,” Jeremy Clark said. “You know, if you don’t grow up with a grandpa doing this, it’s hard to learn third and fourth-generation tricks if you’re a first-gen coming into it blind.”
“We just want to partner with those mentors and make sure we don’t lose that knowledge and information that’s typically passed on from generation to generation that you can’t find in a textbook,” Heather Clark said. “We’re trying to make sure we fill in that gap.”
Mental Health on the Ranch
Being in nature and working with animals tends to help veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
“You see a lot of benefits from equine therapy and things of that nature,” Jeremy Clark said. “We’re using the cowboy way of life and working with cattle to help with mental health.”
Clark said the program also emphasizes food security – seeing what it takes to get food from the farm to the table.
Another aspect is workforce development, teaching veterans new skills to succeed in agriculture or other fields, such as construction.
“Candidates that have come into our program, like the five we’ve helped so far, we’re replenishing the number of dwindling farms because in Alabama’s last ag survey, we lost 8 percent of our farms, and the country lost 7 percent,” Jeremy Clark said. “If we get veterans transitioning from one form of service to the other, we can help prevent those losses and get new farmers out there.”
Since its beginning five years ago, Vets to Cowboys has garnered positive feedback from veterans, according to the Clarks. The next five years could bring some exciting changes to the organization. The Clarks are working on fundraising events to help pay for a mobile facility to travel to other parts of the U.S. to train veterans.
