Northern Nevada Correctional Center ranch trains prisoners

It may not be the hardest time, but it sure is hard work.

Prisoners at Northern Nevada Correctional Center are learning agriculture and ranching at an 1,100-acre facility that promises little financial compensation, but teaches the value of discipline.

For four decades inmates have been processing dairy, raising steers and cows, and housing wild horses for public adoption. The pay range is 80 cents to $3 an hour for a schedule that usually runs 10 hours a day, seven days a week - but the profit for somebody who is not used to regular work is immeasurable.

"My guys feel real good when they can help," said NNCC Ranch Manager Tim Bryant. "I get very little feedback about how many of them stay in agriculture, but they do learn a lot while they are here."

A typical ranch hand stays on the crew for eight months. There are about 20 hands in the summer and 12 in the winter. Some are transferred and some are paroled, which creates a higher turnover than that for traditional ranching.

Despite the instability, Bryant says the ranch is financially profitable, producing 1,000 tons of hay a year, four steers a week, and 240,000 gallons of milk a year for prisoner and youth offender consumption.

"We are in the top 2 percent of production in the state of Nevada," he said.

The dairy has been in place since the 1960s.

While the production levels are a fraction of the ranch's nearest rival, Model Dairy, there is always work to be done. The ranch's 105 dairy cows are milked three times a week in two milking sessions a day.

The milk is stored in a giant tank, then heated to 160 degrees, followed by immediate cooling to 40 degrees. The result is bacteria-free milk. The milk is stored in plastic bags and shipped to Nevada State Prison, the Carson Jail, or one of several facilities. Testing and separation of fats gives inmates real-world experience.

"You can be milking cows Thursday morning and have the milk sitting in the kitchen 20 hours later," Bryant said.

Ensuring that the milk quality remains high, ranchers also raise the cows to high genetic standards.

Every cow is artificially inseminated to tweak characteristics in an attempt to improve the genetic line. Cows also give birth on a rotation so the ranch is not overwhelmed. At any given time, there are four to eight newborn calves being attended to individually.

For the inmates this is an education in commitment and business sense. "They can see a baby calf raised, then becoming a safe product for consumption," Bryan said.

Beef cattle are also raised at the ranch. Now there are 150 head. The processing is done by the agriculture program at the University of Nevada, Reno and the meat is sold to market. The reason it does not stay in the prison system, Bryant said, is because it is too high quality.

In the three years that the ranch has been keeping wild horses, 175 have been adopted out. Bryant attributes that success to the cooperation of land management and wildlife agencies in the northern part of the state. "Sometimes you can't say enough about those other agencies," he said.

The atmosphere at the ranch has been fairly congenial in the 14 years that Bryant has managed the workers, he said. Occasionally there are arguments and fights, but nothing serious. In that span of time there has only been one man who attempted escape.