On the road to window rock

September 29,2011

My travels took me to the Great Southwest; more specifically, Window Rock, Arizona.  I was right in the heart of the Navajo Nation, along with Jared Murnin, the regional manager with the American Angus Association, who covers Texas and New Mexico (Window Rock is just inside the Arizona border, so he cheated a little bit on his territory!).  So did I, as my area really only takes me to New Mexico; but our first visit with the Navajo Department of Agriculture came via a tribal rancher’s meeting Crown Point, New Mexico, which I have blogged about previously.  Therefore, I was semi-legal!

The Department of Agriculture hosted a three-day conference on the fairgrounds at Window Rock.  The DOA folks are working with their people to help better the lives of the Native American agriculturists, and it looks to me like they are succeeding.

The Navajo people still have their own unique culture, and not all of the old traditions are gone.  But the opportunites to learn have been heightened, and producers there are taking advantage of the research and knowledge being shared via the conference.

Several different topics were presented:  native grassland management, Breeding Soundness Exam for cattle and sheep, horse dentistry, marketing sheep, cattle, and horses, wild horse roundups, and livestock castration methods, among others. I was on a breakout session to discuss how tribal ranchers can target and benefit from the Certified Angus Beef brand.

You see, the past two years, the Nation has purchased 70 head of bulls (fifty last year; twenty this year) from the Stevenson Basin Angus Ranch out of Montana.  These seventy head of registered Angus bulls were then leased to the ranchers to improve quality of calves offered for sale and for replacement heifers. The base cowherd size owned by tribal ranchers is a Hereford cross; the stocking rate is eight cows per section (640 acres or 8 cows per square mile), and the ranches vary in size from 50 to 10,000 head of mother cows.  Most calves are sold at auction barns at weaning.

My charge was to help the tribal ranchers understand the value of the genetics in the calves they are producing. The average EPDs on the sires purchased were excellent: all had above average EPD’s for calving ease direct (CED = 8), high growth (YW EPD = 94), and above average carcass (marbling score EPD = 0.51).

The strides that these folks are making are unquestionable with these kinds of bulls.  I explained to them during my presentation that the resulting calves from these matings should have great potential in the feedlot and on the rail; the value should be greater than in past years.

My goal is to continue developing this relationship with this unique group of ranchers to do a steer futurity at a licensed feedlot, so they can learn about the product they are producing for the consumer.  I shared with them that the only way they will find the true value of their calves is to find out how they will perform after they leave the ranch.

Ivan Becenti, one of the Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture officials, shared with Jared and I that change can sometimes come slowly on tribal ranches.  Some of the old practices (health, identification, management) that could be improved are not happening very quickly.  However, the most progressive operators see the value of the opportunity they have to lease these bulls very economically from the Nation, and have taken advantage of BQA certification and age and source verification, which Jared was going to speak to them about later, the following day.

My interest in this project lies with the hope of helping our Navajo Nation brothers succeed financially, and help supply additional information through licensed feedlots.

Until next time, adios!  Next trip: south-central KS hosting a large group of CAB licensed wholesalers from Mexico!

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