Have you ever wondered what ranching looks like in paradise? Our journey to Maui reveals a surprising side of Hawaii few visitors ever see - a thriving cattle industry generating $82 million annually across the islands. This special collaboration between the New Mexico Beef Council and the Hawaii Beef Industry Council is a fun way to share the story of ranching in another state.
In this special on-location episode, we're joined by Kristin Mack-Almasin, Livestock Manager at Ulupalakua Ranch, and Angel Melone from the Hawaii Beef Industry Council. Together, they pull back the curtain on the remarkable challenges and innovations of raising cattle in one of the world's most beautiful - and challenging - environments.
From managing herds across dramatic elevation changes and microclimates to battling an overwhelming axis deer population that has forced the ranch to cut their cattle numbers in half, Hawaiian ranchers face obstacles mainland producers might never imagine. With limited access to supplemental feed and processing facilities, these island ranchers must perfect the art and science of resource management while adapting their genetics to thrive in this unique ecosystem.
"Managing animals and pastures together is an art," explains Kristin, whose background in dairy science led her to this unexpected career on Maui. Her passion for producing food sustainably while improving the land shines through as she describes how cattle grazing helps prevent wildfires and manage invasive species across the ranch's 18,000 acres.
Whether you're planning a Hawaiian vacation or simply curious about different approaches to cattle ranching, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into a world where tradition meets innovation against a backdrop of breathtaking beauty. Don't miss this chance to discover the hidden agricultural heritage behind Hawaii's postcard-perfect landscapes.
Dion's is has a new menu item! Try their Green Chile Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza today.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the
Burger, our podcast produced bythe New Mexico Beef Council.
I'm Caroline Romo, theexecutive director of the New
Mexico Beef Council, and this isan extra special episode.
I am in Maui with my family ona personal vacation, but we went
ahead and packed the podcastequipment because we believe
(00:25):
there's a unique story to betold about ranching in Hawaii.
And, of course, we have metAngel, sitting to my left at a
event where we were all the beefcouncils were together and
learning at National Cattlemen'sBeef Association.
So, all that to say, we'reworking while we're on vacation
(00:46):
because it's so exciting, so,anyways, so this episode with me
is Kristen from Ulu PalakuaRanch Excellent, okay, all right
.
And Angel from the Hawaii BeefIndustry Council and Hawaii
Cattlemen's OrganizationIndustry Council and Hawaii
(01:07):
Cattlemen's Organization.
So, angel, maybe I actuallywill have you introduce yourself
first, because you kind ofhelped set this up and we met
you first, if that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
Aloha everyone.
My name is Angelica Malone.
Everyone calls me Angel.
I work with the HawaiiCattlemen's Council, the Hawaii
Beef Industry Council and theHawaii Range and Stewardship
Foundation.
As Carol Ann mentioned, we hadthe opportunity to meet earlier
this year in person at atraining and we just hit it off
(01:36):
immediately talking aboutinvasive species and the
similarities and differencesthat New Mexico ranchers face,
similar to Hawaii, and thoughtthat, wow, what a great
opportunity.
She mentioned she was coming tovisit Maui later in the year
and everything just worked out.
So I'm really honored to haveworked with Kristen and
(01:58):
Ulupalakua Ranch in variouscapacities in the past ranch in
various capacities in the pastand I felt that who better to
speak to the possibilities, theopportunities as well as the
challenges that Hawaii faceswith ranching?
None better than Kristen MackOlmsen.
So thank you, ulupalakua Ranch,for allowing us to be here and
(02:19):
for being great stewards of theland.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Absolutely, thank you , great introduction.
Well then we'll pass to you andyou can give us an introduction
of yourself, and then we can gointo the land.
Absolutely, thank you, greatintroduction.
Well then we'll pass to you andyou can give us an introduction
of yourself, and then we can gointo the ranch.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you, aloha, I'm Kristen Mackel-Mason.
I'm the livestock manager hereat Lopalakua Ranch in Maui.
My background is I'm actuallyfrom Northeast Ohio.
I went to Ohio State University, gold Bucks, for undergrad and
graduate school.
After grad school, I moved outhere for a job, actually working
(02:50):
with a pineapple company doingsome beef cattle work.
Most of my undergrad andgraduate was actually in grazing
dairy, so my background is morein dairy than beef.
But I ended up out here workingmore in the beef industry.
But I ended up out here workingmore in the beef industry
because we have more beef outhere and ended up about 2016,
started a job here at UlupalakuaRanch and moved up to livestock
(03:14):
manager in 2018.
And here I am today.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, what an interesting evolution of your
career.
And you might have to explainthe the cattle at the pineapple,
right at pineapple farm.
That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So there is some work , kind of looking at utilizing
beef cattle on fallow pineapplefields and then feeding
pineapple so crushed pineapplewaste to to beef cattle.
So I came in doing some work inthat and then interesting
migrated through some differentprojects here, ended up here at
ulupalakua perfect perfect.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We, we do talk about it a lot in uh in the office and
then on the podcast aboutcattle being great upcyclers,
right, right, right uh.
So will you tell me about theranch?
And even so, I kind of, either,maybe like our yearly schedule
so people understand, becausethe idea is we're we're trying
to tell, um tell, the story ofranching for someone maybe who
(04:09):
doesn't know.
So what's kind of the theyearly schedule?
Or maybe even like the lifecycle of an animal on on the
ranch here so we have about um18,000 contiguous acres here at
Ulapalacua that we graze.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So we have two main cow herds, about 800 breeding
cows, at this particular time.
One of the cow herds will startcalving in about January and
they wean out in the fall of theyear, brand them in the spring,
about April.
And then we have another cowherd that will start calving
here pretty quick in July andthen we'll brand them in the
(04:46):
fall and then wean them out inthe spring.
So that's our two main herds.
We do a 63-day calving windowfor each of the herds.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, perfect.
And is there a differentelevation or a different place
that these herds are?
Is that why the calving isdifferent?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It was at one point in time, which is kind of why it
was worked out that way, withwhich we'll probably talk a
little bit more about later,with the access to your
populations and the over grazing.
From that we've had to kind ofcycle to a program that we move
the cattle where we've gotforage, yeah, so so that's
changed over time.
Um, so basically now the twocow herd system allows us to,
(05:27):
you know, move animals from oneherd to another or hold heifers
longer so that they're a littlemore mature when we breed them,
so they kind of handle theenvironment better.
So there's some definitebenefits to having that two cow
system.
Yeah, different times of theyear, two cow herd system.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, that's really interesting, and do you so?
Maybe can you talk about the um, which I guess we're going to
talk?
Landscapes is one of myquestions, but um can you the
different landscapes on theranch and then, how do those fit
into your ranching practices?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
right.
So we graze anywhere from ocean.
You're down by the ocean allthe way up to over 5,000 feet
elevation, and then everythingfrom very rocky to kind of, I
guess, less rocky Not completelyrocky here, but less rocky, you
know, more open, shorter grasspastures.
And since we are contiguous,it's a little bit easier for us
(06:21):
to take the cow herds where theyneed to go, based on their
production, the stage ofproduction cycle that they're in
.
So cows that are calving orhave small calves on them,
versus cows that might be dry,we could take them in some
rougher stuff and do somecleanup and some, you know, fire
breaking work or that sort ofthing.
So, yeah, so it's just kind ofdepend on on current conditions
(06:42):
and what's going on in theweather and with the invasive
species that we have, where wego with them yeah, um well, do
you?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
uh?
So what role does land andresource management play in your
, in your ranching?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
it's everything here.
So in hawaii we don't reallyhave access to any type of
purchase feed.
So if we I mean we don't havewinter and we don't what, we
have winter but we don't havesnow, so, um, the grass doesn't
really shut down for coldreasons as much, except for some
of the very mauka or the.
The grass is really high up inthe mountain.
We say mauka.
Grasses will shut down when itgets colder, but we do have a
(07:19):
definite um dry season here andso we need to plan for that.
Drought planning is is crucial.
We have to always be a couplemonths thinking a couple months
ahead as far as our stockingrates, what kind of cattle we
have on hand, where we're goingto go next with grass and just
try to plan for that.
Because we don't have a way topurchase feed and feed here out
(07:40):
of a bad situation and we don'treally have sale barns either,
so I can't really move cattlequickly if I need to.
So it's a lot of a badsituation and we don't really
have sale barns either, so Ican't really move cattle quickly
if I need to.
So it's a lot of a lot ofresearch management.
It really is everything hereyeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's a really interesting thing.
Um, in, in some parts of NewMexico, feed is is more abundant
and we I think the last podcastI recorded he had he had some,
some farms that if anything gottough, he had spots and so he
created a grow yards because hehad so much feed.
It's an interesting problem orsolution.
(08:13):
And then you talk about drought.
So in New Mexico our annualrainfall is, I think it's
anywhere from like 8 inches tomaybe 20 inches a year, but
usually 8 to 15, I think is mostranchers.
What are we looking at annualrainfall here?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Right here at headquarters 20 to 30 inches.
We've got some stuff up around40 and then down to probably
closer to eight.
So it varies a lot.
Here in Hawaii we've got a lotof microclimates in a very short
span of area.
I'm sure you've seen drivingaround Maui that it changes very
quickly here, and so even onthe ranch we've got everything
(08:52):
from super dry, leeward typelandscapes that you know are
just rocks and brush and, youknow, not much grass or very
much seasonal grass, to a alittle bit more rainy areas,
yeah, lush areas.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
so I mean, uh, that's a huge difference.
Eight to eight to 30 or eightto 40, that's.
That's completely differentlandscapes, yeah um and the
patterns.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The weather patterns lately have been um trending
drier and drier, um.
We've seen that as as issuehere.
We've tracked rainfall over.
We've got data over about 100years and we've seen the
rainfall patterns change andchange to more rainfall falling
all at one time, you know again10 inches, sometimes 24 hours,
(09:38):
and then not rain for months.
So that's been a tough change.
For us is to deal with gettingall that rain at once and losing
a lot of it and then not havingany for a long time.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, yeah, I would say we have that problem too.
We had we were at a ranch andovernight they had two and a
half inches of rain.
Well, you're just, you're notgetting a lot of that rain,
you're not collecting it, you'renot.
The ground can't, the groundcan't even absorb it, right,
yeah, yeah, so it's a big, bigproblem.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What is one of the biggest challenges you face as a
rancher?
I mean in recent years?
Definitely the access tooverpopulation.
It's been huge.
So just in my time here, myeight to nine years here, we've
cut the cow herd in half.
We're running less than half ofcows we were running, just you
know, six, seven years ago.
And why?
You know some of that's due todrought conditions.
(10:30):
Most of that is due to the overpopulation of deer.
So you know, one cow on thisranch alone we had about 9,000
head of deer on 18,000 acres.
So two deer per acre, or onedeer every two acres, um, so
that's huge.
If you think of an equivalencyof um, maybe about seven deer
(10:50):
per head of cow, you know that'sover a thousand head of cattle
that we can't run anymorebecause of the deer population.
So that's become everything inour lives as ranchers in the
past few years is getting thatunder control so we can start
managing our resources again.
Because you just can't do it.
(11:11):
You can't manage stockpiles ofgrasses, you can't plan for
drought, you can't, you know,manage your herd numbers if you
think there's going to be grassthere and you come back and
there's not grass there becausethe deer have taken it all off
and so it's been tough.
It's been a tough bunch ofyears.
So we're seeing some things getbetter.
We've seen a lot of attentionto it, there's some funds going
(11:32):
to deer control and a lot ofdifferent efforts out there, and
so things are looking up.
We're starting to see a light.
Yeah, but it's been a longstruggle.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Oh my gosh, Absolutely.
And so kind of to explain thatsome of the conversations I had
with angel and then, um, I thinkwe even maybe had had before we
started recording, is that sothe axis deer were introduced to
hawaii in the 50s or somethingright, and there's there's no
natural predator for the animal,so they're just left to um, to
(12:04):
grow and overpopulate and justcontinue to.
You know cause harm, right?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean their growth has really been
exponential since they wereintroduced here and there was
only a few head when theyintroduced them and just without
really any natural predatorsbesides hunters and some of
these big, large land tracksthat they can just move from
ranch to ranch, kind ofinterrupted, has just allowed
them to move away from pressurewhen there was hunting pressure
(12:32):
and just rep, you know, keepoverpopulating and moving now
into the watersheds, into theforest and areas that are even
harder for us to get them.
So yeah, it's been a hugeproblem, absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And and then we talk about stocking rate too.
So I think you you mentionedthat in the beginning too when
you're, when you're trying tomaintain grass at a healthy
level, you have a stocking rateright, so an animal unit per
acre that you're sticking with.
And when you don't have controlover the wild animals, you have
to change that.
And that's just reallycomplicated, hard to predict,
(13:06):
hard to manage, right.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, really impossible to manage.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, hard to predict .
Speaker 3 (13:07):
hard to manage, right ?
Yeah, really impossible tomanage.
I mean, if we can't manage theaccess stairs movement, which
you can't without a higher fence, and high fence is very, very
expensive, as we've all found,as we've had to fence these high
fences, large tracts of land.
You know millions of dollarshave been spent by each ranch to
do this, to get this problemunder control.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, that is a very large challenge.
Talking kind of back to thecattle, can you give an example
of how you care for your cattleto ensure their health and
wellbeing?
Or another example, becauseobviously grass management was
the first one.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I mean that's huge here because, like I said, we
don't have feed, um, so there'sno real way for us to feed
ourselves out of that situation.
So managing those populationsand trying to think ahead, um,
one huge thing here is matchingthe genetics to the environment
for us.
We generally are all pretty lowinput producers.
(14:04):
You kind of have to be here.
Inputs are super expensive andmost of them are imported, you
know, over the ocean, and sothere's a lot of time and focus
for us spent on developing orbringing in genetics for that
animal that needs to be thatmid-sized animal that can do
well on grass and grass that'snot always the best grass
(14:26):
forages, that aren't alwaysprime forages and still breed
back and bring in a calf andraise a nice calf, and so we
spend a lot of time thinkingabout, you know, both in cattle
and sheep also, because we havesheep as well is just developing
that animal that fits thisenvironment.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I think when we have talked about genetics in
the past, sometimes ourlisteners are a little confused
and get a little scared of thatword, which I'm not sure why,
because it's such an easy andwonderful thing that we're doing
when we're breeding an animal.
So we're choosing breeds andchoosing characteristics in an
animal to breed the nextgeneration.
Right, and it's just.
(15:04):
I've used this, maybe analogy,a couple times on the podcast
now, but I'm going to keep usingit.
It's the same as when we bredpoodle dogs to an Australian
Shepherd or any sort of otherdog to try and take that
characteristic of not sheddingand being hypoallergenic, and
(15:26):
we've bred different breeds ofdogs to make these new dogs that
will, that will can be in thehome, right.
So I just been been using thatbecause I think that's important
to understand when we talkgenetics it's, it's just about
breeding cattle.
You have a, you have a calmeranimal.
Maybe that one's easier toprocess, so then you keep
breeding that one, but you havea wilder animal.
We're not going to breed thatone, you know, or whatever it is
(15:46):
.
It's, it's just, it's it.
I don't want it to be a scarything.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right, right, right.
Just working with the naturalvariability and breeding for
those traits that we we need inthis environment really for
those cattle to do well and tobe healthy and to survive
naturally.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, and that's great work.
It's a, it's a natural process.
Natural is a great way todescribe that.
What's one thing, or maybeanother thing most people don't
know about raising beef inHawaii.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Let's see, we don't have much irrigated country.
Like I said, we can't reallybuy feed.
There's not much opportunitiesto buy feed or bring in feed.
It's very expensive and alsonot many of us have much
irrigated country and so we alsocan't, you know, water our way
out of a bad situation either.
(16:37):
So that's probably one kind ofinteresting different aspect of
this industry here.
I think a lot of people don'teven know how many head of beef
cattle there are in Hawaii.
When they think about Hawaii,they think about vacations, and
you know that there actually isquite a few head.
Actually, about 140,000 head ofcattle total in Hawaii, 83,000
(17:00):
head of beef cows, according toUSDA numbers, and the ranchers
actually generate $82 million ofgross income in Hawaii.
So I thought those are someinteresting kind of big numbers
that people who come to Hawaiimaybe for vacation and traveling
don't realize how big of anindustry it actually is.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Oh, it's really important.
That's the whole goal kind ofof the podcast too in New Mexico
is we want people to know thatNew Mexico beef is important for
New Mexico and beef isimportant for Hawaii, a lot of
most of the states in our nation.
It's a really important part ofthe economy and an important
part of land and resourcemanagement, really, yeah that's
(17:39):
really neat.
One thing too, if something thatmaybe I don't know about beef
in Hawaii or I didn't knowbefore, maybe talking to Angel
and others is there's not a lotof processing in Hawaii either,
right, so cattle have to go,some cattle have to go by boat
to get processed.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Some cattle do go by boat.
So there's a mixture of marketshere.
There is a grass finished orlocally finished industry.
So some of our calves staylocally, go to either pastures
for finishing or, you know, goto a feedlot type or feeding
type situation, and then we doship out some cattle, kind of
(18:19):
basically what the local marketcan't take.
We do also have a ranch inPrineville, oregon.
The same owners have a ranch inPrineville, oregon.
So we send calves um to ourranch there for backgrounding
and growing out and so we do alittle of both um.
Sometimes, a lot of times, thelocal market um cannot or does
(18:41):
not pay as well.
We tend to take a loss keepingthem here locally just because
of local conditions and cost ofprocessing and that sort of
thing, and so it actually paysbetter for ranchers to send, to
ship them out to the mainland um.
So it is.
This depends on marketconditions and that sort of
thing.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, just complicated.
Uh, new mexico doesn't have alot of commercial processing in
our state, so a lot of ourcattle leave the state to get
processed.
And then we say you, you know,comes back, um, comes back in a,
in a box or at the grocerystore, and we, we tell people in
New Mexico the best way tosupport a rancher is just to buy
beef at a grocery store orrestaurant and then, if you can
(19:20):
buy it locally we have, you know, local, local directories and
all of that but, um, butsupporting a rancher, it beef
means ordering beef, meansordering more cheeseburgers, it
means just, you know, buyingbeef at the grocery store too.
So what is the most rewardingpart of raising cattle?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
I think for me, just watching their improvements over
time, the genetic improvementreally interests me.
So that selecting for traits,that variability within animals,
within our herds of animals,and selecting for that, bringing
in, you know, versus artificialinsemination, bringing in some
genetics that we think mightwork and testing that out, I
(20:03):
really love that, I'm veryinterested in that, and so just
finding those types of cattlethat do well here naturally and
then watching them do reallywell here is really exciting for
me and I enjoy that.
So seeing that improvement overtime is something I really
really enjoy.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Oh man, absolutely.
I think that's a really specialwhen you can literally see it
in front of you, right?
You see the cattle as beingsuccessful because of something
you chose in the breeding.
What do you think is yourfavorite part of the beef
industry?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I think again that focus on improvement.
It always just amazes me how,like we go to, you know, some of
these NCBA conferences andconventions and that sort of
thing, and just the focus onalways getting better, whether
it be in our genetics or be inour animal efficiency, our
sustainability, um, you know,nutritional of beef and doing a
(21:02):
better job of supplying that, or, you know, just letting people
know how nutritious beef isthere's always just this real
excitement in this industry,always just that interest to get
better, even stockmanship, likehandling better, being more
efficient and more interested inanimal welfare, and it's just
always getting better.
(21:22):
So I think it's really alwaysexciting to see how many young
people are coming into thisindustry because there's so much
improvement, like we're justgetting better, even using
technology now, using drones,using artificial, you know,
intelligence to improve what wedo, using the virtual offense
like it's super exciting, nomatter what your interest area
is, to be in this industry atthis stage, and so it's cool to
(21:46):
go to these conferences and seehow many young people are coming
into it and that it shouldcontinue to get better.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Absolutely.
I think the future is brightand I think being involved in an
industry that is interested inlearning and adapting and
improving is an honor.
Right, you want to see thatbecause if we're going to keep
providing, you know, safe,wholesome and quality food for
for the world, it's, it's, we'vegot to keep continuing to, to
(22:14):
be more efficient and and allthe things say I mean, that's
all.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Our ultimate goal is that we want to be food
producers and we want to producethe best food that we can.
You know we really do enjoythat.
That's why we're in this isthat's.
My passion in life is to be afood producer, and so you know
it's exciting to be in that andto be able to do that and to do
it better all the time.
You know using science and youknow using these developments in
(22:38):
stockmanship and using for usstock dogs and doing a better
job at what we do.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Absolutely.
Oh man, we love to see stockdogs work.
They're so, they're anefficient way to move.
Working with cattle, workingwith you know there's challenges
there's.
You know you can't control theweather, you can't control the
wild animals, but why do youkeep doing what you do?
(23:04):
What makes you keep going?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I think I just love producing food.
I think it's a very noble wayto make a living.
You know, I mean foodproduction, whether it be
farming and ranching, or, youknow, dairy or whatever is is
you are trying to feed the world.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I mean, that is really what we're doing, and so
for me, at the end of the day,that's that's what drives me is
is to know I'm contributing todoing this in the best way
possible, and so that wouldalways keep me going, absolutely
Working, and I'm sure Angel canattest to this too working for
those of you that are growing,growing food and raising food is
(23:44):
is an honor, right, it's just,it's a noble, noble job to even
be connected, to put it lightly.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
What do you want consumers toknow about ranching, or
specifically ranching in Hawaii,if they take away one thing?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think it might be the amount of thought and time
and passion and knowledge andscience that really goes into
what we do.
It's not just throwing thecattle out there and bringing
them back and then you know, andthen you know harvesting them.
And I mean there's so, so muchthat goes into every aspect of
this production system.
So much data, so muchharvesting them.
And I mean there's so, so muchthat goes into every aspect of
this production system.
So much data, so much knowledge, so much science, so much
(24:25):
thought, so much art.
You know that goes into thehandling of them.
That you know it's just superinteresting.
I think people don't alwaysrealize that there's just a lot
that goes into it.
So you know just thatunderstanding of the different
aspects and if you ever get thechance to talk to a rancher and
you know kind of pick theirbrain on what they understand.
(24:46):
And you know I always thinkthat managing animals and
managing pastures together is anart.
You know you can talk about thescience and the measurements to
it and that sort of thing, butI mean there's a certain art
form in what we do and going outthere and be able to look at an
environment and understandwhat's going on.
You know below the surface ofthe grass, below the soil and
(25:09):
above, and understand how tobest manage that.
And so yeah, Absolutely,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I think there is so much to it and I think that's
kind of the whole goal.
The whole goal or the wholeidea of the podcast is we want
people to know there's so muchand there's so much extra effort
and good intentions and wellthought out process that goes
into us being able to buy safe,safe, wholesome you know beef at
(25:36):
the, at the grocery store.
Uh, so absolutely well, thankyou for helping us tell that
story.
Can you talk about the, thefamily side of the business?
Do you have family that'sinvolved?
Is this is the ranch familyowned?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
how does that kind of yeah, his family owned um was
purchased in 1963 by the erdmanfamily um and they're still here
on the ranch.
So Mr Erdmann is still hereliving in Maui and his son is,
you know, directly involved inthe operation and now the
daughters are coming back to it.
So it's interesting to see thatmulti-generational ranch and
(26:13):
ranch family and we're reallyblessed to be able to work for a
very kind and giving and, youknow, very present family here,
you know, on the ranch andalways get that chance with
ranching today and it's nice tosee that it's still you know a
family and you can work directlywith them and, you know, have
that, have that contact.
(26:33):
So Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I think that multi-generation ranching is is
always, always special.
And then you know somethingthat started in the 60s.
That's a long-term business.
There's not a lot of businessesthat last generations.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then to see it change.
You know, with the newgenerations coming on like what
you know, what this will become.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
How does it morph with times?
You know to stay, you know andstay a relevant business and you
know what is that next step andso it's interesting to see,
right, so they can come get kindof a peek at at the, the beef
and the.
As you're driving past you'reseeing pastures and and ranch
and country.
You might not see cattlebecause they are spread out, but
(27:26):
but yeah, can you give like ateaser if they're, if they're in
town.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, come to Ulupalakumar Ranch store.
It's right here, close to ourheadquarters.
Great food.
We do our local beef in theburgers.
Our lamb is in the burgers.
Also do venison burgers, whichis the wild caught invasive
venison here from the ranch, andelk as well.
We do raise elk.
We own the elk in Hawaii andthen we also do specials.
(27:53):
We have a little store with ourlocal items.
We eat lunch there.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
That's perfect.
Yeah, yeah, we eat lunch there.
It's good.
That's perfect.
Yeah, yeah, we had stopped herethe last time.
We were lucky enough tovacation and my kid has a cute
T-shirt from the ranch store andthat's a fun story and always
trying to find connection toagriculture on our vacations, if
we can, because learning moreabout where you visit is always
(28:19):
a special part.
Um, so is there anything elseyou'd like to add about hawaii
or the beef industry?
Um, or even just your ranch?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I think, um, one interesting thing about the beef
industry here and all over umthe country is the land
stewardship portion of what wedo.
We didn't talk a whole lot aboutthat but, um, you know, we are
a lot of the focus on why we ofwhat we do.
We didn't talk a whole lotabout that but you know we are a
lot of the focus on why we do.
What we do is based on thehealth of the land and doing a
better job of always taking careof the land, what the land
(28:51):
tells us, and improving,hopefully, the health of it over
time.
And so we've got, you know know, lots of different projects
going on to always improve landhealth, do more regenerative
agriculture type practices, allthose kind of things.
And so, you know, it's aninteresting part of ranching
that not everyone knows about.
But a big focus for us is theland stewardship and then also
(29:13):
fuel control.
I mean, here in Hawaii we'vegot a fire problem.
So you know, one big thing weuse livestock for is controlling
the brush and the fuel loads tobe able to catch these fires,
when they do happen, faster andprevent those really bad
situations.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, yeah, cattle are a great way to help with the
fuel, right, grazing cattleprevents a lot of fire in places
.
And then sometimes we see, whencattle are no longer allowed to
graze, the problems that itcould cause, because they're
great for the land and great forpreventing that thick fuel.
(29:53):
And when we say fuel for alistener, that's just that grass
that maybe becomes fuel for afire, right, the grass that gets
dried out or the gets thickerbecause, no, no one's there
eating it right, right, yep.
That becomes the fuel for thefire and it becomes super hard
to catch it and get it undercontrol in these unmanaged um
landscapes that are not gracedyeah, yeah, we, we, we love
(30:16):
cattle and I'm, of course,biased because I, um, you, work
for the cattle industry, but Ibelieve the impact they can have
on the environment is verypositive in so many ways.
Yeah, so many ways.
Okay, so we've got the funanswer, kind of the last answer,
unless you have anything elsethat you wanted to hit, I think
(30:36):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, it's a fun one.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
So the fun, fun, answer, fun question and I even
say it's probably the mostimportant and definitely one of
the most interesting is what isyour favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
you know what it's actually oxtail, okay, tail,
more than anything.
I love that yeah, I like um thevery marrowy bone soups more
than anything.
So like a shin bone soup or anoxtail is my favorite.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Of course, a good steak is awesome too, but if you
have to eat the bone soups, oh,I love that, and I think we
actually have a recipe that wecan share with it too, so we'll
share that.
And then is there a uniquelyHawaiian way to eat beef.
So in New Mexico we like totell people that if you, if you
order steak and enchiladas andthen you can get beef and
enchiladas, and then you know,and then it's the real secretive
(31:28):
way is to order them Christmas,which means green and red chili
, when you come to New Mexico,so you can get steak and
enchiladas and then, and thenanother another uniquely New
Mexican thing is a green chilicheeseburger, and so we're all
very passionate about our chiliwith our beef.
So is there yeah, is there auniquely Hawaiian way to eat
beef?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I mean, the oxtail is pretty Hawaiian Not Hawaiian
but local, I'd say and then thelau lau I would say would be one
.
So that would be a steamed beef, and sometimes there's pork in
there too.
Or you know fish as well,racked in a taro leaf and then
you know steamed, so the taroleaf melts.
(32:09):
So yeah, if you're here try it.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I don't remember.
We even had a great short ribwith rice at a restaurant, but
it was a Filipino restaurant.
The other day there's good waysto eat beef in Maui.
We've been trying them.
Yes, there, sure is, absolutelyWell.
The other thing I was going tosay just before we wrap up is
you mentioned, if people havequestions or they're interested,
(32:34):
if they want to learn, if youare listening and you want to
know more about the industry,please, you know, please, follow
along to our podcast.
But also, you can go tobeefitswhatsfordinnercom, you
can go to nmbeefcom and you cango to is there a Hawaii?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah hawaiibeeforg.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, and so there's websites and organizations that
you can go to for moreinformation on ranching.
We'd love to answer questionsand right now we don't have a
ton of questions, so I would sayyou can even reach out to us,
you can reply to the podcast andwe'll try and get answers,
Because I think if there arequestions we're open to giving
(33:11):
answers.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, definitely, we'll talk about this all day.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, absolutely Same same.
Well, thank you so much for umbeing on the podcast.
Thank you, angel, for helpingintroduce and and get us here,
and we are, yeah, we're sograteful for your time and um.
Yeah, thank you, thank youappreciate it.
Behind the burger is a podcastproduced by the new mexico beef
(33:34):
council with the goal of tellingthe stories of the cattlemen
and cattlewomen of the newmexico beef industry.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's episode.
If you'd like more information,please visit nmbeefcom.
Whether it be a burger, a steakor another beef dish, we hope
you're enjoying beef at yournext meal.
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the
Burger, our podcast produced bythe New Mexico Beef Council.
I'm Caroline Romo, theexecutive director of the New
Mexico Beef Council, and this isan extra special episode.
I am in Maui with my family ona personal vacation, but we went
ahead and packed the podcastequipment because we believe
(00:25):
there's a unique story to betold about ranching in Hawaii.
And, of course, we have metAngel, sitting to my left at a
event where we were all the beefcouncils were together and
learning at National Cattlemen'sBeef Association.
So, all that to say, we'reworking while we're on vacation
(00:46):
because it's so exciting, so,anyways, so this episode with me
is Kristen from Ulu PalakuaRanch Excellent, okay, all right
.
And Angel from the Hawaii BeefIndustry Council and Hawaii
Cattlemen's OrganizationIndustry Council and Hawaii
(01:07):
Cattlemen's Organization.
So, angel, maybe I actuallywill have you introduce yourself
first, because you kind ofhelped set this up and we met
you first, if that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
Aloha everyone.
My name is Angelica Malone.
Everyone calls me Angel.
I work with the HawaiiCattlemen's Council, the Hawaii
Beef Industry Council and theHawaii Range and Stewardship
Foundation.
As Carol Ann mentioned, we hadthe opportunity to meet earlier
this year in person at atraining and we just hit it off
(01:36):
immediately talking aboutinvasive species and the
similarities and differencesthat New Mexico ranchers face,
similar to Hawaii, and thoughtthat, wow, what a great
opportunity.
She mentioned she was coming tovisit Maui later in the year
and everything just worked out.
So I'm really honored to haveworked with Kristen and
(01:58):
Ulupalakua Ranch in variouscapacities in the past ranch in
various capacities in the pastand I felt that who better to
speak to the possibilities, theopportunities as well as the
challenges that Hawaii faceswith ranching?
None better than Kristen MackOlmsen.
So thank you, ulupalakua Ranch,for allowing us to be here and
(02:19):
for being great stewards of theland.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Absolutely, thank you , great introduction.
Well then we'll pass to you andyou can give us an introduction
of yourself, and then we can gointo the land.
Absolutely, thank you, greatintroduction.
Well then we'll pass to you andyou can give us an introduction
of yourself, and then we can gointo the ranch.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you, aloha, I'm Kristen Mackel-Mason.
I'm the livestock manager hereat Lopalakua Ranch in Maui.
My background is I'm actuallyfrom Northeast Ohio.
I went to Ohio State University, gold Bucks, for undergrad and
graduate school.
After grad school, I moved outhere for a job, actually working
(02:50):
with a pineapple company doingsome beef cattle work.
Most of my undergrad andgraduate was actually in grazing
dairy, so my background is morein dairy than beef.
But I ended up out here workingmore in the beef industry.
But I ended up out here workingmore in the beef industry
because we have more beef outhere and ended up about 2016,
started a job here at UlupalakuaRanch and moved up to livestock
(03:14):
manager in 2018.
And here I am today.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, what an interesting evolution of your
career.
And you might have to explainthe the cattle at the pineapple,
right at pineapple farm.
That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So there is some work , kind of looking at utilizing
beef cattle on fallow pineapplefields and then feeding
pineapple so crushed pineapplewaste to to beef cattle.
So I came in doing some work inthat and then interesting
migrated through some differentprojects here, ended up here at
ulupalakua perfect perfect.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We, we do talk about it a lot in uh in the office and
then on the podcast aboutcattle being great upcyclers,
right, right, right uh.
So will you tell me about theranch?
And even so, I kind of, either,maybe like our yearly schedule
so people understand, becausethe idea is we're we're trying
to tell, um tell, the story ofranching for someone maybe who
(04:09):
doesn't know.
So what's kind of the theyearly schedule?
Or maybe even like the lifecycle of an animal on on the
ranch here so we have about um18,000 contiguous acres here at
Ulapalacua that we graze.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So we have two main cow herds, about 800 breeding
cows, at this particular time.
One of the cow herds will startcalving in about January and
they wean out in the fall of theyear, brand them in the spring,
about April.
And then we have another cowherd that will start calving
here pretty quick in July andthen we'll brand them in the
(04:46):
fall and then wean them out inthe spring.
So that's our two main herds.
We do a 63-day calving windowfor each of the herds.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, perfect.
And is there a differentelevation or a different place
that these herds are?
Is that why the calving isdifferent?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It was at one point in time, which is kind of why it
was worked out that way, withwhich we'll probably talk a
little bit more about later,with the access to your
populations and the over grazing.
From that we've had to kind ofcycle to a program that we move
the cattle where we've gotforage, yeah, so so that's
changed over time.
Um, so basically now the twocow herd system allows us to,
(05:27):
you know, move animals from oneherd to another or hold heifers
longer so that they're a littlemore mature when we breed them,
so they kind of handle theenvironment better.
So there's some definitebenefits to having that two cow
system.
Yeah, different times of theyear, two cow herd system.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, that's really interesting, and do you so?
Maybe can you talk about the um, which I guess we're going to
talk?
Landscapes is one of myquestions, but um can you the
different landscapes on theranch and then, how do those fit
into your ranching practices?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
right.
So we graze anywhere from ocean.
You're down by the ocean allthe way up to over 5,000 feet
elevation, and then everythingfrom very rocky to kind of, I
guess, less rocky Not completelyrocky here, but less rocky, you
know, more open, shorter grasspastures.
And since we are contiguous,it's a little bit easier for us
(06:21):
to take the cow herds where theyneed to go, based on their
production, the stage ofproduction cycle that they're in
.
So cows that are calving orhave small calves on them,
versus cows that might be dry,we could take them in some
rougher stuff and do somecleanup and some, you know, fire
breaking work or that sort ofthing.
So, yeah, so it's just kind ofdepend on on current conditions
(06:42):
and what's going on in theweather and with the invasive
species that we have, where wego with them yeah, um well, do
you?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
uh?
So what role does land andresource management play in your
, in your ranching?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
it's everything here.
So in hawaii we don't reallyhave access to any type of
purchase feed.
So if we I mean we don't havewinter and we don't what, we
have winter but we don't havesnow, so, um, the grass doesn't
really shut down for coldreasons as much, except for some
of the very mauka or the.
The grass is really high up inthe mountain.
We say mauka.
Grasses will shut down when itgets colder, but we do have a
(07:19):
definite um dry season here andso we need to plan for that.
Drought planning is is crucial.
We have to always be a couplemonths thinking a couple months
ahead as far as our stockingrates, what kind of cattle we
have on hand, where we're goingto go next with grass and just
try to plan for that.
Because we don't have a way topurchase feed and feed here out
(07:40):
of a bad situation and we don'treally have sale barns either,
so I can't really move cattlequickly if I need to.
So it's a lot of a badsituation and we don't really
have sale barns either, so Ican't really move cattle quickly
if I need to.
So it's a lot of a lot ofresearch management.
It really is everything hereyeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's a really interesting thing.
Um, in, in some parts of NewMexico, feed is is more abundant
and we I think the last podcastI recorded he had he had some,
some farms that if anything gottough, he had spots and so he
created a grow yards because hehad so much feed.
It's an interesting problem orsolution.
(08:13):
And then you talk about drought.
So in New Mexico our annualrainfall is, I think it's
anywhere from like 8 inches tomaybe 20 inches a year, but
usually 8 to 15, I think is mostranchers.
What are we looking at annualrainfall here?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Right here at headquarters 20 to 30 inches.
We've got some stuff up around40 and then down to probably
closer to eight.
So it varies a lot.
Here in Hawaii we've got a lotof microclimates in a very short
span of area.
I'm sure you've seen drivingaround Maui that it changes very
quickly here, and so even onthe ranch we've got everything
(08:52):
from super dry, leeward typelandscapes that you know are
just rocks and brush and, youknow, not much grass or very
much seasonal grass, to a alittle bit more rainy areas,
yeah, lush areas.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
so I mean, uh, that's a huge difference.
Eight to eight to 30 or eightto 40, that's.
That's completely differentlandscapes, yeah um and the
patterns.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The weather patterns lately have been um trending
drier and drier, um.
We've seen that as as issuehere.
We've tracked rainfall over.
We've got data over about 100years and we've seen the
rainfall patterns change andchange to more rainfall falling
all at one time, you know again10 inches, sometimes 24 hours,
(09:38):
and then not rain for months.
So that's been a tough change.
For us is to deal with gettingall that rain at once and losing
a lot of it and then not havingany for a long time.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, yeah, I would say we have that problem too.
We had we were at a ranch andovernight they had two and a
half inches of rain.
Well, you're just, you're notgetting a lot of that rain,
you're not collecting it, you'renot.
The ground can't, the groundcan't even absorb it, right,
yeah, yeah, so it's a big, bigproblem.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What is one of the biggest challenges you face as a
rancher?
I mean in recent years?
Definitely the access tooverpopulation.
It's been huge.
So just in my time here, myeight to nine years here, we've
cut the cow herd in half.
We're running less than half ofcows we were running, just you
know, six, seven years ago.
And why?
You know some of that's due todrought conditions.
(10:30):
Most of that is due to the overpopulation of deer.
So you know, one cow on thisranch alone we had about 9,000
head of deer on 18,000 acres.
So two deer per acre, or onedeer every two acres, um, so
that's huge.
If you think of an equivalencyof um, maybe about seven deer
(10:50):
per head of cow, you know that'sover a thousand head of cattle
that we can't run anymorebecause of the deer population.
So that's become everything inour lives as ranchers in the
past few years is getting thatunder control so we can start
managing our resources again.
Because you just can't do it.
(11:11):
You can't manage stockpiles ofgrasses, you can't plan for
drought, you can't, you know,manage your herd numbers if you
think there's going to be grassthere and you come back and
there's not grass there becausethe deer have taken it all off
and so it's been tough.
It's been a tough bunch ofyears.
So we're seeing some things getbetter.
We've seen a lot of attentionto it, there's some funds going
(11:32):
to deer control and a lot ofdifferent efforts out there, and
so things are looking up.
We're starting to see a light.
Yeah, but it's been a longstruggle.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Oh my gosh, Absolutely.
And so kind of to explain thatsome of the conversations I had
with angel and then, um, I thinkwe even maybe had had before we
started recording, is that sothe axis deer were introduced to
hawaii in the 50s or somethingright, and there's there's no
natural predator for the animal,so they're just left to um, to
(12:04):
grow and overpopulate and justcontinue to.
You know cause harm, right?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean their growth has really been
exponential since they wereintroduced here and there was
only a few head when theyintroduced them and just without
really any natural predatorsbesides hunters and some of
these big, large land tracksthat they can just move from
ranch to ranch, kind ofinterrupted, has just allowed
them to move away from pressurewhen there was hunting pressure
(12:32):
and just rep, you know, keepoverpopulating and moving now
into the watersheds, into theforest and areas that are even
harder for us to get them.
So yeah, it's been a hugeproblem, absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And and then we talk about stocking rate too.
So I think you you mentionedthat in the beginning too when
you're, when you're trying tomaintain grass at a healthy
level, you have a stocking rateright, so an animal unit per
acre that you're sticking with.
And when you don't have controlover the wild animals, you have
to change that.
And that's just reallycomplicated, hard to predict,
(13:06):
hard to manage, right.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, really impossible to manage.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, hard to predict .
Speaker 3 (13:07):
hard to manage, right ?
Yeah, really impossible tomanage.
I mean, if we can't manage theaccess stairs movement, which
you can't without a higher fence, and high fence is very, very
expensive, as we've all found,as we've had to fence these high
fences, large tracts of land.
You know millions of dollarshave been spent by each ranch to
do this, to get this problemunder control.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, that is a very large challenge.
Talking kind of back to thecattle, can you give an example
of how you care for your cattleto ensure their health and
wellbeing?
Or another example, becauseobviously grass management was
the first one.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I mean that's huge here because, like I said, we
don't have feed, um, so there'sno real way for us to feed
ourselves out of that situation.
So managing those populationsand trying to think ahead, um,
one huge thing here is matchingthe genetics to the environment
for us.
We generally are all pretty lowinput producers.
(14:04):
You kind of have to be here.
Inputs are super expensive andmost of them are imported, you
know, over the ocean, and sothere's a lot of time and focus
for us spent on developing orbringing in genetics for that
animal that needs to be thatmid-sized animal that can do
well on grass and grass that'snot always the best grass
(14:26):
forages, that aren't alwaysprime forages and still breed
back and bring in a calf andraise a nice calf, and so we
spend a lot of time thinkingabout, you know, both in cattle
and sheep also, because we havesheep as well is just developing
that animal that fits thisenvironment.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I think when we have talked about genetics in
the past, sometimes ourlisteners are a little confused
and get a little scared of thatword, which I'm not sure why,
because it's such an easy andwonderful thing that we're doing
when we're breeding an animal.
So we're choosing breeds andchoosing characteristics in an
animal to breed the nextgeneration.
Right, and it's just.
(15:04):
I've used this, maybe analogy,a couple times on the podcast
now, but I'm going to keep usingit.
It's the same as when we bredpoodle dogs to an Australian
Shepherd or any sort of otherdog to try and take that
characteristic of not sheddingand being hypoallergenic, and
(15:26):
we've bred different breeds ofdogs to make these new dogs that
will, that will can be in thehome, right.
So I just been been using thatbecause I think that's important
to understand when we talkgenetics it's, it's just about
breeding cattle.
You have a, you have a calmeranimal.
Maybe that one's easier toprocess, so then you keep
breeding that one, but you havea wilder animal.
We're not going to breed thatone, you know, or whatever it is
(15:46):
.
It's, it's just, it's it.
I don't want it to be a scarything.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right, right, right.
Just working with the naturalvariability and breeding for
those traits that we we need inthis environment really for
those cattle to do well and tobe healthy and to survive
naturally.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, and that's great work.
It's a, it's a natural process.
Natural is a great way todescribe that.
What's one thing, or maybeanother thing most people don't
know about raising beef inHawaii.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Let's see, we don't have much irrigated country.
Like I said, we can't reallybuy feed.
There's not much opportunitiesto buy feed or bring in feed.
It's very expensive and alsonot many of us have much
irrigated country and so we alsocan't, you know, water our way
out of a bad situation either.
(16:37):
So that's probably one kind ofinteresting different aspect of
this industry here.
I think a lot of people don'teven know how many head of beef
cattle there are in Hawaii.
When they think about Hawaii,they think about vacations, and
you know that there actually isquite a few head.
Actually, about 140,000 head ofcattle total in Hawaii, 83,000
(17:00):
head of beef cows, according toUSDA numbers, and the ranchers
actually generate $82 million ofgross income in Hawaii.
So I thought those are someinteresting kind of big numbers
that people who come to Hawaiimaybe for vacation and traveling
don't realize how big of anindustry it actually is.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Oh, it's really important.
That's the whole goal kind ofof the podcast too in New Mexico
is we want people to know thatNew Mexico beef is important for
New Mexico and beef isimportant for Hawaii, a lot of
most of the states in our nation.
It's a really important part ofthe economy and an important
part of land and resourcemanagement, really, yeah that's
(17:39):
really neat.
One thing too, if something thatmaybe I don't know about beef
in Hawaii or I didn't knowbefore, maybe talking to Angel
and others is there's not a lotof processing in Hawaii either,
right, so cattle have to go,some cattle have to go by boat
to get processed.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Some cattle do go by boat.
So there's a mixture of marketshere.
There is a grass finished orlocally finished industry.
So some of our calves staylocally, go to either pastures
for finishing or, you know, goto a feedlot type or feeding
type situation, and then we doship out some cattle, kind of
(18:19):
basically what the local marketcan't take.
We do also have a ranch inPrineville, oregon.
The same owners have a ranch inPrineville, oregon.
So we send calves um to ourranch there for backgrounding
and growing out and so we do alittle of both um.
Sometimes, a lot of times, thelocal market um cannot or does
(18:41):
not pay as well.
We tend to take a loss keepingthem here locally just because
of local conditions and cost ofprocessing and that sort of
thing, and so it actually paysbetter for ranchers to send, to
ship them out to the mainland um.
So it is.
This depends on marketconditions and that sort of
thing.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, just complicated.
Uh, new mexico doesn't have alot of commercial processing in
our state, so a lot of ourcattle leave the state to get
processed.
And then we say you, you know,comes back, um, comes back in a,
in a box or at the grocerystore, and we, we tell people in
New Mexico the best way tosupport a rancher is just to buy
beef at a grocery store orrestaurant and then, if you can
(19:20):
buy it locally we have, you know, local, local directories and
all of that but, um, butsupporting a rancher, it beef
means ordering beef, meansordering more cheeseburgers, it
means just, you know, buyingbeef at the grocery store too.
So what is the most rewardingpart of raising cattle?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
I think for me, just watching their improvements over
time, the genetic improvementreally interests me.
So that selecting for traits,that variability within animals,
within our herds of animals,and selecting for that, bringing
in, you know, versus artificialinsemination, bringing in some
genetics that we think mightwork and testing that out, I
(20:03):
really love that, I'm veryinterested in that, and so just
finding those types of cattlethat do well here naturally and
then watching them do reallywell here is really exciting for
me and I enjoy that.
So seeing that improvement overtime is something I really
really enjoy.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Oh man, absolutely.
I think that's a really specialwhen you can literally see it
in front of you, right?
You see the cattle as beingsuccessful because of something
you chose in the breeding.
What do you think is yourfavorite part of the beef
industry?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I think again that focus on improvement.
It always just amazes me how,like we go to, you know, some of
these NCBA conferences andconventions and that sort of
thing, and just the focus onalways getting better, whether
it be in our genetics or be inour animal efficiency, our
sustainability, um, you know,nutritional of beef and doing a
(21:02):
better job of supplying that, or, you know, just letting people
know how nutritious beef isthere's always just this real
excitement in this industry,always just that interest to get
better, even stockmanship, likehandling better, being more
efficient and more interested inanimal welfare, and it's just
always getting better.
(21:22):
So I think it's really alwaysexciting to see how many young
people are coming into thisindustry because there's so much
improvement, like we're justgetting better, even using
technology now, using drones,using artificial, you know,
intelligence to improve what wedo, using the virtual offense
like it's super exciting, nomatter what your interest area
is, to be in this industry atthis stage, and so it's cool to
(21:46):
go to these conferences and seehow many young people are coming
into it and that it shouldcontinue to get better.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Absolutely.
I think the future is brightand I think being involved in an
industry that is interested inlearning and adapting and
improving is an honor.
Right, you want to see thatbecause if we're going to keep
providing, you know, safe,wholesome and quality food for
for the world, it's, it's, we'vegot to keep continuing to, to
(22:14):
be more efficient and and allthe things say I mean, that's
all.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Our ultimate goal is that we want to be food
producers and we want to producethe best food that we can.
You know we really do enjoythat.
That's why we're in this isthat's.
My passion in life is to be afood producer, and so you know
it's exciting to be in that andto be able to do that and to do
it better all the time.
You know using science and youknow using these developments in
(22:38):
stockmanship and using for usstock dogs and doing a better
job at what we do.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Absolutely.
Oh man, we love to see stockdogs work.
They're so, they're anefficient way to move.
Working with cattle, workingwith you know there's challenges
there's.
You know you can't control theweather, you can't control the
wild animals, but why do youkeep doing what you do?
(23:04):
What makes you keep going?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I think I just love producing food.
I think it's a very noble wayto make a living.
You know, I mean foodproduction, whether it be
farming and ranching, or, youknow, dairy or whatever is is
you are trying to feed the world.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I mean, that is really what we're doing, and so
for me, at the end of the day,that's that's what drives me is
is to know I'm contributing todoing this in the best way
possible, and so that wouldalways keep me going, absolutely
Working, and I'm sure Angel canattest to this too working for
those of you that are growing,growing food and raising food is
(23:44):
is an honor, right, it's just,it's a noble, noble job to even
be connected, to put it lightly.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
What do you want consumers toknow about ranching, or
specifically ranching in Hawaii,if they take away one thing?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think it might be the amount of thought and time
and passion and knowledge andscience that really goes into
what we do.
It's not just throwing thecattle out there and bringing
them back and then you know, andthen you know harvesting them.
And I mean there's so, so muchthat goes into every aspect of
this production system.
So much data, so muchharvesting them.
And I mean there's so, so muchthat goes into every aspect of
this production system.
So much data, so much knowledge, so much science, so much
(24:25):
thought, so much art.
You know that goes into thehandling of them.
That you know it's just superinteresting.
I think people don't alwaysrealize that there's just a lot
that goes into it.
So you know just thatunderstanding of the different
aspects and if you ever get thechance to talk to a rancher and
you know kind of pick theirbrain on what they understand.
(24:46):
And you know I always thinkthat managing animals and
managing pastures together is anart.
You know you can talk about thescience and the measurements to
it and that sort of thing, butI mean there's a certain art
form in what we do and going outthere and be able to look at an
environment and understandwhat's going on.
You know below the surface ofthe grass, below the soil and
(25:09):
above, and understand how tobest manage that.
And so yeah, Absolutely,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I think there is so much to it and I think that's
kind of the whole goal.
The whole goal or the wholeidea of the podcast is we want
people to know there's so muchand there's so much extra effort
and good intentions and wellthought out process that goes
into us being able to buy safe,safe, wholesome you know beef at
(25:36):
the, at the grocery store.
Uh, so absolutely well, thankyou for helping us tell that
story.
Can you talk about the, thefamily side of the business?
Do you have family that'sinvolved?
Is this is the ranch familyowned?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
how does that kind of yeah, his family owned um was
purchased in 1963 by the erdmanfamily um and they're still here
on the ranch.
So Mr Erdmann is still hereliving in Maui and his son is,
you know, directly involved inthe operation and now the
daughters are coming back to it.
So it's interesting to see thatmulti-generational ranch and
(26:13):
ranch family and we're reallyblessed to be able to work for a
very kind and giving and, youknow, very present family here,
you know, on the ranch andalways get that chance with
ranching today and it's nice tosee that it's still you know a
family and you can work directlywith them and, you know, have
that, have that contact.
(26:33):
So Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I think that multi-generation ranching is is
always, always special.
And then you know somethingthat started in the 60s.
That's a long-term business.
There's not a lot of businessesthat last generations.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then to see it change.
You know, with the newgenerations coming on like what
you know, what this will become.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
How does it morph with times?
You know to stay, you know andstay a relevant business and you
know what is that next step andso it's interesting to see,
right, so they can come get kindof a peek at at the, the beef
and the.
As you're driving past you'reseeing pastures and and ranch
and country.
You might not see cattlebecause they are spread out, but
(27:26):
but yeah, can you give like ateaser if they're, if they're in
town.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, come to Ulupalakumar Ranch store.
It's right here, close to ourheadquarters.
Great food.
We do our local beef in theburgers.
Our lamb is in the burgers.
Also do venison burgers, whichis the wild caught invasive
venison here from the ranch, andelk as well.
We do raise elk.
We own the elk in Hawaii andthen we also do specials.
(27:53):
We have a little store with ourlocal items.
We eat lunch there.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
That's perfect.
Yeah, yeah, we eat lunch there.
It's good.
That's perfect.
Yeah, yeah, we had stopped herethe last time.
We were lucky enough tovacation and my kid has a cute
T-shirt from the ranch store andthat's a fun story and always
trying to find connection toagriculture on our vacations, if
we can, because learning moreabout where you visit is always
(28:19):
a special part.
Um, so is there anything elseyou'd like to add about hawaii
or the beef industry?
Um, or even just your ranch?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I think, um, one interesting thing about the beef
industry here and all over umthe country is the land
stewardship portion of what wedo.
We didn't talk a whole lot aboutthat but, um, you know, we are
a lot of the focus on why we ofwhat we do.
We didn't talk a whole lotabout that but you know we are a
lot of the focus on why we do.
What we do is based on thehealth of the land and doing a
better job of always taking careof the land, what the land
(28:51):
tells us, and improving,hopefully, the health of it over
time.
And so we've got, you know know, lots of different projects
going on to always improve landhealth, do more regenerative
agriculture type practices, allthose kind of things.
And so, you know, it's aninteresting part of ranching
that not everyone knows about.
But a big focus for us is theland stewardship and then also
(29:13):
fuel control.
I mean, here in Hawaii we'vegot a fire problem.
So you know, one big thing weuse livestock for is controlling
the brush and the fuel loads tobe able to catch these fires,
when they do happen, faster andprevent those really bad
situations.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, yeah, cattle are a great way to help with the
fuel, right, grazing cattleprevents a lot of fire in places
.
And then sometimes we see, whencattle are no longer allowed to
graze, the problems that itcould cause, because they're
great for the land and great forpreventing that thick fuel.
(29:53):
And when we say fuel for alistener, that's just that grass
that maybe becomes fuel for afire, right, the grass that gets
dried out or the gets thickerbecause, no, no one's there
eating it right, right, yep.
That becomes the fuel for thefire and it becomes super hard
to catch it and get it undercontrol in these unmanaged um
landscapes that are not gracedyeah, yeah, we, we, we love
(30:16):
cattle and I'm, of course,biased because I, um, you, work
for the cattle industry, but Ibelieve the impact they can have
on the environment is verypositive in so many ways.
Yeah, so many ways.
Okay, so we've got the funanswer, kind of the last answer,
unless you have anything elsethat you wanted to hit, I think
(30:36):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, it's a fun one.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
So the fun, fun, answer, fun question and I even
say it's probably the mostimportant and definitely one of
the most interesting is what isyour favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
you know what it's actually oxtail, okay, tail,
more than anything.
I love that yeah, I like um thevery marrowy bone soups more
than anything.
So like a shin bone soup or anoxtail is my favorite.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Of course, a good steak is awesome too, but if you
have to eat the bone soups, oh,I love that, and I think we
actually have a recipe that wecan share with it too, so we'll
share that.
And then is there a uniquelyHawaiian way to eat beef.
So in New Mexico we like totell people that if you, if you
order steak and enchiladas andthen you can get beef and
enchiladas, and then you know,and then it's the real secretive
(31:28):
way is to order them Christmas,which means green and red chili
, when you come to New Mexico,so you can get steak and
enchiladas and then, and thenanother another uniquely New
Mexican thing is a green chilicheeseburger, and so we're all
very passionate about our chiliwith our beef.
So is there yeah, is there auniquely Hawaiian way to eat
beef?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I mean, the oxtail is pretty Hawaiian Not Hawaiian
but local, I'd say and then thelau lau I would say would be one
.
So that would be a steamed beef, and sometimes there's pork in
there too.
Or you know fish as well,racked in a taro leaf and then
you know steamed, so the taroleaf melts.
(32:09):
So yeah, if you're here try it.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I don't remember.
We even had a great short ribwith rice at a restaurant, but
it was a Filipino restaurant.
The other day there's good waysto eat beef in Maui.
We've been trying them.
Yes, there, sure is, absolutelyWell.
The other thing I was going tosay just before we wrap up is
you mentioned, if people havequestions or they're interested,
(32:34):
if they want to learn, if youare listening and you want to
know more about the industry,please, you know, please, follow
along to our podcast.
But also, you can go tobeefitswhatsfordinnercom, you
can go to nmbeefcom and you cango to is there a Hawaii?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah hawaiibeeforg.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, and so there's websites and organizations that
you can go to for moreinformation on ranching.
We'd love to answer questionsand right now we don't have a
ton of questions, so I would sayyou can even reach out to us,
you can reply to the podcast andwe'll try and get answers,
Because I think if there arequestions we're open to giving
(33:11):
answers.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, definitely, we'll talk about this all day.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, absolutely Same same.
Well, thank you so much for umbeing on the podcast.
Thank you, angel, for helpingintroduce and and get us here,
and we are, yeah, we're sograteful for your time and um.
Yeah, thank you, thank youappreciate it.
Behind the burger is a podcastproduced by the new mexico beef
(33:34):
council with the goal of tellingthe stories of the cattlemen
and cattlewomen of the newmexico beef industry.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's episode.
If you'd like more information,please visit nmbeefcom.
Whether it be a burger, a steakor another beef dish, we hope
you're enjoying beef at yournext meal.
Host
Carollann Romo
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.