Meet The Bovines
Meet Uncompahgre Farm’s herd of red and black baldies- bringing together the best qualities of Hereford and Red and Black Angus. A critical aspect of regenerative agriculture is making sure we have the right animals for the pasture- suiting breed, size, and even temperament to the fields and managing them properly to improve the land. Hippo is the herd bull, a pure red angus with a gentle demeanor and the full curves of his namesake. The gals are adapted to the high elevations of the Western Slope (necessary to avoid brisket disease), and rather than needing corn to gain weight, their smaller frames are better suited to being grass-fed. In addition, they have a lighter impact on the landscape, tolerate our high desert temperature extremes, and they’re pretty calm- for the most part, though sometimes things get a little western.
Meet Your Rancher- Caleb Valdez
Born in rural New Mexico, I grew up around livestock as my family trained horses and were farriers, and my brother worked on El SueƱo Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. This is where I first developed stockmanship skills- reading the swiveling ears, eye rolls, and head tosses of the cattle, projecting calm to the milling herd, applying and releasing pressure from horseback to get them to head in the right direction. When I was in third grade, my dad worked a ranch in Northern New Mexico that was so isolated I had to be home-schooled, which in reality meant I spent my days ranching. Eventually we moved to Cortez, CO, where I lived and breathed rodeo riding, 4-H steer competitions, and basketball. My nickname on the team was Cowboy, and I can still hear my coach yelling from the bench “Cowboy, Cowboy!” as I ran for a layup. After high school I thought I needed to make something of myself, so I left. I worked to pay my way as I bounced around different universities, and finally I landed a career. As the first in my family with a degree and a steady job with benefits, my parents were proud, but the work didn’t excite me- I was caught in those golden handcuffs. I kept punching the clock so I could travel and buy skis and bikes, but my computer felt far removed from the land. Needing a change, I packed my bags and left for CA in 2018 to be on the Redding Hotshots to fight wildland fire. This was one of the worst fire seasons on record, but the stress of the extreme fire behavior helped me forge lifelong friendships and learn to make decisions quickly. I also finally had enough saved to buy some cattle. Once I get an idea in my head, I like to go all in, and I suddenly found myself leading four cows and a bull away from sales on Craigslist, and me still with a fulltime job and not an acre to my name. For a landless start-up with my savings invested in the herd, I hoped to knit together a pasture rotation by leasing smaller fields owned by community members. That meant I was due for some nerve-wracking door-knocking- would folks think this was a hare-brained scheme? Luckily I met Frieda, a spry 87-year-old who’d worked cows, horses, and land all her life, and she took a gamble on me. Her encouragement kept me going, and our community-based pasture rotation grew to include land leased from ten other community members. Just as the herd is growing, so is the Uncompahgre Farms community, and I’m incredibly grateful for the continued support. The goal is to improve the land, treat the animals well, and provide you with the quality, grass-fed beef you deserve!