The Magazine of the American Landowner is an essential guide for investors, landowners, and those interested in buying or selling land. The award-winning quarterly is known for its annual survey of America's largest landowners, The Land Report 100.
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I au 84 The LandReport | T E X A S 2 0 1 6 LANDREPORT.COM t takes about 30 minutes for Silguero and Flash to empty the pen of the first lot of calves at Ebanito. By the time they finish, both are bathed in sweat. So too are the Kineños branding the calves, including Cameron Nelms, the cow boss, and James Clement III, a sixth-generation descendant of Captain King. Other than Silguero and Flash, no one has an assigned task. Everyone works interchangeably, including Captain King's great-great-great- grandson. I can assure you, however, that these men do not toil wordlessly. The cama- raderie is palpable; laughter, warnings, and quick commands are bandied about. "That's the way we work at King Ranch," James says. "That's also the way they work at the Beggs, my mother's family's ranch." An infantry Captain in the Marine Corps Reserve who deployed with Seventh Marines in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the 31-year-old's bio also includes several years working on big ranches in Australia and Florida as well as cowboying on King Ranch's Encino Division. He always looks forward to the long drive out to the Rolling Plains to work cattle with two uncles, George and Ed Farmer Beggs. Those trips are fewer, however, now that he manages King Ranch's Quarter Horse Division. A fresh roper, Rick Falcón rides into the pen. Barely in his twenties, Falcón, like Silguero, is the most recent member of his family to work on King Ranch. Like Flash, Falcón's mount works calmly, ever sensitive to the tension of the rope. This process continues until the pens are empty. By noon, every hand has taken a turn roping. Only then does the crew break for a hearty lunch at the Ebanito Hunting Camp: carne guisada, pan de campo, charro beans, and gallons of iced tea. Dragging calves to the fire is old school. There's many a cattle operation in North America that accomplishes the same chores with a mechanical squeeze chute. The cow boss knows this. But Cameron insists that his hands rope and brand as their forefathers did. It's what makes a Kineño a Kineño. And it's one thing that makes a King Ranch Quarter Horse a rock-solid cow horse. James Clement III warms up a grandson of Mr. San Peppy, known affectionately as "El Diablo," near Santa Gertrudis Creek.