In Southern Arizona, cattle rancher Dean Fish remembers his roots, but keeps his eye on the future.
At first glance, Nogales, Arizona, cattle rancher Dean Fish seems decidedly old school. He takes off his cowboy hat when he shakes your hand, sports a bandana around his neck and prefers to do roundups at the Santa Fe Ranch—where he is manager—on horseback. If asked, he can paint a picture of the history of this high-desert, borderlands locale where he grew up, shaped by Native American, Hispanic and Anglo cultures.
But make no mistake—Fish, or rather, Dr. Dean Fish, PhD—is on the cutting edge of sustainable, responsible ranching. With degrees in animal science and reproductive physiology, Fish not only manages the 2,500-acre ranch but also trains beef producers all over the country on techniques to improve the way they interact with their cattle, and served as a 4-H leader.
“Ranching is all about sustainability,” says Fish, “meaning environmental, economic and cultural sustainability. Incorporating science and technology means that ranchers can take good care of their resources, make money to support their family and continue the ranching tradition.”
Arizona’s cattle ranching industry is part of the state’s historic “Five Cs” of the economy—copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate. The state has more than 7,000 farms and ranches with cattle, and, at most recent count, has some 980,000 head of cattle. These ranches, and ranches like them all over the U.S., are owned and operated by families just like Fish’s.
At the Santa Fe Ranch, set between the Santa Cruz River and the peaks of the Patagonia Mountains, tradition has deep roots. Fish points out that native peoples farmed here for centuries before the arrival of Spanish explorers and missionaries, like Father Eusebio Kino, who established a string of missions in northern Mexico and Southern Arizona. In fact, the ruins of one of Kino’s missions border Santa Fe Ranch lands. In later years, the ranch lands were part of the Baca Float, a Spanish land grant, and, prior to the Gadsden Purchase, were part of Mexico. In more recent history, the ranch was purchased in 1955 by Bostonian Cabot Sedgwick, a career diplomat, and his wife Paula, an Arizona native with ranching roots. They raised their five children there, and in the 1970s, hired Fish’s father to be the ranch manager.
“I grew up in that house over there,” says Fish, pointing to a modest home near the ranch office. “I loved everything about being here and knew from a young age that ranching is what I wanted to do.” He remembers helping with chores and, when it came to meals, the menu regularly included beef. With his mother’s Mexican heritage, Fish recalls meals of red chile, albondigas soup, tamale pies and gallina pinta, a soup of beef, beans and hominy. “We had beef tamales for Christmas,” he says, “and for birthdays, a grilled steak was a treat.”
As he grew up on the ranch, Fish realized that an academic education would give him an edge in ranching. After obtaining degrees from Tucson’s University of Arizona, he worked for the university’s cooperative extension program, specializing in livestock. In the meantime, the Sedgwicks passed away. Their family created a foundation to preserve the ranch and dedicated its mission to conservation, education and teaching the public to appreciate agriculture and open space. In 2013, Fish followed in his father’s footsteps and became ranch manager.
While it’s still a working cattle ranch, the Santa Fe Ranch gives Fish a platform to both preach and practice what he preaches. “The ranch is dedicated to agricultural and natural literacy,” he says. “We teach people to appreciate open space and to understand where their food comes from.” Besides cattle, the ranch is home to goats, sheep, chickens, miniature horses and horses, used as animal therapy for disabled adults and teaching tools for school children and other groups. A hummingbird and butterfly garden—not exactly the first thing that comes to mind for an Arizona ranch—was established by a volunteer and has proven to be popular with visitors.
When it comes to the range, Fish is dedicated to not only being a cattle rancher but also a steward of his environment. “We practice soil conservation here,” he says, “and have done range monitoring since the 1980s, so we can track changes.” Notes on erosion, rainfall, native plants and more provide a useful snapshot that can guide grazing patterns so that Fish and his cattle work as a part of nature. Being located in Arizona’s arid grasslands, the ranch and its inhabitants rely on water. Rainwater collected in dirt ponds provides water for both livestock and desert natives like coyotes, javelina, foxes, coatimundis and even mountain lions, who trek through the ranch to quench their thirst. The ranch also uses solar energy to pump the water and to provide electricity for some of the buildings.
As a ranch manager, Fish is all about resource management. For livestock, Fish uses his knowledge of genetics to breed cattle that eat and drink more efficiently in a desert environment. “Just like humans, it’s about metabolism,” he says. “We use that genetic difference to match cattle to their environments, like Arizona, where water and forage is scarcer than in a place like Missouri.” He isn’t alone in this work. Like Fish, cattle producers across the U.S. are committed to constantly improving the way they manage natural resources. In fact, the cattle industry has reduced its water use by 29% since 1993 because of innovations like genetics.4
The bottom line, says Fish, is that cattle ranching in Arizona and across the U.S. is a way to maintain open space, conserving—and even enhancing—the natural landscapes we all know and love. “Raising cattle is all about upcycling,” he says. “You take plants that are not digestible or useful to humans and feed them to cattle, which produces nutrition.” One third of the land in the U.S. can’t be used for growing crops because it is too rocky, steep or dry, but cattle can use it to produce food that humans enjoy. They do all of this while working hand-in-hand with nature.5
At the ranch, Fish walks in the shade of mesquite trees to view his cows. Along the way, he points out a retaque at the ranch entrance, a historic method of fencing introduced by the Spanish settlers that uses stacked mesquite branches and trunks. With modern metal fencing nearby, Fish is inspired to make an analogy. “History and heritage are great,” he notes. “But just because we always do something doesn’t mean it’s always good. Blending history and tradition with science and technology is what keeps ranching moving forward.”
For more information, go to BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com.
Sources
1. Dean Fish, rancher
2. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff
3. Arizona statistics: https://extension.arizona.edu/arizonas-beef-industry
4. Klopatek, Sarah and Oltjen, James. 2022. How advances in animal efficiency and management have affected beef cattle’s water intensity in the United States: 1991 compared to 2019. Access here: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/100/11/skac297/6692300?login=false
5. USDA-ERS. 2021a. Economic Research Service using data from the Major Land Use data series. Available at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx
