Funding failure deepens crisis at Padres Mesa ranch
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
Gene Shepherd climbs into a backhoe after uprooting a juniper at the Padres Mesa Demonstration Ranch. Shepherd, who has worked at the ranch since 2008, said he and one co-worker have gone unpaid since early January as the ranch operates under tribal control.
WINDOW ROCK
At Padres Mesa Demonstration Ranch, the crisis reaches far beyond a stalled funding amendment.
It stretches over miles of dry rangeland marked by wire fence and dirt roads, through cattle pens and water systems that still require daily upkeep, and across a working ranch that supporters say was built over years to become more than a holding pasture for livestock. They say it became a model for how Navajo producers could raise, market and sell their own beef.
For Gene Shepherd, who said he has worked at the demonstration ranch since it was created, the uncertainty is immediate. He and two other employees have not been paid since the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation stopped operating the ranch, even as they continue maintaining fences, monitoring water and caring for cattle that still need vaccinations before they can be sold.
That crisis now carries another layer of urgency from people who helped shape the ranch long before its current funding fight.
To read the full article, please see the March 26, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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