Ranch hands keep Padres Mesa going without pay

Posted by Donovan Quintero | Mar 19, 2026 | News |

CHAMBERS, Ariz.

Gene Shepherd has worked at the Padres Mesa Demonstration Ranch since it opened in 2008. He helped build its fences, lay its water lines and shape the operation that later helped inspire the Navajo Beef brand.

Now, as the ranch moves into tribal control after the federal government’s departure, Shepherd says he and one co-worker have gone unpaid since early January.

“People ask me, why are you staying if you’re not getting paid?” Shepherd said as he drove across the ranch’s dry pastures. “I don’t want to abandon the cattle.”

For Shepherd, the crisis is not abstract. It is calving season.

Mineral supplements are running out. Vaccines and dewormer are needed. Fences are breaking. Feral dogs recently killed a calf. And the two men still showing up each day to care for the herd say they have been buying diesel with their own money and using personal vehicles to keep the ranch running.

Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
A herd of elk runs across open range at the Padres Mesa Demonstration Ranch on March 16, kicking up dust as it moves past scattered juniper.

The Nahata Dziil Commission Governance voted March 13 to keep the Padres Mesa Demonstration Ranch under the administrative authority of the Navajo Hopi Land Commission Office, or NHLCO. The resolution marked a major step in the transfer of ranch assets after the withdrawal of the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation, the federal agency long criticized over its management of the ranch and its obligations to Navajo relocatees.

But on the ground, Shepherd said, the transition has been chaotic.

To read the full article, please see the March 19, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.

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