Behind the Burger
Created by the New Mexico Beef Council, we are telling the stories behind the beef in New Mexico.
Behind the Burger
The Aloha State's Beef Secret: Ranching Against the Odds (Special Collaboration with Hawaii Rancher Kristin Mack-Almasin)
Have you ever wondered what ranching looks like in paradise? Our journey to Maui reveals a surprising side of Hawaii few visitors ever see - a thriving cattle industry generating $82 million annually across the islands. This special collaboration between the New Mexico Beef Council and the Hawaii Beef Industry Council is a fun way to share the story of ranching in another state.
In this special on-location episode, we're joined by Kristin Mack-Almasin, Livestock Manager at Ulupalakua Ranch, and Angel Melone from the Hawaii Beef Industry Council. Together, they pull back the curtain on the remarkable challenges and innovations of raising cattle in one of the world's most beautiful - and challenging - environments.
From managing herds across dramatic elevation changes and microclimates to battling an overwhelming axis deer population that has forced the ranch to cut their cattle numbers in half, Hawaiian ranchers face obstacles mainland producers might never imagine. With limited access to supplemental feed and processing facilities, these island ranchers must perfect the art and science of resource management while adapting their genetics to thrive in this unique ecosystem.
"Managing animals and pastures together is an art," explains Kristin, whose background in dairy science led her to this unexpected career on Maui. Her passion for producing food sustainably while improving the land shines through as she describes how cattle grazing helps prevent wildfires and manage invasive species across the ranch's 18,000 acres.
Whether you're planning a Hawaiian vacation or simply curious about different approaches to cattle ranching, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into a world where tradition meets innovation against a backdrop of breathtaking beauty. Don't miss this chance to discover the hidden agricultural heritage behind Hawaii's postcard-perfect landscapes.
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Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger, our podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council. I'm Caroline Romo, the executive director of the New Mexico Beef Council, and this is an extra special episode. I am in Maui with my family on a personal vacation, but we went ahead and packed the podcast equipment because we believe there's a unique story to be told about ranching in Hawaii. And, of course, we have met Angel, sitting to my left at a event where we were all the beef councils were together and learning at National Cattlemen's Beef Association. So, all that to say, we're working while we're on vacation because it's so exciting, so, anyways, so this episode with me is Kristen from Ulu Palakua Ranch Excellent, okay, all right. And Angel from the Hawaii Beef Industry Council and Hawaii Cattlemen's Organization Industry Council and Hawaii Cattlemen's Organization. So, angel, maybe I actually will have you introduce yourself first, because you kind of helped set this up and we met you first, if that's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Aloha everyone. My name is Angelica Malone. Everyone calls me Angel. I work with the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, the Hawaii Beef Industry Council and the Hawaii Range and Stewardship Foundation. As Carol Ann mentioned, we had the opportunity to meet earlier this year in person at a training and we just hit it off immediately talking about invasive species and the similarities and differences that New Mexico ranchers face, similar to Hawaii, and thought that, wow, what a great opportunity. She mentioned she was coming to visit Maui later in the year and everything just worked out. So I'm really honored to have worked with Kristen and Ulupalakua Ranch in various capacities in the past ranch in various capacities in the past and I felt that who better to speak to the possibilities, the opportunities as well as the challenges that Hawaii faces with ranching? None better than Kristen Mack Olmsen. So thank you, ulupalakua Ranch, for allowing us to be here and for being great stewards of the land.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, thank you, great introduction. Well then we'll pass to you and you can give us an introduction of yourself, and then we can go into the land. Absolutely, thank you, great introduction. Well then we'll pass to you and you can give us an introduction of yourself, and then we can go into the ranch.
Speaker 3:Thank you, aloha, I'm Kristen Mackel-Mason. I'm the livestock manager here at Lopalakua Ranch in Maui. My background is I'm actually from Northeast Ohio. I went to Ohio State University, gold Bucks, for undergrad and graduate school. After grad school, I moved out here for a job, actually working with a pineapple company doing some beef cattle work. Most of my undergrad and graduate was actually in grazing dairy, so my background is more in dairy than beef. But I ended up out here working more in the beef industry. But I ended up out here working more in the beef industry because we have more beef out here and ended up about 2016, started a job here at Ulupalakua Ranch and moved up to livestock manager in 2018. And here I am today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what an interesting evolution of your career. And you might have to explain the the cattle at the pineapple, right at pineapple farm. That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 3:So there is some work, kind of looking at utilizing beef cattle on fallow pineapple fields and then feeding pineapple so crushed pineapple waste to to beef cattle. So I came in doing some work in that and then interesting migrated through some different projects here, ended up here at ulupalakua perfect perfect.
Speaker 1:We, we do talk about it a lot in uh in the office and then on the podcast about cattle being great upcyclers, right, right, right uh. So will you tell me about the ranch? And even so, I kind of, either, maybe like our yearly schedule so people understand, because the idea is we're we're trying to tell, um tell, the story of ranching for someone maybe who doesn't know. So what's kind of the the yearly schedule? Or maybe even like the life cycle of an animal on on the ranch here so we have about um 18,000 contiguous acres here at Ulapalacua that we graze.
Speaker 3:So we have two main cow herds, about 800 breeding cows, at this particular time. One of the cow herds will start calving in about January and they wean out in the fall of the year, brand them in the spring, about April. And then we have another cow herd that will start calving here pretty quick in July and then we'll brand them in the fall and then wean them out in the spring. So that's our two main herds. We do a 63-day calving window for each of the herds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, perfect. And is there a different elevation or a different place that these herds are? Is that why the calving is different?
Speaker 3:It was at one point in time, which is kind of why it was worked out that way, with which we'll probably talk a little bit more about later, with the access to your populations and the over grazing. From that we've had to kind of cycle to a program that we move the cattle where we've got forage, yeah, so so that's changed over time. Um, so basically now the two cow herd system allows us to, you know, move animals from one herd to another or hold heifers longer so that they're a little more mature when we breed them, so they kind of handle the environment better. So there's some definite benefits to having that two cow system. Yeah, different times of the year, two cow herd system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really interesting, and do you so? Maybe can you talk about the um, which I guess we're going to talk? Landscapes is one of my questions, but um can you the different landscapes on the ranch and then, how do those fit into your ranching practices?
Speaker 3:right. So we graze anywhere from ocean. You're down by the ocean all the way up to over 5,000 feet elevation, and then everything from very rocky to kind of, I guess, less rocky Not completely rocky here, but less rocky, you know, more open, shorter grass pastures. And since we are contiguous, it's a little bit easier for us to take the cow herds where they need to go, based on their production, the stage of production cycle that they're in. So cows that are calving or have small calves on them, versus cows that might be dry, we could take them in some rougher stuff and do some cleanup and some, you know, fire breaking work or that sort of thing. So, yeah, so it's just kind of depend on on current conditions and what's going on in the weather and with the invasive species that we have, where we go with them yeah, um well, do you?
Speaker 1:uh? So what role does land and resource management play in your, in your ranching?
Speaker 3:it's everything here. So in hawaii we don't really have access to any type of purchase feed. So if we I mean we don't have winter and we don't what, we have winter but we don't have snow, so, um, the grass doesn't really shut down for cold reasons as much, except for some of the very mauka or the. The grass is really high up in the mountain. We say mauka. Grasses will shut down when it gets colder, but we do have a definite um dry season here and so we need to plan for that.
Speaker 3:Drought planning is is crucial. We have to always be a couple months thinking a couple months ahead as far as our stocking rates, what kind of cattle we have on hand, where we're going to go next with grass and just try to plan for that. Because we don't have a way to purchase feed and feed here out of a bad situation and we don't really have sale barns either, so I can't really move cattle quickly if I need to. So it's a lot of a bad situation and we don't really have sale barns either, so I can't really move cattle quickly if I need to. So it's a lot of a lot of research management. It really is everything here yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's a really interesting thing. Um, in, in some parts of New Mexico, feed is is more abundant and we I think the last podcast I recorded he had he had some, some farms that if anything got tough, he had spots and so he created a grow yards because he had so much feed. It's an interesting problem or solution. And then you talk about drought. So in New Mexico our annual rainfall is, I think it's anywhere from like 8 inches to maybe 20 inches a year, but usually 8 to 15, I think is most ranchers. What are we looking at annual rainfall here?
Speaker 3:Right here at headquarters 20 to 30 inches. We've got some stuff up around 40 and then down to probably closer to eight. So it varies a lot. Here in Hawaii we've got a lot of microclimates in a very short span of area. I'm sure you've seen driving around Maui that it changes very quickly here, and so even on the ranch we've got everything from super dry, leeward type landscapes that you know are just rocks and brush and, you know, not much grass or very much seasonal grass, to a a little bit more rainy areas, yeah, lush areas.
Speaker 1:so I mean, uh, that's a huge difference. Eight to eight to 30 or eight to 40, that's. That's completely different landscapes, yeah um and the patterns.
Speaker 3:The weather patterns lately have been um trending drier and drier, um. We've seen that as as issue here. We've tracked rainfall over. We've got data over about 100 years and we've seen the rainfall patterns change and change to more rainfall falling all at one time, you know again 10 inches, sometimes 24 hours, and then not rain for months. So that's been a tough change. For us is to deal with getting all that rain at once and losing a lot of it and then not having any for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I would say we have that problem too. We had we were at a ranch and overnight they had two and a half inches of rain. Well, you're just, you're not getting a lot of that rain, you're not collecting it, you're not. The ground can't, the ground can't even absorb it, right, yeah, yeah, so it's a big, big problem.
Speaker 3:What is one of the biggest challenges you face as a rancher? I mean in recent years? Definitely the access to overpopulation. It's been huge. So just in my time here, my eight to nine years here, we've cut the cow herd in half. We're running less than half of cows we were running, just you know, six, seven years ago. And why? You know some of that's due to drought conditions. Most of that is due to the over population of deer. So you know, one cow on this ranch alone we had about 9,000 head of deer on 18,000 acres. So two deer per acre, or one deer every two acres, um, so that's huge. If you think of an equivalency of um, maybe about seven deer per head of cow, you know that's over a thousand head of cattle that we can't run anymore because of the deer population.
Speaker 3:So that's become everything in our lives as ranchers in the past few years is getting that under control so we can start managing our resources again. Because you just can't do it. You can't manage stockpiles of grasses, you can't plan for drought, you can't, you know, manage your herd numbers if you think there's going to be grass there and you come back and there's not grass there because the deer have taken it all off and so it's been tough. It's been a tough bunch of years. So we're seeing some things get better. We've seen a lot of attention to it, there's some funds going to deer control and a lot of different efforts out there, and so things are looking up. We're starting to see a light. Yeah, but it's been a long struggle.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, Absolutely. And so kind of to explain that some of the conversations I had with angel and then, um, I think we even maybe had had before we started recording, is that so the axis deer were introduced to hawaii in the 50s or something right, and there's there's no natural predator for the animal, so they're just left to um, to grow and overpopulate and just continue to. You know cause harm, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean their growth has really been exponential since they were introduced here and there was only a few head when they introduced them and just without really any natural predators besides hunters and some of these big, large land tracks that they can just move from ranch to ranch, kind of interrupted, has just allowed them to move away from pressure when there was hunting pressure and just rep, you know, keep overpopulating and moving now into the watersheds, into the forest and areas that are even harder for us to get them. So yeah, it's been a huge problem, absolutely well.
Speaker 1:And and then we talk about stocking rate too. So I think you you mentioned that in the beginning too when you're, when you're trying to maintain grass at a healthy level, you have a stocking rate right, so an animal unit per acre that you're sticking with. And when you don't have control over the wild animals, you have to change that. And that's just really complicated, hard to predict, hard to manage, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really impossible to manage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hard to predict.
Speaker 3:hard to manage, right? Yeah, really impossible to manage. I mean, if we can't manage the access stairs movement, which you can't without a higher fence, and high fence is very, very expensive, as we've all found, as we've had to fence these high fences, large tracts of land. You know millions of dollars have been spent by each ranch to do this, to get this problem under control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that is a very large challenge. Talking kind of back to the cattle, can you give an example of how you care for your cattle to ensure their health and wellbeing? Or another example, because obviously grass management was the first one.
Speaker 3:I mean that's huge here because, like I said, we don't have feed, um, so there's no real way for us to feed ourselves out of that situation. So managing those populations and trying to think ahead, um, one huge thing here is matching the genetics to the environment for us. We generally are all pretty low input producers. You kind of have to be here. Inputs are super expensive and most of them are imported, you know, over the ocean, and so there's a lot of time and focus for us spent on developing or bringing in genetics for that animal that needs to be that mid-sized animal that can do well on grass and grass that's not always the best grass forages, that aren't always prime forages and still breed back and bring in a calf and raise a nice calf, and so we spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, both in cattle and sheep also, because we have sheep as well is just developing that animal that fits this environment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think when we have talked about genetics in the past, sometimes our listeners are a little confused and get a little scared of that word, which I'm not sure why, because it's such an easy and wonderful thing that we're doing when we're breeding an animal. So we're choosing breeds and choosing characteristics in an animal to breed the next generation. Right, and it's just. I've used this, maybe analogy, a couple times on the podcast now, but I'm going to keep using it. It's the same as when we bred poodle dogs to an Australian Shepherd or any sort of other dog to try and take that characteristic of not shedding and being hypoallergenic, and we've bred different breeds of dogs to make these new dogs that will, that will can be in the home, right.
Speaker 1:So I just been been using that because I think that's important to understand when we talk genetics it's, it's just about breeding cattle. You have a, you have a calmer animal. Maybe that one's easier to process, so then you keep breeding that one, but you have a wilder animal. We're not going to breed that one, you know, or whatever it is. It's, it's just, it's it. I don't want it to be a scary thing.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right. Just working with the natural variability and breeding for those traits that we we need in this environment really for those cattle to do well and to be healthy and to survive naturally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's great work. It's a, it's a natural process. Natural is a great way to describe that. What's one thing, or maybe another thing most people don't know about raising beef in Hawaii.
Speaker 3:Let's see, we don't have much irrigated country. Like I said, we can't really buy feed. There's not much opportunities to buy feed or bring in feed. It's very expensive and also not many of us have much irrigated country and so we also can't, you know, water our way out of a bad situation either. So that's probably one kind of interesting different aspect of this industry here. I think a lot of people don't even know how many head of beef cattle there are in Hawaii. When they think about Hawaii, they think about vacations, and you know that there actually is quite a few head. Actually, about 140,000 head of cattle total in Hawaii, 83,000 head of beef cows, according to USDA numbers, and the ranchers actually generate $82 million of gross income in Hawaii. So I thought those are some interesting kind of big numbers that people who come to Hawaii maybe for vacation and traveling don't realize how big of an industry it actually is.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's really important. That's the whole goal kind of of the podcast too in New Mexico is we want people to know that New Mexico beef is important for New Mexico and beef is important for Hawaii, a lot of most of the states in our nation. It's a really important part of the economy and an important part of land and resource management, really, yeah that's really neat.
Speaker 1:One thing too, if something that maybe I don't know about beef in Hawaii or I didn't know before, maybe talking to Angel and others is there's not a lot of processing in Hawaii either, right, so cattle have to go, some cattle have to go by boat to get processed.
Speaker 3:Some cattle do go by boat. So there's a mixture of markets here. There is a grass finished or locally finished industry. So some of our calves stay locally, go to either pastures for finishing or, you know, go to a feedlot type or feeding type situation, and then we do ship out some cattle, kind of basically what the local market can't take. We do also have a ranch in Prineville, oregon. The same owners have a ranch in Prineville, oregon. So we send calves um to our ranch there for backgrounding and growing out and so we do a little of both um. Sometimes, a lot of times, the local market um cannot or does not pay as well. We tend to take a loss keeping them here locally just because of local conditions and cost of processing and that sort of thing, and so it actually pays better for ranchers to send, to ship them out to the mainland um. So it is. This depends on market conditions and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, yeah, just complicated. Uh, new mexico doesn't have a lot of commercial processing in our state, so a lot of our cattle leave the state to get processed. And then we say you, you know, comes back, um, comes back in a, in a box or at the grocery store, and we, we tell people in New Mexico the best way to support a rancher is just to buy beef at a grocery store or restaurant and then, if you can buy it locally we have, you know, local, local directories and all of that but, um, but supporting a rancher, it beef means ordering beef, means ordering more cheeseburgers, it means just, you know, buying beef at the grocery store too. So what is the most rewarding part of raising cattle?
Speaker 3:I think for me, just watching their improvements over time, the genetic improvement really interests me. So that selecting for traits, that variability within animals, within our herds of animals, and selecting for that, bringing in, you know, versus artificial insemination, bringing in some genetics that we think might work and testing that out, I really love that, I'm very interested in that, and so just finding those types of cattle that do well here naturally and then watching them do really well here is really exciting for me and I enjoy that. So seeing that improvement over time is something I really really enjoy.
Speaker 1:Oh man, absolutely. I think that's a really special when you can literally see it in front of you, right? You see the cattle as being successful because of something you chose in the breeding. What do you think is your favorite part of the beef industry?
Speaker 3:I think again that focus on improvement.
Speaker 3:It always just amazes me how, like we go to, you know, some of these NCBA conferences and conventions and that sort of thing, and just the focus on always getting better, whether it be in our genetics or be in our animal efficiency, our sustainability, um, you know, nutritional of beef and doing a better job of supplying that, or, you know, just letting people know how nutritious beef is there's always just this real excitement in this industry, always just that interest to get better, even stockmanship, like handling better, being more efficient and more interested in animal welfare, and it's just always getting better.
Speaker 3:So I think it's really always exciting to see how many young people are coming into this industry because there's so much improvement, like we're just getting better, even using technology now, using drones, using artificial, you know, intelligence to improve what we do, using the virtual offense like it's super exciting, no matter what your interest area is, to be in this industry at this stage, and so it's cool to go to these conferences and see how many young people are coming into it and that it should continue to get better.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think the future is bright and I think being involved in an industry that is interested in learning and adapting and improving is an honor. Right, you want to see that because if we're going to keep providing, you know, safe, wholesome and quality food for for the world, it's, it's, we've got to keep continuing to, to be more efficient and and all the things say I mean, that's all.
Speaker 3:Our ultimate goal is that we want to be food producers and we want to produce the best food that we can. You know we really do enjoy that. That's why we're in this is that's. My passion in life is to be a food producer, and so you know it's exciting to be in that and to be able to do that and to do it better all the time. You know using science and you know using these developments in stockmanship and using for us stock dogs and doing a better job at what we do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Oh man, we love to see stock dogs work. They're so, they're an efficient way to move. Working with cattle, working with you know there's challenges there's. You know you can't control the weather, you can't control the wild animals, but why do you keep doing what you do? What makes you keep going?
Speaker 3:I think I just love producing food. I think it's a very noble way to make a living. You know, I mean food production, whether it be farming and ranching, or, you know, dairy or whatever is is you are trying to feed the world.
Speaker 1:I mean, that is really what we're doing, and so for me, at the end of the day, that's that's what drives me is is to know I'm contributing to doing this in the best way possible, and so that would always keep me going, absolutely Working, and I'm sure Angel can attest to this too working for those of you that are growing, growing food and raising food is is an honor, right, it's just, it's a noble, noble job to even be connected, to put it lightly. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. What do you want consumers to know about ranching, or specifically ranching in Hawaii, if they take away one thing?
Speaker 3:I think it might be the amount of thought and time and passion and knowledge and science that really goes into what we do. It's not just throwing the cattle out there and bringing them back and then you know, and then you know harvesting them. And I mean there's so, so much that goes into every aspect of this production system. So much data, so much harvesting them. And I mean there's so, so much that goes into every aspect of this production system. So much data, so much knowledge, so much science, so much thought, so much art. You know that goes into the handling of them. That you know it's just super interesting.
Speaker 3:I think people don't always realize that there's just a lot that goes into it. So you know just that understanding of the different aspects and if you ever get the chance to talk to a rancher and you know kind of pick their brain on what they understand. And you know I always think that managing animals and managing pastures together is an art. You know you can talk about the science and the measurements to it and that sort of thing, but I mean there's a certain art form in what we do and going out there and be able to look at an environment and understand what's going on. You know below the surface of the grass, below the soil and above, and understand how to best manage that. And so yeah, Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think there is so much to it and I think that's kind of the whole goal. The whole goal or the whole idea of the podcast is we want people to know there's so much and there's so much extra effort and good intentions and well thought out process that goes into us being able to buy safe, safe, wholesome you know beef at the, at the grocery store. Uh, so absolutely well, thank you for helping us tell that story. Can you talk about the, the family side of the business? Do you have family that's involved? Is this is the ranch family owned?
Speaker 3:how does that kind of yeah, his family owned um was purchased in 1963 by the erdman family um and they're still here on the ranch. So Mr Erdmann is still here living in Maui and his son is, you know, directly involved in the operation and now the daughters are coming back to it. So it's interesting to see that multi-generational ranch and ranch family and we're really blessed to be able to work for a very kind and giving and, you know, very present family here, you know, on the ranch and always get that chance with ranching today and it's nice to see that it's still you know a family and you can work directly with them and, you know, have that, have that contact. So Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think that multi-generation ranching is is always, always special. And then you know something that started in the 60s. That's a long-term business. There's not a lot of businesses that last generations.
Speaker 3:And then to see it change. You know, with the new generations coming on like what you know, what this will become.
Speaker 1:How does it morph with times? You know to stay, you know and stay a relevant business and you know what is that next step and so it's interesting to see, right, so they can come get kind of a peek at at the, the beef and the. As you're driving past you're seeing pastures and and ranch and country. You might not see cattle because they are spread out, but but yeah, can you give like a teaser if they're, if they're in town.
Speaker 3:Yeah, come to Ulupalakumar Ranch store. It's right here, close to our headquarters. Great food. We do our local beef in the burgers. Our lamb is in the burgers. Also do venison burgers, which is the wild caught invasive venison here from the ranch, and elk as well. We do raise elk. We own the elk in Hawaii and then we also do specials. We have a little store with our local items. We eat lunch there. It's good.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. Yeah, yeah, we eat lunch there. It's good. That's perfect. Yeah, yeah, we had stopped here the last time. We were lucky enough to vacation and my kid has a cute T-shirt from the ranch store and that's a fun story and always trying to find connection to agriculture on our vacations, if we can, because learning more about where you visit is always a special part. Um, so is there anything else you'd like to add about hawaii or the beef industry? Um, or even just your ranch?
Speaker 3:I think, um, one interesting thing about the beef industry here and all over um the country is the land stewardship portion of what we do.
Speaker 3:We didn't talk a whole lot about that but, um, you know, we are a lot of the focus on why we of what we do. We didn't talk a whole lot about that but you know we are a lot of the focus on why we do. What we do is based on the health of the land and doing a better job of always taking care of the land, what the land tells us, and improving, hopefully, the health of it over time. And so we've got, you know know, lots of different projects going on to always improve land health, do more regenerative agriculture type practices, all those kind of things. And so, you know, it's an interesting part of ranching that not everyone knows about. But a big focus for us is the land stewardship and then also fuel control. I mean, here in Hawaii we've got a fire problem. So you know, one big thing we use livestock for is controlling the brush and the fuel loads to be able to catch these fires, when they do happen, faster and prevent those really bad situations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, cattle are a great way to help with the fuel, right, grazing cattle prevents a lot of fire in places. And then sometimes we see, when cattle are no longer allowed to graze, the problems that it could cause, because they're great for the land and great for preventing that thick fuel. And when we say fuel for a listener, that's just that grass that maybe becomes fuel for a fire, right, the grass that gets dried out or the gets thicker because, no, no one's there eating it right, right, yep.
Speaker 1:That becomes the fuel for the fire and it becomes super hard to catch it and get it under control in these unmanaged um landscapes that are not graced yeah, yeah, we, we, we love cattle and I'm, of course, biased because I, um, you, work for the cattle industry, but I believe the impact they can have on the environment is very positive in so many ways. Yeah, so many ways. Okay, so we've got the fun answer, kind of the last answer, unless you have anything else that you wanted to hit, I think I'm good.
Speaker 3:Okay, it's a fun one.
Speaker 1:So the fun, fun, answer, fun question and I even say it's probably the most important and definitely one of the most interesting is what is your favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 3:you know what it's actually oxtail, okay, tail, more than anything. I love that yeah, I like um the very marrowy bone soups more than anything. So like a shin bone soup or an oxtail is my favorite.
Speaker 1:Of course, a good steak is awesome too, but if you have to eat the bone soups, oh, I love that, and I think we actually have a recipe that we can share with it too, so we'll share that. And then is there a uniquely Hawaiian way to eat beef. So in New Mexico we like to tell people that if you, if you order steak and enchiladas and then you can get beef and enchiladas, and then you know, and then it's the real secretive way is to order them Christmas, which means green and red chili, when you come to New Mexico, so you can get steak and enchiladas and then, and then another another uniquely New Mexican thing is a green chili cheeseburger, and so we're all very passionate about our chili with our beef. So is there yeah, is there a uniquely Hawaiian way to eat beef?
Speaker 3:I mean, the oxtail is pretty Hawaiian Not Hawaiian but local, I'd say and then the lau lau I would say would be one. So that would be a steamed beef, and sometimes there's pork in there too. Or you know fish as well, racked in a taro leaf and then you know steamed, so the taro leaf melts. So yeah, if you're here try it.
Speaker 1:I don't remember. We even had a great short rib with rice at a restaurant, but it was a Filipino restaurant. The other day there's good ways to eat beef in Maui.
Speaker 1:We've been trying them. Yes, there, sure is, absolutely Well. The other thing I was going to say just before we wrap up is you mentioned, if people have questions or they're interested, if they want to learn, if you are listening and you want to know more about the industry, please, you know, please, follow along to our podcast. But also, you can go to beefitswhatsfordinnercom, you can go to nmbeefcom and you can go to is there a Hawaii?
Speaker 2:Yeah hawaiibeeforg.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so there's websites and organizations that you can go to for more information on ranching. We'd love to answer questions and right now we don't have a ton of questions, so I would say you can even reach out to us, you can reply to the podcast and we'll try and get answers, Because I think if there are questions we're open to giving answers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, we'll talk about this all day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Same same. Well, thank you so much for um being on the podcast. Thank you, angel, for helping introduce and and get us here, and we are, yeah, we're so grateful for your time and um. Yeah, thank you, thank you appreciate it. Behind the burger is a podcast produced by the new mexico beef council with the goal of telling the stories of the cattlemen and cattlewomen of the new mexico beef industry. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you'd like more information, please visit nmbeefcom. Whether it be a burger, a steak or another beef dish, we hope you're enjoying beef at your next meal.
