Talk:King Ranch

Untitled
Amazing piece of heritage and history. I admire the strength and determination of such a hard working family and thier ties.

Details in flux
I think I am going to have to change some details. My source is Tom Lea's book. Please jump in if you have other citations. Ancheta Wis 15:21, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Ancheta, please do. I don't have any printed sources available to me, only what's on the Web from the King Ranch itself, Handbook and other primary sources. Go nuts. &middot; Katefan0(scribble) 15:23, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Politically correct stories
Some of the stories of the Ranch in the early days are quite thrilling, authentic stories straight from the American Old West. But the principals are stereotyped as white hats vs black hats (fill in the blanks, it would be viewed as racist/incorrect today: Cowboys and Indians, Texans and Mexicans, Northerners vs Southerners etc.). What do I do? I should leave out the stories?

For the moment, I will put in only that which appears to be in tune with today's sensibilities. It is easy to add them it if there is demand. Ancheta Wis 21:18, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I think it's fine to include some of those sorts of stories, as long as we are careful to note that they are couched in the spirit of the times. Maybe create a section of "Mythos and legend" or something, similar to the way it's handled in Texas Ranger Division. &middot; Katefan0(scribble) 21:54, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

There is a theme here, it is clear that running a business is hard, even killing work. In management terms, the King Ranch has a succession problem:
 * 1883 Henrietta is distraught over the death of her second son, Lee, and remains in St. Louis, Missouri. Alice tends to her father in her mother's absence.
 * Robert Justus Kleberg, King's lawyer, marries Alice Gertrudis King. Alice, Texas is named for her.
 * R. J. Kleberg, Jr. (1896-1974) developer of the Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle and CEO of King Ranch.
 * King Ranch is currently an operating division with the CEO residing in Houston.


 * If the stories are true, interesting, and relevant, they should be included without disclaimer. Superm401 | Talk 01:02, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Illustrations wanted
Tom Lea remarks that some of the livestock of the King Ranch are color-coordinated, especially the Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle and the King Ranch-bred sorrel horses. The fact that the Kineños, expert horsemen as part of their culture, the cattle, and the horses have kind of risen up with the ranch, and that their lives are coordinated, is a point Lea makes in his book (p.659). The fences are augmented by prickly pear stands, so the colors of the Ranch are harmonious. It should be noted that the cattle were bred (from Shorthorn and Brahman) for the region, for the warm temperatures of South Texas.

I am searching for images to use with the article. Ancheta Wis 03:12, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Advice wanted.
From a literary POV, the article has an arc, right now. But there are some subplots, which if I introduced them, would break the arc. Ancheta Wis 23:23, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Los Kineños: I could name the families and put in some stories.
 * Cattle breeding
 * Horse breeding
 * Drought
 * The 1915-1916 bandit raids on the Ranch (I see that part is at Texas Ranger Division)
 * Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg and Alice, Texas
 * Stop?
 * I think I have a solution: the next section should be Family (Both King / Kleberg and Kineño. Ancheta Wis 02:56, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Very extended section
Even without reading the article, the History section struck me as possibly too long. The number of subheadings seems a bit unwieldy. I just joined the Texas Collaboration project and will look at this article more later, but I was wondering if anyone thinks there is a way to break up the large section or pare down the number of subheaders. Thanks. -Scm83x 23:21, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

King ranch subjects worth covering
Some items from the modern history of the King Ranch, worth a writeup by Texas people. As a Californian, it would be presumptious for me to write about the Ranch.


 * The "root plow", two large Caterpillar tractors connected together by a heavy steel frame, designed to push a big cutting blade into the ground. When driven forward, the root plow would cut off the roots of undesired scrub brush.  Rocks in the way became smaller rocks. First version, 1935, but got really big after WWII.  First Really Overpowered Farm Machine.


 * The King Ranch was at one time the biggest supplier of beef to McDonalds. The Ranch also had subsidiary operations in Australia and South America in the 1980s.


 * How the King Ranch trains young quarter horses is an fascinating story in itself. Nobody else does it their way.


 * King Ranch construction standards, or "We don't fix fence, we build fence". The Ranch builds for eternity.  King Ranch wire fence has its own story.


 * Texas Monthly has had some good King Ranch articles. In the 1990s, it wasn't making much money.  A figure of $3 million in profit for a good year was mentioned, which is tiny for an operation of that size. And that was mostly oil, not beef.  There's been a turnaround.

Useful link: 1992 Beef Magazine article on the King Ranch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nagle (talk • contribs)
 * Hi Nagle! It's not at all presumptuous; your contributions are most welcome.  Please feel free to incorporate any information you think would benefit the article, and welcome to Wikipedia!  Also, please remember to sign your talk page posts, otherwise it gets confusing figuring out who has said what.  It's easy to do this -- just type four tildes in a row (like this ~ ) and when you hit save, the software will automatically fill out your name, and a time and date stamp, like this: &middot; Katefan0(scribble)/ poll 16:05, 14 March 2006 (UTC)


 * (do it anyway... we dont mind. more reliable info is better, regardless of source   - a texan)

Deseret Ranch
the Deseret Ranchis listed as the largest cattle ranch in the US. I do not know enough to determine if this is a mistake.--Counsel 20:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Historic Place
Does this mean it is protected and can never be developed or split up? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.206.165.40 (talk) 02:50, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Nilgai
I added the nilgai section, but I haven't been able to reference it since most of it is what I heard/experienced at the king ranch. Superdupergc 15:39, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Map
This article could use a map / locator / aerial / graphic / etc. Woodshed (talk) 01:14, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Removed section: Present-day diversified agribusiness
I have removed entire section: Present-day diversified agribusiness becuase it is written in promotional tone and all the cited sources are self-published, unreliable. --Ferpalnum (talk) 18:04, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Books to add to literature
This is what I propose adding:

Bob Kleberg and the King Ranch: A Worldwide Sea of Grass is an illustrated biography that focuses on the life of Bob Kleberg, Jr. Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch is an illustrated memoir by Helen Kleberg Groves, the only child of Bob Kleberg, Jr.

I previously added this, but then I removed it because I realized I should have it peer reviewed first since I'm new to Wikipedia. I apologize for adding unnecessary external links at first. I got ahead of myself and compromised the integrity of this article. I should add that I'm currently working for one of the presses that published one of these books (Trinity University Press) so that's a clear COI. Leemie (talk) 04:17, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I'd prefer to get input from the editors working on the article about the proposed edit, as a previous revision of the requested text (although a clearly promotional one) was not accepted. Regards, VB00 (talk) 13:44, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I would support adding this in the "Further reading" section. The books are published by reputable presses. Wikipedia editors are on the lookout for more sources to expand an article, and readers come to this article to find high quality sources of information. As long as the books are listed in a neutral, concise manner (i.e. Further reading is not promotional, but taking a paragraph to introduce the book might be) I can't think of a reason why listing these books would hurt the encyclopedia&mdash;note that Sea of Grass is already listed there. VB00, Mean as custard, any objections? Altamel (talk) 02:37, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead and boldly added the book, but without the external link as that seemed to be the gist of the previous objection. Altamel (talk) 01:44, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Removed link
In History, in the part 'attaining a pilot's rating', would link to the Wiki page on aviation pilot's ratings. Since Richard King lived from 1824–1885, one can see where him being that kind of a licensed pilot may be unlikely. Removed the link, kept the text te same. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.166.230.32 (talk) 14:53, 25 June 2019 (UTC)