When traveling, my wife and I always include visits to farms and ranches. When on the Big Island of Hawaii, there is no bigger farm or ranch than the Parker Ranch encompassing the northwest portion of the island.

There is a huge range of diversity on the island from lava desert to rainforest but this portion of the island is lush grassland. The Parker ranch near Waimea is the sixth largest cow-calf operation in the U.S., running close to 15,000 cows.

The origin of the ranch goes back to 1847 when John Parker arrived as clerk of a ship from Newton, Massachusetts, who after disembarking in Hawaii never reboarded the ship. He had personality and impressed the King by marrying his granddaughter, starting with the purchase of two acres for $10. At one time, the ranch size encompassed 500,000 acres but has since pared down to 130,000 acres. The ranch once ceded 25,000 acres to the federal government to avoid condemnation so has experience with eminent domain. It also sold 20,000 acres near Waikoloa on the western shore to the Rockefeller family in 1964 for $6 million for resort development that we were told would be worth $900 million today. An acre of prime rangeland on the Big Island of Hawaii is reportedly worth $20,000, with development acres worth $100,000 each.

My wife and I walked into the entry of the Parker headquarters house-museum for a scheduled tour only to be greeted by a rather irate individual who called us out as trespassers and ordered us to leave immediately. He said that we had the nerve to just walk into anyone’s house while we responded that we had a scheduled tour. He told us that was impossible as the headquarters was closed that week. We presented him with a confirmation of a paid-for tour in response to our on-line reservation. He examined it and confirmed its authenticity explaining that it was a mistake and the premises were closed to the public. The website had messed up. His demeanor did change and he introduced himself as the general manager of the entire Parker Ranch. He then opened up the entire house and proceeded to give us the most extensive headquarters guided tour that I am sure that anyone has ever received. The tours were supposed to be unguided. Instead, he provided a wealth of information on the ranch.

Over the course of decades of ranch history, they produced many commodities there. This included corn, potatoes, lumber, fruit, harness for the military, turkeys, sheep and cattle. Today the ranch produces just cattle and Koa lumber. Koa is the largest endemic tree in Hawaii — the species exists naturally nowhere else in the world. It is the fastest growing of Hawaii’s valuable hardwoods. It can grow as much as an inch in diameter per year, reaching 100 feet in height, attaining a trunk diameter of 5 feet or more. It was historically the material of choice for carved ocean-going canoes. Koa wood is the most prized cabinet and furniture wood in Hawaii. The ranch home was made from Koa.

The Parker cowherd on Hawaii started from a few wild cows which proliferated into a herd that Parker received permission from the King to round-up and commercialize. The herd once comprised 30,000 head of purebred Hereford breed cattle. Needing experienced cowboys, he brought Mexican vaqueros to Hawaii, where many of these families have continued their cowboy legacy for generations with the ranch. Today there are no Herefords. The 15,000-head cow herd is half 1/8 Charolais/Angus and half 1/8 Simmental/Angus. The general manager described them as medium frame matching the kind of grass on the ranch. He said that about 2000 head of calves are heifers retained for the breeding herd and another 2000 head of calves are grown in their grass-fed program consumed on the islands. About 10,000 head of calves are loaded on a ship and moved to Oregon to a feedlot.

They have been shipping cattle off the island for many decades. Originally, they herded the cattle into stone wall pens on the coast. They then tied cattle to the sides of small watercraft and they essentially swam/floated out to the ship. Then they dropped a sling under them and hoisted them up onto the ship. Remnants of the original stone fence pens remain today. Today they unload from trucks directly onto the ship.

The Parker Ranch Foundation retains ownership of the cattle all the way from conception through wholesale beef sales through Country Natural Beef to retail locations on the west coast, including Whole Foods and Chipotle. They are finished in Oregon and processed there. In Hawaii, they sell their grass-fed beef at Safeway stores and four military bases.

I asked the general manager how they market their beef, and while they see retained ownership with some joint partnering in branding as their primary risk management, he said they buy put options to cover half of their sales. They are looking into Livestock Revenue Protection insurance but have not pulled the trigger on it yet. He anticipated that they would use LRP soon. He said that he would like to buy pasture/rangeland/forage (PRF) insurance that is available to producers on the mainland but that Hawaii is so-far excluded from that coverage. He had been to the recent NCBA convention and had their state political officials working on getting them included in PRF coverage.

I was on the lookout for Winchesters and all they had on display was a 50-caliber muzzleloader and 12-gauge shotgun, both very antique.

The ranch general manager quickly figured out that my wife and I were not the typical trespassers and we got along very well after the voices lowered. We parted with a handshake as friends. He gave me a $32 Parker Ranch hat for our trouble.

Most miss the trespasser tour. It was the best.