John Orradre’s great-grandfather Miguel Orradre and his two brothers emigrated from Spain to California as Basque sheepherders looking to settle into new country in 1886, he said. In order to pay for their passage to America, the three brothers were sponsored and tasked with homesteading a section of land for five years. “After selling the homestead back to the sponsors, my great-grandfather was able to purchase the Pancho Rico Ranch in San Ardo in 1906,” Orradre said. “That’s when Orradre Ranch began, and it consisted mostly of sheep at the time.” Orradre Ranch grew through the acquisition of other nearby ranches and properties, and after purchasing an adjacent farmstead from a neighboring politician — Bradley Sargent, who was trying to pay off his political campaign in the 1930s — the brothers began the transition to cattle ranching. Along with the farmstead purchase came its mineral rights, and when oil was found on the property in 1947, the profits helped lead to ranch improvement, John Orradre said.
Sargent Cattle Co. operators John and Mike Orradre are three-time champions of the prestigious Grid Master Award.
Upon the death of Miguel Orradre, the ranch was divided between the children to form separate ranches and the Sargent property went to his grandfather, he said. Sargent Cattle Co. Partnership Mike Orradre began the next generation of ranching when he started his own business in 1967, on the original property and house he had grown up in. Following John Orradre’s graduation from California Polytechnic State University, the pair initiated a partnership in 1995, keeping the original name of the ranch, Sargent Cattle Co. The two men have been working together ever since. “My dad likes the office, I like the sky,” John Orradre joked. Mike Orradre’s father had raised Hereford cattle throughout his childhood, but the Sargent Cattle Co. operators have experimented with a mix of breeds, looking for the best maternal and carcass traits. “At one point, it seemed like we had a bull from just about every breed,” John Orradre said. “But we slowly took that bull-of-the-month club and dispersed it.” The Orradre partners worked their way through several breeds, finally settling on Red Angus in the late ’90s, liking the breed’s maternal traits. John Orradre credits his godfather, Wes O’Reilly, as “a big player helping us get started in the breed” by sharing knowledge and past experiences with Red Angus. Economic Breed The Sargent Cattle Co. herd is strictly Red Angus sired and consists of around 500 females that stay on the hills yearround. “We only buy outside of the herd for our bull seedstock,” Orradre said. “We’ve developed a genetic basis with a closed-female herd.”
American Red Angus Magazine ■ March 2018 69