San Pedro Ranch in Texas: History, What It Raises, How It Makes Money and How to Contact It
Profile updated November 2026
San Pedro Ranch is a 23,000-acre South Texas ranch near Carrizo Springs, run with a holistic approach by the Fitzsimons family and a registered Beefmaster herd. It received the 2021 Texas Leopold Conservation Award and a Lone Star Land Steward Ecoregion Award for South Texas in 2016.
| Location | About 30 miles southwest of Carrizo Springs; Dimmit and Maverick counties |
|---|---|
| Founded | Holistic management began in the 1970s |
| Sectors | registered Beefmaster cattle; wildlife; conservation |
| Scale | 23,000 acres with 26 soil types and 36 plant communities |
| Why it is elite | 2021 Texas Leopold Conservation Award; 2016 Lone Star Land Steward Ecoregion Award |
| Ownership | Fitzsimons family, with a perpetual conservation easement |
| Official website | Sand County Foundation Leopold Conservation Award profile (no ranch website found) |
History of San Pedro Ranch
The Sand County Foundation says Hugh Fitzsimons Jr. began managing the ranch with a holistic approach in the 1970s. His children, Joseph Fitzsimons and Pamela Fitzsimons Howard, and their families continue the work.
The family has compiled 90 years of rainfall data and placed a perpetual conservation easement on the ranch through the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, which limits development and fragmentation.
What San Pedro Ranch Grows and Raises
The ranch runs registered Beefmaster cattle, a breed known for heat, drought and insect resistance. Management includes regenerative grazing, prescribed burns and brush management on a property spanning 26 soil types and 36 plant communities.
Conservation work includes more than 100 rock and earthen structures built to trap sediment, over 22,000 feet of degraded creek channel restored across a 700-acre watershed, and a 14-acre gravel pit that Ducks Unlimited converted into wetland for waterfowl.
How San Pedro Ranch Makes Money
Registered Beefmaster cattle
The ranch's livestock program is a registered herd of a heat and drought tolerant breed, suited to the brush country.
Land value through easement
A perpetual easement protects the land from fragmentation, which is also a succession and estate planning tool.
Wildlife and habitat
The ranch supports migrating birds, monarch butterflies, quail, dove and Rio Grande turkey. The sources do not describe a specific revenue stream from these.
Farm Insight: What Other Operators Can Learn from San Pedro Ranch
Collect your own data. Ninety years of rainfall records give the family a basis for stocking and drought decisions.
Match breed to country. A heat and insect tolerant breed lowers risk in a hot, dry region.
Ninety years of rainfall data is the kind of record keeping that makes farm satire writers weep with envy. At farm.FM, farm humor, ranch humor and farm jokes would happily cover a rain gauge with a better filing system than most offices. The writing is affectionate toward ranchers who treat range, water and Beefmasters seriously.
The outlet behind those laughs, farm.FM, is the nation's first satirical farm site, complete with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers. A farm.FM humorist's archive shows what a week of it looks like.
How to Contact San Pedro Ranch
Website: https://sandcountyfoundation.org/our-work/leopold-conservation-award-program/san-pedro-ranch
No official ranch website, address, phone or email appeared in the sources reviewed, November 2026. The link above is the award profile.
San Pedro Ranch Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Sand County Foundation award profile - 2021 Texas Leopold Conservation Award
- Hill Country Alliance - Award coverage
- Texas Farm Bureau - Coverage of conservation awards
- USDA Census of Agriculture - National and state farm and ranch statistics
- Texas Department of Agriculture - State agency overview and programs
San Pedro Ranch FAQ
How large is San Pedro Ranch?
The Sand County Foundation lists 23,000 acres.
What does it raise?
A registered Beefmaster herd.
What awards has it won?
The 2021 Texas Leopold Conservation Award and a 2016 Lone Star Land Steward Ecoregion Award.
How can I contact the ranch?
No official contact details were found; see the award profile.
San Pedro Ranch shows how data, breed choice and conservation planning can work together. See the Texas state guide on this page for more and the other operations profiled with it.