Nol Ward is a long-time veteran of the range cattle business. He has more than 35 years of experience working, managing and consulting on commercial ranching operations. During this period of time, he has had the opportunity to observe in detail the practices of natural resource conserving, long-enduring operations; versus the practices of natural resource degrading, ultimately short-lived operations.

His philosophy toward ranching is based on cumulated knowledge gained primarily from five sources:

1. Years of researching the history of grazing agriculture and rangelands in the U.S. and around the world
   
   
2. Years of closely observing the long-term negative effects of overgrazing and high-risk speculation in regard to ranching enterprises and rangelands
   
   
3. Years of watching solar powered ruminant animals being slowly but surely transformed into fossil fuel machines
   
   
4. Years of trial and error experimentation, revaluation, and correction as a small independent producer, professional ranch manager, and professional range cattle consultant
   
   
5. Years of trying to preserve ranch-life in an environment that emphasizes his ideas pertaining to the importance of ranchers
   
   
   • working together to accomplish common goals
   • maintaining healthy grazing lands
   • breeding general-purpose rather than terminal-cross cattle
   • doing breeding work within closed rather than open populations
   • producing and marketing grassfed rather than grainfed meat
   • vertically integrating cattle operations all the way to the consumer
   • increasing ranch income by diversifying operations rather than by intensifying cattle production
   • permanently protecting native grazing land from ecologically harmful practices.

Nol attended college at Sul Ross State University, Texas A&I State University, and Stephen F. Austin State University. He has degrees in economics, political science, and animal science. His primary study in animal science was in the field of population genetics.

Over the years, Nol has received numerous awards for outstanding accomplishments in soil and water conservation, as well as the management and conservation of native rangeland and wildlife. He is recognized as a leading authority in closed population breeding and lends his expertise to range cattle agriculture as a consultant, pairing rangeland environments with sustainable methods of bovine production.

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