Ag Mag Featured Farmer
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Ranch Way
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ragedy is never alone. It can be often accompanied by grief, fear or a multitude of sidekicks. The reactions to it can be far-reaching, from losing to finding hope and inspiration, and a myriad of emotions in between.
When a fire in her parents’ auto electric shop and auto sports store in Roma, on Oct. 23, 1999, took not only the shop, but the lives of Giovana Benitez’s mother and younger brother, Giovana’s father decided to follow her mother’s dream of owning and operating a self-sufficient and vertically integrated cattle operation. “It was at that time that my father decided to follow my mother’s dream and start a cattle operation in north central Hidalgo County,” Giovana said. Thus the seeds were planted for the Jemar Ranch, located in Edinburg. But ranching wasn’t something new Giovana, or her father, Jesus Armando Benitez. When she was 9 years old, her father purchased a 700-acre farm in central Hidalgo County. When Armando took possession of the farm, it was a row-crop operation.
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“We started growing watermelon, corn and milo for starters.” Giovana said. During this time, I started to realize I had a passion for agriculture. I spent many days operating equipment alongside my father and learning the ins and outs of agriculture production. At that time there were many changes in watermelon and commodity prices where it made it hard to make a profit. My father decided to diversify the farm into a cow-calf operation. “When the decision was made to get into the cattle business, we did not know what aspect of the industry to get into. We started as a momma cow operation and realized that with the amount of acres we had, we could not sustain the large number of cattle that we wanted to raise” As it so often happens, times changed and the operation turned into one of preconditioning. Giovana, eagerly working alongside her father, was hands on and learned to sort cattle, ride hours, mix feed rations and keep records, among other things. As the farm grew, however, and the changes in the industry kept coming, Giovana’s duties diversified and “grew exponentially,” she recalled. “I was having to prepare invoices, dispatch trucks, order feed ingredients, keep up with accounts receivable and accounts
