Fourth-grade boys and girls from the Bracker Elementary School in Nogales learned about local ranching at the Santa Fe Ranch thanks to the Nogales-River Cowbelles of Santa Cruz County and the Arizona Beef Council.

Karla Catacelli is an Elgin Cowbelle who came over to help at the Nogales-River Cowbelles Ranch Day.

The children practiced roping and learned about the grasses cattle feed on. They learned about cattle brands, shot off U.S. Forest Fire Service hoses and visited the donkey and goat pens.

The hungry students and volunteers lunched on hamburgers cooked by Ralph Snider, and Dean Fish of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.

The 4,000-acre Santa Fe Ranch, which belonged to the Sedgwick family, became the Cabot and Paula Sedgwick Family Foundation in 2007 and has set out to do agricultural and environmental research and education.

On Ranch Day, Oct. 22, the Bracker students were separated into teams, each with a leader to visit various stations. The most popular station was the roping performed by Dean Fish and Eduardo Orguez.

The children learned about the grasses cattle feed on from Dan Bell. Lou Apperson with Rosie Witter played a game about beef byproducts other than meat from cattle, such as Gummy Bears candy.

Janice Johnson showed them how to come up with their own cattle brands. Danny Fish and Tony Sedgwick showed off the farm animals and let the students interact with them. They also learned about horse etiquette and were introduced to the ranch’s expanding butterfly garden. Forest-fire prevention equipment was demonstrated by Shane Lyman and Chad Lorta.

The Cowbelles’ mission is to promote beef and agriculture education. Fundraising is done through tours to Western heritage museums and local ranches. The funds are used for scholarships and to support local 4-H programs.

October 2009 is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Cowbelles in Douglas, Ariz., in 1939. It was a social club for lonely ranch wives. Cowbelles has grown into a politically active group of women promoting beef and the preservation of ranching in Arizona.

This Ranch Day for the Bracker students was supervised by Emily Wilson with help from Edith Lowell and Rev. Luci Thomas, Muriel Noon, Grace Castro, Peggy Cumming, Rose Cumming, Jane Dolan, Hattie Wilson, Mary Helen Maley, Annie Wyer, Randy Glennie, Marie Pyeatt, Karla Cafarelli and Sylvia Hamel.