From his King Ranch and Beggs Cattle Co. roots to his role now with EarthOptics, James Clement III treats cattle, land, wildlife, water and technology as one system — measuring what matters and with technology serving that system rather than driving it.
For Clement of Kingsville, Texas, technology is not a replacement for ranching culture; it’s a set of tools that allow good stockmanship and land stewardship to scale and endure.
“I would summarize my career as bridging tradition and precision,” Clement says. “What I am most proud of is proving that profitability and stewardship are not mutually exclusive. We have shown that cattle can be raised profitably while improving land health and building long-term resilience.”
This South Texas rancher comes from a multigenerational ranching family with more than 400 years of family ranching heritage on three different operations. Clement says when he was growing up, land stewardship was lived, not discussed.
“Ranching taught me early that decisions compound over decades, not quarters, and that carelessness is paid for by the next generation,” he says. “Professionally, working alongside our family operations exposed me to disciplined scale, culture and long-term thinking in practice. They reinforced a simple truth — excellence is institutional, not accidental.”
Robert Wells, Paul C. Genho Endowed Chair in Ranch Management at Texas A&M Ranch-Kingsville, summarizes: “James has a firm foundation in ranching, however, he is constantly looking to the future and asking the questions of what is next and what could be possible. He’s not satisfied with the status quo.”
Today, Clement is building his own ranching operation in South Texas under the name Bloody Buckets Cattle Co.
“Every decision carries real consequences for land, livestock, natural resources and revenue, and year over year we are seeing measurable improvement across all four,” he says. “We operate simultaneously as ranchers, systems thinkers and technology adopters who insist on real-world validation. We are not interested in trends unless they can improve our operation over the long term and in what works under real conditions.”
His Early Years
He grew up working on both his mom’s family ranch in West Texas — Beggs Cattle Co. — a traditional cow‑calf and horse outfit that was founded in 1876, as well as his father’s family’s historic King Ranch in South Texas founded in 1853.
He says ranching was an influence, not pressure from his parents — ranch work was what he naturally did, not something forced.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in communication from Goucher College where he played four years of lacrosse and served two years as team captain. He then got a master’s degree in business administration from Cornell University.
He spent five years as a “day worker,” moving between family ranches and non‑family ranches. He then went to work for Deseret in Florida and then worked in Australia for about six months on large ranches in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
He says these experiences solidified what he loved abroad was essentially what he already had at home in Texas.
“We’re trying to retain the tradition of ranching while improving it. Not change cowboys for robots.”
Serving His Country
Clement is a dedicated Marine Corps officer, with service spanning both active and reserve components since 2008. His deployments include Afghanistan, Chile and Mexico, as well as leading a refugee camp that successfully transitioned 3,000 Afghans to U.S. citizenship during Operation Allies Welcome.
Throughout his career, he has trained and led more than 3,500 American and foreign troops.
He is currently an infantry officer and major in the reserves and the company commander of The Lone Star Battalion.
“The Marine Corps shaped how I lead and decide under uncertainty, reinforcing discipline, accountability and ownership of outcomes,” Clement says.
He draws direct parallels between ranching and the Corps: pride, tradition, clear roles and an acceptance that plans must change under pressure. The Marine principle that “no plan survives first contact” translates into a ranching philosophy of flexibility and honest feedback loops.
He says while enlisted in the reserves, he was still connected to ranch work.
In 2013, upon returning from active service in the Marine Corps, he took over management of Los Hermanos Ranch, continuing his family’s commitment to sustainability while embarking on a journey of innovation.
Real-World Experience at King Ranch
Clement spent a 10-year stretch of his career in different positions at King Ranch around Marine deployments. During this time, he served as a land resources manager.
It also included time with the King Ranch horse program. He managed the horse division from 2015 to 2021. He explains during this period, he deepened his management, genetics and horse‑side experience. Under his leadership, the ranch won the prestigious 2019 AQHA Best Remuda Award, bred its first ranch-raised world champion, CORONEL DEL RANCHO, and revitalized the commercial sales and marketing efforts of the horse program.
Building Bloody Buckets
While managing Los Hermanos Ranch, he made the decision to start Bloody Buckets Cattle Co. This ranch pays homage to members of the Clement family who have served in the U.S. military since the Revolutionary War.
During World War II, Clement’s grandfather, Capt. James “Jim” Clement, fought with the division dubbed the “Bloody Buckets Division” by German forces due to its red keystone insignia.
“My grandfather wore the bloody buckets patch on his left shoulder, and we still brand our cattle on the left hip with a brand that is modeled after that patch,” he says.
For the last 15 years, Clement — alongside his parents and his siblings Capera Norinsky and Gregory Clement; their partners, Alfonso “Poncho” Ortega Sr. and his son, “Poncho” Ortega Jr.; and an extraordinary team of employees and partners — has expanded the ranch to six total properties operating in four counties.
During the last three years, the operation has tripled in size, mostly on leased country, highlighting the team’s agility in expanding and improving lands rapidly. Parcel size ranges from 320 acres to 6,500 acres, totaling more than 15,000 managed acres.
The ranch is located in a challenging, drought-prone climate with geography defined by dense populations of mesquite, prickly pear, guajillo, huisache and mixed grasses.
On the business side, Bloody Buckets is primarily a cow-calf operation partnership that raises replacement heifers and bulls to sell to other ranches, markets bred females and produces all-natural, grass-fed beef from its primarily American Red (Santa Gertrudis and Red Angus cross developed by King Ranch) cattle herd.
In total, the operation stewards approximately 400 to 800 animal units, including Quarter Horses. Clement says the growing ranch horse program combines Beggs and King Ranch bloodlines. They manage horses with cattle to shape temperament.
The family also operates a successful hunting enterprise to manage approximately 150 non-native nilgai antelope, a prolific species from Pakistan and India introduced to the U.S. in the 1920s. Whether hunters come for nilgai, deer or quail, Clement says more than 200 sportsmen visit the ranch each year.
Additional wildlife species in the region include an extensive bird population, white-tailed deer, bobwhite quail, bobcats, coyotes, ocelots, some wild hogs and mountain lions.
Attentive to the Land
“We have implemented and tested adaptive grazing systems focused on recovery rather than calendar rotation, soil measurement and monitoring to quantify change, water monitoring and infrastructure improvements to reduce labor and risk, and disciplined genetic selection focused on efficiency and longevity,” Clement explains. “We also manage wildlife and livestock as an integrated system and participate in soil carbon and ecosystem service markets.”
Every tool tested by Clement and his team is evaluated against one question: does it improve decision-making and long-term resilience?
Technology and Innovation Focused
Wells says Clement is always seeking the next thing that will take his ranches to the next level.
“He has a reverence for the past but an eye to the future,” Wells explains.
Clement is willing to try a new product, technology or theory in order to make his ranch more efficient and profitable. He recognizes profitable ranches of the future will look much different than they did in the past or even currently.
“I think of innovation as disciplined experimentation rather than novelty,” Clement says. “On our ranches, innovation means testing ideas at small scale, measuring outcomes honestly and keeping what works while discarding what does not. We are comfortable trying new approaches because risk is managed deliberately.”
He summarizes the goal is to be better next year than this year, and meaningfully better in the 10-year cycle.
“I think ranchers spend 90% of their time on things that don’t make them money or don’t save them money, and if they’d spend a little bit of that time focusing on the problems he or she can solve … you can get somebody to do [a lot of those jobs] for a lot less than what your time is worth if you spend a few hours having a conversation, trying new technology and implementing that new technology,” he says.
His advice to ranchers is simple: identify what keeps you up at night, test one new technology at small scale each year, and commit to making a clear yes-or-no decision on it. Over a decade, he says, that’s how a “very cutting‑edge ranch” quietly takes shape.
“It should be a deep dive into a single thing every year,” he suggests. “I’m looking at one thing this year, and by the end of the year, I’m either going to do it or I’m gonna decide against it, but I’m going to have made a decision.”
He says ag tech companies want feedback, and there are opportunities to get free trials to see if the technology will work for you.
“They’re trying as best they can to de-risk,” he explains. “They want to scale as well. They want to make you a believer. They don’t want you to just have something sit in your closet or be something you never check.”
Beyond the Ranch
Today, Clement works for EarthOptics as senior vice president of range and grassland, helping producers measure land health and monetize stewardship through soil carbon and ecosystem markets.
“I work at the intersection of ranching, science and technology, focused on credible measurement of soil health, carbon and nutrients,” he explains. “This role allows me to test these tools on my own ranches, ensuring that innovation survives real-world conditions.”
Clement is passionate about soil carbon credits and similar mechanisms because they align economic incentives with long‑term management.
“For the first time in ranching, we’ve found a way to pay people to make long‑term decisions to be better stewards of their land,” he says. “That currency is soil carbon credits currently, but water credits, and potentially biodiversity or biology credits.”
Giving Back: Industry Leadership
Clement gives of his time and leadership to multiple organizations and companies, beyond his ranching enterprises.
- Ranchbot (board of directors)
- Frontiers Market (board of directors)
- Beggs Cattle Co. (board of directors)
- Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (natural resources and wildlife committee director and chairman)
- American Quarter Horse Association (director)
- National Ranching Heritage Center (director)
- South Texas Property Rights Association (director)
- Texas A&M University Center for Livestock and Grazinglands (director)
- King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management (director)
- Texas State Soil and Water Conservation (board of directors)
Family First
Clement and his wife, Paige, have three children — Jimmy, Janie and Jack. They live on their ranch outside Kingsville.
He credits his wife as a grounding influence.
“She provides perspective and balance, because sometimes I get caught up in too many of these things, and I need to pull back and spend time with my family — something I think all ranchers need to be probably better at doing,” Clement summarizes.
He says his goal is to replicate what his parents did.
“It’s influence, it’s create the opportunity, but not pressure. If they want to ride, if they want to work … It’s the exposure. It’s come see this. What do you think about this? Isn’t this fun?”
He hopes to keep the land and legacy intact for future generations, even if his own children aren’t day‑to‑day ranchers.
“You don’t have to ranch day to day, but you will hire it and understand it, because that is our culture. Maybe it’s my grandchildren that want to be part of it, but you’re not going to give up and forsake their opportunity, and so at least carry the torch.”
Pivotal Learning Moments
Clement shares these three key lessons learned in his career:
- Permanent assets demand conservative capital, not conservative thinking.
- Leadership isn’t about control; it’s about setting the conditions for others to succeed.
- What gets measured gets managed, and behavior follows.
James’ 5 Tips for Profitability
“In the next year, producers should focus on cost discipline, capital efficiency, water security, drought preparedness and input optimization. Also, even if the market is high, not just cashing those larger checks but reinvesting in growth, strategy and new opportunities like soil carbon credits and ag tech,” he says. “Over the next five years, the focus should shift toward land health as a balance-sheet asset, credible measurement and data, diversification of revenue streams including ecosystem services and intentional succession planning.
“The producers who thrive will be those who manage ranching as both a biological and a business system. Also, talk to your children about succession planning now.”
He suggests producers consider these five strategies:
- Know your numbers better than anyone else. “You cannot manage what you do not measure.”
- Protect your land first. Cattle are much more replaceable than natural resources.
- Adopt new tools selectively, not emotionally. Test them but demand proof on your operation.
- Think in decades while operating in years. Short-term gains should never compromise long-term options.
- Build resilience, not just efficiency. Scale and cash flow matter, but flexibility matters more.
