Profitable Livestock Production (Catron County)

2011 has been a year of records. Not only have we seen record commodity prices we have record drought and fires. Catron County ranchers saw a very dry winter, spring and early summer. Most of the county received significant rainfall staring in late July. The wide spread drought in Texas and surrounding states has drastically effected cattle and commodity prices. Many cattle through the county were in poor to extremely poor condition when we finally received rain. The effects of this drought will be felt for years to come. Short term effects include reduced weaning weights and later than normal breeding.
Work continued on the long term improvement to Catron County cattle. Due to drought no heifers were AI ed this year. Work centered on evaluating the current cow herd in the face of drought. Cows were evaluated based on body condition and calf quality. Cattle in poor condition had their calves early weaned and the poorest open cows were sold. Those that were bred were kept. The cows that had expectable body condition were allowed to raise their calf. I will evaluate these cows again next year to determine the effects of these management decisions on the cow herd long term. Many of the early weaned calves were sold others were pastured and for the most part have done very well after the rains came. This could prove to be an excellent decision for ranchers as their seems to be a trend that there is more demand for heaver calves going into winter and next spring.
Catron County experienced its own fires this year. The largest wildfire in Arizona history overlapped into New Mexico. Much of June was spent assisting local state and federal agencies with livestock evacuated from the fire. Livestock such as horses and small farm flocks of sheep and goats were moved to the Carton County Fair Grounds in Reserve. Other evacuation locations were identified in Quemado, Magdalena and Glenwood. However no livestock were moved to these sights. Cattle in immediate proximity to the fire were allowed to move away from the fire by removing fences and pushing them out of the fires path. Plans were also in place to relocate these cattle to open grazing allotments if the fire continued to spread. I also identified trucking for these cattle and sources of hay to feed these cattle in the event that we needed to confine them for longer periods of time. This fire was good example of the need for emergency planning.
A Beef Quality Assurance program was conducted in March. Fifteen People attended the training. This training allows ranchers to market their cattle as being from a certified beef quality assurance program.

Beef cattle production is the most significant contributor to Catron County’s tax base. Prices received for cattle are much better this year. However, production costs continue to increase at alarming rates. Most ranchers have little control over the price they receive for their annual production. They must focus on reducing their production cost to maximize profitability.
The area of production cost that the Catron County extension programming has focused on is Cow efficiency. The identification and implementation of efficient cow genetics into Catron County cow herds can reduce production costs. These genetics can be added to the cow herd in several ways. Artificial insemination (AI) is one way these genetics are infused into existing herds. By focusing an AI program on heifers, ranchers can achieve many management goals some of which include reduced calving difficulties, higher quality offspring, and more efficient cow herds over time. For ranchers were AI is not an option assistance is provided in selecting high quality sires for natural service. This ongoing program has helped more than 25 ranches make genetic changes in their cow herds. In addition some ranches are selling bulls produced through AI which is increasing the impact of these AI programs throughout Catron and surrounding counties. Many of these ranchers indicate that their per cow production costs are decreasing while their pounds of production per cow are increasing.
Overall l ranch business planning has also been done with three ranches this year. Ranchers look at their current business plan and try to identify ways to make them more profitable. Some examples include advantages and disadvantages of forming a corporation. The ranchers involved have identified several areas to focus on to become more efficient.

Livestock production is Catron County’s largest cash crop. There continues to be pressure on commodity prices for agriculture products at the farm gate. Ranchers must continue to become more efficient to stay profitable. Ranchers must analyze their production strategies and be more conscious of production costs. Implementing more efficient genetics into existing cow herds is one of the areas identified to decrease production costs. This ties in well with the ongoing Artificial Insemination (AI) project in Catron County. Long term beef cattle improvement in Catron County continues to focus on the use of Artificial Insemination (AI). Three producers artificially inseminated more than 85 first calf heifers. The long term goal of the program is to show the use of AI as an alternative management strategy on first calf heifers. The addition of more efficient genetics in the AI program has been an added benefit and speeds up the genetic change in the cow herd. The results of this program have shown that AI can reduce calving problems on first calf heifers as well as improve overall quality, marketability and efficiency of the cow herd. As a result of this long term program I receive more requests each year from producers looking to implement the use of AI in their herds. AI is not always the best choice for a given ranch. In these cases I have worked with the producer to develop a plan to implement high quality sires into their herds in an attempt to duplicate many of the results we have show with AI.

Catron Counties livestock production is tied to public land grazing. The reintroduction of the Mexican Grey Wolf by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has had a significant impact on the the profitability of Catron County livestock producers. In an effort to help livestock producers be more profitable I have tried to develop alternative management strategies to deal with wolf depredations on livestock. Several of the most severely impacted ranchers are seeing as much as a 50% reduction in their calf crops. To date we have been unsuccessful in developing management options to reduce depredation on calves. Other efforts have focused on the bureaucratic side of this issue. The county has declared a state of emergency and I have worked with the Farm Service Agency to try to develop a farm program to address the depredation issue. Other work has been done to educate Catron County residents on their legal rights as they relate to the wolf. This is an on going project if problems associated with the Mexican Grey Wolf continue to increase as the population grows as they would be expected to Catron Counties livestock producers face the very real chance of being forced out of business. As a result of these efforts a program was organized to bring affected producers and the Range Improvement Task Force together to address the impacts of the wolves on livestock. Producers provided input on the development of data collection system. Two trainings were conducted to teach producers and others affected by the wolves how to complete and submit data to The Range Improvement Task Force. Hopefully over time this data can be used to develop management systems to reduce livestock depredations.

A program was presented through the New Mexico Beef Councils gate to plate to more than 40 people on both the advantages and disadvantages of artificial insemination (AI). Participants were shown the equipment used to AI and given an overview of estrus synchronization and its use in an AI program. Participants also learned about the steps involved in beef cattle herd improvement. Gate to Plate attendees were also given a branding demonstration.

Long term beef cattle improvement in Catron County has focused on the use of AI. Four producers artificial inseminated more than 100 first calf heifers. The long term goal of the program is to show the use of AI as on alternative management strategy on first calf heifers. The results of this program have shown that AI can reduce calving problems on first calf heifers as well as improve overall quality and marketability of the cow herd. As a result of this long term program I receive more request each year from producers looking to implement the use of AI in their herds. AI is not always the best choice for a given ranch. In these cases I have worked with the producer to develop a plan to implement high quality sires into their herds in an attempt duplicate many of the results we have show with AI. Our estrus synchronization efforts led to many conversations with Pharmaceutical companies on the effects of their products. We were able to identify some quality control issues with the products used to synchronize estrus.