Profitable Livestock Production (Santa Fe County)

Beef Industry Improvement Initiative
The Santa Fe County Agent continues to be involved with the steering committee of the Beef Industry Improvement-New Mexico (BII-NM) initiative since the fall of 2009. The committee is comprised of individuals from the Cooperative Extension Service, NM Beef Council, NM Cattle Growers Association, ranchers, La Montanita Food Coop, Farm to Table, NM Department of Agriculture and the NM Economic Development Department and meets on a somewhat regular basis. The committee continues to meet on a regular basis to brainstorm on issues that are hindering the beef industry in New Mexico and possible way that the industry can help itself address these issues.

New Mexico Youth Ranch Management Camp
The Agent along Extension Beef Cattle Specialist and other Extension faculty planned and conducted the first ever New Mexico Youth Ranch Management Camp at the Valles Caldera. While some of the steering committee members had already been thinking about doing this type of initiative, this was also a recommendation that had come forth from the Beef Industry Improvement initiative. Twenty-nine youth from throughout the state of New Mexico learning about herd health management, beef fabrication, beef in the global economy, nutrition, advanced technologies in breeding programs, low stress handling of cattle, range management, plant identification, public land policy, ranch horse demonstration, principles of wildlife management, wildlife damage management, understanding productions costs and parameter of cow/calf production, optimizing ranch resources for profitability, adding value to your calf crop, and direct sales of beef to the consumer. Furthermore, all of the participants were divided into groups and were assigned a particular are of the Valles Caldera as a hypothetical ranch. Each group had to develop a ranch management and as a group present it to a panel of judges comprised of ranch managers at the end of the week. All of the youth without hesitation worked on their respective plans every night and did an impressive job in their presentations. The winning team members received a jacket. The second place team members received a pocket knife with 2011 NMYRM Camp printed on the sides of them Each day the steering committee selected and recognized a participant with a “Top Hand” buckle for showing enthusiasm and expressing interest in the day’s activities. On the final day, seven additional youth were recognized with a pocket knife as being “honorable mention” Top Hand award recipients. . On the final day of the camp the mother of one of the youth thanked several of the committee member individually saying, “Thank you for accepting my son in to the camp. He hadn’t smiled like this in a long time.” One of the participants indicated, “It would be an honor to be able to go back home and eventually be the manager of the family ranch”. Another participant said, “ I really didn’t want to be here but my parents are the ones who made me come. At one time I thought I wanted to have a career in wildlife, but after coming to this camp I’m ready to go back to the ranch and become more involved.” One of the instructors from Texas who happened to be a ranch manager and was present all week was impressed with the caliber of youth participating in the camp. He wrote down a list of four or five names which he would share with some other ranch managers in Texas to offer these individuals an internship opportunity. The steering committee raised over $18,000 to be able to offer this event.

Northern New Mexico Stockmen's Assocation
Assistance was provided to the Northern New Mexico Stockmen’s Association in securing presenters for their annual meeting in January. The Agent having ties to the NMSU secured the Extension Specialists to present to the group of 76 ranchers present. One of the hot topics of the meeting had to do with dealing with Trichomoniasis in Breeding Bulls.
Nineteen Integrated Resource Management books (redbooks) were distributed to ranchers from throughout the county.

Livestock/Drought Management Workshops
The Rio Arriba and Santa Fe Agents in collaboration with the Northern New Mexico Stockmen’s Association, the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Farm Service Agency offered sponsored two drought management workshop in Alcalde and in Santa Fe in mid April in response to the drought condition in existence. Through these workshops participants were informed as to how the land management agencies determine how they are going to cut back livestock grazing numbers during a drought, what financial assistance is available, and with the assistance of specialists from NMSU participants were informed as to what to do to maintain healthy rangelands and proper nutrition management during the drought. Approximately 27 people attended the workshop in Alcalde and 13 in Santa Fe.

Sheep Shearing
In the absence of an Agent in Taos County, the Santa Fe Agent assisted in the coordination of sheep shearing in Taos for several small scale sheep producers.

Sheep Losses
The agent assisted a sheep producers who was have some three unexpected deathlosses of sheep. After careful examination of the hay being fed to the sheep the Agent suggested that the producer open up the bales a day or two in advance to let the hay dryout more due to the high moisture content that it was baled at. The producer followed the advice and has not experience any more losses.

The Santa Fe County Agent continues to be involved with the steering committee of the Beef Industry Improvement-New Mexico (BII-NM)initiative since the fall of 2009. The committee is comprised of individuals from the Cooperative Extension Service, NM Beef Council, NM Cattle Growers Association, ranchers, La Montanita Food Coop, Farm to Table, NM Department of Agriculture and the NM Economic Development Department and meets on a somewhat regular basis. The committee has been meeting on a regular basis to brainstorm on issues that are hindering the beef industry in New Mexico and possible way that the industry can help itself address these issues. The BII-NM committee contracted with NMSU to conduct a survey of the small processing plants from within the state of New Mexico to determine what the barriers may be as to why there are fewer and fewer plants in the state. The survey has been conducted and results have been compiled. The majority of respondents seem to feel that federal regulations are a challenge to comply with.

With the asssistance of one of the Extension Beef Cattle Specialists, the Agent was able to do an artificial insemination demonstration with a cooperating small-scale producer in the community of Nambe in July 2009. The cooperating rancher is keeping a few head of cattle around to keep his grandson interested in ranching while he still has his grandson's attention. The rancher's other goal was to select some good genetics through the use of high quality semen. The Agent with the guidance of the specialist synchronized the estrus of the cows so that they would be ready come time to inseminate them. The rancher and his grandson were present every step of the way. At a later date in the fall, the specialist will be ultrasounding these cows to determine which ones were bred by insemination and which ones were bred later through natural service.

A few days following the insemination of the cattle the young man wrote a note to the Agent. Within the not he said "I never thought I could learn so much as I have in the last few weeks. This project has been very educational thanks to the you and Dr. Encinias. I couldn't have done it with out the two of you.

My science project for my junior year at McCurdy will definitely involve AI."

The Santa Fe County Agent has been involved with the steering committee of the Beef Industry Improvement-New Mexico (BII-NM)initiative since the fall of 2009. The committee is comprised of individuals from the Cooperative Extension Service, NM Beef Council, NM Cattle Growers Association, ranchers, La Montanita Food Coop, Farm to Table, NM Department of Agriculture and the NM Economic Development Department. Through the committees efforts, several townhall-type meeting have been held throughout the state sharing with participants the "State of the Industry" report which is based on a research project that was done by some NMSU Extension Economist. In addition input was sought from attendees as to what kinds ideas they had that would help make them more profitable.

As a follow-up to the townhall meeting an initial summit was held in Albuquerque in November 2009 in which the participant came up with 6 major recommendations which are : 1. Develop a Branded Beef Program
using the “value chain” framewok. 2. Enhance Coordination and identify
roles and responsibilities among beef and other agriculture-related organizations and agencies. 3. Work with NMSU Cooperative Extension
to facilitate Regional Supply Chain Cooperations that create economies
of scale. 4. Research and educate producers on how Secondary Income Streams can be created from existing operations. 5. Bring together policymakers, regulators, producers, processors, and experts to
address key Regulatory Issues. 6. Educate producers on Best Practices
for Cattle Health and develop ways to ensure that these practices result in added value. A second statewide summit was held in August held in which the participants came up with goals and objectives and prioritized them for the industry to work on. The committee members have been assigned to work on specific recommendation's goals and objectives which are both short and long term. The Agent will be very involved with recommendation number 3. The BII_NM steering committee has been meeting on an almost monthly basis in order to keep the momentum going and see some of this effort pass to fruition.