Agriculture & Horticulture
Our county's agriculture must remain competitive within local, national and even international markets. This requires a continuous flow of appropriate technology addressing local needs within New Mexico. Our Extension program works to maintain and strengthen programs that address these needs. Water is one of the most important limiting resources for our county's agriculture. All aspects of water use affect agricultural efficiency and profitability. Water management will become more critical as water demands for urbanization and industrialization increase. The drought conditions that Taos County and much of New Mexico suffered over the past few years have prompted a renewed focus on the need to conserve water as well as a new appreciation for this precious commodity. Many Taos County livestock producers took a major hit by having to cull and sell livestock earlier than they would normally would have done so. Farmers, too, suffered the drought because of the lack of snowpack and runoff. Couple that effect with the army cutworm infestation of 2003 and many farmers in the northern part of the County are seeing severe dieback of many forage crops.
Cash receipts in Taos County are approximately 8.3 million annually. Though much of this represents livestock and hay production, this a growing demand for educational programming in specialty crop production. Many small farmers and gardeners desire to produce high value specialty crops such as organically produced small grains and vegetables as well as perenial herbs. Much of the produce grown locally is for home consumption, although many gardeners are rediscovering the Taos County Farmers Market as an outlet for extra income.
Invasive & Noxious Weeds
Taos County has been one of the last strongholds against invasive weeds. Weeds that have more aggressively invaded other areas of New Mexico have, for whatever environmental or geographical reasons, not been a major problem until very recent years. Addressing this problem, particularly as it affects public lands, highway right-of-ways and the increased spread into private lands from these other sources has united public agencies, governmental agencies and tribal governments in communicating the spread of these weeds and dialoguing about control options for the common good. In 2001, a group of citizens and agency personnel petitioned the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSHTD) to consider using non-herbicidal options for weed control on state highway right-of-ways. The NMSHTD agreed to work with these citizens and offered a moratorium on herbicide use for one year to allow for viable cultural, mechanical and biological controls to be explored on these right-of-ways. If the options show promise, the program can serve as a model for other counties with similar concerns. To date, much work has been done to explore these options. The Weed Committee meets monthly with NMSHTD to review progress and consider new ideas. Last year this included the use of 600 goats to graze areas where large pockets of noxious and invasive weeds were identified to exist. In addition to the goat effort, the County Extension Agent, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District and UNM-Taos teamed up in an effort to begin mapping noxious and invasive weed sites. This program involved students enrolled at UNM-Taos to sign up for a course on Noxious Weeds for credit while simultaneously being hired by the Taos Soil and Water Conservation District as temporary part-time workers. The County Extension Agent provided the initial noxious and invasive weed training to these students who then went out in the field with GPS units. Farmers and ranchers as well as the general public can still call in to the Taos Soil and Water Conservation District to request a student be sent out to map weed species.
Livestock Production
Livesock and livestock products account for 50% of all farm and ranch cash receipts in Taos County. This amount is approximately $4,500,000 annually. Cattle and sheep are the primary contributors to this industry and ecomomy. Many management practices can increase output and retrun if practiced according to available recommendation. A much increased emphasis on basic cattle requirements and the need for quality asssurance has surfaced among producers of Taos County. Although there are several cultural groups within Taos County which have among them unique production practices, the need for uniformity, quality and consistency of product still exists. This will be addressed through the New Mexico Beef Quality Training Program in Taos County later this fall. During the drought of 2002, Taos County livestock producers all suffered the same major plague. That is, hard decisions were having to be made regrading culling and sale of livestock. Several livestock producers had to sell all their livestock because of the unavailability of water for irrigation and hay production. Coming into a very dry spring in 2002 from a very dry winter, farmers and ranchers do not have the spring snowmelt and runoff that they count on annually in order to irrigate and produce hay and pasture for their livestock. The lack of spring rains compounded the problem severely. Many livestock producers were counting on public land permits to continue through the summer months. At this point in time many of the public land permits are still in effect, however cutbacks in the number of head or early removal of livestock altogether is still very much in the minds of many public lands officials. Pasture conditions are still only moderate in some areas despite the snow and rainfall in late winter 2003. What this year will bring remains to be seen. There is much cautious optimism regarding snowpack, however winds and hot early spring days may still rob farmers of runoff if conditions do not stablize. Mid-April to mid-May spring showers will set the stage for a successful year if it is to come.