Sunday, June 02, 2013

Drought … still



Strategies of Existence
Drought … still
The concept has sprung
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


     I met them in Deming.
    My rancher friend and his wife had the bulls in their trailer. Those young bulls were living, breathing products of years of work and strategies in genetics.  He had called me earlier in the month and shared his idea. If I would take the bulls, he wanted bull calves in the future … if and when he could think about life after drought.
    He told me he was tired of feeding them and couldn’t afford to feed them. Straight years of drought had reduced his forage like every other ranch across southern New Mexico. He made no attempt to hide his feelings.
    “If we are still in business, I’ll take those future bull calves.”
His wife reminded him they would be in business as we unloaded from their trailer into mine in the middle of a parking lot. As I expected, those 18 month old bulls were quiet and gentle. No running or blowing snot at us as we closed the gates and made ready to depart. That is just the kind of rancher he is. That is the kind of cattle he produces. That is the way he runs his life.
    We don’t live in a vacuum. Drought had shaped his decision and he had acted. He knew when he had to make the tough decisions. In our relatively tight community those things are not invisible. People are aware and take notice. We need his brand of stewardship.
    More importantly, our future stewards need that kind of mentorship.
Drought
    A year ago, I closed the gate on a truck and a load of replacement heifers left our corrals. The sound of those bawling calves lingered in my head. The last thing I wanted to do was to sell them, but the continued, successive years of drought had made the decision for us. We had to manage for turf health.
    The drought has only worsened. The current index indicates we are in the worst drought area of the United States. Statistics are suggesting it is the area’s worst drought in recorded history.
    On May 20, a full drought inspection for our ranch was scheduled. Our major landlord, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), called for the inspection. They wanted to know what our drought strategies were. For several reasons, I asked a number of experts to attend. 
    Aside from our ranch ownership, the group consisted of the Dean Emeritus from the School of Agriculture at New Mexico State University (NMSU), a retired NMSU extension range specialist, our local NRCS district conservationist, our area representative from the State Land Office, the Chairman of our local Soil and Water Conservation District, the president of the local chapter of Farm Bureau, a representative of our Congressman, and the chair and vice chair of the Council of Border Conservation Districts. If we were going to inspect drought strategies, it was important to get a full view of our program which included the infrastructure project work we have built over the last decade.
    Two major conclusions were reached. The first, offered by the Dean Emeritus (who is also a preeminent range scientist) was that our program would result in negative impacts to our cow herd before it would negatively impact turf health. The second, offered by the NMSU Range specialist, was our system could sustain the cow herd until mid August without relief of rains.
    There was also a general agreement that no one debated. If it doesn’t rain … no system can sustain the increasing drought.
    The first phase of our drought strategy has been to have 70% of the ranch cattle free during the monsoons. Implicit in that goal has been to have a sustained supply of 30 gallons of water per day for each mature animal in the pasture where the cattle are located. Since our rotation approach has become whole herd movement, that means water supply and delivery are critical. We have invested heavily in infrastructure to make that happen.
    The goal has been reached on most of the ranch. It is there our summer drought strategy is currently centered.
    If we are able to sustain drought, societal, and government assault on our business, future phases of drought management must expand. An example is in genetics.
    Whereas carcass characteristics have largely driven herd genetics, our desert conditions dictate we focus on feed conversions. The difference in a traditional ratio of 8:1 (dry matter to pounds of animal gain) and the newer generation 5.7:1 conversions is revolutionary. The ability to produce a pound of gain with forty percent less feed has huge drought implications.
    The list goes on, but the point must be recognized. Drought strategies must be scored on the basis of what we can do not on what we can’t do.
    If allowed to act freely, independent stewards are abundantly capable and ingenious. Moreover, if strategies can work here in our desert conditions … they will work anywhere in the world.
Shades of past glory
    Irrigated agriculture faces the same dire circumstances as our ranching community. Our local irrigation district, Elephant Butte Irrigation District (one of the best managed districts in the nation), has conditional water supplies for one application this season. Certainly water user sustainability is a concern, but it is also apparent the district is addressing the beneficial impact of that release on aquifer recharge. Stewardship is important to that board.
    In his recent water strategy symposium, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall addressed the drought issue. In assessing the presentations, the emphasis of the future water outlook was one of conservation and regulation. If there was a prevailing theme it was … past glory.
    Leadership that preaches only conservation and regulation is increasingly tedious and obstructionist. Constraints are one thing, but they can be hugely important if they are solution driven rather than restrictive. Like so many resource policies, water infrastructure and supply plans are stalled. There has been no real investment in solutions in decades.
    Unless New Mexico citizenry is content to play permanently from behind, that must change.
Grassroots planning
    The board of supervisors of the Dona Ana Soil and Water Conservation District has an interesting concept. That district covers one of the most diverse agriculture production areas in the region, the Mesilla Valley. That universe of agriculture has been foundational in the terms of customs, culture, and economy of the area. Water created it and water will sustain or diminish it.
    One of its board supervisors was the primary author of a white paper prepared for majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada. Senator Reid asked for assessment of the concept for the purposes of converting sea water for domestic use in Las Vegas and southern Nevada. The project would source Sea of Cortez water, desalinate it in a series of nuclear reactors, and pipe the desalinated water to Nevada. That paper still exists.
    Dona Ana County, New Mexico is an interesting place. If an arc is struck on a globe from its county seat through Buenos Aires, that community, Las Cruces, becomes the fulcrum point of some serious world trade. Tokyo, Moscow, and that South American location are on the arc.
    The county is also on the verge of becoming the largest inland port in the world. The intermodal facility being built at the port of entry at Santa Teresa will become the hub of commercial transportation, north-south-east-west, that qualifies such a claim. A rail link will connect Santa Teresa to the Port of Guaymas, in the Mexican state of Sonora on the Sea of Cortez.
    The combination of networking yields a right-of-way directly from the sea to that inland port. Dona Ana County doesn’t have nuclear energy, but it has something as effective and conditionally safer. At 12,000’ directly under the entire county lies another sea of 300º ‘energy’ in the form of water and or heat sink in rock formations. Within those formations, lays a labyrinth of opportunities to deposit the salt which would be a byproduct of the desalinization process.
    The board’s concept is that the Sea of Cortez water is the future potable water for the Rio Grande corridor. It is there the majority of the state’s population lives. The relief provided by such an alternative would take pressure off the surface water sources that could be further dedicated to the agricultural base that paid for the infrastructure development of the water system in its current form.
    Is this a viable concept? The question can be answered by asking another question. Was the area’s famous reclamation project, Elephant Butte Dam, viable in 1895?
    New Mexico needs to start thinking outside the box. It needs to find leaders who actually demand ‘why not’ solutions rather than ‘why’ supposition detours.
    It also needs to convert its reoccurring drought reality to relative advantages … for many tomorrows.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “’Yes, we can’ people are infinitely more interesting.”

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