NMDA seeks rancher input to guide livestock export activities

(LAS CRUCES, N.M.) – New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) is inviting ranchers across the state to help guide its efforts to export New Mexico livestock.

“We’re reaching out to ranchers across the state so they can tell us what trade activities will benefit their ranches the most,” New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte said.

Witte said that ranchers can offer their input by stopping by NMDA’s booth at the 2014 New Mexico Joint Stockmen’s Convention, Dec. 4-7 in Albuquerque.  There, attendees can fill out a survey whose results will guide NMDA in designing its export activities.  Ranchers who cannot attend the Joint Stockmen’s Convention can request a survey by emailing jsanchez@nmda.nmsu.edu or by calling 575-646-4929. 

Convention attendees will also have the chance to meet Juan Sanchez, NMDA’s new marketing specialist who will lead trade missions to help export New Mexico livestock and other high-value agricultural commodities into Mexico and other Latin American countries.  Sanchez is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Sanchez will work with the U.S. Livestock Genetics Export, Inc. (USLGE) to conduct trade activities on behalf of New Mexico livestock producers.  USLGE is a trade association that helps export U.S. dairy, beef, sheep, pigs, and horses, as well as their genetics.  It awards funds to state departments of agriculture to support their trade missions and other efforts aimed at increasing export markets.  NMDA must apply to USLGE for such funds.

Among his other duties, Sanchez will help lead NMDA’s annual nationwide promotion of New Mexico green chile, the department’s decade-old campaign to introduce New Mexico’s signature crop to other parts of the United States.  Sanchez also works with the New Mexico Chile Commission and the New Mexico Dry Onion Commission.  Each commission collects funds from growers in that industry to underwrite research, promotion, and education efforts surrounding the two crops, respectively.

Sanchez grew up in a farm family in Las Cruces.  He earned his bachelor’s in agricultural business from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where he had a scholarship to play baseball for the Greyhounds.  He and his wife Pamela have two children.

For more information about NMDA and its activities to export New Mexico livestock, please visit www.nmda.nmsu.edu.