NM cattle ranchers fear ‘demise’ of industry

Gerald and Claudio Chacon continue a tradition their family started in the late-1800s – raising herds of cattle in rural Rio Arriba County. Both men had careers outside agriculture, but now spend their retirement maintaining a herd of a little over 200 cows and their calves. Rugged northern New Mexico is not easy on cattle ranchers. Mountainous terrain, harsh winters, cattle thieves and an extended drought make it difficult to squeeze out a profit in an extremely tight market. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, prices for beef in grocery stores have skyrocketed as many packing plants across the country, almost all of which are managed by such large corporations as Tyson Foods, attempt to manage outbreaks that infect employees and reduce production. But while consumers pay more for beef, corporations are paying ranchers around 30% less for calves, New Mexico ranchers’ main product. The sudden drop in prices has left many unsure how they will finance the massive costs of running a cattle operation in New Mexico. Most ranchers in New Mexico sell the bulk of their calves in the fall, one paycheck for a year’s worth of work. Gerald Chacon said his family has seen plenty of years where profits weren’t as good, but that this year is something different. “This one may be one of the worst, because of the prices and the uncertainty of it,” he said. Gerald’s nephew, Matt Reitzel, works for his uncle on the ranch year-round and guides herds across 20,000 acres of the Carson National Forest, just north of Ojo Caliente. It’s not yet summer, but the ground is already bone dry and the dirt feels like sand. “This is shaping up to be a nasty summer,” Reitzel said. ‘We’d still be in the mud, usually.” A man then drove up to the cowboys in an all-terrain vehicle and told them a mountain lion had killed one of their calves. A look of tempered frustration swept over their faces. “We’ve always had something difficult to face,” Gerald Chacon said. “That’s just the nature of living here and being in this industry.” That experience shows in how they maintain their herd. They manage to find their cattle across a vast landscape, guiding them to various wells and pastures, using only memory and tracks. So far, the virus has not impacted their work. But Gerald fears that if prices don’t rise by October, he may not be able to pass on the herd to his nephew and their operation won’t continue. “Nobody really knows where it’s going to end up,” he said...MORE