AXED 300 590 Session 1 Introduction to Class

1
AXED 300 590Session 1Introduction to Class

• Emerging Agricultural Issues in Your Community

2
Introductions

• Name
• Where you are from
• What you do

3
House keeping

• We will not have class on September 11 State
  Fair
• Nor November 6
• Typo in Syllabus, no December 8th class, will
  substitute an additional project, the audio file.

4
Sonja Jo

• Sonja will explain My Groups, website and audio
  file.

5
AXED 300 590Introduction to New Mexico
Agriculture

• Emerging Agricultural Issues in Your Community

6
Controversial Issues

• There are many issues facing agriculture in our
  communities.
• Many are controversial and place producers and
  consumers in an adversarial position.
• Examples use of bST, use of irrigation water,
  the Farm Bill, Animal Welfare

7
Why?

• Many controversies are the result of agriculture
  not doing a good job of communicating about the
  production process.
• While agriculturist are busy planting,
  cultivating and harvesting, other agencies are
  defining the narrative.

8
Why Familiarize Your Community with Agriculture?

• Agriculture is the United States 1 export.
  Farming and ranching help drive economy.
• On average, one U.S. farmer supplies food for 130
  people across the globe.
• Farmers and ranchers provide food, water and
  shelter for 75 of the states wildlife.
• Agriculture has been a a part of New Mexico for
  over 4,000 years.

9
The beginnings of New Mexico Agriculture

• By 2300 BC the Mogollon Indians in the Gila River
  drainage system were practicing irrigated
  agriculture.
• Planted in alluvial plains to take advantage of
  occasional floods and built small stone dams in
  gullies to catch run-off.

10
Puebloans as Agriculturists

• As the Pueblo culture began to develop in
  northern NM around 700 AD irrigation techniques
  became more sophisticated.
• Built ditch systems to carry water from rivers,
  utilized gravel mulch to conserve water.
• Cultivated some 25,000 acres along the Rio
  Grande. Primarily corn, beans, and squash.

11
Importance of Agriculture

• Provided surety of nutrition.
• Encouraged permanent structures.
• Changed grain storage techniques.

12
The Origins of Corn

• Corn belongs to a wild grass called teosinte,
  which grew on the plateaus of central Mexico.
• About 7,000 years ago the Mexican Indians began
  cultivating a better strain of plant and produced
  what we know as maize.

13
Importance of Corn

• Corn was the staff of life. Ground for bread or
  hot mush. Cooked over the fire and eaten off the
  cob.
• Corn, and the practice of agriculture had a
  significant impact not on their health, but also
  their shelter, religion and art.
• Corn became a symbol of life often seen on
  blankets and pottery.

14
Do we still grow corn?

• Yes, corn for silage is number 7 in our list of
  top agricultural commodities, along with
• 1. Milk 6. Onions
• 2. Cattle 7. Corn
• 3. Hay 8. Chile
• 4. Pecans 9. Cotton
• 5. Greenhouse 10. Wheat

15
Milk

• New Mexico ranked first in the nation in milk
  production per cow.
• Seventh in the nation in number of cows and milk
  production.
• Largest agricultural industry in the state.
• 340,000 dairy cattle producing 6.95 billion
  pounds of milk.
• Led by Chaves, Curry, Roosevelt and Dona Ana
  counties.

16
Cattle

• 1549 Coronado brought horses, cattle, sheep and
  goats.
• Cattle used to be New Mexicos number one
  agricultural commodity.
• Beef cattle at 460,000 head for 2005.
• Gross income from cattle and calves totaled 968
  million.

17
Cattle on private/public lands

• Since New Mexico is 60 arable, the majority of
  the state is not suited to crops, but great for
  grazing.
• 46 (28.5 million acres) privately owned
• 32 (25 million acres) federal lands
• 12 (9 million acres) state lands
• 10 (7.5 million acres) tribal lands

18
Hay

• 240,000 acres harvested in 2005 worth 153
  million.
• Eddy, Chavez, Dona Ana and San Juan counties
  produce the most alfalfa.

19
Pecans

• We are usually third in the nation in terms of
  production, behind Georgia and Louisiana.
• Production totaled 65 million pounds in 2005, a
  record high. Was on the high bearing part of the
  cycle.
• Value of production totaled 110.5 million.

20
Greenhouse

• New Mexico has almost 2.5 million square feet of
  greenhouse space.
• New Mexico averages 320 sunny days a year.
• High light and low humidity conducive to
  greenhouse growth.

21
Onions

• 6,400 acres harvested in 2005. Value of
  production 53.6 million.
• Led by Dona Ana County with 4,000 acres.
• Luna County followed with 2,200 acres.

22
Corn for Feed

• Corn grown for silage is the seventh crop
  commodity in New Mexico.
• Harvested 84,000 acres in 2005.
• Used for dairies it is green chopped and stored
  as silage.
• Yield was 24 tons per care for a total production
  of 2.0 million tons.

23
Chile

• Chile is New Mexicos number 8 crop, we are
  number one producer in the nation.
• 16,200 acres harvested for a total value of
  47.79 million. Led by Luna (4,700 acres) and
  Dona Ana (3,500 acres) counties.

24
Cotton

• Long growing season, little humidity.
• NMSU has released over 25 cotton varieties
  adaptable for New Mexico.
• Upland harvest of 51,000 acres for a total
  production value of 26 million.
• Pima harvest at 11,500 acres with a value at 11
  million.

25
Wheat

• Wheat harvest for 2005 was at 9.7 million bushels
  from 270,000 acres with a value production of
  30.1 million.
• Curry and Roosevelt counties lead the state in
  wheat production, usually through dry-land
  farming.

26
Not on the top ten list,but still important

• Sheep
• Churro sheep brought by Spaniards were very
  hardy.
• Total sheep in New Mexico in 2005 was 155,000
  head, providing for 1.15 million pounds of wool
  worth 1.3 million dollars.

27
Also important

• Peanuts
• In 2005, New Mexico harvested 19,000 acres of
  peanuts.
• Production was at 62.7 million pounds worth 15.7
  million.

28
And

• Agri-tourism
• Agri-tourism is becoming popular with corn mazes,
  pumpkin, patches and u-pick gardens.
• Wind Energy
• New ventures for farmers and ranchers include
  wind energy.

29
Conclusion

• Agriculture has a long history in New Mexico.
• Agriculture plays a vital role in our states
  economy.
• Next session we will discuss ag literacy and why
  it is important to our communities.