Land and Cattle Management in
New Mexico
Owen T. Celestine
The Pueblo of Acoma
Embedded Files
Sharing ones skin
Sharing ones skin
The author's deep connection th]o the land and her culture. Allows us to see her identity as an Okanagan member. She expresses to us that being Okanagan means you are connected to the land and the people. She also talks about the four capacities: physical,emotional, thinking-intellectual, and spiritual. We use these in our daily lives and connect with others. This is what makes a community because we need that interaction between people.
Citation: Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.
How places names impact the way we see landscape.
How places names impact the way we see landscape.
The author of this article wanted to emphasize the importance of a name to a place. Many landmarks in the west have names and stories that hold significance in tribal communities Most of these sights are sacred and are used in prayer. That's why the author explains that places with names have power , and should be named for the right reason. Not just because of how dominant they were in a war or time period.
Citation: Toastie, B. “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” High Country News: Know the West, 1 May 2022, https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-place-names-impact-the-way-we-see-landscape. Accessed 27 August 2022.
History of my topic
History of my topic
The article “ The effects of forced livestock reduction on the navajo” talks about how the government made the Navajo people cut back on their livestock by 50% due to overgrazing. The Navajo people had sheep, goats, and horses that they let grow into huge herds that started causing the land's problems. They ate most of the grass up and trampled the rest. The places that were most damaged were around the water hole where the cattle would gather. With all the damage done to the land it was easier for soil erosion to happen because of the lack of plants, and so this led to floods occurring also. This then caused a problem for the Navajo people because their cattle was their main income and that's how they got their food and clothing. This caused many problems for the Navajo and having more disagreements with the government.
The article” As the Climate Warms, Ranchers Keep Their Eyes on the Grass” gets different perspective views of New Mexican Ranchers and how they responded to the droughts in 2020 and prior years. Most of the ranchers had to cut back on their herds during 2020 because of little rainfall and the severe heat surge. Because of how hot it got, it made it hard for the grass to grow in the dried up soil. Even ranchers who have irrigated pastures for their cattle struggled with grass growth. A Taos rancher talked about how his hay cuts were reduced by 50% because of how dry it is, and he uses his hay to feed his herd. And he has to make a decision to sell half of his herd for hay to feed the other half during the winter. The ebay way to prevent damaging the land with overgrazing is to cut back on herds , rest rotate pastures so they could grow back, and do data samples on rainfall and grass growth.
In the transcript hosted by “Robert Siegel” I listened to an interview with a ranchers who talked about a drought in 2013. The drought was very detrimental to land and the amount of cattle you would be able to keep. With climate change and the past overgrazing, New Mexico has had a lot of land damage and ranchers are trying to prevent cattle from destroying the Native grasslands we have. But this comes with cutting back herds so we can have enough grass coverage. With this ranchers lose out on money, and with the drought that's what many ranchers had faced. There was relief in September that year because finally rains came and this allowed grass to grow and ranchers who still had cattle were able to keep them. This also showed which ranches were able to establish a good rotation system and who could adapt to these frequent droughts.
Citations: Denetdale, Jennifer. “The Effects of Forced Livestock Reduction on the Navajo.” The Navajo, Second Edition, Chelsea House, 2017. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=413420. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.
Chamberlain, Kendra, et al. “As the Climate Warms, Ranchers Keep Their Eyes on the Grass.” The NM Political Report, 13 Aug. 2020, https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/08/12/as-the-climate-warms-ranchers-keep-their-eyes-on-the-grass/.
Robert Siegel “Drought Forces New Mexico Ranchers to Better Manage the Land.” NPR, NPR, 26 Sept. 2013, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/226553023
Current State of the issue
Current State of the issue
The article “New Grazing Strategies Improve NM Cattle and Land Production” written by Ellen Marks talked about rotational grazing and the benefits you could get from this practice. Rotational grazing is a process when you cycle cows through pastures to let the previous ones rest and recover from being eaten down. Researchers want to show ranchers the benefits and how it is saving graze lands from deteriorating from mistreatment. Lesli Allison a rancher in Tucumcari New Mexico states “Rangelands that have been degraded just don’t have the density of plants, so you have a lot more bare ground,” and then followed her previous statement with “So every time it rains, we lose the ability to hold moisture, replenish our aquifer, grow new plants. It’s not only important to the rancher that we take care of those rangelands, but the system’s capacity to retain moisture is important to the entire state of New Mexico.” She talks about how we need to conserve grass because it is important to the environment, health of the soil, and your ranch. They want ranchers to stop ruining the land by overgrazing and want them to rotate them from different pastures.
The article “New Grazing Strategies Improve NM Cattle and Land Production” by Adams Ann talks about ranchers who just started out in the cattle industry. Jim and Carol Thorpe are a couple that run cattle on 12,500 acres of land in Newkirk, NM. They use a holistic management method that uses a grazing system that rotates cattle from through different pastures. So that the pasture has time to heal and grow back to where it was before. And these recovery times are usually 60 days in the growing season. There are 33 paddocks that vary from 20 acres to 1,450 acres and this allows for each pasture to be used, and still recover within the 60 days. At the end of each 60 days they cycle the cows into a new pasture and they will stay there, and this cycle is repeated and it allows for the plants to grow back by the time the cows come back to the pasture.
The video “Healthy Soil: Our Future” interviewed different ranchers from all over the state of New Mexico. And it talks about how most ranchers now are changing their cattle raising styles to rotational grazing management. Many ranchers are realizing that this is the best strategy for allowing plant vegetation to regrow to its full length. Most ranches have cut down form big pastures and broke them down so that they got more pastures that are smaller and can be used to cycle cows through
Citations: Ellen Marks / Assistant Business Editor. “Rotational Grazing Catching on with Ranchers.” Albuquerque Journal, 25 June 2018, https://www.abqjournal.com/1188651/rotational-grazing-catching-on-with-ranchers.html
Adams, Ann. “New Grazing Strategies Improve NM Cattle and Land Production.” Holistic Management International, 17 Dec. 2018, https://holisticmanagement.org/featured-blog-posts/new-grazing-strategies-improve-nm-cattle-and-land-production/
Healthy Soil: Our Future –New Mexico Ranchers on Grazing for Soil Health, NM Healthy Soil Working Group, 22 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beTLs-5nObA . Accessed 15 Dec. 2022.
Fall Action plan
Fall Action plan
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