Luckily, the Internet is helping to resolve the rural food gap from lack of supermarket access. In 2011, the Congressional Hunger Center recorded the second-highest food insecurity rate of 15.8 percent in New Mexico. From Shiprock to Carlsbad Caverns, below shows where to find ground beef in New Mexico. Beef2Live ranked cattle New Mexico’s #1 commodity worth $1.75 billion across 33 counties. While Patterson said these options will “absolutely” help, selling off livestock or sending them to the slaughterhouse is “economically devastating” for cattle ranchers.Īnd, he said, it will cost the state and local counties in tax revenue because cattle ranchers “pay taxes on every head of livestock, so obviously the counties and state will realize less taxes.Introduced by Juan de Oñate in 1598, the “Land of Enchantment” now has 1.29 million cows raised by 20,930 farms for the best ground beef in New Mexico. Some of these options are expensive, the report noted. The report offers a number of recommendations for easing the drought’s effects, such as weaning and selling offspring early to reduce grazing fees providing supplements to replace milk and grass for feed purposes culling both old and young “low productivity” animals out of herds keeping animals in a pen to feed them stored-up food products. some people build the herd back up and some don’t.” “Here in Mora, a lot of people who have had cattle in the past don’t anymore because of this continual drought cycle,” she said. “That’s a scarcity of a commodity that we as ranchers need,” Ezzell said.Ĭarla Gomez, a small cattle rancher in Mora County, said the drought has had a “devastating” impact on fellow ranchers in her area, despite a season of really good rainfall. Now, trying to restock, she finds cows once worth $700 going for nearly twice that price as demand outpaces supply. ![]() Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell, who is a rancher and a member of the interim committee, said she has experienced that cost firsthand, noting in an interview she had to sell off more than 100 of her herd at the end of 2019 because of the effects drought had on her operation. Restocking is expensive, the report says. That can affect the beef supply for up to three years, he said. Those cows are not headed into the food supply chain anytime soon. Patterson said ranchers who have thinned herds are now trying to restock them by keeping female cows so they birth calves. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index reports the price of beef and veal went up 6.5 percent between July 2020 and July 2021 – though it does not provide an explanation for the increase.Īnd there may be less beef to go around. Ultimately, consumers will feel the brunt of the impacts at meat markets, grocery stores and restaurants, Patterson said. Patterson said while those who work in agriculture are accustomed to dealing with problems brought on by longterm drought, “it’s always a little tougher than you prepare for.” A 2019 report, from the environmental publication Sustainability, said its role in the state economy is “substantial.” Using 2012 data, it said about 44 percent of revenue from the state’s agricultural industry is derived from cattle. Not only do we have to reduce cow numbers, we have to supplement more for the cows we keep.”Įconomically speaking, the cattle industry is a meaty, if not mighty, force. “It has a pretty big impact on us economically,” he said by phone following the presentation of the report. That in turn leads to extra costs when it comes to restocking herds that have been thinned out.Ĭalling the situation “the perfect storm of drought and pandemic,” Loren Patterson, president-elect of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said the industry is reeling under “all of the above” pointed out in the study. ![]() And that was after a healthy monsoon season in many areas.Īmong other outcomes, drought conditions decrease animal growth, diminish forage opportunities for livestock, increase the cost of production and decrease calf prices, the report says. About two-thirds of the state has been experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions in recent weeks. Some climate experts have called the drought enveloping the southwestern part of the country one of the worst in centuries. The report, which was presented to Woods and other members of legislative panel, laid out in stark terms how drought conditions are hurting ranchers. The drought strikes again – and its effects are having a significant impact on the state’s cattle ranching industry, according to a new report from the New Mexico State University Department of Animal and Range Sciences.
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