Ranchers find new means of water conservation

PORTALES — Ranchers and dairymen have a new means of saving water but they also face a new danger, according to officials of the Roosevelt Soil & Water Conservation District.

Mike Cone, chairman of the SWCD board, told Roosevelt County commissioners at their Tuesday meeting about his organization's recent "shade ball project."

"What the whole theory and concept is on them is that you cover a body of water with them and number one, it helps with evaporation," Cone said of the black, plastic balls that are about the size of a large softball.

Cone said the district partnered with a company that sent them a sample of the balls to cover an 8-foot water drinker tank, the larger circular water tanks that cattle drink from.

He said another benefit to the balls is they also prevent ice from forming on the tanks in the winter.

Cone said he and other RSWCD officials covered one tank and not another to test the benefits of the balls.

"Every so often, we would go out there, and we'd take measurements of how much evaporation we were losing off each tank," he said. "After we got to studying it and looking at it, it's pretty impressive the amount of water that we're saving. It's opened my eyes without a doubt as a (cattle) producer."

Cone told commissioners that in 20-foot tanks, just shy of 26,000 gallons of water were lost to evaporation on the ball-covered tank, while over 43,000 gallons were lost on the non-covered tank.

"And how many thousands of these 20-foot drinkers are there out in the county. I think there's something to these things," Cone said, adding that the conservation district has ordered a semi-truck full of the balls to sell to local farmers and ranchers at 35 cents per ball. It takes about 10 balls to cover a square foot of water.

"We're really excited," Cone said. "We finally just said let's get them in here and let's get them out and get people to experiencing what we're seeing here."

In another presentation given to commissioners Tuesday morning by the conservation district, board member Quentin Carnes told commissioners that the Bureau of Land Management and the state land office recently came to the district regarding the African Rue, a toxic plant that is potentially to wildlife and cattle.

"No one around here has been familiar with it. We didn't realize it was even here," Carnes said, adding that there is a lot of the plant in Chaves and Lea counties.

Carnes said with assistance from other organization officials, the district is attempting to not only get the word out to farmers and ranchers, but they are also conducting spot sprays in the county.

"We've only got a short window that we can actually get it sprayed," he told commissioners. "You can't plow it, and you can't grub it up, because any piece of the root that's left comes up, so the maintainer catches on a county road and spreads it, (and) every little piece of that root spreads."

Cone said the district is going to try to have a live version of the plant at its booth at the Ag Expo this weekend so people can see what it looks like.

"It's not really something we wanted to get into, but BLM and the state land office said we need to get a hold of it before it starts spreading," Carnes said.

"Hopefully we can curb it before it really gets going," Cone added.

A meeting regarding the plant is set to take place at 1 p.m. April 6 at the Elida Community Building. For more information or to RSVP, call 575-356-4417.

The following were other actions taken at the commission meeting:

• County Manager Amber Hamilton told commissioners that the New Mexico Association of Counties will hold a District 4 meeting on April 19 in Quay County to update members on legislative action.

• Commissioners approved the annual Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) reporting for the Arch Volunteer Fire Department.

• Commissioner Paul Grider appointed Derell Mitchell, David Orton and Kendell Buzard as road viewers for District 5. The following are the roads to be looked at:

1. One mile of North Roosevelt Road 12

2. 1.6 miles of North RR 4

3. .33 miles of North RR AV

4. 1.28 miles of North RR AW

5. 1.2 miles of North RR 22

6. .5 to 1.6 miles of North RR AY (depending on where it is closed at)

7. More than 5 miles of Franklin Road

8. 2 miles of North RR 3

• Commissioner Shane Lee appointed Ricky Gresham, Larry Powell and Gary Modrel as road viewers for District 3 with Bill Cathey as an alternate. The following are the roads to be looked at:

1. One mile of South Roosevelt Road O

2. One mile of South Roosevelt Road 16 1/2

Commissioners approved all of the appointments.

• Commissioners approved adopting a Title VI policy for Roosevelt County.

Johnny Montiel, rural addressing and flood plain manager, told commissioners the county must have a non-discrimination policy in place to receive federal funding.

• Commissioners approved adopting a Roosevelt County personnel policy.

Hamilton told commissioners that the county just made some updates and improvements to the current personnel policy, such as changing the classification of the detention center.