New Mexico farmers forecast rough year

New Mexico farmers and ranchers are in for a tough year with production, according to New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte.

“This is going to be one of the toughest years that New Mexico farmers and ranchers have had in years. We are looking at a pretty long, impactful drought this year. The snow cap is just not there for what we need to fill our reservoirs,” Witte said, adding that there will be “severely reduced, if not non-existent, surface water allocations this year.”

“We’re looking at areas of the state where they typically might get 2-to-3-acre feet — they’ll be lucky if they get 2 inches of surface water this year. This is going to be a very challenging year for our producers,” he said.

Roosevelt County farmer Rick Ledbetter is already concerned about 2021 crops. “We’re not feeling very good about it,” he said. “If something doesn’t start happening soon (as far as moisture), it’s going to be another very difficult year. Even if we start getting some moisture but we don’t get significant moisture, we’re going to have a very difficult year at best. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.”

Witte said 2019 and 2020 both were typical production years for crops, cattle and dairy production in New Mexico. He said it was the market side of the industry that was a struggle last year.

“What we had in the U.S. was about 48 percent home consumption and 52 percent institutional consumption. As soon as we shut down, it all went to home consumption, because restaurants, schools, everything was shut down,” he said.

Witte said there is a big difference between home consumption and institutional consumption, because food is being packaged in much larger amounts for institutions like schools and restaurants. He said the supply chain for the agricultural industry was not able to react as quickly as the shutdown order, so it took a few months for the industry to adjust to the fact that most foods now needed to be packaged for the home consumer.

“Going from a 750-pound block of cheese to those 16-ounce sliced packages is a challenge. You can’t do it overnight,” he said. “The thing that really stood out (in 2020) was refocusing and re-emphasizing local production and accessing local production. I think things like your local farmers markets took on a whole new meaning. If one thing comes out of COVID, I hope that there continues to be a desire to get stuff from our local producers.”

But according to local farmers, they fared no better in 2020 with production than they anticipate in 2021.

“I got nothing this last summer in the way of help from mother nature, so it was just a miserable year is what it was,” Ledbetter said.

He said with no moisture and 100-degree temperatures, his corn crop was the worst he had ever had, and he was unable to make any profit from it.

Curry County farmer Pat Woods said he planted his crops last summer, but few of them were harvested.

“We had a real poor year last year in the dryland sector of farming. The rain just wasn’t there,” he said, adding that almost no one in the region was able to harvest milo.

Woods said he was able to harvest his winter wheat in the spring of last year, but even that crop was less than average.

“We had even less moisture during this past winter,” Woods said. “There’s a lot of places that didn’t get a good cover of wheat, because it was so dry. We had some moisture the past few weeks, so hopefully it will come out.”

Woods said it often seems like farming in New Mexico is “boom or bust” — you either get a great crop or no crop at all. But a dryland farmer has to stay hopeful, he said, adding that the snow in the past two months did help slightly.

“We just need a little bit more moisture to make this deal work. Enough moisture could still fall to make a big enough wheat crop. March and April could really turn it around,” Woods said. “It’s kind of spooky when you look at the drought monitor and see how much of this country is still under severe drought conditions. I’m hoping that changes.”

Witte said if things don’t change, a lot of New Mexico farmland will not be farmed this year.

“The thing I tell people is that the land in New Mexico is amazing, because we can be as dry as can be, and we get 2 inches of rain, and we are able to grow the level of crops we’ve grown in past years. It just takes that little jump start to get it going again,” Witte said. “If things continue as forecasted, there will be a big impact on production. There will be less acres planted with many crops. I’m crossing my fingers. Somebody’s got to be the ultimate optimist, and I’m going to take that on. We just need that kick starter. That’s what we hope for.”

In the meantime, he said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing everything it can to help farmers through various risk mitigation programs.