![]() ![]() Without question, the first essential for the incoming ranchers was a source of water. The Big Ranches of the Lea Llano Estacadoĭue to several devastating West Texas droughts of the middle 1880’s, numerous cattlemen were forced westward in search of sufficient grass for their expanding herds. The principal railroad shipping points in the 1870’s were Dodge City, Abilene, and Newton, Kansas, and cattle were driven to these points from the great ranges and ranches in western Texas and New Mexico. The long drives first to army posts in New Mexico, and later to shipping points on the railroads in Kansas were made at the risk of sudden and massed attacks by the Apache and Comanche. The only serious threat to the business in those days, as it had been to the Spaniards and Mexicans, was from the hostile Indians. ![]() They employed herders in great numbers, sometimes on a wage basis, but more often on a so-called partidario basis, a form of share cropping in the raising of sheep, which is as old as Spanish colonization in New Mexico.Īfter the close of the Civil War, and before the coming of the railroads into New Mexico, cowmen who were engaged in the raising of livestock in other parts of the West and Southwest were attracted to the immense unoccupied grazing lands of the New Mexican Territory. Vast herds were owned by a relatively few rich families who were given land grants by Spain. They fed, clothed, and supported the people and were every man’s stock in trade. Until the rush of cattlemen into the region after the Civil War, sheep dominated the agricultural economy. With this permanent settlement the livestock industry in what is now the United States may be said to have begun. Although some sheep and cattle were introduced into the region by subsequent expeditions, they had disappeared before Juan de Onate came with his four hundred colonists in 1598. The livestock industry has undergone many changes in New Mexico since the first horses and sheep were brought into the province by Coronado in 1540. During the years of the gold rush large herds of cattle were driven to California annually, but rapid growth of the cattle industry did not begin until after the Civil War. The cattle industry remained in a primitive and undeveloped state until New Mexico was annexed to the United States in 1848, but the great grasslands of the high plains could not be fully utilized until the Indians had been subdued. For more than two hundred years New Mexico was isolated by nature and Spanish law, and it was not until after Mexican independence that trade with the United States began over the Santa Fe Trail. The trade of the colony was chiefly in the products of mountain and ranch: sheep, wool, hides, furs, deerskins, and buffalo robes. The colony was remote from the rest of the world and was separated from Vera Cruz and Chihuahua, the centers of trade, by a vast expanse of desert. While under the rule of Spain 90% of the settlements of New Mexico were located in the valley of the Rio Grande. He also established an irrigation system reliant on an acequia madre, or mother ditch, to direct water from rivers. Various accounts credit Onate with the introduction of wheat, barley, lettuce, cabbage, peas, chile, onions, carrots, turnips, garlic, radishes, cucumbers and a variety of herbs and spices. ![]() Before the Pueblo revolt of 1680, cattle ran at will over the ranges of New Mexico. The expedition was a full-fledged colonizing enterprise, and the introduction of new animals and plants was an important part of his plan.Īn inventory of Onate’s livestock before he left Mexico included 846 goats, 198 oxen for the carts, 2,517 sheep, 316 horses, 41 mules, 53 hogs, 500 calves, and 799 cows, steers and bulls. In 1598, Juan de Onate, descendant of a wealthy mining family in Zacatecas, Mexico, won the contract to settle New Mexico. The Cattle and Sheep Industry at the End of the 19th Century 89% of New Mexico’s 45,787,108 acres of farmland is pasture ground.Annual crop and livestock sales exceeded $3.3 billion in 2007.The 2007 calf crop was estimated at 590,000 head with a total beef count of around 1 million.There were over 130,000 sheep as of January 1, 2007.There were over 1.5 million head of cattle in the state in 2007 with 340,000 of them being dairy cows.The dairy industry brings in the most money annually at $1.3 billion while the beef industry is second at $951 million. ![]() The livestock and livestock product industry is one of the largest in New Mexico producing over $3.0 billion in 2007. ![]()
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