On Monday, the Associated Press issued a story about this summer’s cattle grazing program on the Valles Caldera National Preserve that is being conducted by New Mexico State University and the New Mexico Beef Cattle Performance Association. This piece was carried in dozens of newspapers nationwide, including the New York Times and the Albuquerque Journal. Click here to read the article.
According to the article, 100 Angus and Hereford bulls grazing on the Preserve this summer are the subjects of research into how to prevent high-altitude disease, which is “essentially a bovine equivalent of hypertension.” The disease stems from the relative lack of oxygen in the air at high altitudes, and can occur to any breed and gender of cow. Each bull’s pulmonary artery is being monitored daily at the Preserve for high pressure, and the cattle are also being monitored for weight gain. Bulls showing symptoms of high-altitude disease are sent to lower elevations, creating a disease-resistant herd of bulls that is left over.
A Colorado State University professor was quoted in the story as stating that this disease kills three to five percent of cattle per year, a $60 million annual loss to the nation’s beef industry.
This article focused on the 100 bulls taking part in the high-altitude disease study on the Preserve, but Dr. Bob Parmenter, chief scientist of the Preserve, told VallesCaldera.com that there is a total of approximately 550-575 head of cattle on the Preserve right now, and the high-altitude disease study is only one component of the entire grazing program (the grazing contract awarded in May called for 500-1,500 animal units to be grazed on the Preserve this summer).
Parmenter also mentioned that the Preserve has been careful to keep the cattle out of the rivers of the Caldera as much as possible this summer. “We’re keeping them out of the riparian areas, except for the time periods where they go to and from the corrals,” he said.
He added that the Preserve expects to gross $26,000 this summer on cattle grazing, and to post a $15,000 profit on the activity.
This is less than half the revenue that would have been collected by the Valles Caldera Trust had it accepted a bid from last spring by conservation group WildEarth Guardians to graze just 3-5 head of cattle on the Preserve this summer for $50,000. The WildEarth Guardians proposal would therefore have gone further than the current grazing contract in adhering to the financial self-sufficiency mandate of the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000, while also complying with the component of the legislation requiring protection and preservation of the various aspects of the Preserve, including the scenic and wildlife components, since the Preserve would only have experienced the environmental damage of grazing 3-5 head of cattle as opposed to 550-575. However, the current program does conform to the legislative requirement that management should benefit local communities, since the Pueblo of Jemez and other local ranchers are also involved with the current grazing program.
