An almost daily practice at this point - not intentionally though.
The more we work with our cattle the more we realize how difficult of a task it is, much less how difficult it is to be profitable from it. Any way we calculate it it's impossible to be such, though that is not at all the point. Still, the more we live with these animals the more we love the energies they lend to our lives and the ways in which they continue to ground us to our terrain and culture.
We live in a little village tucked into a larger valley that was established in 1776, and inhabited long before that. There remains a strong agricultural presence passed down through generations, which surprisingly is still alive and well. When you drive up through the variations of high desert landscapes of Northern new Mexico you come in and out of little valleys verdant and full of pastures of vibrant green yellow from all the grass and their pollen that almost seems as if it grew all on its own, however much effort has gone into getting it to that point. A few seasons of neglect and the lush field will return to its desert default. Not only did our ancestors have to set this all up in the first place, removing trees and boulders, clearing paths for water and rotating animals, but those same tasks in some variation need to be done year in and year out.
In raising cattle you need land, and more of it the better to appropriately rotate to avoid over grazing. It's nearly impossible to find a pasture this nature available for sale, and you'd have an even harder time finding one to lease. These lands have been passed down from generation to generation and often times sold to family or fellow Norteños first. Those who continue to raise cattle here mostly were passed down their livestock, land, forest allotments, machinery and most importantly the knowledge of how to do it all. My grandfather raised cattle on the Pueblo in Taos (Tuah-tah) and I was lucky enough to be aware of it, but I wasn’t lucky enough to inherit any of the above. What I did inherent however, was the grit and desire of a life of this sort.
While all odds are against us, as with any one else who dares dream of such a life, it truly is an honor to live a life where we get to be forced into so much presence with our terrain, our food, our community, and our family.
