NMSU Develops Desert-Adapted Cows

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New Mexico State University researchers are developing cattle that thrive in dry, desert climates. Anna María Pérez-Wright has the story.

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New Mexico State University researchers are developing a new bloodline of desert-adapted cows specifically for harsh range conditions. Cattle geneticist Milton Thomas with N-M-S-U's department of animal and range sciences says to develop desert-adapted cattle, N-M-S-U scientists combine rangeland studies with stringent breeding management at the university's Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, near Las Cruces.

"We've done a lot of research with heat-tolerant breeds of cattle and we've kind of settled in that the most appropriate cattle for us to work with is the Brangus cattle, which is five-eighths Angus and three-eighths Brahman."

Thomas says being adapted to the desert doesn't mean researchers are building the cow equivalent of a camel, just one able to live most of the year on dry, dormant forage.

"Being able to keep cattle out there still depends on having a very sound range management and grazing program."

The university's Line 1 Brangus breeding program started in the late 1990s when N-M-S-U Experiment Station cattle breeders began combining several superior Angus selected at NMSU since 1982 with top Brahman cattle purchased in Texas and Arizona.

"We're probably through the first third to the midpoint of actually starting to put some of those animals on the ground."

Ultimately, Thomas says the goal is to produce cows that calve every year and work well in a sustainable beef cattle operation. For N-M-S-U's College of Agriculture and Home Economics, I'm Anna María Pérez-Wright.