Photo by Clementine Miller/Taos News
In 2026, with the support of LOR Foundation and New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division’s Outdoor Equity Fund, we are excited to kick off a new Animal Stewardship for Regenerative Agriculture initiative. A goat herd will enable the regeneration of healthy, water-retaining soils through rotational grazing and expedite the removal of invasive plants. Turkeys will help with pest management around our garden spaces. All the animals will play an important role in our internships and community programs, teaching our students about meat production, grazing, animal biology and veterinary care.
The science on the benefit of introducing foraging animals onto a landscape is extensive. When it comes to goat grazing, the benefits include:
- Manure and urine deposits improve soil fertility
- Goats graze on several plants that other animals avoid and can be useful to help mitigate invasive and noxious weeds, including young Russian olive and Siberian elm trees, thistles, teasel, bindweed and more
- While winter bale grazing, goats spread excess hay across the ground. This layer of mulch keeps the soil cool and improves water retention.
- As acequia water becomes less reliable due to climate change, goat grazing serves as a way to stimulate revegetation of degraded soils without dependence on regular acequia water for crop germination
- Goat manure can be used as an input into composting systems
- Grazing stimulates growth of native grasses
- Goat hooves incorporate organic biomass and manure into the soil, improving soil organic matter and fertility
The benefits of turkey rearing include:
- Sustainable meat production. Growing and selling turkey meat locally reduces our reliance on the large-scale meat industry and the fossil fuel emissions associated with transportation and processing at scale.
- Turkeys are excellent at pest control. Since we don’t use any chemical pesticides at Rio Fernando Community Farm, the turkeys enable us to better manage grasshoppers, squash beetles and other garden pests.
- Turkey waste is a high-nitrogen additive for composting systems
LIVESTOCK LENDING PROGRAM
As a part of our Working Lands Resiliency Initiative, we seek to lower barriers to soil restoration and farming for low-income and new farmers and ranchers. To this end, some of our goat herd are available seasonally for community grazing to those who cannot afford to work with local grazing businesses.
We love our goats. Some of them we have raised since they were kids. We will conduct site visits prior to sending goats home with you and will regularly check on our goats to ensure their well-being.
