Thomas (Tommy) and Jessica Casados

C4 Farms

Tierra Amarilla, NM

Upper Chama SWCD

Tommy Casados was raised in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico on his family’s cow-calf and irrigated timothy grass-hay operation. Along with his wife Jessica and their four children, he now operates C4 Farms on leased land in Tierra Amarilla, located within the Upper Chama Soil and Water Conservation District.

Their operation is a pasture-based beef operation. They raise beef from birth through finish, and then have it custom-processed into direct market retail cuts, retail packages, halves, and wholes. They graze a mixture of native rangeland, introduced rangeland, and irrigated pastures. All their pastures consist of perennial species that are grazed on a rotational basis. Their rotational grazing system is achieved by utilizing fencing, watering locations, and portable electric fencing to concentrate the cattle in smaller pastures and paddocks for short periods of time. The main goal of these practices is to leave the stubble heights of the pasture grasses at adequate lengths for optimum recovery post-grazing. They let some of the rangeland pastures rest for the entire grazing season and utilize them during the winter months. Some of the irrigated pastures have been converted from flood irrigation to sprinkler irrigation. This has allowed them to irrigate longer into the growing season because they rely strictly on spring and summer runoff for irrigation. Their grazing system focuses on soil health and allows them to keep the pastures in the vegetative stage for longer periods throughout the year. This keeps living, growing roots in the soil as well as thicker foliage cover on top of the soil, providing food for soil organisms and maintaining soil temperatures – which are necessary for a thriving ecosystem. Since 2013, Tommy has been working on his grazing management system. He says it’s become more complex as he continues his quest to produce as much forage on his rangeland as he can.

Tommy says that adopting these soil health practices has really helped him to become a better manager by forcing him to look at the ground under his feet that is producing the feed for his cattle. “I note much more closely the height of the pasture before it’s grazed and after, and correlate that with the cows’ body condition and manure consistency. It’s not an easy job as I’ve had pastures grazed for too long and have had to rest it for much longer than is typical,” said Tommy.

Some of their rangeland was vacant for over 20 years, posing a huge challenge for Tommy. This land had established fully grown brush and a reduction in herbaceous plants. The soils are also highly susceptible to erosion. They are working to combat this by using winter and spring grazing. As the rangeland is in an area with an average annual precipitation of 14 inches, things revert slowly in such an environment, but we are starting to see stabilization in some areas.

Updated August 2022