The mission of the Chaves Cooperative Extension Service is to provide the people of Chaves County with practical, research-based knowledge and programs to improve their quality of life.

 

The base programs of the Cooperative Extension Service are agriculture and natural resources, consumer and family issues, youth development, and community economic development.

The Chaves County agriculture community varies widely and has many different situations and challenges. The county sprawls from a highly populated urban area to small towns and from irrigated farmland to ranches and dairies. Chaves County still leads the state in hay production and number of dairy cows, with many other crops and livestock produced. Water continues to play a very important role to our agriculture.

Total agricultural receipts for the county exceeded $520,957 million in 2009. Dairy, with 94,000 milk cows, is the largest agricultural production in the county, raising over $335 million income per year, and ranking us 1st in New Mexico in milk production. Livestock production, Cattle & Calves produces over $100,720 million. Chaves ranks #1 in Corn/Silage production with 276,000 tons worth over $17 million. 251,000 tons of top quality alfalfa was produced in Chaves County and 8 million pounds of pecans was sold internationally.