2004 Environmental Quality Incentive Program

Local Work Group Summary for Deming

Introduction

The Deming Field Office is located in Luna County in southwest New Mexico in the SD-2 Major Land Resource Area.  It is bordered on the east by the Las Cruces and the Truth or Consequences Field Offices, on the north by the Truth or Consequences and Silver City Field Offices and on the west by the Silver City and Lordsburg Field Offices.  The US – Mexico border is the southern boundary of the Field Office.

Agriculture in the District consists primarily of ranching and irrigated crop production.  The ranches are primarily cow-calf operations and chile, cotton, sorghum, wheat, pecans, onions and other vegetables are the predominant crops.  The only source of water, for all practical purposes, is groundwater from the Mimbres and Nutt-Hockett underground water basins.  Both are closed basins.   The static water level in the basins has declined significantly since widespread irrigation was begun in the early 1900’s.

Local Work Group

The Local Work Group (LWG) that was invited to advise the Field Office staff included representatives from:

• USDA-Farm Service Agency (FSA)                                                
• FSA County Committee
• NM Department of Game and Fish,
• Cooperative Extension Service
• Bureau of Land Management
• Deming Soil & Water Conservation District
• FSA State Committee
• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• NM State Engineer Office
• NMDA
• NM Environment Department
• NM State Land Office

Priority Resource Concerns

Water Conservation, Watershed Rehabilitation and Wildlife Habitat Improvement are the priority resource concerns concurred upon by the LWG members.

Funding Considerations

The LWG members present agreed that the percentage allocation of funds received locally should be divided as they were in the 2003 proposal.  That is 55% for grazingland concerns, 40% for irrigated cropland concerns and 5% for animal waste concerns since this was approximately the division used at the state level in allocating funds.  This was done with the understanding that the LWG could recommend reallocation of funds if it appeared the applications received did not warrant the amounts originally allocated.  Wildlife habitat concerns will be addressed within each of the previously listed concerns if desired by the producer.

The LWG further recommended subdividing the irrigated cropland allocation to allow 15% to be used for “traditional” surface irrigation practices, and dividing the total allocation between the irrigated area within the Playas Hydrologic Unit Area and the Mimbres Hydrologic Unit Area based on the percentage of irrigated acreage within those areas. 

Cost Docket Please refer to the Cost Docket link for specific information. 

The LWG recommended that the cost docket be adjusted to allow cost sharing Drip Irrigation Systems and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems as single practices rather than by components within the systems again in 2004. It was also recommended that the average cost for Drip Irrigation for systems greater than 100 acres be set at $1500 per acre if a filter was included as a cost shared part of the system and at $1250 if the filter was already in place and only the delivery system was included as a cost shared part of the system.  Based on a price quote for a new 83 acre system presently being installed it was recommended that an additional category be added to the cost docket for drip systems between  15 and 100 acres and the cost be set at $1600/acre.

In addition the LWG recommended adopting a policy that the maximum cost share for any single practice in a contract be limited to $80,000.

Eligible Practices - Please refer to the Eligible Practices link for specific information.

Cost Share Rate and Incentive Payments- Please refer to the link for specific information: 

It was recommended that no changes be made from the 2003 program, other than those required by the state for beginning and limited resource farmers and ranchers.  Those base rates are shown on the eligible practice list which is attached.

Ranking Criteria - Please refer to the Ranking Criteria links for specific information.

Any ties in ranking will be broken by the following methods:

Irrigated Cropland:

• The highest change in efficiency using the FIRS model
• The highest change in efficiency using the SURFACE model

Grazing Land:

• The most points in the “Plants” section of the ranking form

Animal Feeding Operation:

• The earliest submitted complete application

Timelines, Evaluation Periods: 

Please refer to the EQIP Application Information link.

< Back to EQIP County Documents