Representative Townsend and Brown presented the legislative process and the roles of representatives and senator of New Mexico. Currently the NM legislature consists of 70 representatives and 42 senators. The regular session to 60 calendar days, every other year it is 30 days. Representative Brown discussed the challenges of passing bills with her example of the Chile license plate bill passage. This presentation was important for leaders because often bills become laws that effect our work and everyday life. Representative Townsend spoke about three particular bills that I was tracking this session and he spoke about what occurred with these bills behind the scenes at the legislature.
Mental Health First Aid- Woods Houghton
Mr. Houghton a retired extension agent now organizer/founder of many mental health first aid Christian organizations in the eastside of the state of NM spoke to class 15 about the issues brought on by Covid and other traumatic events. This issue is prevalent in the agriculture community with the struggles of financials, drought, loss of livestock, fire and many other issues that bring burdens to producers, ranchers and farmers. He discussed the warning signs for suicide and tools to assist someone struggling with these thoughts. He is a valuable resource of the agriculture community and described some examples of situations were we as leaders can step in to help those in a mental health situation.
Captain Matthew Hutchinson: Detective Eddy County Sherriff’s Office - Rural law enforcement
The Captain meet with class 15 to discuss the enforcement challenges since Covid and the boom /bust type of community he services. Since Lea and Eddy county are mainly rural communities Captain expressed the concerns of response times, issues with oil field vandalism and staffing challenges. The agriculture community relays on organizations like sheriffs departments to keep their possessions and families safe.
Tyler Deans- Burnett Oil Company Oil well creation
Mr. Dean presented this role at Burnett Oil Company as an engineer, this was interesting since the design of oil wells can be complex and highly technical. He described the process of well drilling from sharing of an oil lease to limit their risk to the well producing oil for over 40 years. Recently Mr. Dean explained the risks of drilling a well and a drill stuck in the pipe at his latest project. All of his companies work will pay off since wells can produce for years to come.
Aron Balok- Superintendent Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District
Superintendent of the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District, Aron Balok, demonstrated the importance of water which is critical to support both agriculture and oil production in the southeast area of New Mexico. The battle over water between industries and states makes regulation very challenging. Mr. Balok showed class 15 technologies that have assisted the district with monitoring such as well meters and satellite technology. It was interesting to see the challenges in the Artesia area are very similar to Las Cruces water issues.
Gallup Clifton Strengths
Class 15 completed the Gallup Clifton Strengths Assessment prior to attending seminar 2. This assessment is used to identify individuals’ top talents and understand more about what makes them unique. The fellows were placed by their strengths within 4 groups based on the assessment. These 4 groups are executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. The groups explain how people use their strengths to deal with information, get things done, influence others, and build relationships. Class 15 enjoyed discussing their strength with each other and ultimately gained a better understanding of how to use their strengths as leaders.
Natural Resource Dialogue
Class 15 were assigned topics to research then discuss as a group both pros and cons of each natural resource. This dialogue gave fellows the opportunity to interact about important topics that effect agriculture and all communities.
Seven Rivers Pecan Orchard
Mr. Townsend was very knowledgeable about the pecan business and managing the resources to produce the best pecan products possible. The topics we discussed this week tied together with our tutor and discussions with Mr. Townsend, like water management, mental health, balancing risks, underling laws and what you can do on your land. I was impressed by the cold storage building in the photo below.
HollyFrontier has always been a refinery that my division at the NMDA communicates with on a regular bases. Most recently they built a renewable diesel plant that converts soybean oil to product that is used to make renewable. This plant was a important economic boost for the city of Artesia and New Mexico.
Seminar 2 was enlightening and I was impressed by the passion our speakers had for their particular area of expertise. This trip was worthwhile and important since class 15 experienced many type of agriculture and industry representatives that influence New Mexico.
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