New Mexico Farm Bureau Regional Director Benji Segovia. Grant County Farm Bureau President Stewart Rooks, and NM Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn at the Grant County Farm Bureau annual meeting on Oct. 23, 2015.

By Mary Alice Murphy

At the annual meeting of the Grant County Farm Bureau at the American Legion Hall on Friday evening, Oct. 23, 2015, President Stewart Rooks held the business meeting prior to the banquet and hearing from New Mexico Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn.

Rooks said the books had been audited and accepted. The bylaws were rewritten. The membership approved the changes.

The Grant County Farm Bureau will pay half the cost of taking youths to the state Farm Bureau Conference, with the Cliff Farm Bureau paying 25 percent and the Mimbres Farm Bureau paying 25 percent of the costs.

"It's election time," Rooks announced.

The nominating committee chose Rooks to continue as president, John York as first vice president, Adrian Sewell as second vice president, Autumn Robertson as secretary and Candy Luhrsen as treasurer. The slate was accepted by acclamation.

Youths from several area 4-H groups, including Mangas, Cliff Spurs, Lone Mountain, Silver Shooters, Wranglers and White Signal, served the dinner to those attending.

Rooks continued making announcements during the serving of dinner. The federal government has announced it will release Mexican gray wolves against the wishes of the New Mexico and Arizona Game and Fish departments. The Forest Guardians filed a lawsuit, and the judge required a $150,000 payment to the defendants because it was a frivolous lawsuit.

He also said Waters of the U.S. was signed into law, but 13 states filed suit against it, New Mexico being one of those filing. The first ruling from a judge was that it could not be enforced in the 13 states that were suing the federal government. Another judge said it could not be enforced anywhere in the country.

Rooks said another hit to agricultural producers was the loss of the exemption for small producers not to have to pay workman's compensation insurance. "Now all ag producers have to have workman's comp. The minimum fee is $1,000, because even a neighbor can sue if he is helping and gets hurt. A producer can exempt himself, if he is at least a 10 percent owner of the operation. Three people can be exempt under that stipulation. Even if your grandkids help you out on the farm, they are employees. Even if you hire one person for one day, you have to have workman's comp, if it's an agricultural producing operation."

Coleton Watkins, a 4-Her, introduced Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn.

"I'm a Farm Bureau member," Dunn said. "Thank you for what you're doing for the state. Thank you for your service to veterans. I have a 41-section ranch. We have been preg testing, in spite of two inches of rain.

"I won by 656 votes," Dunn continued. "That has become my favorite number. I had only 14 days after the recount before I took office. But it wasn't anything new for me. I was a banker for 25 years. In 2005, the bank I was in created a new branch. The head of the bank said to me; 'Someday I would like you to be president.' I faxed him my résumé on Monday. On Wednesday, I drove over for the opening of the new branch, and the banker introduced me: 'This is Aubrey Dunn, the new president of the bank.' The Land Office was the same way.

"I'm in office to try to do the right thing," Dunn said. "It's like eating an elephant one bite at a time. Thomas Jefferson came up with the land office idea. He also came up with the survey system. In the eastern sates, two sections of land were allocated for schools. In New Mexico and Arizona, we got four sections of land for schools. We have 9 million acres of surface rights, and 13 million acres of mineral rights. Several years ago, these brought in $740 million in revenue. The next year, it went down to $400 million. That's about 10,000 teaching jobs. Oil and gas bring in 90 percent of the state's revenues, so with the drop in price, it is likely to go down under $300 million.

"We in the land office have 156 employees and many land leases," he continued. "The idea of federal land transfer has been brought up. The state Land Office figures for each dollar invested, it gets back $50. On federal land, for every $1, you get back $3.

"It's a shock going from private business to government," Dunn said. "Employees have flex time and can work 10-hour days for four days a week. I tried stopping flex time, but it was denied. One employee had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I thought she was furthering her education. Nope, it was exercise class."

Dunn said when he got to the office, he found rights-of-way, more than 600 of them, that had been pending since 2010. The archaeological study was holding up about 100 of them. "I am trying to get the process revamped. We get 80 new applications a month. I hired another archaeologist and a contractor, and we got them down to 40. I'm trying to run the office like a business. We can bring in processes and make a difference."

As for the national monuments in Taos and in Doña Ana County, "I worry that they will restrict the land and not make money. We met and met. The Taos trade is off right now. There are 42 permittees in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. The federal government decided it would be better for the state to stay in the area for a while, so they aren't pushed out."

"SunZia transmission line is still in process," Dunn said. "It covers 100 acres per mile of state trust lands over about 80 miles of state lands."

For the Department of Game and Fish and hunting rights, he said: "I, as a rancher, get 75 cents per acre. The State Trust gets 2 cents per acre. The State Trust gets $200,000 a year. I have proposed an increase. We are not taking away hunting rights. We just want more revenue for our beneficiaries—the schools. We have developed a formula to raise the rates."

"If I'm stepping on everyone's toes, I must be doing something right," Dunn said. "I want the revenue for the schools. That's what my job is. The state trust lands were transferred to the state to create income for schools."

"The Legislative Council Service recommended Game and Fish lower its license fees, because it has $50 million in the bank," Dunn said.

"The big gripe in Santa Fe is that when you go to the grocery store, you can't get plastic bags," Dunn said. "But you go to any park and you can get free plastic bags for dog poop. They care more for dogs than they do people."

Rooks noted that the issues he had mentioned earlier and the processes "affect every one of us. We need to educate people who don't know what it takes to get food on their tables and clothes on their backs."

He introduced Benji Segovia, the Farm Bureau regional director.

Segovia promoted the quilt, which was hanging behind him, as being for sale. "We have information for ag in the classroom. I appreciate all the support I get. My office is your office. Call me."

He said he had just learned that, at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, they were getting more collegiate Farm Bureau members from Grant County than from anywhere else in the state.