Behind the Burger
Created by the New Mexico Beef Council, we are telling the stories behind the beef in New Mexico.
Behind the Burger
Drought, Decisions, and Desert Conservation: Alisa Ogden's Ranching Story
Alisa Ogden, a fifth-generation rancher and third-generation farmer from southeastern New Mexico, shares her family's rich history of land stewardship dating back to 1890. Her insights reveal how successful ranchers balance conservation, innovation, and tough decision-making through challenging drought cycles while maintaining passion for producing quality beef.
• Fifth-generation rancher whose great-great-grandfather homesteaded south of Carlsbad in 1890
• Past president of New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and current chairman of NCBA's Federal Lands Committee
• Manages drought conditions by adjusting herd size and resting pastures without adequate grass
• Participates in conservation initiatives like "Restore New Mexico" to improve watershed health and grassland productivity
• Family tradition of innovation – from her grandfather terracing with horse-drawn equipment to modern brush control
• Operates a cow-calf operation featuring Angus-Hereford crossbred cattle selected for meat quality
• Champions the Beef Checkoff program for its vital role in research, education, and promotion
• Favorite way to enjoy beef: a medium-cooked filet with just salt, pepper, and green chile
If you would like more information, please visit nmbeef.com. Whether it be a burger, a steak, or another beef dish, we hope you are enjoying beef at your next meal.
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Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger, our podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council. I'm Carol Ann Romo and I'm here with Elisa. We're here in Rio Doso for the mid-year meeting for New Mexico cattle growers. Will you introduce yourself and maybe start with your background?
Alisa Ogden:Sure, I'm Elisa Ogden. I am a lifetime farmer and rancher in southeastern New Mexico, fifth-generation rancher, third-generation farmer on land that my grandparents on both sides of my family homesteaded and went to. I am a past president of New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. I was president from 2007 to 2009. And so New Mexico Cattle Growers keeps their past presidents involved. So I'm still on the board of directors and I feel like it's an extremely important organization for the state of New Mexico because we represent the cattle industry, but we also look at all other avenues of agriculture and try to be proactive in things that are going on in the cattle industry. But we also look at all other avenues of agriculture and try to be proactive in things that are going on in the cattle industry.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely, and I think the most important thing is that we need volunteers, right? So volunteers and people that are willing to put themselves out there and take their time away from the ranches is absolutely, and then you also happen to be really good at it.
Alisa Ogden:Oh well, thank you. It's important, like you said, for people to go out and to advocate for their industry. So many have let others do it for them, and if you want to be sure that your industry is a viable industry for the future, and if you have your children going into that or any kind of family or even those that are your friends, you want them to not have constant spears being thrown at them, and we are in the cattle industry all over the United States. I'm also involved in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and for the next two years I'm serving as chairman of the Federal Lands Committee, because southeastern New Mexico has a lot of federal and state lands well, public lands, really, committee and so you have to understand not only what goes on in your industry on your private land, but how public decisions that are made in federal and state governments affect you as trying to be ranchers.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely. I think that's. We've talked about a lot in the podcast of how much you have to know, right? How many different avenues and how many things you have to. You just have to be at almost a knower of everything, right? It's just, it just goes beyond anyone's imagination, I think.
Alisa Ogden:Definitely a jack of all trades and master of none is a pretty good discussion about anyone involved in agriculture, not just ranching, so you really have to be aware of all that's going on, the new technology that you can use to benefit raising your cattle, or how you work your cattle Right now at our mid-year meeting, there's a woman in there talking about you know, low stress, handling of your animals and your best way to design your corrals and things like that. So it always something to make how you are a herdsman or a cattleman, or however you want to define it, to be the best you can be and to produce the best product you can with the least amount of stress on that animal.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely. And I know you said the jack of all trades, master of none. I had read something, or maybe saw a video somewhere, where the end of that quote talks about how good it is to be a jack of all trades and I just think that's a really great thing. That made me feel, maybe inspired, that when you're saying that, I know it's almost sometimes self-deprecating to say the master of none, but in the real thing is, it's so cool to be so many things and to try and expand your knowledge and all of that.
Alisa Ogden:Well, I'm not a very good mechanic, but a pretty good plumber and a pretty good electrician. So you know, you just look to see where you're. There are people in this world that do things for a living, so I don't have to, and I'm really happy they're there for that reason.
Carollann Romo:Me too. Me too Tell me about your ranch and your operation, where it is and kind of what you guys do.
Alisa Ogden:So our family ranch is south of Carlsbad, new Mexico. My great-great-grandfather homesteaded in 1890, you know, 22 years before statehood homesteaded the ranch. He came in from South Texas. We all wonder why they stopped there, but you know how it is and it has stayed in the family. It's been divided a couple of times but it has stayed in our family. My great-great-grandfather was John D Forehand, who was a trail driver as well as doing a lot of other things.
Alisa Ogden:And so in 1981, well, I went to college, got my master's at Colorado State, worked there a couple of years as a women's athletic trainer and in 1981, I came back to run the ranch with my dad, and then he needed a tractor driver and a irrigator and this, that and the other. So not only did I do the ranching part but I also farm, and the farm was settled by my father's family in 1916. And so we've been there a while. My brother and I are partners on the ranch and then we each do our farming separately. But it's all I ever wanted to do. I did the other because I should have another life in this world, but the farming and ranching have always been my only first and only love, and so we have a cow-calf operation. We raise primarily a crossbred Angus Hereford and have done that. You know you try a breed here and there, but we've always gone back to the Hereford Angus. You know their meat is the best meat to eat and that's what we're doing is we're raising a good quality beef product so people will enjoy what they're having to eat. And through cattlemen's colleges that I've attended at New Mexico Cattle Growers, I've learned more about how to, on my animal husbandry, to do things that keep your animals healthy. You know they talk about oh, I don't want to give them any antibiotics. What do you do when you're sick? So there's some things that you have to do to keep your animals healthy and to try and have them live their best life, the best as you can.
Alisa Ogden:Part of the luxury we have with the farm is we raise alfalfa hay, small grains, sometimes some Sudan different forages. So if, while we're in the droughts, we have an option with our cattle that we can feed them what we have, sometimes you just have to just, you know, slow down and get rid of your herd, and we're at a very low amount right now because we haven't had rain. We've been in an over three-year drought. We pray that this El Nino they say that's coming in and a good monsoon season will help. But when you've been in a drought as long as we have, you know it's years to recover from that.
Alisa Ogden:And I've lived through as many droughts as I've lived through wet years. And the first time I had to sell a lot of the cattle because of a drought and they were my cows that I'd calved out as heifers. I'd seen them go up all that way we retain ownership on our heifers and I cried when the trough left the ranch and I swore I would never cry again when I had to disperse the herd, because Watching them starve to death is worse than putting them on a truck and dispersing the herd. So you have to have passion for what you do, but you also have to have a hard demeanor and heart when it comes to doing things, when you know all your cattle, so to speak, and it's time to get rid of them and sometimes it's earlier than you plan to, but it's only because it's what's good for the cow, not just good for us.
Carollann Romo:Oh, absolutely. I think the fact that you care so much is something that we really want to talk about in the podcast, or that's kind of the goal of the podcast, because if someone wants to know where their food comes from, that's kind of the goal of the podcast, because if someone wants to know where their food comes from, I want them to know that the people are wonderful and have their hearts set on this lifestyle and are doing the best to care for the cattle and care for the land and having to make those hard decisions that you know many of us couldn't.
Alisa Ogden:Well, it is a hard decision and when I first came back to the ranch there was a really good range con at BLN and they were doing the analysis of the forage and everything and he was going out every year and I got to go with him and I learned so much and this was like 1981 too.
Alisa Ogden:I was learning so much of how you did your forage evaluation, your plants that were out there, which ones were, which of your forage was more edible. My dad was really good at that also, and so it helps you. There's people that look and don't see, and so when you're looking at your pasture you need to see what's out there and available for your animals to eat and what you can do to help in your rotational grazing and all of those different type of aspects. But right now half the ranch we don't have cattle on them because we haven't had the rain to grow grass, and that's just the fact of life that you don't always and when you don't have a good rain season, you just go where you have grass and then you adjust your numbers to where you can. But I've always felt like that we have done it as ranchers a good job in taking care of our animals job in taking care of our animals?
Carollann Romo:Oh yeah, absolutely, and I think you've already answered you know half the questions, because you're talking about New Mexico's climate and you're talking about the land preservation and you know ranchers are often the ultimate environmentalists, and the fact that you know you're resting your grass and then that you have to rely on nature right, that's such a different thing. Limiting factor yeah. Such a limiting factor yeah.
Alisa Ogden:I was involved with the Bureau of Land Management, state Land Office, the Carlsbad Soil and Water Conservation District, in the early 2000s. A program was implemented in looking at the watersheds and there was an agreement across all entities there, in addition with the private landowners, and the project was called Restore New Mexico and it was going in and putting out tebuthyron or spraying your you know, that's for woody plant species, or spraying your mesquite to help with, you know, slowing down the takeover of your grassland. And so our ranch, my dad, was in agreement and our ranch was involved in Restore New Mexico from almost the beginning of the project. We were doing things on our own because initially the state land office, state land and private were the only ones who could get equip money. Well, things changed and then you could get equip money on also federal land. So when the attitudes in the offices and the Carlsbad field office for Bureau of Land Management was where this all the thought process came around and they were very proactive in this Soil and Water Conservation District jumped in and so in the Carlsbad District and in Roswell they started doing proactive brush control and you could see the difference in your production of your grass, your health of your soil.
Alisa Ogden:You didn't have the bare ground you used to have because you didn't have these woody plant species taking in all the water and the grass had an opportunity to grow. And so my dad did projects before all of these monies were available. He showed how you could put up some woven wire fence on a drainage and you would get your grass coming back in instead of having slick dirt on a drainage. And you would get your grass coming back in instead of having slick dirt or taking a buck scraper out and just making low spots in your so the water would slow down and pool.
Alisa Ogden:So I was raised by a conservationist who always was looking how to make a better mousetrap in everything and farming and ranching. So I feel very fortunate to have benefited from my dad's foresight in looking at things and how to improve that desert ground that we have. And then when BLM and the Soil and Water Conservation District say, hey, we think this is a great idea too. It was really a game changer in how our ranches became the ones who entered into the program, how it improved the quality of the forage on the ranches, and so I'm really fortunate that I have been involved in that project and right now, money's a little short on the federal side, but we've still tried to do things that are proactive in improving the ranch land, and so I'm grateful for my dad being one of those initial persons that did that kind of thing.
Carollann Romo:Well, and that's why your family has been on the same land since 1890 and 1916, right, right, probably a long line of conservationists.
Alisa Ogden:Well, my granddad terraced land with a sled and a team and his eye.
Carollann Romo:Yeah.
Alisa Ogden:On the first. You know, when he first picked up some of that land and after the 50s, you know, in the drought of the 50s there wasn't anything out there and that's, and all my dad had was a buck scraper and a tractor and he went out making water bars on roads and doing all kinds of things. So I think if you're looking and you're innovative, you can improve what you have, and I'm not the only one. You know. You find that the people who are successful ranchers are very innovative and they have a conservation mind, and if you're not conservation minded as a rancher, you don't have anything.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely. You have to have to care for the land so that it can care for the livestock. Yeah, what's maybe something exciting you're working on, whether it be maybe something you're doing on the ranch or something, or even on the farm, or maybe cattle growers but what's something you're excited about right now, or even on the farm?
Alisa Ogden:or maybe cattle growers. But what's something you're excited about right now? Oh gosh, there's so many things going on. I'm in hopes that with I'm going to go nationwide with the change in the administration.
Alisa Ogden:With Bureau of Land Management we're having and we were talking about it before the change in administration, we were talking about it before the change in administration but they're looking at changing the grazing rules regulations and maybe making them to where they're more applicable for ranchers westwide to use.
Alisa Ogden:And then there's also discussions going on about having the Forest Service grazing regulations and the Bureau of Land Management grazing regulations be more similar so people who have private, federal, both forest and BLM lands can manage them as a watershed or as a whole and not have different regulations depending on which federal agency you're dealing with. So I hope this comes to fruition and I think the people in place right now in the government are looking to do that, and we have Karen Bedfowl in here speaking today and she's in the Department of Interior and she's very range-minded, so I'm really looking forward. She's progressive on the grazing regulations for the Bureau of Land Management, and so we're in hopes that we can have some positive things come about on a federal level that will help all branchers, especially westwide, that are public land ranchers.
Carollann Romo:What is the biggest challenge you face in your operation? Of course, you've kind of already talked about some, but so maybe it's a different challenge.
Alisa Ogden:For me, it's primarily the droughts that you manage, for you don't manage for wet seasons, you manage for droughts, and they can wear on you a lot, and so when you rain, people laugh in the East that you get excited with a one-inch rain, but your attitude, it's amazing. When you do get rain, you have just a real attitude adjustment, and so that is probably one of the things that I look for, and I try to maximize what I'm doing so that when we do get rain, it is the most effective possible, absolutely. I think that's never ending.
Carollann Romo:No, like you said you've said in we I know I've said in another podcast too is the meteorology aspect of ranching is crazy too, right, because you guys know about what's weather patterns and monsoons and that when Cattlefax has their meteorologists talk about historic patterns, that room is packed at the Cattlemen's Convention and yeah, it's again another thing to add to the list of titles, but it's yeah and it's a shared experience for many in the Southwest, like you said. Or you said West, right? Oh, will you talk about what your favorite part is of the industry?
Alisa Ogden:So I've been blessed to be involved in both New Mexico and national cattle organizations. The friendships I've made are outstanding. Growing up in the New Mexico cattle industry, the older people, which I am now one of, those would take the younger kids under their wing to help teach them and train them up, and I hope that maybe I can help do some of that, and I hope that maybe I can help do some of that. But the people you've gotten to know, the friendships you've made, the relationships you made are priceless. And people in the cattle industry, in agriculture I'm also on the cotton board People in agriculture as a whole, they're priceless, are some of the most wholesome people you will ever know, and they're down to earth because they you know, when you're working with the earth you understand how things are, and it's pretty remarkable. I'm in awe of how many ideas they have and how innovative they are, and so that has definitely been a blessing that I've been able to glean knowledge from other people.
Carollann Romo:Well, I hope that I can now glean, glean knowledge from you and others as well, and I'm grateful. You talked about friendships. I was just telling my husband this morning that that you know, sometimes I wonder how to, how to you know, make new friends and build new friends, and then I realized it's just because my friends are at the cattle conventions. I just have to come here and then I get to see you all, and what an honor.
Alisa Ogden:Well, I've been blessed to have gotten to know you better since you've gone to work here in New Mexico, and you have definitely done very good things in promoting our product and you're looking at innovative things and in this day and time, we have to be innovative and we have to look at, not the traditional ways of promotion, and so I think that Beef Council has done a very good job since you've come with your new outlook and fresh looks on everything. So we appreciate you Well thank you, thank you.
Carollann Romo:It's an honor to represent the industry and I don't take it lightly and we're trying to be really, really good stewards of the money that is your money, so thank you. I didn't even pay you to say that. No, I did it on my own. Oh no, thank you. What a compliment.
Alisa Ogden:I do want to say though, that there is currently a senator from Utah that wants to do away with all checkoffs in all commodities, and that's unfortunate because we as producers, in whatever commodity it is voted to, assess ourselves this because promotion and research is so important in our fields and research is so important in our fields, and so I'm sorry that he thinks it's a tax and wants to eliminate all checkoffs in all commodities when it is an important part of how we advertise, how we promote.
Alisa Ogden:You know, when we can put our dollars together for promotion and research, we're able to do so much more for our product than if we were trying to individually do it. New Mexico cattle growers as a single entity could not do what you would with Beef Council, and you're able to get the dollars to a national level too. We can't do that, and I can't do it as an individual. So I'm really I hope that the checkoff will continue in all commodities because the research and promotion is so important this promotion side at the Beef Council and I can't lobby and I can't do policy.
Carollann Romo:And there's other you know rules about how we spend the money, because promotion, research and education are the priorities and that's what. That was the missing piece in the industry and I'm so grateful that I get to get to work in that piece.
Alisa Ogden:You do both with cotton on one side and on the other. It helps me with my interest in being policy-driven but also wanting to be sure that the promotion, research, education are very high priorities in every commodity.
Carollann Romo:Oh, absolutely, and I keep saying too if there's producers listening to the podcast or if I'm talking to them here is that we want input and we want you paying attention. I hope that you're looking for what we're doing and I hope we're having conversations about it, because it's your money, Absolutely.
Carollann Romo:It's your money. So we want to do a good job, so constantly try and be a penny pitcher and try some new things, and then also it's kind of out of our nature to brag about what we're doing but we're learning how to do that, so we gave a report card yesterday. We get a great value for our dollar. Thank you, thank you, I hope, and we'll keep working and I'm sure there'll be or $2.
Alisa Ogden:Yeah, yeah.
Carollann Romo:Yeah, right, right, we do get. Yeah, I guess that's a little side note is the New Mexico Beef Council is funded by. An animal is sold, two dollars are collected, fifty cents goes to the Cattlemen's Beef Board, our national organization, and about a dollar fifty comes to the New Mexico Beef Council. And then we already talked about what we're allowed to do with that promotion, education, research. So there you go, good sidebar.
Alisa Ogden:Well, here's a fun question why do you do what you do? What makes you keep going through drought, through difficulties and challenges? Why do you keep waking up and choosing this? My son's in the military right now and he plans to come back in three years to the farm and ranch, which I told him was a good thing because I couldn't last forever. But he understands that passion and the love of growing things and the animals.
Alisa Ogden:He used to give me a hard time. He says, mom, how do all your houseplants die? And you're a farmer. And I said, well, we go through drought and drowned at my house just like we do out on the ranch. And so it's passing on something that you have generations of people ahead of before you, that had that same passion, that worked hard, and I just have that place in my heart that that's something that gives me satisfaction for what I'm doing. I feel like I'm doing something that's worthwhile, that is good for other people. I wear my cotton jeans and shirt, I eat my beef, drink my milk, you know all those other things, and I live my production in all ways.
Carollann Romo:And that's evident, that you love it and live it, and gosh, we're so thankful for people like you that are providing food and fiber for all of us. Okay, so now we have a kind of fun, but we joke that this is the most important question what is your favorite way to eat beef, or even a favorite recipe, if you'd allow us to put it on the website?
Alisa Ogden:So I'm a purist. I don't want stuff on my meat other than salt pepper green chili cheese. You can't beat a medium for me Cooked steak, my favorite's filet but I will eat all cuts and I love a good green chili cheeseburger.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely A true New Mexican.
Alisa Ogden:Absolutely A true new Mexican. I mean, you know, I've even found freeze-dried green chili that I can carry with me on trips Because you need it in my eggs, you know, or whatever. So, but I'm not into sauces, I'm not into a whole lot of other things. I will put, you know, hamburger meat in other products and with other things, but I just really like meat by itself, with something by itself, and so I don't have any other recipe other than salt pepper and a nice steak and maybe a modelo on the side or something you know.
Carollann Romo:That's perfect. No, I support that wholeheartedly. I love a good filet. I love sometimes I love the portion control of a filet.
Alisa Ogden:Right, exactly.
Carollann Romo:But we love yeah, we love steaks and we love green chili cheeseburgers. Those are good, I know I learned at cattle convention the trick is to go to the NMSU, the New Mexico State University, booth, and they have green chili samples and you go get your green chili samples so that you can add some green chili to whatever you're eating in the Chuck Lydon Cafe, exactly At the convention. Perfect, well, thank you so much for everything. Thank you for joining us on the podcast, but really thank you for the work you do for cattle growers and the work you do to provide food for New Mexico and for the world. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for asking me.
Carollann Romo:Absolutely, Thank you. Behind the Burger is a podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council with the goal of telling the stories of the cattlemen and cattlewomen of the New Mexico beef industry. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you would like more information, please visit nmbeefcom. Whether it be a burger, a steak or another beef dish, we hope you are enjoying beef at your next meal.
