Southeast New Mexico's big ag town — once the country of three enormous cattle ranches, today one of the leading ag counties in the state.
Hobbs is the largest city in Lea County, set at the southeastern corner of New Mexico right on the Texas border. Population is around 40,000, with a strong mix of oil and gas, ranching, and irrigated farming. The country is open, flat, windy, and covered in windmills — thousands of them, pumping water from the shallow aquifer that has irrigated Lea County farms for a century.
The town was founded as a homestead farm in 1907, then turned into a boomtown by the discovery of oil and natural gas in 1927. But the range came first.
Before Hobbs the town, there was Lea County the range. By the 1880s this country belonged to a handful of enormous cattle operations. The Hat Ranch was 35 miles wide and 150 miles long, stretching from the Pecos River all the way into Texas. The Four Lakes Ranch covered nearly 1.5 million acres — roughly the northern half of what's now Lea County. The JAL Ranch ran a herd of 40,000 head at its peak.
Homesteaders arrived in the early 1900s and learned that good water lay just a few feet below ground. Today Lea County is one of the leading agricultural counties in New Mexico, with irrigation-fed cotton, alfalfa, and vegetables, plus strong cattle and dairy operations.
From our fields in Saragosa to Hobbs is about two and a half hours northeast. It's a stretch, but Lea County ranches, dairies, and horse operations have always needed good hay, and we're in the neighboring country.
Whether you're running cattle, managing a dairy, feeding horses, or just putting up a load for a few head on a smaller place, we can set you up with premium custom alfalfa from our Saragosa fields. Multiple cuttings, mid-sized square bales, forage testing on request.
Give Ray a call or drop a note. Let us know what you need and when; we'll tell you what's on hand and when we can schedule the trip north.