A MESSAGE FROM OUR DEAN

Greetings Aggies and Friends of the ACES College,

Feliz Año Nuevo!!

Looking at the fundamental challenges that we have at the college and NMSU, there are four major areas where we will continue to focus our activities in teaching, research, and extension. These four areas are water conservation and utilization, development of a value-added and sustainable agriculture, development of a digital agriculture that will benefit ranchers and farmers and New Mexicans in general, and increasing the delivery of online programs and training of the labor force in New Mexico.

How are we following this plan? In terms of water conservation and management, we are starting the year with town hall meetings where scientists and others both inside and outside the community will participate and deliver their comments and suggestions for work to be done in the college. These town halls are critical for the work that the college will be doing in the future and how we are directed in achieving our goals.

In terms of value-added and sustainable agriculture, we are extremely pleased with the new facilities that we have, consisting of the Food Science, Safety and Security Center and the Animal Nutrition and Feed Mill. In addition to these facilities, another element of our plan is the new faculty we have in place who are dedicated to these subject areas. These facilities contribute to and strengthen the Center of Excellence in Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems (CESFAS) and support the case for approval of the new food science PhD programs at NMSU.

These four elements are critical to establish a set of guidelines and areas of concentration as we look to develop a strong value-added component to a sustainable agriculture in New Mexico. The new finished products and by-products that will come out will not only benefit producers, ranchers, and farmers but also contribute to the importance of developing the labor force, conveying applied research, and moving the needle in areas that we traditionally have excelled in to support entrepreneurs in New Mexico and at the Arrowhead center. Also, in this area this is extremely important to generate a value-added supply chain to support success in this area.

In terms of digital agriculture, we have faculty who are delivering outstanding work in the application of digital methods for cattle management, fencing, and drone technologies.

Also, we have faculty working in collaboration with the College of Engineering developing robotics to ameliorate the labor shortage that we are experiencing in agriculture, as well as management of large databases generated with sensing equipment and other data gathering components, such as our Ziamet weather station network around the state.

We also are looking towards the development of increased online learning from the College of ACES, critical to train the labor force in New Mexico as well as to create new markets for our traditional and new programs leading to bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and PhDs. With the development of digital learning, there are no borders across which we cannot attract more students and, in some way, generate additional funding for the university and the state of New Mexico. 

These four areas of concentration in the current and near future are fundamental for the College of ACES and NMSU. Please join me in continuing to explore how our programs, activities, and impacts can support these goals.