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<br /> <br />Type of Farm <br /> <br />Number of <br />, Farms <br /> <br />Percent of <br />Total <br /> <br />Percent of each group <br />receiving less than $1000 <br /> <br />en <br />':'1 <br />.~ <br />C'J <br /> <br />I.....~~ <br /> <br />Livestock farms 382 <br />Dairy faims 16 <br />Poultry farms 10 <br />General farms 45 <br />Vegetable farms 51 <br />All other crop farms 119 <br />Farms producing products <br />primarily for own use 126 <br /> <br />51.0 <br />2.1 <br />1.4 <br />6.0 <br />6.8 <br />15.9 <br /> <br />16.8 <br /> <br />28.5 <br />25.0 <br />80.0 <br />17.8 <br />21.6 <br />42.0 <br /> <br />98.4 <br /> <br />C) <br /> <br />Total <br /> <br />749 <br /> <br />100.0 <br /> <br />While the preceding data are for the entire county, the distributions are <br />generally representative of conditions existing in the project area. <br /> <br />The outstanding importance of livestock in the project area is indi- <br />cated by the, fact that 51 percent of the farms in Conejos County are <br />primarily livestock enterprises. <br /> <br />Livestock <br /> <br />The availability of grazing privileges in the Rio Grande National <br />Forest and on the lands of the public domain, now controlled by the Bureau <br />of Land Management under the provisions of the Taylor Grazing Act, combined <br />with the native hay produced in the flood plains of the Valley'S streams <br />has resulted in the development of an extensive livestock industry in the <br />San Luis Valley. The wide native meadcws in the flood plain of the Conejos <br />River, and the annual shortage of irrigation water to a large extent <br />restrioting production to forage, grain and other feed crops, makes Conejos <br />County and particularly the project area an especially important livestock <br />producing area. <br /> <br /> The number of livestock in Conejos County as reported by the census <br />of agriculture for the years 1940 and 1945 is as follows: <br /> , <br /> Livestock 1940 ,1945 .;, <br /> Mules and Mule Colts 178 9b <br /> Horses and Colts 3,616 2,927 <br /> Cattle and Calves 16, 726 18,568 <br /> Hogs and Pigs 10,430 8,756 " <br /> Goa ts and Kids 602 301 <br /> Sheep and Lambs 89,215 90,795 <br /> Chickens 32,192 32,309 <br /> Turkeys 3,088 1,372 <br /> <br />The total value of livestock and livestock produots sold from 615 <br />farms in Conejos County as reported in the 194~ census of agriculture is <br />$1,763,755. Of this amount dairy prOducts account for $74,686 and poultry <br />and poultry products account for $36,383. The remaining $1,652,686 repre~ <br />sents principally the r~turn from sales of cattle, swine, sheep and wool. <br /> <br />9 <br />