NMSU Breaks Ground for Heritage Farm

NMSU broke ground on the heritage farm on Thursday May 4th. The trail is part of New Mexico State University’s larger plan for the Heritage Farm development west of the campus.

The site is located off College Avenue, southwest of the Las Cruces Convention Center and just west of East Union Avenue.

The purpose of the Heritage Farm is to showcase NMSU’s agricultural roots and to advance current research. It also aims to support private and public economic initiatives and to create a park-like gateway to campus. And students from area schools will have the opportunity to take field trips to the Heritage Farm to learn about agriculture and New Mexico crops.

In addition to an interpretive trail walk, Heritage Farm plans include a university hotel, a winery, a brewery, agricultural fields, exhibit gardens and an adaptive reuse of the seed barn – one of the oldest buildings on campus – into the Chile Pepper Institute.

The interpretive trail is the first step in the Heritage Farm development. The trail will eventually consist of plants along the acequia, or irrigation ditch, as well as crops grown at NMSU and native plants used for erosion control. Irrigation methods – from drip systems to flood irrigation – will also be on display.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded NMSU a $100,000 grant to support conservation of the waterways and irrigation at Heritage Farm.