Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

October 14, 2015

12 Slides

Far West Texas and southern New Mexico offer stunning vistas, stark beauty and contrasts of green and browns, blues and whites and reds and greens.  Green spaces show along the rivers and canals and where irrigation turns the dry soil into productive fields of cotton, chile and pecans. Red and green chile peppers create contrasting patches of color in New Mexico State University research plots. White puffy clouds drift lazily over the mountain ranges to the north of Las Cruces and to the North and South of El Paso.

The gray mountain peaks are dappled by dark splotches as clouds drift across the near barren landscape.

Pima cotton blossoms show their distinctive first-day yellow color and the white of mature bolls stands out against the green foliage.

A drive up I-10 from El Paso to Las Cruces and a drive south from El Paso into Tornillo and other farm communities reminds a visitor of how scenic the west can be.

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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