Rancher says onions for cattle taken

Meant as feed supplement, pile found in desert; online post has people arrive to cart them off

LAS CRUCES — Onions intended as supplemental feed for cattle were plundered after a person discovered the piles and posted about it on social media, a New Mexico rancher said.

A person stumbled across the more than 30,000 pounds of onions in a desert area west of Las Cruces and assumed the vegetables were dumped as waste, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

The person posted a message on Facebook encouraging other residents to go grab some.

The onions were “culled” onions that didn’t meet grade requirements of a nearby onion packing plant, Barker Produce, and thus were unable to be sold.

Rancher James Montoya requested a load of culled onions from Barker for his cattle, said Barker Produce Vice President Brandon Barker. Montoya said the onions were free; he simply had to pay the shipping costs.

The onions were placed on land that he leases from the state, Montoya said, adding that some people were filling the beds of pickups with onions to haul away.

“We didn’t put them out here for the public to have access to,” he said. “But the public came. They were leaving their trash, beer bottles.”

Asked whether onions dumped in the desert would be safe for people to eat, New Mexico Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Kristie Garcia said the department would have to know more about how the circumstances surrounding the onions before being able to say.

“[W]e cannot make a determination regarding their marketability or safety for human consumption,” Garcia said.

Montoya said he moved the remaining onions Monday to an undisclosed location.