Agricultural producers of this region, whether they be Native American, Anglo or Hispanic-like Chano and Stella Montoya who were New Mexico's cattle growers of the year in 1994-enjoy common ground when it comes to working with the land.

All realize that stewardship of the land is required to reap the bounty for generations to come. One way we invest in the land is through gaining a better understanding of how we interact with it.

There is no more stunning example of such an investment than the case of the Agricultural Science Center at Farmington and the surrounding agricultural community. In 1966, the year the center was established, irrigation of the Navajo land was little more than an idea. Over the years, every product grown as part of the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry was tested at the center.

Clearly, the center was a full partner in the greening of the Navajo Nation, but it has continued to help San Juan County develop agriculturally in the 1980s and '90s. In 1980, San Juan County ranked 15th in farmgate receipts in New Mexico. Seventeen years later, San Juan County ranked eighth in farmgate cash receipts among our 33 counties, with about two-thirds of those receipts from crops. Today, about 120,000 acres, almost half in valley land off the Navajo Nation, are served by the science center.

The first 32 years of the center were under the direction of Joe Gregory. Gregory became the most well-known scientist in northwestern New Mexico and earned respect outside the region as well. In the American Society of Agronomy, he rose to chair the division representing all the off-campus science centers nationwide.

Gregory and his colleagues at the center were a consistent presence in the scientific literature. Campus-based scientists were attracted to the center to work, despite the 400-mile distance from Las Cruces. The staff was known, too, for attracting the talent and passion of the community's citizens to support and advise the center and NMSU. Michael O)Neill has a great tradition to follow as superintendent.

We have had some great Cooperative Extension Service agents in the region as well and the area is home to a healthy partnership with Arizona and Utah in service to the Navajo community. Today, volunteer time contributions to Extension programs are valued at almost $1 million annually in San Juan and McKinley counties. In addition, there are about 2,400 4-H'ers in the two counties.

It is a great region where states and cultures meet and where partnerships with the people and the land are becoming more common. NMSU's College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences is very much a part of this crossroads region, and that is something about which we are very proud.