As of June 2026, a staggering 94% of New Mexico is under drought conditions. Climate change will only make matters worse, bringing higher temperatures and shrinking precious water supplies. Yet, state leaders have failed to rein in one of the biggest contributors to this crisis: the state’s mega-dairies.

While everyday people are told to take shorter showers and drinking wells run dry, some of the worst water abusers are left off the hook. New Mexico’s mega-dairies are polluting the climate and sucking up our water. It’s past time for bold action: state leaders must put an end to new and expanding mega-dairies. 

Mega-dairies Endanger New Mexico’s Dwindling Water

Most of New Mexico gets its drinking water from groundwater aquifers, a functionally non-renewable resource. The High Plains Aquifer, for example, is currently being drained at 90 times its recharge rate. Even if all pumping stopped today, its water level would barely rise in our lifetimes.

But rather than manage this water responsibly, New Mexico is letting Big Ag abuse it. A whopping 80% of the state’s water goes to agriculture, including mega-dairies and the alfalfa grown largely to feed dairy cattle. 

We found that in 2022, mega-dairies used 9.6 billion gallons of water just for watering and washing cows — enough to meet the indoor water needs of 240,000 households that year.

Alfalfa, meanwhile, is a notoriously thirsty crop. We estimate that in 2025, alfalfa used 79 billion gallons of water, enough to supply everyone in New Mexico for the year — 2.5 times over. To add insult to injury, New Mexico exports 30% of its alfalfa, effectively shipping out the state’s scarce water supply for profit. 

While Big Ag benefits from draining groundwater, New Mexicans pay the price. About one in five rely on private wells to bring groundwater to their homes. But as Big Ag depletes the aquifers, these much shallower private wells are the first to run dry. And once that water’s gone, it isn’t coming back. 

And what Big Ag doesn’t devour, it pollutes with the 11.5 billion pounds of manure that New Mexico mega-dairies produce every year. That’s four times the amount produced by the state’s human population. 

Mega-dairies apply the waste onto fields as “fertilizer,” but it’s far more than the fields can absorb. The manure can run off into waterways and even seep into the groundwater, leading to toxic nitrate contamination.

New Mexico’s Growing Mega-Dairies Spew Climate-Wrecking Methane

Not only do these dairies abuse our precious drinking water resources — they also worsen the climate change that’s making New Mexico hotter and drier.

New Mexico’s agricultural sector is the state’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, and mega-dairies are a significant contributor to these planet-warming emissions.

The state houses 280,000 cows in mega-dairies. And while small, family-scale dairies dwindle, Big Ag’s behemoth mega-dairies are growing. In 2022, they confined an average of 3,685 cows, 64% more than just two decades prior.¹FWW analysis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. 

These industrial operations spew massive amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 86 times more planet-warming than carbon dioxide in the short term (20 years). We estimate that in 2022, New Mexico mega-dairies had the same climate impact as 2.2 million additional cars on the road.

State Leaders Must Stop Mega-dairies!

Mega-dairies have been catastrophic for the climate and for New Mexico’s water. Yet current state plans lack the urgency required to address these twin crises. 

In January 2026, the New Mexico Environment Department effectively blocked in-state mega-dairies from profiting from a new Clean Transportation Fuel Program, signaling that state leaders are starting to recognize the problems this industry poses. 

But this isn’t enough. In fact, the state’s own analysis projects that animal agriculture will pollute the climate more in 2030 than it does right now. And New Mexico’s most recent drought plan doesn’t mention scaling back alfalfa or mega-dairies’ contributions to the crisis.

To protect New Mexico’s water and stop climate chaos, the state must:

1. Support a statewide factory farm moratorium, or pause, to stop the expansion of factory farm mega-dairies in the state;
2. Create specific permit regulations that restrict the discharge of mega-dairy pollutants into the state’s waterways;
3. Prioritize beneficial uses of water over others in times of shortage, and
4. Update the state’s Drought Plan to include mandatory drought-response actions that will address the threat that mega-dairies and other industrial agriculture pose to our water supply and water quality.