them in a system that combines grazing and stall feeding (‘zerograzing’). They are mainly local breeds that can feed on desertplants while they graze in available desert vegetation areas andgrasslands. Cactus plants are also fed ex situ to cattle together withmaize and other crop residues. Sheep and goats traditionally grazecommon desert areas and crop stubbles. Forage is scarce resultingin overgrazing. Cattle numbers have decreased due to the high costof forage and sheep numbers have increased because it is easier tofeed them. Cattle still prevail in the relatively affluent communitywhereas sheep prevail in the poorer community.Farmers harvest around 80% of the maize stover by hand anduse it ex situ to feed their livestock (Table 5). In good years farmersharvest an estimated 2 ton/ha of stover and in bad ones 0.7 ton/ha.Sheep and goats graze the remaining stubble with little remainingat the time of land preparation: farmers estimated that they incor-porated only about 4% of the stover into the soil. Most of the maizestover is for self-consumption with storage averaging six months.Fodder is in short supply and 35% of farmers reportedly still had tobuy maize stover to feed their livestock, whereas only 15% of farm-ers reportedly sold stover. Sales often are for in situ grazing againsta payment of 100–150 Mexican pesos3per ha for a two-monthgrazing period. Two communities (Guadalupe Victoria and VillaHidalgo) reported such sales of grazing rights, often to neighbors inthe same community. In the other two localities, maize stubble isfree for communal grazing. Surveyed farmers reported that they areseeking ways to classify the land of the ejido into grazing and non-grazing areas and this may stimulate a more vibrant trade in maizestover. In response to longer drought periods and limited rains,they are also replacing maize with other crops such as sorghum,oats and barley with reduced water requirements, shorter cycleand less labor needs. They are also testing crops like triticale asalternatives feed to maize stover.The experience with CA techniques differs between communi-ties. Farmers from Cerritos indicated that they have been practicingreduced tillage and this helps to reduce production costs, improvesoil texture and maintain soil humidity. They recognize the impor-tance of leaving crop residues to provide soil cover, maintainhumidity and reduce soil compaction. However, farmers men-tioned the conflict between CA and the fact that most farmers usecrop residues as fodder and that free grazing is common. Similarly,in Guadalupe Victoria farmers are practicing reduced tillage andleaving crop residues as cover. Nevertheless, farmers recognize thatinformation is lacking on how CA can be readily combined with thepractice of free grazing and that this is restricting its adoption. Con-trarily, farmers from the other two communities knew very littleabout CA although they recognized the potential benefits of leavingcrop residue in the field.