Public takes onions meant for cattle

A rancher near Las Cruces, NM, had some uninvited “guests” after word got out that he was feeding onions to his cattle. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that local Facebook posts about piles of onions in a pasture west of town gained steam after a social media commenter put out a call encouraging people to go to the desert to get a free sack of onions. Rancher James Montoya told the Sun-News that the onions were indeed his after he’d requested them last week from a local onion packer Barker Produce. Montoya had them hauled to a parcel of leased acreage that’s part of his ranch as supplemental feed for his cattle. The “culled” onions didn’t meet grade requirements to be sold as produce for human consumption. Montoya said the onions have been hauled to a different location on his ranch where they can still be fed to cattle but where the public doesn’t have access. — WLJ