Alejandro Carrillo

Consultant

LAS DAMAS CATTLE RANCH

Alejandro is a fourth-generation rancher, and he is quite familiar with the challenges of running a profitable cattle ranch in the Chihuahuan desert. Because annual precipitation seldom exceeds nine inches, every drop counts when it comes to growing more grasses. Grazing year-round with only sea salt as an input, he is not willing to waste any water in such a brittle environment. An on-going drought that ranchers faced on these arid landscapes forced Alejandro to look for better ways of doing things, so in 2005 he took his first holistic management class. Since then, he has traveled and learned from ranchers around the world and through trial and error, he has adapted these learning experiences into his ranching environment. Today, Alejandro can carry three times more cattle than neighboring ranches on a per-acre basis, while substantially lowering his inputs. To accomplish this, he has relied on his adaptive grazing observation and management skills, selecting cattle that thrive under his conditions and management, and developing a solid, well-distributed, reliable water system to graze every paddock anytime of the year. Before getting his boots on the ground full time, Alejandro worked as a software engineer in various countries. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Monterrey Tech and a Master of Science degree in technical management from Johns Hopkins University.