Featured Employee - Erasmo Montemayor

Ask Erasmo Montemayor what motivates him to get up in the morning, and he will tell you it’s the thought of going to work. Ask him if he knows that sounds crazy to some people, and he will tell you he knows that. But he also knows that what he does at work makes a difference.

Montemayor is the district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Hebbronville, Texas.

“I understand that what I do here makes a difference on the land,” he said. “That’s what drives me.”

Montemayor’s passion for conservation didn’t begin when he started working for NRCS; it began growing up on a large cattle ranch in south Texas. “I have always had an attachment to the cattle, wildlife, land, and the people that work and make a living from the land.” He attributes this to his success at getting conservation on the land.

Montemayor has worked for NRCS for 20 years; and a majority of that time has been spent in Hebbronville. He has worked with every ranch owner or manager in his county. That’s no small feat as Jim Hogg County is 1,136 square miles of mostly privately owned rangeland.

“I’ve been on every ranch in the county, and each has a conservation plan,” he said. “I like helping landowners reach their goals and see the positive results of the conservation work they’ve done.”