BELEN — New Mexico was a sheep state before it was a cattle state, the student of cowboy history said, unlatching the gate and letting loose dozens of sheep that stampeded toward the pasture in the haze of dust.

Wearing a silver ram bolo tie, Donald Chavez, 75, a 16th-generation rancher, has sought to interest members of the public and politicians alike in this rare herd for about 40 years, largely in vain. They are, he said, a living history of the land itself, a potent reminder of when the sheep trade was king in the Land of Enchantment.

Chavez is known for claiming the sheep on his Terra Patre Heritage Farm & Ranch, called New Mexico Dahl Heritage sheep, are descendants of livestock brought to the territory in the 1500s by the earliest Spanish settlers.

In particular, he believes his

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