Bob Deans, Associate Director of Communications, Washington, DC

The killing of Billy the Kid was still within living memory for some on the stark, wind-swept prairie outside Ft. Sumner, N.M., when Powhatan Carter's grandfather settled there to raise cattle in 1937.

Twelve years later, Pow was born there, where he runs the family cattle business his grandfather began.

After two years of drought, though, Carter’s land is so dry that even the durable native grasses in his pasture are dying.

With little grazing land remaining, and the cost of feed sky high, Carter has sold about half of his 450 beef cattle, months before he normally would and at a poor price. Soon, he said, he'll have to sell more.

To rebuild his herd and restore the dead turf will take years, Carter said, adding to the strain of keeping his grandfather's homestead intact.

"It's just hard to keep the land in the family, because most people are land rich and cash poor," Carter said in a telephone interview. "An outside boost makes all the difference."

Fortunately for Carter, he gets such a boost, about $35,000 a year for the electricity produced from the seven wind turbines towering above a ...

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