Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Ole very impatiently waiting for me. I was gathering some drys and they were in such rugged country it was unsafe to get a horse into it. I had to hike in and get them out a foot. I hobbled Ole up so I could do it. He was ready to get going again when I got back. Taken 5/27/2007.

You want to talk about people who can't think, I have found an example. Here recently, as I am sure you are aware, There was a big problem with melamine contamination from some ingredients from China. It now appears an American company that manufactures feed for livestock and fish also uses melamine in its feed.

Don't you think the people of this company would be smart enough to quit using melamine after the fiasco with melamine from China was in the news? No they weren't, how stupid can you be. I guess only Chinese melamine can hurt critters and not American melamine in their pea sized brains. I just can't believe these people were this brain dead.

So again, the USDA blesses this use of melamine in livestock feed because there is nothing they can do about it. The company has stopped using it now that the government has told them to. Why do these companies think they can use toxic chemicals in our food supply and think they can get away with it? How utterly stupid.

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart. Henri Frederic Amiel

You might, or might not, remember when a Federal Judge ruled that Creekstone Farms Premium Beef could test the cattle they slaughter for BSE at the end of March. The Judge also stayed his ruling to give the Government the chance to appeal his verdict.

No surprise, the USDA has decided to appeal the ruling. The Feds obviously don't like the idea of a company doing any self regulation and doing the right thing to open up their export market.

The argument I really love is the one about cost.

One argument is that the cost to Creekstone for testing all of the roughly 300,000 cattle it slaughters each year would be much less than that of large meat packers, some of which slaughter millions of cattle a year. That, critics say, would give Creekstone an unfair competitive advantage in international markets.

Okay, maybe I am missing something here but if a BSE test costs say $10 per head (Theoretical number, I have no idea how much they cost) isn't the cost of the test going to be $10 per head whether you test 300,00 cattle or a million cattle? In gross numbers the company that slaughters millions of cattle would pay more in for the test but they also sell more product so there profit or loss per head change will be the same as the smaller company so it will not affect there overall profitability. In fact the larger company could probably cut a better deal for test kits and do it in a larger, more efficient manner so there cost per head would actually be less than Creekstones' due to efficiency of size. This reason is the biggest bunch of bullshit I have heard in a long time.

If Creekstone wishes to test for BSE they should be allowed to, pure and simple. Let the company that wants to be more safe in this matter than the USDA alone. This really make the USDA look like they are trying to hide something.

Law is a formless mass of isolated decisions. Morris Raphael Cohen

Looking South across the place in the early morning the day of branding. It was a peaceful sight. The corral we brand in is towards the center of the picture but unless you know where it is, you can't see it. Taken 5/19/2007.

I see the rest of the cattle tested around Bridger have all come up negative for Brucellosis. Cattle producers in Montana keep dodging the bullet here which I am glad to see.

I would like to point out how flexible the definition of good news can be. Karen reports as good news, her cattle tested negative for Brucellosis in this testing around Bridger but since all her two year old heifers were spending some time at the originally infected place, they are considering exposed and all the heifers and their calves will be killed. Real "good news" isn't it? Lose over 30 pairs, get no compensation for them, and have to pay for the Brucellosis testing to boot and call it "good news". Isn't our government and the policies they foster great.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Benjamin Franklin

UPDATE: Karen has set me straight. They are getting paid for testing and are offered a cash payment for the slaughtered cattle which they can accept or not. Whether it is worth the value of the animals is irrelevant. It doesn't change the fact that Karen has a strange definition of "good news." I don't know that I could handle such "good new" as well.

Green grass, blue sky, pine trees, and sandstone rock formations. Nothing says Sarpy Country better. Taken 5/11/2007.

If you were going to create/breed new stock that would bring you recognition, what stock would it be?

This question intrigued me. The first thought out of my head was, who do I know that is recognized for creating a new breed? Hmmm, nobody. Does anybody create a new breed? I know there are some people that have designed a new cross breed and called it a new breed but are they recognized by the common cowman or even more, famous for it? Not really.

So, what would it take to be recognized or even famous for your work? Is that really what I want to do? Do I want to be famous? Not really. There are a lot of people out there that want there 15 minutes of fame, have you ever seen one of those lame reality shows, but I am not really interested in that. Should I be? Are you? If you are interested in being famous, why? What would that get you that living your present life to the best of your ability doesn't give you?

Another thought, do you have to have ability to be famous? For most people it helps but what about famous people like Paris Hilton? What ability does she have? The ability to be an idiot? There doesn't appear to be much ability there but she is definitely famous. What does this say about our culture that somebody with so little ability has such fame?

Anything I have ever done in my life I have done a damn good job at. I do everything to the best of my ability and I have a lot of ability, but to be recognized or famous has never been a goal of mine. I suppose if I wanted to be famous I would.

Talking about being famous leads my thoughts to "heroes." Did you have a hero when you were growing up? Someone you wanted to be like? My Darling Wife and I have talked about this many times and we are in the same boat when it comes to heroes. Neither one of us can remember having one. There was nobody we wanted to grow up to be like. We were happy with who and what we were and went from there. Did my lack of a heroes when I was growing up lead me not to desire being famous? Not growing up admiring some famous person, did this stunt my desire to be famous and gain recognition in my life? Is wanting to be famous or be recognized a normal human desire that all humans want, or is it something only certain people strive for?

So, I don't have an answer to this question. I am not interested in fame or recognition. Above and beyond that I don't believe a person can " create" a new breed or stock. Cross breeding is an established trait and anybody can do it. A little hard to gain recognition for something the guy down the road could do to if he wanted.

I don't like the idea of famous people. Kristin Hersh

Looking North down Sarpy Creek. Right at the very north edge of my place there is water in the creek sometimes. As wet as it is this year there is a lot of water there. I haven't seen this in quite a few years. Taken 5/15/2007.

Will President Bush sign the disaster aid/assistance that Congress recently passed? He has never been a big fan of Agricultural disaster aid but he might sign this one.

I have been talking about this disaster aid for a while. A lot of it is drought assistance for the last couple of years of drought. I made it through last year but I did not realize how bad it was until this year and the wet weather we have been receiving. I guess I had rose colored glasses on last year when it came to the drought. I just downplayed it but it was bad.

There are a lot of farmers and ranchers looking for this disaster assistance. The article states farmers in Montana will be eligible for the aid but says nothing about ranchers. It would be curious to know if there is any aid for ranchers. I'm not asking for any aid, but if it was offered I would accept.

When you really think about it, can the government ever make us, farmers and ranchers, whole after a drought or other such disaster? Most of us invest a lot of blood, sweat, tears and soul into raising our crops and when mother nature deals us a bum hand, can we be made whole? We can't be made whole, real simple. In a way, disaster aid is just a way for politicians to feel better about themselves that they are doing something for the common man. It's also a way the politicians in rural states buy votes. It kind of makes a guy feel like a whore for taking the disaster aid. You can't pass up the money but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you get it.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed. Teilhard de Chardin

The new chicks at two weeks old. My Darling Wife says they are at the ugly stage. Far be it from me to argue with her. Taken 5/21/2007.

I see there has been some cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever down in Wyoming, just south and east of me. This doesn't surprise me with the number of ticks I have been seeing around here.

I noticed when we were branding our calves that they had quite a few ticks on them but more than that, they had huge scarred areas on them from where ticks were at one time and were now gone. It is the rare day I don't pick a tick off of me for that matter. My darling Wife, the woman who hates dogs, picked up another stray dog a couple of days ago and saved its life. She said it was full of ticks all over it. At least 12 to 15 ticks. Instead of bringing this dog home, she took it straight to the Vet who is also the local animal shelter. I told her that was a good idea as we really didn't need another dog. All these things together seem indicate that tick levels are up but the article is just calling that "anecdotal evidence." Just call me Mr. Anecdotal I guess.

I wonder if this large number of ticks could have caused a few cases of calves being sick that I have had earlier and couldn't explain. Lethargic and dizzy calves that did not want to eat who had an unexplained fever that I never could get under control for everything I tried. I had about three of them and they all died on me. I think I will have to talk to the Vet about this. It never occurred to me until now that maybe the tick activity and these sick calves were related or maybe this dumb cowboy is just grasping at straws. Who knows.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. Mark Twain

"Look, he brought us some salt, dig in." Taken 5/24/2007.

High-stakes testing continues

I really wish I had the ability to turn a phrase like this headline once in a while. The Brucellosis testing going on is high stakes for Montana cattlemen and is being watched closely by many people concerned with the issue.

I've talked about the producers involved in Bridger losing their entire herds of cattle to this, they will be killed, and there is no guarantee of reimbursement of any kind. They just have to eat the loss which will more than likely put them out of business. I see the USCA has adopted a policy that seeks indemnification program for affected ranchers.

"The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association urges the Department of Interior and USDA to indemnify ranchers for losses suffered as a result of herds being infected by wildlife," noted Kiker. "The financial losses for individual ranching operations affected by this disease could be catastrophic, to say nothing of the negative economic impact on the entire livestock industry within an affected state."

I doubt anything will come of this since the Federal Government does not want to take responsibility for their reservoir of Brucellosis infection in Yellowstone National Park but at least there is somebody working on the issue.

The proposal makes sense too. The Brucellosis infection in the cattle more than likely came from the Park so the Federal Government is responsible. The Federal Government is responsible for the wildlife in the Park and since they don't want to do anything about the Brucellosis problem with these animals, even though they require private citizens to control Brucellosis, they should be financially responsible for the chaos that ensues from their lack of responsibility.

Responsibility and Government, what an oxymoron.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw

I missed this with being so busy and the Brucellosis problem in Montana, but the US received a "controlled risk" status for BSE from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). This is really good news. Under this status age restrictions for beef are no longer valid and any country who maintians one opens themselves up to a trade case with the WTO.

Japan says they will not ease their import restrictions even with this new classification. They are hedging their bets by saying, "It is important to respond to this issue by taking concrete steps in line with scientific facts to ensure food safety and consumers' trust." They don't want to open up their market but they know they are going to have to now.

The only bad news in this for some people in the US cattle industry is that Canada got the same "controlled risk" status as the US. This means the efforts to stop the USDA rule allowing older Canadian cattle into the US should be dead. I'm sure people will continue to try and find a way to stop the Canadian cattle. You know what this is called? Hypocrisy. If they want other countries to open up to US beef but continue to fight that Canadian beef in the US they are hypocrites. Real simple. I'm sure this won't bother some people but I can't stand it. That's why I haven't recently been saying anything against proposed rule when it came out. It seemed hypocritical to me to try to block Canada from something we want other countries to accept from us.

In the name of Hypocrites, doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival. Edward Everett Hale

Three of the bums watching what is going on. Taken 4/28/2007.