Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Things I should have posted about but haven't.

Brucellosis is almost wiped out in the US with the declaration that Texas is now Brucellosis Free. Of course there still is the problem of Brucellosis in Bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area, but that is not cattle. I still think it can affect cattle. Interesting comment here.

"Our work is not done," said Bruce Knight, agriculture undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. "We must now focus our efforts on eradicating brucellosis from the free-ranging elk and bison populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area in order to protect our national cattle herd against future outbreaks."

Now this is a representative of USDA speaking and not the Park Service who controls Yellowstone Park so it really means nothing.

Wyoming might be going to stop some Coal Bed Methane(CBM) wells. It appears they are pumping water out and not getting any gas.

In December, State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell threatened to revoke the permits on 300 wells that had discharged 1.7 billion gallons of water but produced no gas.

Think of that, 1.7 billion gallons of precious ground water, wasted. Check out the total number of gallons pumped out on the ground to get at this methane. One hundred forty seven billion gallons of our precious ground water pumped out and wasted. They are really trying to create the Big Dry Country aren't they?

The President-elect of South Korea wants to speed up the process of resolving the beef issue with the US. Not because he wants US beef in the country, but the Beef issue is holding up the FTA between South Korea and the US. I would like to see the beef issue resolved. It would help our export markets out and might help buoy up calf prices.

Just a few quick things.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned. Immanuel Kant

Don't you just love headlines that scream out things that aren't true?

Open Season on America's last Wild Bison

Montana issues 44 tags for Bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park which has around 4000 head of Bison, and people want to call that open season. A little overboard, isn't it? The problem is, how many people believe it with out even thinking.

A capacity for going overboard is a requisite for a full-grown mind. Dawn Powell

"We threw them a life rope," he said. "They said 'We don't want any life ropes.' That's what their position is."

Bullshit!!!!! The Governor didn't throw a life rope for God's sake. He threw an unworkable proposal that was designed to take our focus away from the real issue. How to control brucellosis in the wildlife under the Federal governments control. His proposal was a band aid designed to make people feel like he was doing something so he would look good. Now this comment leaves him looking like a pouting little kid who didn't get his way. Glad to see he is dropping th ill-conceived plan thought.

Now will he put as much effort into solving the problem or will he ignore it in hopes it will go away? I know which I think he will do.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull. W. C. Fields

I see the Board of Livestock has decided against split state status for Brucellosis here in Montana. The Governor decided to let the ranching community decide and they let their feelings be known to the Board of Livestock yesterday.

After hours of rancorous debate punctuated by yelling and boos from the audience, the Montana Board of Livestock on Tuesday stepped away from a plan to split Montana into two zones to manage a dreaded cattle disease.

On a 6-1 vote, the seven-member panel that governs the Montana Department of Livestock decided to pursue other ways of preventing the spread of brucellosis from infected bison and elk in Yellowstone National Park into Montana's neighboring cattle.

I kind of have to laugh, the Governor said he would let the ranching community decide but then complains when they do.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said the decision represented "misinformation" spread by the lobbyist of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. The group's lobbyist ought to be personally blamed when or if another case brucellosis comes up and all of Montana is saddled with the stiffer restrictions that brucellosis brings, the governor said.

"They were misled by the lobbyist of Montana Stockgrowers Association," he said of the outspoken group of ranchers who testified at Tuesday's meeting. "They were given faulty information by the lobbyist who knew it would get people excited."

Errol Rice, executive director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and one of the group's registered lobbyists, applauded the board's decision to stand up to Schweitzer, who appointed five of the board's seven members.

"The industry spoke today, and the board grudgingly put to rest the governor's marching orders," Rice said.

Whether people like it or not, the Stockgrowers represent a large portion of the ranching community so they had a legitimate role in this whole thing, just like the Montana Cattlemans Association (MCA) did who was on the opposite side and wanted split state status. I really hate to tell the MCA, but I have personally spoken to quite a few memebers of MCA and most of them opposed sp[lit state status even though MCA was for it. People can be part of an orginazation and have an opinion other than the one the organization wants them to have.

Now that this is behind us, we need to miove forward and figure out how to control the brucellosis problem in Yellowstone National Park. There is no easy answers for it but they need to be found.

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer. Gertrude Stein

Ranchers voice concerns over proposed split-state status

Montana cattlemen have a choice to make - to pursue a split-state status in the case of another brucellosis outbreak around the Yellow-stone National Park - or not.

“The governor is leaving it up to the cattle industry,” said Jan French, Board of Livestock member from Hobson, Mont., during a recent meeting discussing split-state status in Lewistown, Mont. “I'm pretty sure we will lose our brucellosis class-free status at one time or another, but this is an option.”

To start with, I am not so sure the Governor is giving us an option. The majority of the members of the Board of Livestock are beholden to the Governor for there position and the Montana Cattleman's Association (MCA), which is in lock step with the Democratic Party, has also come on board favoring the Governors split state idea. This is an interim step until the membership can vote on the idea but the leaders of the MCA are really pushing it. It will be interesting to see what the members of MCA think of the split state idea if they are allowed to vote on it. That's neither here nor their though.

Back to the split state idea though. Anybody that reads here knows I am not in favor of this split state idea. It is going to cost the state and cattle producers a lot of money for not much good. There is no proof that other states will respect the split state status, North Dakota says they won't, so all the money and work on it might not be for any good at all.

I would like to point something out about the split state status. If we were to have a buffer zone around Yellowstone National Park right now, it would be a Brucellosis free zone and the rest of Montana would be suspect since the Morgan's place, which recently had a Brucellosis problem is not within the buffer zone. It would fall in the state of Montana so actually one more Brucellosis case would screw Montana where it would take two in the buffer zone. Kind of backwards isn't it?

I want to point out one thing. All of this split state status is because of the recent Brucellosis outbreak at the Morgan's place in Bridger. Some of the cows on the place were traced back to Emigrant which is very close to Yellowstone National Park. So the assumption is that the Brucellosis that was found in the Morgan's herd was from wildlife in Yellowstone National Park. This has never been proven. As far as I am aware they have never been able to pinpoint where the Brucellosis came from that affected the Morgan's herd. My sources indicate that some of the Corriente cattle in the Morgan's herd, which they bought, were not vaccinated for Brucellosis and the herd they came from was not vaccinated. Again the same thing here, there is no proof one way or the other that these cattle are how the Brucellosis got into the herd but it is an interesting bit of information.

So why are we having this split state discussion when we have absolutely no concept how the Morgan's herd was infected? Since there is no proof, lots of speculation but no proof, it came from Yellowstone National Park, why are we having this argument? If we knew for sure it came out of Yellowstone national Park, it would be one thing but we don't. I know, we are doing it just in case. But if there is a second case we are screwed anyway. I don't feel the split state status is the answer. Putting our time and effort into leaning up the Brucellosis reservoir in the wildlife is a better idea. Not sacrificing ranchers in the buffer zone for the supposed safety for the rest of us.

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth. Jean de la Bruyere

I told you the other day that Gov. Brian Schweitzer knew he couldn't help the Morgans and Karen but just didn't want to tell them to their face. Today's article about the situation just confirms that.

A Bridger ranching family that had to slaughter all its stock because of a cattle disease won't get additional money from the state as reimbursement.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday that he cannot legally give the couple any state money.

"I am not sure how I can indemnify them beyond what they've already been paid," Schweitzer said.

I'm fully convinced the Governor knew this going into the meeting but just didn't want to have to tell the Morgans that. I can understand not wanting to give people bad news to their face, but the Governor should have been a man and gave them the real facts at the meeting instead of leaving them dangle.

Something else interesting in the article. If the state reimburses somebody for a brucellosis infected herd, the Feds just reduce the amount they pay by the amount the states pay.

There is a catch: If a state chooses to pay a rancher some money for the loss of a herd, APHIS will subtract that amount from the sum the agency offers, said Marty Zaluski, the Montana state veterinarian.

So in a way you can't fault the Governor for all of this. The Feds have it set up to hobble the states in this. Even if Montana were to set up a special fund to pay ranchers for their loss, the Feds would just pay less for the herd so the rancher would get less. As usual the Government gets you coming and going.

I said from the very beginning of this, how much do you pay for a herd of cows? How do you value it? How do you value the intangibles like good breeding that you have been working on for years? By market value they got a fair price.

The amount the Morgans received works out to about $1,600 per cow-calf pair.

That same week, similar cow-calf pairs sold for $1,300, according to information from the Billings Livestock Commission.

But, like Sandy Morgan says:

But that comparison isn't fair, Sandy Morgan said. Typically, ranchers sell their calves in October or November. They don't sell quality cows nor quality calves in the middle of the summer.

When all this happened it is not the time of year somebody would liquidate their herd so it's hard to compare the price they received with true market value of the herd, but again I ask, how can you value the intangibles fairly? Was Karen's intangible value more or less than the Morgan's and should one or the other receive more money for their cows? Tough questions if you ask me.

I guess I turn my thoughts back to another point I made in the very beginning. Why is it necessary to slaughter the whole herd for a few infected animals? Why couldn't we just get rid of the infected animals and do follow up monitoring on the rest of the herd that was all ready vaccinated for Brucellosis? There was only I believe 6 cows in the herd infected. That's all the loss would have been as long as no other critters showed up. Why slaughter a whole herd when it isn't necessary is beyond me. Slaughtering a whole herd is not how Brucellosis was wiped out in the state. Getting rid of infected animals and retesting herds is how Montana became brucellosis free. Why can't the same strategy be used now? This dumb cowboy will never know.

The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief. Jacques Ellul

As you may or may not know, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has proposed a buffer zone around Yellowstone National Park as an answer to the Brucellosis problem in the Park. I give him credit for trying to do something about the situation but I don't really think a buffer zone is the answer.

It doesn't look like North and South Dakota really like the idea either.

North Dakota does not recognize split-state status due to monitoring problems of the cattle coming from the state in this class. “Who monitors that?” Keller asked. “We need assurance that there are no violations with the movement of breeding cattle across that state.”

This concern was also addressed by Dr. Sam Holland, South Dakota state veterinarian. “It's hard enough with the state geographical boundaries as they are now,” he said. “A split-state status multiplies this difficulty and puts the cattle producers of South Dakota at risk.”

If this buffer zone is not acceptable to other states, what good is it doing us? None. I really think the buffer zone idea is dead in the water and needs to be thrown out. Placing the burden of Brucellosis in Yellowstone National Park on the few producers who would fall in the area is wrong. The burden of Brucellosis needs to be on the Federal government who controls the livestock, bison, where the problem resides.

The Feds need to get the Brucellosis under control in the Bison and they need to reduce the numbers of Bison in the park to control them wandering out of the Park. I find it interesting that if I as a private individual over graze my grass, environmentalist will scream bloody murder and want me to stop over grazing. If the Bison do it in YNP the environmentalist scream bloody murder that the Bison don't have more public lands to graze on. They don't seem to care about the over grazing. Interesting, isn't it.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty. David Hume

The Montana Stockgrowers Association has a little beef with Gov. Schweitzer. How much of there problem with him is real and how much is sour grapes I'm not sure. It used to be members of the Montana Stockgrowers dominated the Livestock board but nowadays they don't so I think some sour grapes is involved.

For the record I don't like the Governor's idea for a "brucellosis buffer zone" around Yellowstone National Park. It's not a good answer for the Fed's problem. Also for the record I can believe that the Governor is putting pressure on the board. That is his style of leading.

I still think the Stockgrowers are showing some sour grapes here. Whining that the Governor is strong arming the livestock board just shows weakness. Show your strength and fight him head on.

It's human nature to gripe, but I'm going ahead and doing the best I can. Elvis Presley