Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Mike over at The Last Best Place has announced he is moving from Montana to elsewhere. His reason why he is leaving really caught my eye.

To make a long story short I made the difficult decision to move the nuts and bolts of my operation to NoDak, where the business climate is generally more favorable for continued expansion. From taxes to the insurance rates I pay for my employees and myself, NoDak is hard to beat, especially compared with the outright hostility many in Montana hold for private enterprise, so for the first time in over a decade I'll be sending money to somewhere other than Helena.

There are all kinds of people that will try to tell you how Montana is favorable to business. Very few if any of them that say this are business owners though. The number of people I see move across the border to another state because the business climate is better is unbelievable. Most of them still do business in Montana, they just find it cheaper to locate the business out of state and commute in to the state to do their business. Think about this, with energy prices the way they are, businesses find it cheaper to locate out of state and commute in. This is really a powerful statement about the business climate here in Montana no matter what people say about Montana being good to business or that business should do thier "fair share'". Talk is one thing but voting with your feet is a powerful statement that can't be ignored.

I wish Mike all the best in his move and hope it works out for him, which I'm sure it will. I understand the business decision on why to move. I'm sure it was a tough decision to leave The Last Best Place, but circumstances has led him that way. I just wonder when the politicians in Helena will figure out how they discriminate against businesses when compared to other states and how they drive people out of the state with their policies. I keep hearing the politicians about how we need more of our kids to stay in the state but if we keep driving the producers of jobs, businesses, out of state, how are they supposed to stay here?

Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks. Mark Twain

Hey Tom, I got your package in the mail today. All I will say here is thanks, I really appreciate it.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. Gilbert K. Chesterton

From my friend over at Northview Diary. It is so true.

People never grow up; they just learn how to act in public.

I will join Craig in saying "The Duck Keeps Zapping My Comments."

Does this explain What happened to our community? Our comments keep getting zapped? I don't think so but it might play a part.

My Comment that keeps disappearing to The Duck.

Thine arrow wounds me deeply. Whilst I have noted the same occurrences as you, the thought of voicing my thoughts on it never occurred to my feeble brain. The loss of camaraderie has bothered me and maybe you have the right idea. Reconnect face to face would help some. I would be more than delighted to see you while you visit the Magic City. E-mail me and let me know your plans, maybe The Darling Wife and me can connect.

Well, we won for another year. We got the big branding done. It went very well. I had a very experienced crew of neighbors helping which makes all the difference in the world. All the riders knew what they were doing and did it well, no wrecks getting the cattle in, and the ground work was easy. For the most part camaraderie flowed well and people enjoyed the event. Yea, my branding is sometimes an event.



Old neighbors, new neighbors, and friends all travel to enjoy an easy day of working together and enjoying the lifestyle. As much stress and work as your own branding is, it is even enjoyable for us. There is always some people that don't get the enjoyment out of the branding but the majority do and that's what's important. Well, that and getting the calves branded.

We had a heavy thunderstorm that went through Friday night and really that helped the situation out. It rained enough to settle the dust and make for a very enjoyable branding. As dry as it was it could have been very dusty but with the rain there was no dust. It was a little muggy and warm by lunch time, but nice.

With few exceptions, a nice, fun, productive and friendly day.

A herd of passion
a portentous heat be,
discord some revel.
Sarpy Sam

I always here people say they are their kids best friend and are proud of that. Look at what that kind of thinking brings around.

Boy Does Homework, Smokes Pot With Mom

A 13-year-old boy told police his mother required him to do his homework first thing when he got off the school bus, then smoked marijuana with him as a reward.

The mother said she had been smoking marijuana with her son since he was 11, usually as a reward, according to court documents.

The police interview came after officers executed a search warrant at the woman's home last weekend and seized marijuana, an array of drug paraphernalia and $600 in cash that she said belonged to a drug dealer, court documents said.

I can't believe this kind of stuff. They say it's as a reward but it's also being a buddy to your kid.

My oldest particularly says she is glad we are her parents and not her friends. She sees to many kids around school whose parents are their friends and she doesn't like what she sees. No discipline, no responsibility, drugs and alcohol, and no thoughts about how their actions affect others. Just the ability to do whatever they want when they want it.

She says sometimes it might be nice to do what she wants but in the long run having parents that set limits is nice. It sure is nice to know being a hard assed parent is appreciated once in a while. It's not a lot of fun at times but it will yield a better person in the long run.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears. Francis Bacon

Some people say small towns are a great place to be. Sometimes I am not to sure. I have seen too many times where somebody who wasn't born, raised and inbred in the small town gets the cold shoulder by the local inbreds no matter how long they have been there. Somebody out there knows who I am talking about. Just remember these words.

Nill illigitimi carborundum

Fate chooses our relatives, we choose our friends. Jacques Delille

I post here an article in it's entirety as I found it for My Darling Wife and all women like her in the farm and ranch business whether mentioned here or not.. Continue reading "Perception" »

My friend in New York has a great picture up of what exactly happens to the type of tags the USDA wants us to use in this NAIS scheme. I couldn't agree more, I see this all the time with my cattle.

She then continues in another post about the Tags and how they stay in and how badly they are needed.

And tagging doesn't carry a lot of weight anyhow. We have a pen with eleven yearlings in it. All were tagged with the same type of tagging system the government advocates. THREE still have their tags! THREE!

Mine aren't even bunk fed and we have the same problem. Missing and lost tags.

And then there is the fact that about twenty years ago an animal from here triggered a test at the state when we sent her to the auction. There was nothing wrong with her, they had just changed the test and it was so super sensitive that there were a lot of false positives. You know what? They were on our farm testing the whole herd the next day. No forty-eight hour trace back, more like eighteen! They don't need a new system to trace back cows. They just want more control over our personal property.

I couldn't agree more. Why is this necessary when there are perfectly adequate methods now for this. A couple of years ago I was getting a load of old cows ready to go to market. One of the things I do is brand inspect them to make sure they all belong to me before I ship them. I recognized them all so it was not a problem but I went the=rough the formalities anyway. Low and behold one of the cows did not have my brand on her. In fact, she had absolutely no brand on her at all. I knew the cow well, she had a real wild eye to her and had been giving me trouble for years so I knew she was mine but I had no brand to prove it.

After consulting with the brand inspectors about what to do I shipped her to market as a stray so that they could try to identify who she belonged to. Within 12 hours they had positively identified the cow as mine and sold her in my name. How did they manage this? Through the existing brucellosis tag, and ear mark. Easy and no fuss or muss. No complicated ear tag needed. The existing laws and procedure in the state handled it no problem. So why is NAIS needed?

I still say it's a scheme by the meat packers to blame their problems on the small producers pure and simple. Maybe it's a test run for ID'ing all humans in the US too. Who knows or cares. NAIS needs opposed and now. We need to derail this before it goes any further. Mandatory Animal ID is wrong. If a producer wants to voluntarily do it thinking he is going to make more money that should be his choice, not something he is forced into by the government.

Remember, an ID number never stopped a disease.

The view only changes for the lead dog. Norman O. Brown

It appears THE LOSER is gone. I don't know if he did it or Yahoo took him done but there is no evidence of him per se (Just for you Craig). Irregardless ( again just for you Craig) I am happy to see him disappear. I did hear from Yahoo on the issue and filled out their compliant form so Yahoo gets a thumbs up for following through.

Thanks everybody for the support and help on this issue. Also a big hi to one of THE LOSER's friends, CindyDianne, who stopped by and plans on sticking around. I welcome her, it's not her fault what happened and everybody is welcome here.

All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible. George Santayana

One of the things I really like about the Internet and blogs is the new things you can learn, if you have an open enough mind to read and learn things that is. I have been learning a lot about the dairy industry over at Northview Diary and the education has been interesting at times. Yesterday I read an offhanded remark about something called milk protein concentrate and how this substance affects the dairy industry and you and me.

Imported illegal dairy additives, called milk protein concentrate (MPC), play a major role in family farmers' devastated milk price, which plummeted over the past five years. Large corporations use MPC over domestically produced dairy additives, such as nonfat dry milk, because it increases the amount of cheese produced for a given volume of milk, allowing lower investment costs for the same, or more, product output.

Increasing U.S. imports and MPC use in products leaves more dry milk on the U.S. market, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) buys under its price support program. From 1996 to 2000, CCC support program costs increased by $572 million-an additional cost to taxpayers directly linked to displaced dry milk saturating dairy markets.

A wide spread of the MPC product entering the U.S. is simply a blend assembled for the purpose of legally circumventing U.S. tariffs. MPC is shipped to the U.S. as a chemical or pharmaceutical product, circumventing dairy tariff and quota rate schedules, allowing corporations to skirt the limits imposed by current World Trade Organization (WTO) trade agreements.

I complain about the big meat packers and the dairy industry has to worry about them and the big milk processors. It's kind of scary when you think about it that some substance that is considered a "chemical or pharmaceutical product" is used to make cheap cheese in the US. Then, because of this substance in our food us as taxpayers have more milk products to buy since it's not being used in the market.

What I always find amazing is how simple farmers and ranchers are out there fighting for food safety against these big corporations and the government continually sides with the big corporations against the food safety and security the farmers and ranchers want. There is a reason for this I hope you know. Keeping food cheap is one of the main goals of our government because starving people cause revolutions, well fed people don't rock the boat. By caving to the big corporations to keep food cheap they stay in power and keep the people complacent and happy. I hope you are all fat and happy, while the small farmers and ranchers go under.

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is. Winston Churchill

Everybody knows my position on the big meat packers and Texas cattle feeders and how these big guys influence the cattle business. Over at Northview Diary I found the Dairy producers Take on big producers and the effect on them.

However, the free and easy import of Canadian cows is rough for smaller dairy farmers as it facilitates further expansion for the big guys, some of whom import a tractor trailer load of springing heifers every few weeks. This increases the supply of milk and, with that old debbul cause and effect, it also lowers milk prices for everyone.

The post also explains how the border closure with Canada affected dairy producers and how opening the border up is going to hurt small farmers.

Then there is the marketing situation. Milk supply in the USA is controlled almost entirely by a few gigantic food companies.

Same thing for beef producers. A few large companies control the processing so they control the market to a large degree.

Beef producers and Dairy producers are not always on the same page when it comes to what they want in agriculture, but it sure is interesting to read the problems small dairy producers are running into and understand them. Thanks Marianne for the wonderful information. Your a must read for me. I wish there was some advice I could give you that would help. Keep your head up and keep plugging away. Thanks for what you do.

If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope. Jacques Yves Cousteau