Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Montana Legislature alert. (I'll add this to all post that are very strictly about the Legislature for those not interested.)
With the Montana Legislature in session I have been paging through the bills proposed and a few caught my eye. Here is one.

SB 122

Establish ethanol education board

The board or the board's designee shall educate Montanans regarding the benefits, effects, and uses of ethanol and other biofuels as renewable alternative fuels to replace traditional fossil fuels.

Why in the hell do we need to spend our tax money on a board to "educate Montanans" about the use of alternative fuels? This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. A lot of people like ethanol and a lot don't but does the state government need to get into the job of shoving it down our throats? The money would be better used in our education system for general education, not on renewable fuels education. We don't need the Government ramming ethanol education down our throats, that's not their job.

This has been referred to the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee.

UPDATE: Hearing is set for 01/23/2007

Montana Legislature alert. (I'll add this to all post that are very strictly about the Legislature for those not interested.)
With the Montana Legislature in session I have been paging through the bills proposed and a few caught my eye. Here is one.

SB 2

Require availability of paper towels in public restrooms

This has the best intention at heart but seems a little over the edge to me. Read the list of things this department is to do and it's a large list of very important things and now this bill wants to tack on the end, "shall adopt and enforce rules requiring the use of paper towels in restrooms located in public accommodations, as defined in 49-2-101." It seems pretty minor to me. Shouldn't this be handled at the city and county level and not the State level of Government? Seems like it to me.

Referred to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee. Hearing date is scheduled for tomorrow, 01/05/2007.

I have been waiting for more information before commenting on the latest case of E-coli hitting our food markets. I see a little more information but no answers yet.

Officials: Lettuce source of E. coli

Lettuce was the most likely source of an outbreak of E. coli linked to Taco Bell, federal health officials said Wednesday.

Taco Bell had said contaminated green onions were responsible for the cases of food poisoning — 71 confirmed cases of E. coli in five states, primarily New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Follow-up government testing, however, failed to confirm that.

Interviews with patients and other work led them to believe that lettuce was the probable culprit, health officials said.

I took up this issue in my companion Blog, No Mandatory Animal ID, during the recent spinach E-coli scare. I renew the idea now.

Sounds pretty silly doesn't it. Tracking a leaf of spinach from field to consumer but that's what they want to do with animals. Why animals and not all food products? Or is the NAIS program just a precursor to labeling all food?

That's it, they will expand the NAIS system to include all food products including Spinach. Let's call it the Federal Uniform Calories Key Identification Tracking (FUCK IT). It will go right along with the Real ID program to track everything and everyone.

That's the answer, track every leaf of lettuce, spinach, every kernel of corn, every scallion and we will be protected from food borne illness. Let's all push for Federal Uniform Calories Key Identification Tracking to give the government ultimate control over our lives and food. If they want to track meat with NAIS why not track everything with the FUCK IT program? Makes sense to me.

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one. Mark Twain

If you have paid any attention to me at all, you know I don't support the governments NAIS efforts. We don't need the government mandating yet another expensive program that us producers can't afford to implement for them.

Yesterday I worked my replacement heifers, heifer calves that I am keeping to make cows out of, and as part of the process I had a veterinarian on hand to bangs (Brucellosis) vaccinate them. Now Bangs vaccination requires a vet to do it. He tattoos the animals ear with his tattoo identifying he done it and then puts a metal tag in their ear with a unique identification number along with giving them their vaccination of course.

I asked the vet why the unique id number on the bangs tag couldn't be used as part of the NAIS system. It is a unique number that is sent into the government identifying an animal to a person and I have personally seen it used to track a critter as mine in less than 24 hours. He informed me that technically it should work just as well if not better than the proposed NAIS if the government just handled the paperwork right. According to him to many states do not file the paperwork right, a lot of it finds file 13, so that it is not useful for tracking purposes.

So, instead of throwing a lot of money away devising a new system, why can't we throw some of it at the existing Bangs system to fix the paperwork problems on the government level to track breeding age cows through the US? One of the main reasons behind NAIS is BSE. Since this disease is not transfered from cow to cow and only occurs in older cattle, usually breeding stock, wouldn't it make since to fix the broken system instead of reinventing the wheel?

Typical government inefficiency. Don't fix the broken, just make a new bureaucracy.

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us. P. J. O'Rourke

Cross-posted to No Mandatory Animal ID

I see there are some ranchers complaining that the state isn't fast enough killing problem wolves. for their tastes.

State wildlife officials take too long to authorize the killing of problem wolves, ranchers and others said Friday at a meeting of the agency oversight committee of the Environmental Quality Council.

"It's like a guy's robbing a bank and you have to go get an arrest warrant," said committee member Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."

I have no experience yet, I repeat yet, on this issue so i don't know. It wouldn't surprise me though. Just reading the article it sounds like the State officials want to make sure of the situation before they go killing wolves to protect themselves from the Feds taking wolf control back over. Typical government cover your ass type reaction. Be afraid to make a decision because somebody might get mad at you and say you did something wrong. I would be upset to if I was losing stock and the state officials were hemming and hawing and not doing anything. Typical government mess.

Another story talks about the affects the wolves have on stock themselves and on their weight gain while on pasture.

Consequences of the federal wolf reintroduction program in the Northern Rockies may be visible on the dinner table soon, in the form of skimpier lamb chops and porterhouse steaks that expose more bone than beef.

For years, cattle ranchers and wool growers have fretted over wolves that kill dozens of cows and sheep each year. But the steepest price may be the declining weight of livestock terrified by the howls and footsteps of the stalking predators.

Currently, calves fetch $1.45 per pound on the market. So if wolves cause just a few lost pounds on each head of cattle, that quickly mounts into big losses, said Lloyd Knight, the executive director of the Idaho Cattle Association.

"When the cows are scared, they bunch together, they don't spread out like they're used to. They don't eat and drink - you can just tell they're losing weight," he said. "The loss of weight from the whole herd could cost far more than the depredation of a few calves. It's something we've been afraid of since the reintroduction program began."

Now I've never heard of this concern before with wolves returning to livestock areas. I am not an expert on these things so I won't even begin to say for sure. Are the ranchers just blowing smoke or is there something to it? It would be interesting to know more information on this. I'm assuming that this is just like any other story a person hears, there is a partial truth to it. There might be an affect on livestock weight gain but the article overstates it. With the ranching business every dollar lost hurts so I can see why the ranchers are complaining. I mean really, the opening paragraph is a little overstated since not all meat comes from the area where wolves presently are, I know they keep moving further out, so not all critters are affected at this time so I don't know how a consumer will notice "skimpier lamb chops and porterhouse steaks." A little overstated. More information would be of interest.

For the record, I don't like the wolf return to the area. It has not effected my cattle operation yet but I know it will. Sensible procedures on how to deal with them and their removal from the Endangered Species list is necessary for Ranchers to protect their livelihood from this animal. The sooner these things are done the better. I'll keep watching and praying that wolves don't end up around here but I know better. The day is coming and I dread it.

A lot of people are complaining about the profits the oil industry is making and have all kinds of solutions as to how to help consumers past this stretch of high gas prices. The stupidest of these I've heard is a $100 fuel-cost rebate for millions of taxpayers and suspending the federal 18.4-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax.

What good is $100 going to do me with gas prices the way they are? One hundred dollars doesn't go very far in the Last Best Place and the distances we travel. It's nothing more than a big joke. How much administrative overhead will there be involved in issuing this money out to people? The Government doesn't do anything cheap so I bet this will cost taxpayers at least twice what they receive to get their own damn money back from the government. Lastly how much fraud will there be since the government is handing out money? Offer money like this and fraud happens, pure and simple. Some criminally minded, enterprising individuals, will find a way to get extra money out of this ill advised scheme, guaranteed. Overall the $100 fuel-cost rebate is an idiotic idea.

Now on to suspending the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. Another monumentally stupid idea. Consumer usage of gasoline is, for the most part, dependent on the supply and demand equation. If prices drop for gasoline 18.4-cent-per-gallon all of a sudden, the consumer will just see lower prices and consume more gas at the lower price than if it was a higher price which will drive prices back up. Consumers just accept the tax as part of the price of gas and adjust their buying habits accordingly. So it doesn't do any good in the long run. It might give short term, couple of weeks, relief from prices but they will just drift back up due to demand.

Also, that tax money is all ready spent for highway projects throughout the US so suspending the tax means money going out to the projects still but no money coming in to the treasury. Yea, that's all we need, a bigger deficit to deal with along with high fuel prices. Not real smart.

The easiest way to combat these prices? try to adjust your driving habits so you use less gas. I have here on the ranch. Plant crops that require less farming with a tractor. Make every trip out to work count, plan more jobs per trip, so that you drive around less. Go to town less often and do more when you do go to town. These things are not a lot of fun but they are what you have to do to survive. Bitching and moaning don't get you very far, figuring out ways to cope does.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise. Victor Hugo

Who will pay for wolf costs undecided

Since it first declared gray wolves in need of protection, the federal government has paid the bill to help rebuild the predator's population in the Northern Rockies.

But with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now declaring wolves recovered and eager to hand off full management to the three states involved, the question becomes: Who will pay to manage the predators then?

It's like two dogs fighting over the same bone. Who will pay? THE TAXPAYERS YOU IDIOTS!! Whether it's the Federal or the State it all comes form the taxpayers, it's just a different base of taxpayers. My opinion? The people of the US want this more than the people of Montana so the pain should be spread over the whole US and not just the state. Will that happen, no.

If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? Will Rogers

Boy, it must be nice to have all that money to burn on a facility designed and built by Dr. Temple Grandin.

Facility will handle livestock peacefully

A new livestock handling facility that will have curved chutes, round pens and other stress-reducing innovations will be built this year at Montana State University's Northern Agricultural Research Center near Havre, said Superintendent Gregg Carlson.

Based on the recommendations of an international expert whose autism gives her insights into handling livestock more peacefully, the facility will give producers in Montana and surrounding states an opportunity to see and evaluate modern working facilities and new technologies to benefit their operations, Carlson said.

It sure sounds like an awful expensive and complicated facility for 300-400 cow operation. Most cattle producers can't afford such complicated systems. Don't get me wrong, Dr. Temple Grandin designs cattle working facilities that are just wonderful but to convert over to one is so expensive as to be cost prohibitive.

They hope to start building it June 1 and hope to be done by Oct 1. Damn it's taking them a long time to build this. That just tells me how expensive it must be. I could completely rebuild my facility in less than 2 weeks if I wanted too. Don't get me wrong, I can't afford to, but it sure wouldn't take that long.

Then look at all the special, expensive, things they have to do for National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Boss said the new facility will use thick plastic walls instead of steel in areas where the ear tags will be read.

"The reader area will be made out of high density polyethylene, much like the new cutting boards in kitchens today -- very strong and reducing the amount of interference with the radio frequency," he said.

Boy, that's real handy isn't it. Redesign your whole facility for NAIS convenience, but they tell me it will cost no significant amount of money. What, do these special plastic corrals grow on trees free for the taking? I don't think so! If you are a government sponsored entity you just get money to burn so burn they do. Just more Government propaganda about the supposed great deal NAIS is. That NAIS freight train will kill all us cattle producers yet. Just give the Government enough time.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. Eric Hoffer