Posted on 10/07/2013 6:29:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A record-breaking storm that dumped 4 feet of snow in parts of western South Dakota left ranchers dealing with heavy losses, in some cases perhaps up to half their herds, as they assess how many of their cattle died during the unseasonably early blizzard.
Meanwhile, utility companies were working to restore power to tens of thousands of people still without electricity Monday after the weekend storm that was part of a powerful weather system that also buried parts of Wyoming and Colorado with snow and produced destructive tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa. At least four deaths were attributed to the weather, including a South Dakota man who collapsed while cleaning snow off his roof. …
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Damn. I’m nursing a sunburned neck from a few hours at the shooting range Saturday morning. Had to use mosquito spray on my legs because I wore shorts.
Oh! I know where that is! We stay there when we are in Rapid.
I’ve done it in the past, I am too old to do it now. I loved it when I was actively farming and now I love that there are younger farmers who are willing to do it. Part of retirement is being able to rent the land rather than sell it. I don’t have a 401k or pension - this IS my retirement fund.
I was in San Antonio over the weekend playing golf ay the JW Marriot TPC course. Nice hill country.
True, but OCCASIONALLY there is a freak frost and ALL the strawberries and/or grapes die. (Price of wine skyrocketed; no farmer took the loss.) It's happened more than once in my life, with crops.
I remember a swarm of millions (Carl Sagan's "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS!!!") of locusts ... oh, that was in Saudi Arabia, not California. :o) Sorry. Getting my bugs and catastrophes mixed up.
I have never sailed, but I imagine if I tried to be an authority on sailing I would sound as ignorant as you do about ranching.
There is so much you don’t know that you really aren’t making sense. First of all a ranch of any size has different areas that offer lower elevation, more shelter in the way of terrain or brush, things of that type. No need to move cattle all the way out of a storm to make a huge difference. Most ranches especially those with harsh winters have summer range and winter range and likely the cattle had not yet been moved to winter range where plans are in place to feed and care for the animals through the winter- feed storage and the like. It is not as easy as you seem to think to move cattle on the spur of the moment. Another issue is when the cattle are moved normally to winter range neighbors help each other, when it is an emergency situation the neighbors would need to move their own at the same time you would need to move yours so help is likely not available. Not to mention the hardship on the people trying to take care of the cattle in harsh weather that is at the wrong time of the year. Most of the people were likely thinking early snowfall, not catastrophic storm.
As to cattle knowing a storm is coming and being able to save themselves- they do know, and if there were no fences they would try very hard to drift away from the storm. With all the fences now they are essentially trapped, though even when fences are not an issue freak storms- wet heavy snow with harsh bitter cold wind at an unlikely time of the year have trapped and killed cattle before at astonishing rates.
I also have no idea why so many think it is somehow not harmful to a rancher to lose half his herd, or that the high price of meat will make up for that. First you would have to stay in business in order to cash in on high prices that may or may not happen as a result of this. Many also seem convinced all this is covered by insurance which may not be true. Many smaller ranchers cannot afford to insure everything on the place, or hardly anything on the place- most ranching is more hanging on by a shoe string than most think.
In several of the photos I’ve seen the snow fences didn’t hold because it was so heavy a snowfall...and those keeping cattle in also fell.
Of course, NOW she complains about other things...traffic, idiot drivers, no parking. Major duh.
I’m not saying there isn’t weather related issues in CA, there is everywhere. But CA farms are small acrage wise and in many ways more manageable. I knew several farmers in the Central Valley and it was a shock to see the difference from what our farm was.
Before I lost my husband we had a Case New Holland Farm Equip. business along with hardware all geared to the farmers in our area. I didn't realize the hours nor the work these businesses entailed until I married him and saw first hand.
We lived close to the business in order to accommodate farmers emergencies....and they often can come in waves when weather occurs or during seasonal times. Basically we kept farmer/rancher hours when it came to opening the business for them off hours...and we did just that.
I truly got an education! And I will add this...there are no better people then there are farmers and ranches .....amazing individuals in every way..and so are their wives!
I have lived through it. After the snow melts they will bring out semis to haul off the dead cattle so they are not left to rot.
Here is a pic I just found using google, posted today:
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=422110&mid=3371521#M3371521
+1
;)
You chose the perfect pension. The land is always going to be there.
I bet you also have SOME fiduciary back up. You're too smart to have NOTHING else. :o)
Will Al Gore compensate them for their losses?
Oh my gosh, seriously. Ranches out here are bigger than cities. It isn’t like you can just run out and open the gate and get them all in the yard. These are huge operations and it is early October.
more pics.
Seriously, 23 Everest, these aren’t people given to lying. These are hardworking, real Americans.
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