Rise and fall of the sheep and wool era in South Texas

Like the cowboy and vaquero, the shepherd was at home in South Texas. Flocks of sheep grazed the range from Corpus Christi to Laredo, making this one of the top wool-producing places in the country. Carretas loaded with wool, from as far away as Mexico, rolled into Corpus Christi, one of the world’s great wool markets. The sheep era began about 1850 when W. W. Chapman, an Army officer, was transferred to Corpus Christi to head the Army’s new 8th Military District depot. Chapman realized that the area’s rich grasslands made ideal sheep country. He set up a sheep camp on Santa Gertrudis Creek and brought in purebred Merinos from Pennsylvania. The Merino, unmatched for the quality of its wool, was too delicate for this climate. While Mexican sheep could take the heat, they had a coarse wool. Chapman figured that fine-wooled Merinos bred with tough Mexican sheep would produce a hardy breed with a fine fleece. Merino cross-breeds became the golden fleece of South Texas. James Bryden, a sheepman from Scotland, was among immigrants attracted here by Henry Kinney’s land promotion efforts. Chapman hired Bryden to handle his sheep. In payment for watching the flock, Bryden was given part of the natural increase and a share in the wool profits. Bryden grazed the sheep along Santa Gertrudis Creek. The following year, in 1853, Richard King bought 15,000 acres to begin his ranch near the Chapman sheep camp. King purchased 10 Merino bucks and 42 Mexican ewes; within a decade, he had some 40,000 sheep. His main sheep camp was called Borregas...CallerTimes

Oil & Milk

We will stick with oil as long as oil is cheaper than milk. Oil $74.16 a barrel, milk $168 a barrel.

From OzoneSky and based on this Bloomberg article.

Song Of The Day #123

Ranch Radio says let's have a double doss of Al Dexter and His Troopers this morning.

We'll start with his #1 hit from 1943 Pistol Packin' Mama. Republic Pictures made a movie with the same title and based on the song, and the tune became the marching chorus for the 1943 New York Yankess. We'll follow that with I Learned About Love.

Dexter was another one of those early country singers who seemed to have heck with women. Poor ol' Al, they were either packin' a gun or hangin' around cocktail bars.

Go here to check out his music.

EPA should set nutrient limits to block dead zones, agency's inspector general says

The Environmental Protection Agency should move immediately to adopt enforceable limits on the release of nutrient pollutants -- such as fertilizer and sewage -- into rivers and streams to halt the creation of dangerously low oxygen areas in water bodies, and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico should be one of its first targets, the agency's Office of Inspector General said in a report made public today. "We believe selecting nationally significant waters and acting to set standards for nutrients in them is a minimal first step if EPA is to meet the requirements of the (Clean Water Act)," the report said. "Critical national waters such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River require standards that, once set, will affect multiple upstream states," the report said. "These states have not yet set nutrient standards for themselves; consequently it is EPA's responsibility to act." Nutrient pollution is regulated under the federal Clean Water Act, which requires federal and state governments to assure that rivers, streams, estuaries and coastal waters are "fishable and swimmable."...nola.com

Environmentalists Slow to Adjust in Climate Debate

The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy. Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power. But when environmentalists showed up in this college town -- closer than ever to congressional passage of a climate-change bill, in the middle of the green movement's biggest political test in a generation -- they provided . . . a sedate panel discussion. And they gave away stickers. It seems that environmentalists are struggling in a fight they have spent years setting up. They are making slow progress adapting a movement built for other goals -- building alarm over climate change, encouraging people to "green" their lives -- into a political hammer, pushing a complex proposal the last mile through a skeptical Senate. Even now, these groups differ on whether to scare the public with predictions of heat waves or woo it with promises of green jobs. And they are facing an opposition with tycoon money and a gift for political stagecraft...WPost

Naturally Occurring Methane Vents May Spell Climate Trouble

Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence -- and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world. "On a calm day, you can see 20 or more ‘seeps’ out across this lake," said Canadian researcher Rob Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A tossed match would have set it ablaze. "It's essentially pure methane." Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global-warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a climate catastrophe. Is such an unlocking under way?. In 2007, air monitors detected a rise in methane concentrations in the atmosphere, apparently from far northern sources. Russian researchers in Siberia expressed alarm, warning of a potential surge in the powerful greenhouse gas, additional warming of several degrees, and unpredictable consequences for Earth's climate...AP

New Culprit Seen in Ozone Depletion

Government scientists who study the depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer are pointing to a previously unheralded culprit: nitrous oxide. Most of the nitrous oxide in the atmosphere emerges naturally, through the action of bacteria in the soil, the researchers say. But the gas is also produced by human activity, through the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, the application of livestock manure to fields, the burning of biofuels and in other ways. Though nitrous oxide is not regulated under the Montreal Protocol, the 1987 agreement to limit emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals, the researchers say it is emerging as the leading artificial cause of ozone loss. The researchers, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, report their findings in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. The Environmental Protection Agency is already contemplating action on nitrous oxide because it is a heat-trapping gas linked to global warming. In April, the agency declared it and five other gases, including carbon dioxide, to be pollutants that endanger public health, making them subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. In a statement, the agency said Thursday that work on a reporting system for emissions of nitrous oxide and the five gases was under way...NYTimes

Feds to consider protections for Sonoran desert tortoise

The federal government has agreed to consider whether the Sonoran desert tortoise, a Southwest icon whose population has declined by half in the past 20 years, warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. Two environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the tortoise, found in southwest Arizona and northern Mexico, as a distinct population. The agency said Friday it would review the status of the tortoise and any threats to its habitat. "We expect that the service's detailed scientific review will show that listing is required to conserve these icons of the desert Southwest," said Michael Connor of the Western Watersheds Project, which along with WildEarth Guardians filed the petition. The tortoise is among 13 species and plants that environmentalists sought protection for with a series of petitions filed last fall as part of their "Western Ark" project. Lawsuits followed in many of the cases for the species, whose ranges span more than a dozen states and stretch into Mexico and Canada. The latest was filed in Texas this week over six freshwater mussels found in the U.S. southeast...AP

EPA seeks reduced emissions at Four Corners plant

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working to improve regional air visibility, has requested reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions at the Four Corners Power Plant, a coal-fired facility that emits the nation's highest levels of the pollutant. Regulators on Friday initiated a 30-day public comment period on the proposed plan to require the Arizona Pubic Service Co. facility to install the most efficient available technology to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter, pollutants believed to cause haze throughout the Four Corners region. The action is being taken through the EPA Regional Haze Program, designated by Congress in 1999 to improve visibility in all national parks, national monuments and wilderness areas. The EPA has cited 16 protected locations within a 300 kilometer radius where air visibility is reportedly hindered by the Four Corners Power Plant, including the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park and Mesa Verde National Park. The proposed projects are estimated to cost between $435 million and $917 million to install, depending on which technologies the EPA requires at the Four Corners Power Plant, according to APS. Although the proposed emission cuts to improve regional air visibility was not a surprise requirement for the facility that provides electricity across Arizona, Utah and California, the continued expense for this and other proposed air quality regulation programs could test whether coal-generated power will continue to be an affordable energy source...FarmingtonDailyTimes

Cloud seeding

When Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy suggested the agency fund a shuttering Desert Research Institute cloud seeding program, it turned more than a few heads. The project is vital to a stable water supply in Northern Nevada, but what does it have to do with Southern Nevada? The authority has been involved in the institute’s cloud-seeding program for years — but not in Nevada. It has paid the research institute $121,000 over the past three years to conduct cloud-seeding research and spur precipitation in the mountains between Denver and Grand Junction, Colo. The bill went to the authority’s Enterprise Fund, which gets most of its money from wholesale delivery charges to municipal water agencies. Because 90 percent of Las Vegas’ drinking water comes from the Colorado River, and because snowmelt from the upper basin has dropped amid the drought, paying for cloud seeding there made sense. In that case, the authority was effectively trying to create its own water. Desert Research Institute has 23 cloud-seeding stations in Nevada and six in the Sierra Nevada range along the California-Nevada border. They create about 65,000 acre-feet of precipitation each year in Nevada, mostly in the form of snow, according to institute data...LasVegasSun

Mexico City - A looming water disaster

As it has in much of Texas, drought has clobbered great swaths of Mexico this year, killing crops and livestock and threatening to dehydrate major cities. Among the harder hit is Mexico City and its sprawling suburbs, thirsty home to some 22 million people. Taps already are running dry for weeks at a time in large sections of the metroplex, especially in poorer neighborhoods. Officials warn that without extraordinary deluges in the coming weeks, extreme scarcity will stalk the area once the dry season begins in late October. The sierra-encircled basin that holds the Mexican capital was a vast lake bed when the Spaniards took it from the Aztecs nearly 500 years ago. Planners have been draining it ever since to make way for humans, treating the area's water more as a nuisance than a necessity. That worked pretty well for a very long time. It doesn't any more. In one indication of the stress, “fossil water” that's 2,000 years old is being pumped up from an aquifer beneath one parched section of Mexico City this summer. “The problem in the Valley of Mexico is the over-exploitation of the aquifers,” said Jose Luis Luege, director of the National Water Commission. “That is problem number one.” Cutzamala and other systems that supply the Mexico City basin now hold but a fraction of their normal volumes. To assure a supply of water during the coming dry season, local officials this month ordered a 30 percent cutback in the supply from those reservoirs to the city...HoustonChronicle

Grizzly kills 13 sheep on grazing allotment

Wildlife managers say a grizzly bear killed 13 sheep last month on a grazing allotment in Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Mark Bruscino, bear management program supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said the bear killed eight ewes and five lambs Aug. 15. Bruscino estimates grizzlies have killed 35 cattle and 45 sheep statewide so far this year. “[Livestock losses] are not unusual where grizzly bears and domestic sheep overlap,” Bruscino said. “That applies to some degree with black bears.” Wildlife Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, responded to the scene and said the sheep were killed by a grizzly bear based on the tracks, Bruscino said. Officials have not attempted to relocate or kill the grizzly, in part because of the remote location where the incident occurred...JacksonHoleDaily

Idaho wildlife manager talks about elk herds and wolf packs

Fewer North Idaho families will have elk steaks in their freezers this fall. Two severe winters, plus a growing wolf population, have dramatically reduced elk calf survival rates. To allow the herds to recover, wildlife managers shortened hunting seasons by seven to 14 days. The cutbacks affect archery, rifle and muzzleloader seasons. Jim Hayden, Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s regional wildlife manager, discussed the situation last week. Q.How many fewer elk calves are you seeing? A.This year, we counted 12 calves for every 100 cows. We’ve been at a ratio of 40 to 45 calves for every 100 cows. That’s high production and we’ve had that for the last seven to eight years. We want a ratio of at least 30. Q.How much mortality was caused by wolves, as opposed to the deep snows? A.Just from winter alone, we know we had some substantial losses. We had more snow than we did in 1996, when there were functionally no wolves, and we still lost perhaps a quarter of the elk that winter. …Where there were no wolves, the calf ratio dropped to the 20s this spring. Where we had wolves, we saw the ratio drop to nine calves per 100 cow elk...SpokesmanReview

With No Order From Judge, Wolf Season Is Set to Begin

The first legal wolf hunt in decades in the continental United States appeared likely to begin in Idaho on Tuesday after a federal judge did not immediately rule Monday on an effort by environmentalists to stop the hunt and return the animal to the endangered species list. At the end of a three-hour hearing on Monday morning, Judge Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court in Montana said he would make a decision “as quickly as I can” but also said he first needed to review documents filed in the case. Some leaders of the 13 groups that filed suit had hoped Judge Molloy would issue an injunction against the hunt from the bench on Monday. Now, given the uncertainty of the judge’s time frame, said Doug Honnold, the lead lawyer for the 13 groups, “the hunters are going to start tomorrow, and it’s up to the judge to stop it.” He said it could be several days before Judge Molloy ruled. Federal and state wildlife officials say multiple studies have established that the wolf population is healthy and growing and that the management programs put in place by Idaho and Montana will keep the animal from becoming endangered again...NYTimes

Economy has horse owners abandoning animals - Arizona

In a bad economy, some horse owners who can't pay the bills are abandoning their animals to get rid of the responsibility of caring for them. Public officials and horse-rescue groups talk about animals left behind in places such as national forests, near horse-riding trails or just tied to a gate at someone's house. Some are keeping their horses but are having trouble with the high cost of maintaining and caring for them. It has been a problem since the economy turned sour, and the people who deal with it say it's not getting better. "It's a sad, sad situation," said Holly Marino, founder of Horse Rescue of North Scottsdale. Some people just take horses wherever they can and leave them. Some owners call the rescue agencies, which try to take in the animals. Rescue groups also can get horses that are seized by law enforcement in animal-abuse cases and from the state Department of Agriculture, which is in charge of handling stray or abandoned livestock. Horses taken by the department that are not claimed as strays go to auction...Way down at the end of the article they finally get around to the change in the law...Another factor in the horse surplus: The slaughter of horses has been banned in the United States since 2007. Rescue groups worry, though, that some horses sold at auction wind up in slaughterhouses in other countries...ArizonaRepublic

Keep your self-righteous fingers off my processed food

Just in time for the worst economic downturn since the Depression, here comes a new crop of social critics to inform us that we're actually spending too little for the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the furniture we sit on and the gasoline that runs our automobiles. Never mind that U.S. job losses these days range from 200,000 to 500,000 a month, that foreclosures are up 32% over this time last year and that people are re-learning how to clip newspaper coupons so as to save at the supermarket. Dire economic circumstances don't seem to faze these spending enthusiasts, who scold us for shopping at supermarkets instead of at farmer's markets, where a loaf of "artisanal" (and also "sustainable") rye bread sells for $8, ice cream for $6 a cup and organic tomatoes go for $4 a pound. The most zealous of the spend-more crowd, however, are the food intellectuals who salivated, as it were, at a steep rise in the cost of groceries earlier this year, including such basics as milk and eggs. Some people might worry about the effect on recession-hit families of a 17% increase in the price of milk, but not Alice Waters, the food-activist owner of Berkeley's Chez Panisse restaurant, who shudders at the thought of sampling so much as a strawberry that hasn't been nourished by organic compost and picked that morning at a nearby farm -- and thinks everyone else in America should shudder too. "Make a sacrifice on the cellphone or the third pair of Nike shoes," Waters airily informed the New York Times in April. Echoing Waters was her fellow Berkeley food guru, Michael Pollan, professor of science journalism (a hot field for social critics, obviously) at UC Berkeley. Pollan (no relation to Robert Pollin) is the author of the best-selling "Omnivore's Dilemma" and coiner of the mantra "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" that is on the lips of every foodie from Bainbridge Island to Martha's Vineyard. Pollan too rejoiced at the idea of skyrocketing prices for groceries, hoping they might "level the playing field for sustainable food that doesn't rely on fossil fuels."...LATimes

WTO OKs $295 million in Brazilian sanctions on US - Cotton Subsidies

American goods will face around $295 million in annual sanctions as a result of the United States' failure to eliminate illegal subsidies to U.S. cotton growers, the World Trade Organization ruled Monday. Monday's ruling was the fifth major decision since the Brazilian government brought the case to the WTO in 2002, alleging that the U.S. was able to retain its place as the world's second-largest cotton producer by paying out some $3 billion to American farmers each year. China is the largest exporter of cotton, while Brazil is fifth. The WTO's condemnation of the U.S. in September 2004 was seen as a victory for Brazil and for West African countries that claimed to have been harmed by the subsidies. Three decisions since have confirmed that U.S. support programs unfairly help U.S. producers undersell foreign competitors and depress world market prices, dealing a double blow to cotton growers in Brazil and elsewhere. In response to the legal defeats, the U.S. Congress has scrapped some export credits and in 2006 repealed the "Step-2" cotton-marketing program that made payments to exporters and domestic mill users as compensation for buying higher-priced American cotton. But last year it approved a new farm bill worth nearly $300 billion that left a number of other contentious cotton programs intact...AP

NAIS 'won't happen' if not made mandatory

Special coverage from the National Conference on Animal Identification (ID INFO) in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 25-27 For a meat procurement specialist like Kevin Bost, animal identification is an animal health issue but even more a food safety issue, and "a good idea" for the livestock and meat sectors. It also needs to be "a government-sponsored mandatory program," or it won't happen, he said in opening the final day of the conference. Bost, a meat procurement and risk management strategies consultant in Chicago, Ill., said there are two ways to effect change, either by economic incentives or government mandate. The first us normally the best means to effect change but won't work for NAIS, he said, explaining that there won't be enough economic incentive for cow/calf producers because consumers won't pay enough premium for the beef that they buy in retail stores for it to be channeled back to the packer/processor, feedlot and cow/calf producer to cover the producer's costs of participation. The consumer won't do that because "mainstream" customers shopping supermarkets are not concerned where their beef and other food come from due to "a fairly good appreciation of farmers" and confidence in farmer and government agency pronouncements that their food is safe...Feedstuffs

Jolley: ID/INFO vs. NAIS Who Blinked?

The ID/INFO Expo occurred on the cusp. The two-and-a-half day event, a long-standing convention of people and organizations promoting animal identification, let’s pronounce that “En – A – Eye – Ess,” brought several hundred people to Kansas City this week. They met at an odd time in the politics of animal ID. Tom Vilsack and friends at the USDA seem to be mounting an all out push for the program at the same time that the House and Senate are slashing his funding with the kind of enthusiasm not seen since Tobe Hooper directed Chainsaw Massacre way back in 1974. Yet Dr. David Acheson, ex-Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection at the US Food and Drug Administration and now the managing director of food and import safety at Leavitt Partners in Utah, told the crowd, “The Obama Administration wants to make capital out of protecting the food supply.” His comments, probably emboldened by Barack’s recently empanelled food safety commission and Michelle’s back yard organic garden, suggested Obama will try to significantly boost food-safety enforcement efforts and force improved food traceability as a tool to achieve his goal. Acheson saw NAIS as a vital part of the plan...cattlenetwork

Song Of The Day #122

It's ET time. Here's Ernest Tubb singing his 1948 hit Let's Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello.

Tubb's music is widely available. This particular cut can be found on the 4 disc box set The Early Years 1936-1945 from JSP Records and on several other collections of his work.