Rancher Knowledge

A recent post, Rancher knowledge: An untapped resource referred to new research saying the federal agencies could do a better job if they would seek out and utilize rancher knowledge of the resource.

That post resulted in R.L. Posey of Mayhill, NM sending me the following email:


"Frank,

Top of the morning to you.

I am sure you are more aware of this than I am, but so many think that too many ranchers are a dumb lot.

I have stated numerous times that many ranchers today have formal educations plus on the job training.

Many ranchers may not have extensive formal educations, do not speak the King's English, but they are not dumb because of their On The Job Training which can't be taught in schools.

Good examples are Charles Walker and Jimmy Goss in this area.

One time a friend of Charles was involved in some type law suit and asked Charles to go with him to the court hearing.

On the way, Charles asked the man who his lawyer was.

"You are."

Charles won.

Several years ago the AF was planning on low level flights over Otero County and they had a public meeting here at Mayhill.

This AF colonel was strutting around like he was important and we were a bunch of dumb skulls.

After the meeting I was going up to him, he was talking to a local lady and as I got close I heard him say, "I didn't know I was talking to an engineer." What he didn't know was that she was the first lady to obtain a PhD in electrical engineering from Ohio State.

Are you aware of the book, "The Lazy B" by Sandra Day O'Conner and her brother Alan Day?

The Lazy B was a ranch was established by their grandparents in the late 80's in the SE part of Arizona and the Bootheal of NM.

The ranch was later sold because none of the younger set wanted it and the ranch became unprofitable due to micro management of the BLM managed lands.

What attracted me to the book was that Sandra's Grandparents lived in El Paso and she was born there.

Sandra stayed with her grandparents and went to high school in El Paso.

They had the students sitting according to their alphabetical names and one of my female cousins, Maurine DeArman, sat next to Sandra and they were good friends. Maurine had been to the Lazy B on a number of different occasions.

RL"


Mr. Posey's comments on low level flights reminded me of something I had experienced while still in high school.

In the mid-sixties ranchers were complaining that military jets from Holloman and Cannon AFB were tearing up the clouds resulting in less rainfall.

A big meeting was scheduled at the 4-Winds Cafe in Carrizozo and I attended with my uncle, R.A. Perkins.

The meeting was chaired by an Air Force officer who made a big deal about his different degrees in engineering. There was also some "strutting around" similar to what Mr. Posey witnessed years later.

The military officer gave a slide show on the different types of clouds and other such matters and closed by saying because of the chemical makeup of the jet trails they were actually creating clouds, not destroying them.

There were several questions and comments from the crowd which the officer curtly put down.

And then Phil Harvey, Sr. spoke.

Mr. Harvey, who ranched NW of Carrizozo, described the formation the jets were flying in and the exact maneuvers they were performing that were dispersing the clouds. Turns out Mr. Harvey had been a flight instructor in the Army Air Corp and had been a fighter pilot in the 549th Night Fighter Squadron. He had flown escort missions over Japan and once had to bail out into Tokyo Bay. He knew what he was talking about.

As I recall, the officer was really surprised at rancher knowledge that day.

I called Phil Harvey, Jr. with some questions about his dad and he later sent me this email:


"Frank,

Just another point on the cloud situation.....our ranch manager at Carrizozo, Mozaun Calentine, saw the jets from Holloman flying through developing thunderheads, and after they did, saw the clouds breakup as he had never seen happen before. It was graphic and pronounced, and the planes definitely affected the rain and cloud development. I also witnessed it, but I was in my teenage years.

I also was there gathering bulls out of our bull pasture on the edge of the Chupadera Mesa in 1975 or 1976; we had gathered over 100 bulls out of our bull trap and were within 1/4 mile, or less, of our Mesa Well pens, when 4 jets from Holloman came over the edge of the Mesa, on the deck, supersonic, and absolutely sent the bulls, horses, and cowboys in every direction possible! You know how hard it is to gather a bunch of riding, fighting bulls under normal circumstances, but this incident cost us another 6 hours to regather most of the bulls, and there were some bulls we'd had almost in the pen that took over a week to find.

The actions of Holloman and WSMR had profound effects on the ranching community in the area around Carrizozo, Claunch, and Corona back in those days. I have many more stories to tell....

Thanks,
Phil"


Another point made by the research paper was that ranchers numbers are decreasing and their resource knowledge base is being lost. What it doesn't say, but I will, is that the federal agencies who's policies are removing these ranch families from the range are the same ones who would benefit the most from this knowledge.

Song Of The Day #224

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday is I'm Moving On To Glory recorded in 1952 by Hank Snow.

On bombing suspect, tough questions for Eric Holder

It seems like a pretty simple question. Who made the decision to charge Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused terrorist arrested for trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, as an everyday criminal, as opposed to an enemy combatant? After all, Abdulmutallab was trained by al Qaeda, equipped with an al Qaeda-made bomb, and dispatched by al Qaeda to bring down the airliner and its 278 passengers. Even though the Obama administration has mostly abandoned the term "war on terror," the president himself has said clearly that the United States is at war with al Qaeda. So who decided to treat Abdulmutallab as a civilian, read him the Miranda warning, and provide him with a government-paid lawyer -- giving him the right to remain silent and denying the United States potentially valuable intelligence that might have been gained by a military-style interrogation? This week that simple question -- Who? -- became more complicated after several of the administration's top anti-terrorism officials testified on Capitol Hill. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, said he wasn't consulted before the decision was made. The director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, said he wasn't consulted, either. The secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said she wasn't consulted. And the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, said he wasn't consulted. The issue is enormously important because Abdulmutallab, newly trained by al Qaeda in the terrorist group's latest hot spot, Yemen, likely knows things that would be very useful to American anti-terrorism investigators. He's not some grizzled old terrorist who's been sitting in Guantanamo Bay since 2003 and doesn't have any new intelligence. He's fresh material. Yet he is protected by U.S. criminal law from having to answer questions...read more

'Duh' Another intelligence blunder.

Earlier this month, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan wrote a damning memo on the government's failure to "connect the dots" in the days before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a Christmas day flight to Detroit. On Wednesday, Dennis Blair delivered an equally damning verdict on the government's handling of the terrorist after he was apprehended. The Director of National Intelligence told the Senate that by immediately handing Abdulmutallab to the civilian justice system, the government all but slammed the door on its ability to interrogate him thoroughly. Specifically, the feds failed to avail themselves of a unit called the High-Value Interrogation Group, or HIG, which Mr. Blair says was created "to make a decision on whether a certain person who's detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means." "We did not invoke the HIG in this case; we should have," Mr. Blair said. "Frankly, we were thinking more of overseas people and, duh, you know, we didn't put it [in action] here." That's our emphasis, and we put it there to underscore the scale of the intelligence blunder that was committed when Abdulmutallab was remanded to FBI custody, where he reportedly talked to investigators until advised by counsel not to. Now the government's only hope for Abdulmutallab to say a bit more is via a plea bargain, by which time his intelligence leads will likely have run cold...read more

UK police plan to use military-style spy drones

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance. The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police. Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly extend" the government's surveillance capacity and "revolutionise policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft, but adequate "sense and avoid" systems for drones are only a few years away. Five other police forces have signed up to the scheme, which is considered a pilot preceding the countrywide adoption of the technology for "surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering"...read more

I told you this was coming.

TSA employee abuses authority

In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile. The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid. Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations. What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life. After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things. A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?" Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Rr a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking. She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line. Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK. Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears. Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't. Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile. Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his. And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall. Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened...read more

FBI agents seeking phone records used 'startling' methods

FBI agents seeking telephone records demanded information from phone companies in a variety of "startling" and illicit methods, including e-mail and post-it notes, in an "egregious breakdown" of safeguards and oversight, the Justice Department's inspector general reported Wednesday. The long-awaited investigative report describes numerous lapses by FBI agents seeking material through more than 700 emergency letters to phone service providers between 2002 and 2006, many of which did not involve real urgency, officials said. One FBI agent interviewed in connection with the probe said the process became so casual that "it [was] like having an ATM in your living room," according to the report. The report also describes three FBI media leak investigations in which agents sought and received information for phone numbers belonging to Washington Post and New York Times reporters without the required approval from the attorney general...read more

The Militia Question, Resolved: Second Amendment 101

Twenty-seven words first published in 1790 are now the source of the bitterest controversy the USA has seen since the 1960s if not since the War Between the States a century before that. They are central to an issue that splits left and right, male and female, white and nonwhite, North and South, East and West, wealthy and not-so wealthy. They are: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Let’s get this straight right away. First of all, the inalienable right of individuals to keep and bear arms as a check on a tyrannical government predates our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. This, among other things, was clearly and eloquently expressed in Sir William Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries On The Laws of England.” Hence, the Founders were operating within a long historical tradition based upon English common law. Secondly, the term “well-regulated” meant something quite different two centuries ago. It is not today’s definition of “controlled,” “limited,” or “restricted” but was instead defined as “having proper kit and provisions” or in the case of objects or machinery, “properly maintained and kept in good repair.” The next is the Constitutional definition of the “militia,” and this what requires detailed explanation. The militia issue was extensively debated during the 1787–89 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and today has sadly been ignored by both sides in this issue. Founder George Mason explicitly wished to have it clearly spelled out that the militia was “of the whole people," in effect, a “general militia” that was affirmed in the Second Amendment and the 1792 Militia Act. Mason and his supporters feared the development of "special militias" – ones much like the Puritan "Roundheads" led by Oliver Cromwell and their opponents, the “Cavaliers,” in the English Civil War of 1642–57. Special militias are nothing more than state-sanctioned paramilitary groups – witness the German Nazi SA and its successor the SS as well as the Italian Fascist "Blackshirts." In those cases, Nazi/Fascist Party membership was strictly required to join them as well as to legally own a firearm of any kind in either of those countries at the time...read more

Plan for gun ban at Colorado State unveiled

Colorado State University administrators released a draft weapons-control policy Wednesday that would ban all firearms from campus. And while CSU's Board of Governors is expected to enact the policy at its Feb. 23 meeting, student leaders say they won't give up their right to carry concealed weapons on the Fort Collins and Pueblo campuses without having another say in the issue. "Oh, there is no doubt we will respond to it," said Matt Strauch, spokesman for the student government at CSU-Fort Collins. CSU remains one of the few U.S. universities without a concealed-weapons prohibition. The issue has sharply divided campus communities since December, when student, faculty and administrative groups split over whether to ban concealed weapons. Faculty members voted for the ban. Student leaders at the campuses voted against it...read here

Ag Producers Stand Up to (Animal Rights) Bullies

by CFCF

Farmers get a bad rap. They work their fingers to the bone to feed us, and most Americans have never even met one. They sink their savings into one of the riskiest investments known to man, and all most consumers can seem to do is gripe about the price of breakfast. And to add insult to injury, the wealthy animal rights industry – led by vegetarian activists at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) – wants to put most of them out of business. Because, you know, they cheerfully fill our refrigerators with meat and dairy foods.

HSUS has flexed its (unearned) reputational muscles in Maine, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and California – tying the hands of ranchers, egg farmers, and pork producers at every turn. But in Missouri, there may be reason to be optimistic.

HSUS is currently pushing a ballot initiative in the Show-Me State that threatens to regulate dog breeding out of existence by making it illegal to own too many animals. (And guess who decides what "too many" means?) We can see the writing on the wall: HSUS will certainly leverage a November 2010 victory to target livestock farmers next. Who’s going to sink their life savings into hog farming if a group of carpet-bagging DC bunny-huggers can limit how much bacon and ham a farmer can produce?

At the Missouri Farm Bureau’s annual meeting last month, farmers got an earful about what HSUS has planned for them. Chris Chinn, a Missouri hog producer and national advocate for livestock owners, talked about a new "SWAT" program she helped develop. (SWAT stands for "Spokespersons Working for Agriculture Together.") Chinn’s goal is to help farmers and ranchers communicate reliable information to consumers about how animals are really treated before they become two-piece dinners and rump roasts. SWAT training includes classes that teach farmers how to handle media situations and stay on topic. "We don’t want to play defense, we want to be proactive," said Chinn. "We want to get out there ahead of HSUS and tell our story."

Farmers are mobilizing against HSUS in Ohio too. In November, HSUS suffered a landslide setback in the Buckeye State with the passage of Issue 2. This measure created a state livestock board to oversee animal welfare policy, while limiting the influence of out-of-state radicals like those at HSUS.

HSUS did not mount a significant campaign against Issue 2, but it’s working behind the scenes to make the measure's voter-approved policies irrelevant. Consider Ohio House Bill 341, which HSUS is pushing hard. It would force Ohio’s new livestock board to mimic everything California voters did in 2008 when they passed the heavily HSUS-financed "Prop. 2."

Will this end-run around Ohio voters succeed? Possibly. HSUS needed four full pages to list all its lobbying activities in its 2008 tax return. The group is everything you think of when you imagine the phrase "moneyed special interest." And remember: HSUS president Wayne Pacelle boasted that California’s Prop. 2 was a blueprint for the rest of the nation.

If HSUS buys itself some power over Ohio agriculture, it will take over farm policy and regulate livestock producers to death. Which, come to think of it, is what HSUS is after in the first place. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

And as long as we’ve got your attention, take five minutes today and hug a farmer. Go on. It’s a nice gesture. And so is throwing that HSUS fundraising letter in the trash.

Do it. You heard us.

Alaska senator moves to bar EPA rules on greenhouse gas emissions

Sen. Lisa Murkowski took her battle with the Environmental Protection Agency to the floor of the Senate Thursday, saying she was left with no choice but to fight a federal agency she believes is "contemplating regulations that will destroy jobs while millions of Americans are doing everything they can just to find one." The Alaska Republican announced she would seek to keep the EPA from drawing up rules on greenhouse gas emissions from large emitters, such as power plants, refineries and manufacturers. Murkowski did it by filing a "disapproval resolution," a rarely used procedural move that prohibits rules written by executive branch agencies from taking effect. On Thursday, she threatened dire economic consequences if the EPA, rather than Congress, writes the rules for how to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act...read more

Mutilations remain a mystery

Last year Zukowski traveled to five strange cattle mutilation scenes in Colorado. He was summoned by ranchers who were puzzled and, in some cases, frightened by what they found in their fields. The most recent, near Alamosa in December, was the case of the 4-year-old cow with its ears and udder missing — the body parts removed with great precision, clearly not the work of a coyote or mountain lion. A video of the scene is available on Zukowski's Web site. (Warning: It is graphic and is not easy to watch...A more likely culprit: the military. In our initial conversation (and then in my first version of this column), Zukowski and I referred to Alamosa, where dozens of unexplained mutilations have occurred, being the scene of above-ground nuclear testing after World War II..."Alamagordo was the site of the documented tests, but there have always been rumors that during the '50s and '60s the area around Alamosa, Colorado, was the site of secret and limited radiation tests on the environment, tests performed by the military. This would explain why they keep checking radiation levels even today and why, maybe, they are doing research on the cattle and horses, to see the effects today of the radiation." And as Zukowski said in our first discussion, "So many of these animals seem to have been put down on the ground without a trace of footprints or trampled grass or tire tracks. Helicopters can lay things down that way."...read more

Pawnee Bill among Western Heritage inductees

Hollywood stars Tom Selleck and the late Charlton Heston will be inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Selleck and Heston will be inducted April 17 during the museum’s annual Western Heritage Awards. The black-tie affair honors principal creators in 16 categories of Western music, literature, television and film. Also at the event, Oklahoma rancher and photographer Bob Moorhouse and legendary Wild West entertainer Pawnee Bill will be inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners. Guitarist, composer, recording artist and historian Don Edwards will receive the Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award. Born Gordon William Lillie in Bloomington, Ill., in 1860, Pawnee Bill was a Wild West performer, buffalo hunter and American Indian interpreter. Considered one of the last legends of the Old West, Pawnee Bill was a friend to the Pawnee Indians and eventually went on to entertain and educate international crowds with his famous Wild West Shows. Pawnee Bill moved into Indian Territory in 1875 and quickly immersed himself in Pawnee culture. In 1888, Pawnee Bill organized his Wild West Show, in which his wife, May, became an impressive act for her marksmanship and riding. Two decades later, he merged his show with that of his childhood role model, Buffalo Bill. In 1930, he built the tourist attraction Pawnee Bill’s Old Town and Trading Post in Pawnee...read more

Utah lawmaker puts wolves in his crosshairs

Wolves are out of control, says Utah Sen. Allen Christensen, and the state's policy should be to kill them. Heck, he did. Went to Canada to bag one. It's at the taxidermist. And besides, Christensen says, passing a bill to declare Utah's policy to destroy or remove all wolves is a simple case of states' rights. The North Ogden Republican's goal is spelled out in SB36, which has caught the attention of legislative attorneys who attached a rare warning that the bill, if passed, probably would be found unconstitutional. "Will it be a fight? Absolutely," Christensen concedes. "We have enough money to take it all the way to the [U.S.] Supreme Court." The Utah chapters of the Cattlemen's Association and Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife support the bill. The Sportsmen will contribute to litigation costs, says Byron Bateman, president of the Utah chapter. "We've been in the fight from the get-go," Bateman said, "and we'll be in it to the end." SB36 is for people who enjoy wildlife, Christensen says, adding he knows wolves are wildlife, too. But they were exterminated in this region in the 19th century "for good reason," he says. "They were simply not compatible with humans anymore." And now in Utah, Christensen says, "we supposedly don't have wolves. We would like to control our borders and say wolves are not endangered. We would like them not to immigrate into here." ...read more

UN abandons climate change deadline

The timetable to reach a global deal to tackle climate change lay in tatters on Wednesday after the United Nations waived the first deadline of the process laid out at last month’s fractious Copenhagen summit. Nations agreed then to declare their emissions reduction targets by the end of this month. Developed countries would state their intended cuts by 2020: developing countries would outline how they would curb emissions growth. But Yvo de Boer, the UN’s senior climate change official, admitted the deadline had in effect been shelved. “By [the end of] January, countries will have the opportunity to . . . indicate if they want to be associated with the accord,” he said. “[Governments could] indicate by the deadline, or they can also indicate later.” “You could describe it as a soft deadline,” Mr de Boer said. “There is nothing deadly about it. If [countries] fail to meet it, they can still associate with the Copenhagen accord after.”...read more

A prickly path

The push is on to carve a 100-foot-wide swath through prairies, farms and neighborhoods between Pueblo Reservoir and Colorado Springs, to make way for a 66-inch water pipeline. The line, part of the $1.1 billion Southern Delivery System, is expected to deliver 78 million gallons a day by 2016, increasing the city's water supply by a third and driving up water bills by an average of 12 percent a year from 2011 to 2016. City Council recently approved spending $916,000 to purchase 14 tracts, including four homes in Pueblo West, the first properties acquired in the pipeline's path. And it's only the start. Colorado Springs Utilities plans to pay $25 million for roughly 300 properties totaling 2,900 acres in Pueblo and El Paso counties within the next two years. Not everyone is so willing. Gary Walker loathes the idea of losing 93 of his 70,000 acres between Penrose and Interstate 25 for the pipeline. The 63-year-old rancher is still sore from dealing with Utilities in the 1970s, when he was forced through condemnation to provide land for the Fountain Valley Authority water line. Not only is the easement itself barren now, he says, but blowing dirt and sand "literally killed hundreds of acres" of his farm and ranch land. Moreover, he's perturbed the new line won't use the Fountain Valley line's easement, but instead will cut another gouge up to a mile away...read more

Tough Month for Cap and Trade Supporters

January has been a bad month for supporters of cap and trade. This week the election to the senate of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts wiped out the Democrat’s super majority, causing some to proclaim cap and trade dead this year. Wednesday the National Corn Growers Association announced their opposition to House Bill 2454 after an Informa study indicated every U.S. corn grower will experience increased costs of production. Earlier this month American Farm Bureau’s “Don’t’ Cap our Future” display was the most popular at their convention trade show. Free caps were a part of the popularity, but Cody Lyon, AFBF Director of Grassroots and Policy Advocacy, explained farmers and ranchers were anxious to take a stand against cap and trade. A senior official in the White House said this week the Obama administration is continuing to press Congress to endorse cap and trade, and he said there continues to be strong legislator support for it. But the National Federation of Independent Business this week released 16 state-based surveys highlighting the political unpopularity and economic uncertainty of cap and trade. This follows two national surveys that have illustrated small business owner and voter opposition to a cap and trade program...read more

BLM’s management plan gets support as well as opposition

A group of central Montana landowners filed Tuesday to intervene in lawsuits over the Bureau of Land Management’s management plan for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Four counties — Blaine, Fergus, Phillips and Chouteau — have also filed to intervene in the litigation. The Missouri River Stewards, although not agreeing with BLM’s entire plan, still filed to uphold the work that is being challenged by the Montana Wilderness Association, Friends of the Missouri River Breaks and the Western Watersheds Project. Matt Knox, chairman of the Stewards group and a Winifred rancher, contended in a statement that if the groups prevail in their lawsuit against the BLM, it could have “profound negative impacts” on those who own 81,000 acres of land within the monument’s boundaries. Specifically, the landowners are worried that livestock grazing could be eliminated in the monument, as well as access by historic roads. Ranchers have 93 grazing permits on 363,000 acres of federal land within the monument and farm and ranch on 39,000 acres of state land inside its boundaries. All told, about 10,500 cattle utilize the acreage, the Stewards group said...read more

Cheapest Horses Ever

Experts say the price you'll pay to buy a horse may be the lowest it's ever been. This past summer NewsChannel 10 brought to your attention an increase in the number of horses being let go in the wild. And since the economy is more or less the same now as it was then, that problem has yet to go away. Many believe that's because it's so expensive to care for these animals. Even more so then some buyers realize when they purchase a horse. John Harshbargar owns a ranchers feed store as well as being a horse owner himself. "It is good a time to buy one because you can get some nice horses at a very reasonable price. You just need to be aware of what they cost." To keep your horse properly fed every month your looking at about 150 dollars for hay and grain. And that doesn't include the medical bills and a monthly shoeing cost...read more

Dairy & beef farmers' stories in new anthology

"True Cow Tales: Literary Sketches and Stories by Farmers, Ranchers, and Dairy Princesses", published by Dog Ear Publishing and edited by C.R. Lindemer, has been released. "True Cow Tales" has received many favorable reviews. Ken Rahjes, Farm Broadcaster for KRVN Radio in Lexington, Nebraska has remarked, "True Cow Tales is a true joy to read. These stories brought back many memories of growing up on our family farm. True Cow Tales ought to be a part of everyone's family library and should be shared over and over." In addition to stories about favorite cows, cattle 'drama', and bovine nostalgia, chapters of cow poetry and dairy princess stores are also featured in this anthology for all ages. Stories featured are from farmers and ranchers of the U.S. and Canada. A subsequent volume with more international stories is already in the works...read more