Because not much is happening of interest. It is getting cold again after our mini thaw. Another storm is predicted for tomorrow. It is winter after all.
We have been selling a few head to pay the property taxes, which tend to be the bane of any and all property owners in NY. So far we sold Rip Tide, a yearling heifer which developed the unacceptable habit of sucking other heifers (ruins the udders). Sometimes we put a prickly plastic tab in their nose, so if they suck they get kicked and stop. RT also kicked out behind real bad so....
Then there was Fitty (number 50, AKA Beech) Fitty kicked. Pinned people on the metal post in her stall to try and crush them. Killed her calves as soon as they were born if she got to them first. Had chronic mastitis (udder inflammation) so we fed all her milk to the pigs for three years. Got loose last week and tore up the barn and beat on baby calves (bad timing.) She still made it to ten years old, which is old for a dairy cow. Can't say as I miss being scared spitless if I got stuck milking her. (The boss usually did it, but he tends to wander off.) 187, another heifer. Had either an udder injury or some other serious infection and lost a quarter. Too bad, she was pretty gentle, and very well bred.
And by far the worst, old 49. Veronica. Daughter of Juniper Rotate Jed. Super high producer in her younger days, but almost 11 and not milking so great any more. One of Alan's cows, an old standby. A bit of a kicker but we all liked her. She loved the broom and would moo coaxingly at me whenever I was sweeping cows or currying them.
No one wanted to sell her but we couldn't get her bred this year and she was only giving twenty pounds of milk. If not for the tax man we would have made the not-so-businesslike, but after all this is our farm isn't it, decision to keep trying on breeding her. Let her hang around another year. We liked her. It hurt to put her on the truck and of course, she went sweetly, just walked right on the trailer. Alan swept her off and curried her a lot the night before and asked me to do the same yesterday morning. Of course I did and no doubt she was the best groomed cow at the auction barn. There are two more to go next week, Aretha, chronic mastitis, also feeding pigs right now, and 471, Marge, 14 years old and going downhill. (She could die on the farm and be buried here, but for the tax man.) Imagine selling SIX cows to pay just one of the two sets of taxes (that is just property taxes, school and county) on this place (and they will not pay the whole shot by any means.)
I wonder if the legislature in Albany, when they dump unfunded mandates on local governments and schools know (or care) that a nice old cow died early to fund their overspending. The other three would probably have been sold anyhow....maybe not Rip Tide (who will grow up to be a dairy cow on some one else's farm), but Fitty was long overdue before she killed somebody. Not 49 though. The poor old girl was taxed to death.
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Dec22 Art - Sit Spot #1577 - Dec. 22, 2024
3 hours ago
10 comments:
I feel your pain about the taxes. It really is horrible here. I enjoyed your stories about the cow's personalities tho'.
Too bad you had to sell the cows. I don't think the tax situation is much better anywhere.
Not much happening here, either. Miserable. This is February misery come too soon...
I sure sympathize over those taxes, yes I do. We don't have any cows, so it's just slave labor for us. lol... ha... ha...
Stay warm!
You write too well. I'm fighting back angry tears over the insanity of what you've had to do here as you've pointed out: ' . . . when they dump unfunded mandates on local governments and schools know (or care) that a nice old cow died early to fund their overspending".
You share a part of the American experience of which we townies are completely clueless. It's touching to learn about the devotion, hard work and courage required to run a farm like yours.
Bless you for your determination to endure; your pluck - despite the obstacles.
Ouch! It is tough selling good old girls even if they are past their prime. I believe that I am grateful I live where I live. Low property taxes here.
6 cows for 1/2 of the property taxes??? Oh, my, we are moving upstate next month, and I will be finding out what my taxes will be later today or tomorrow. You have now thoroughly scared me!!!
Do you have agricultural exemptions up there?
My 20 acre pine forest taxes were almost $2000 the first year we owned it and $67 the second year after I applied for ag status since we are growing trees to sell.
This was a good post 3C, an eye opener. I hope Alan isn't too down about the nice cow going on the truck.
Don't get me started on unfunded or just plain stupid school mandates.
Grrrr.
I feel your pain. I am under paid and taxed to death myself. The bumbling fools in Montgomery are no better than the ones in Albany.
WR, I guess everyone gets nailed, but NY seems to take the prize and our county has some of the highest taxes in the entire country
Stacy, probably not gonna get any better either
Mrs. M, I still haven't been able to find your video to vote on it. the site seems to want to you watch dozens of videos before you can
Cathy, thanks so much for the kind words. Our county has some of the highest taxes in the USA, literally, and it is not a real selling point. Twice a year we go through this.
Joni, it is beautiful there where you are too. I love your photos...and Cooper, of course
MML, well, I wish you luck with them. Ours have increased over a hundred percent in seven years.
FC, we do and we use them...in fact, thanks for the reminder, I have to get that application sent in for the year.
Alan is real sad over the old girl, but one of the huge downsides of this job is that you just have to grit your teeth and go on and he is doing so.
And on those mandates, I hate to even imagine what you go through with all the testing etc. that they cook up. We have the same thing here and the kids spend half the year studying to take pointless tests. Bah!
Tim, seems to almost be a perquisite to taking office...
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