There is more than discomfort contained in these harsh, cold days. Southern farmers are racing to protect their tender crops from the exceptional low temperatures. Surprisingly fish are among the hardest hit by the adverse weather conditions. Interestingly so are Florida iguanas, which are invasive in the sunshine state and unable to withstand the freezing temps.
Western and Central farmers and ranchers are struggling to harvest corn in snow too deep for combines. Many may wait until spring to harvest.
Besides making farming and ranching more challenging for those who participate, this affects everyone else as well. Fruits and vegetables will cost more. Anything made with corn will cost more. (A lot of things are made with corn.) Products produced by animals which eat corn will cost more. With the damage being done by water restrictions in California I will be surprised if we don't see a spike in overall food prices, although prices recently declined for the fifth straight month.
I hope wherever you are the weather is kind and that this winter doesn't overdo it and break any more low temperature records.
***and if you think we have food supply problems read this on dairy processing in Zimbabwe.
And this on iodine tainted soy milk originating in Japan.
****Weight loss foods which may surprise you (although if you follow research that is NOT done by anti-agriculture animal rights type groups you will probably already know)
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9 comments:
If only we knew to whom to complain about this weather!
My garden is gonna be toast after tonight....*sigh*. I guess I'll just focus on getting all my new seeds planted and go from there.
We lost a cow yesterday because of this blasted weather. She crawled up into a feed way, laid down, and couldn't get up. The packing company had 10 others on it's truck. 4 of whom were fished out of a pond. WHY didn't the guy break ice for them?!?! So losing one isn't so bad... but still.
Why are cows so stupid?
Hoping the wind doesn't pick back up for you, it's been awful here. I'm rather jealous over your animals all being in though. :) Thinking warm thoughts in the deep freeze of MO.
June, I blame....well...I can't think of anybody to blame, other than maybe AlGore, but I wish I could. lol
Dani, I am so, so sorry about your garden. What a shame...
Sara, I am so sorry. What a thing to make a hard day and a hard situation even harder. As if this wasn't a discouraging enough time, having that added on. We lost one of our best ones about two weeks ago, same kind of situation, fell down, evidently broke her shoulder or something and just...died...She was bred, a terrific milker, one of Liz's last ones left from the old Dixie cow. How do you fill a hole like that? You don't, you just deal with it like we have all been dealing for so long. Hang in there, I think of you often and pray for you daily.
That's so sad about the cows...
I was listening to my heater running around the clock last night and thinking about what my power bill is going to be. I hadn't even thought about what this cold will do to food costs. Much more of this and we'll all be living in tents and eating roots.
So sad about the cows. Poor guys.
The weight loss food article was a total eye opener for me. Those are among my favorite foods and I've never had to diet although I have always thought they were supposed to be weight gaining foods.
May God's blessings come with healing rays of warmth and sunshine.
Dani, it is just heartbreaking to lose them like that. We were simply shattered by Takala's sudden and unexpected death. She was not a gentle cow, but she was a very, very good cow and we had such high hopes for her...thanks for caring
sCMomma, my power bill for the barn jumps up to more than double in the winter. Despite all the fans we need in summer, the block heaters for the tractors take a ridiculous amount. Drives me crazy, but you have to run them.
Losing cows is rough. Animals die unexpectedly sometimes, but dang, despite the million and two times she kicked me if she could, I was really fond of Takala. We couldn't wait to see what she was going to do next lactation, as she was one of the best heifers we had
Jan, I am beginning to think that the entire modern approach to diet is just plain wrong, although there is no doubt in my mind that lack of activity is behind a lot of problems too. When we were kids we were shoved out the door every time we irritated the elders and we irritated them on a pretty regular basis. lol
Faithful, thank you very much for that thought.
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