Desperation

NY Dairy farmer kills 51 cows then commits suicide. These are not easy times to be a farmer of any kind and dairying in particular has faced an unprecedented series of challenges recently. I guess this is just a heartbreaking symptom of the desperation that is undoubtedly being felt on a lot of farms these days. We didn't know this man, but my heart goes out to his family and friends....what a sad, sad thing.

Update....Here are two more stories, one from a friend, that I found after I first learned of this story.


***I am going to add a comment I left on Teri's blog because I understand too darned well .

"I am heartbroken for this man and his family. It is absolutely true that you get up every single morning worrying about being able to get by, how you will pay for ever more expensive necessities with an ever shrinking milk check. It is county tax time right now and I am sure plenty of farmers have a tax bill sitting on their desk like something radioactive, glowing in the back of their minds like a nightmare…waiting for them to figure out how to deal with a bill that will probably take more then two milk checks, which are already needed for grain bills and power bills and last year’s crop inputs. etc……..
We are losing something priceless and irreplaceable in this country, as our farmers give up in one way or another and our farmland turns into housing developments and malls….. and most people won’t even notice until it is all gone."

Pasture Walk

Cottontail

I have always been fascinated by tracking. I can claim no great expertise, but I love to go out in fresh snow or mud of just the right consistency to see who walked there before me.
Wednesday it snowed a little and Thursday morning conditions were right for a track walk. The sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing so I went out with the camera to take a look around. I discovered an interesting surprise among the skeins of bunny prints, fox, coyote, bird, mouse, domestic cat and Nick the dog tracks I found.

Box elder

As it happened, the other day I stopped by a blog that I have followed for a while, but always seem to forget to read (I have now linked so I don't miss these fascinating posts.) Anyhow the author has been discussing tracking for a while and I found myself reading page after page. One post that really interested me involved a wild canid leaving a certain sort of triangular print in the snow when thrusting the muzzle down to sniff for prey.

No doubt I have passed this phenomenon before but wasn't aware of it and so didn't really see it.

Hot Showers and Warm Toes

Imagine my surprise when, right outside the back yard next to the pony yard, I found just such a triangular mark among a tangle of coyote tracks. I would have missed it completely except that Mr. Coyote had pulled a couple of feathers out of the mouse run he was sniffing and I spotted them on the snow. I didn't try for a photo as it was in an awkward spot, but it was neat to look down into the sub-snow mouse run. I'm so glad that I happened to read that particular blog post on that particular day and then walked past that particular nose print in the snow.

And I wonder why the feathers were there in the mouse run.

Mr. Mousy Built a Housie (Click for cool detail)
(this is not the nose print, but the opening of a different tunnel)

River Grape...
about five months from now the valley
will be sweetly scented by its inconspicuous flowers

Bailey

And Beausoleil.

They love me. I know they do. (Well, really I admit it is probably more like the bovine equivalent of anthropomorphism. They think I am a calf.......)

A little background...when we milk the cows, we first prep their teats for the application of the milking machine. Although other dairies use other methods, we prep with a half and half solution of Clorox and water in a spray bottle....spray on a few splurts, clean and dry thoroughly with a paper towel (sometimes repeating as needed), strip out the foremilk and attach the milker. When the cow has yielded up her share of the bounty, remove milker, spray again with more of the Clorox and water and you are good to go.

Simple and effective, right? Well except if you are me (or sometimes Becky if she is milking on my string with me, which she rarely does any more). Then when you get to the aforementioned cattle it gets much more interesting. They are both big old sweeties, Beausoleil is our oldest cow in fact, and they think I am a sadly deformed, but still lovable calf. Thus when I bend over to perform the prepping ceremony they treat me accordingly. (Not being fleet of knee I bend my back to milk).

Beausoleil is the most enthusiastic about grooming me up for the day. She grabs the back of my shirt and pulls me close if I try to stand out of reach. Then lick, lick, lick, with her seemingly bath towel sized, sandpaper rough and soggy wet tongue. Despite polishing my prepping technique until I am the fastest Clorox sprayer in the west (or east...whatever) she finds plenty of time to soak me thoroughly, pull my tucked in turtle neck out and completely ruffle up my composure. If I don't cooperate properly she will even push me up in reach of her snaky long neck with her hind foot...(which is more than slightly disconcerting). Sometimes I feel like a Timex.......

Bailey isn't quite such a dampening influence, but she "loves" me too. Her specialty is grabbing the tiny little seam on my jeans pocket and trying to drag me into the manger so she can do a good job of spiffing me up. You wouldn't think an animal with a mouth as big as a cow could to that. (if you wear jeans try taking a hold of that tiny little flap of cloth. Now imagine dragging a fat old lady around by it.) Bailey, who like all cows, has no upper front incisors, does it every day. It amazes me. (Between her and Beausoleil it also gets me all wet for the rest of milking.)

Guess I am glad that I am not a calf, but they are both real favorites of mine. Nice, gentle, sweet-natured cows, they are both a pleasure to milk despite the side effects of their affection. I wish all the cows were just like them.....except for the eating me alive part.....


****Liz is flying home to us today. Your prayers and good thoughts would be much appreciated. We sure have missed her!!

Wordless Wednesday

HSUS Rates the Legislators

New York: Gillibrand100
Schumer 83
Tonko 77

I won't tell you how I feel about this, but I'll bet you can guess.
Check your legislators here....warning pdf

Carrot vs Stick the Size of a Telephone Pole

What would have happened if either of the two parties, each of which had the world by the reins with great big majorities in recent administrations, had actually taken the pulse of real people, living real lives, with real jobs and real budgets, and (acting within the guidelines set out by the Constitution), actually done what folks wanted and needed? Those of us who keep our eye on Washington have had some pretty scary moments over the past few years as laws that will hurt us are formed. promoted, and passed without regard for reality.

(btw oftentimes I think that what people need most is for their politicians to sit down and shut up...during the so-called crisis in NY when the Senate didn't go to work, no bad legislation was passed. The Farm Labor poison pill they have ready for NY to swallow fell by the wayside during that period and they haven't managed to prop it up yet..not for lack of desperate effort...It is back on the table now and NY legislators need to hear from folks who oppose it...today would be a good time to call.)


Having been followed around for the past couple of decades by legislation-wielding politicians with regulatory clubs the size of redwoods I don't know the answer, but it's an interesting concept. Or maybe it isn't and I am just not awake yet. Liz made it safely to Iowa after numerous flight delays, which had us all huddled by the phone fretting.... we are all pretty sleepy this morning.....

I dunno, it's morning and I have to go to work. I'll think about this later. I am graining the cows now with a list Liz made me so I need to get myself in gear.

Here is a story on the NY Farm Labor Bill
Here is a petition State Senator Darrell Aubertine has up opposing the so-called compromise bill.

Macro Monday

Recycled Christmas tree

For more Macro Monday.....

National Farmers Organization

Liz is off to the NFO national convention in Iowa this morning (and yes, I am nervous, the weather is nasty, there is a plane that will land at Detroit airport involved, and I am a mom). She will be away until Thursday and I am already missing her, even though she is actually still here and making coffee...

She was selected as a young farmer delegate to represent the Northeast region for the nationwide farm organization late last year and they have taken great care of getting her set to go.

NFO came to our rescue last year when we lost our milk market, calling up out of the blue to offer to take our milk. We had barely heard of them, but they saved our bacon in a big way. After our long involvement in Farm Bureau (I have served on the FB county board of directors long enough to be term-limiting off for the second time next year, and Liz is serving her second term and does the newsletter) it will be interesting to learn how this new (to us) organization operates. I truly wish Liz's laptop hadn't croaked so she could blog from there and keep us up on things, but alas it met an untimely demise....

I have so far been to a couple of state NFO meetings and the state annual convention and Liz went to one state meeting to meet the board because of this appointment. It is interestingly different from things I have done before.....Farm Bureau and NFO have somewhat divergent ideas on what is best for the farm economy here and I find that I agree with some of both, but not all of either. Farm Bureau held their convention last week (some day I would love to be able to get away from the farm to attend that one, but that will probably only happen if we retire) and I was delighted with a lot of the policies that came out of that. We will see what turns up with NFO.

Anyhow, good thoughts and prayers for Liz's trip would be much appreciated. I fear that it will be a long week.

Sunday Stills...Moods and Emotions

Ho

Hum

Happy

Intent

Not in the MOOD for this

For more Sunday Stills.....

How Fair is This?

The Amish will be exempt from the new health care mandate. When the fools in Washington get done conducting a final frantic run to change my life and your life and the way we access health care in the future, (hurrying to get it done real fast before somebody, somehow rubs their noses in the fact that the majority of Americans don't want it) we will face FINES if we don't buy health insurance. The Amish won't.
(51% of American people are against this health care idiocy .....and I think the other 49% are asleep in front of the TV with a Bud and a bowl of popcorn...)

Nice. I can't pay my bills now. I give everybody some money each month, we spend as little as we can, and still we are looking at losing our cows and our business right now, this year, maybe even next month. (This by the way is unprecedented. We always kept up and were known for it.) Yet these jerks are planning to tell me I have to find money somewhere to pay for health insurance or else pay a fine.

Guess we will have to stop eating, because I can't think what else we can cut to come up with the money to buy their damn insurance. Bah to all of them.

***We used to have health insurance by the way, paid for it ourselves out of the milk check. However, we had to let it go because we couldn't afford it. Still can't

***can you tell that they have already incurred a considerable amount of wrath here? Have they no shame? They KNOW people don't want this bill, but they are going to pass it anyhow just because if they cheat and lie and steal, they can.

Cattle Groups State Principals on Cattle ID

I found the link to this information on the Livestock Marketing Association website. The actual document is a pdf so... I am sure there is room for improvement here too, but this list of principles makes more sense than many I have read so far. About time someone pointed out that there are already several systems in place to track diseased animals.

"A meeting of cattle organizations representing the beef, dairy and marketing sectors
was held in Kansas City, Missouri, November 4-5, 2009. The participating organizations agreed that a livestock identification plan for the cattle industry should be singularly specie specific because of the diversity in the way cattle are raised, marketed and processed. This system must be based on the following principles:

1. Additional costs to the beef and dairy industry must be minimized.

2. Any information relative to cattle identification information should be under the
control of state animal health officials and be kept confidential.

3. The system must operate at the speed of commerce

4. Brucellosis/Tuberculosis surveillance and control should be the model upon which
to build an interstate movement identification program.

a) Additionally, existing programs within our industry have proven to be
historically successful in livestock identification. These programs should be
recognized and utilized. [The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal
Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) February 2009 study of “Cattle
Identification Practices on U. S. Beef Cow-calf Operations” reported that there
is currently a high level of some form of cattle identification in cow-calf
operations in the United States. The survey of 24 major beef producing states
represented 79.6 percent of U.S. operations with beef cows and 87.8 percent
of U.S. beef cows. The study found that two-thirds of the operations (66.1
percent) used some form of individual identification on at least some cows.
Overall 79.1 percent of all beef cows surveyed were individually identified by
one or more methods, with 58.6 percent of the beef cows using an official
identification, such as a Brucellosis vaccination ear tag.]. Nearly half of the
operations (46.7 percent) used at least one form of individual animal
2 identification on calves, which accounted for 64.8 percent of calves being
individually identified. 61.3 percent of all cattle and calves had some form of
herd identification.]
b) The cattle industry recognizes that improvements can be made to these
programs and is committed to systematically improving the coverage, speed
and accuracy of these processes.

5. Any enhancements of historical identification systems must be phased-in over a
proper time-frame.

6. The first step in improving cattle identification is the individual identification of adult
cattle (breeding age cattle 18 months or older, excluding those going into terminal
feeding channels) by using the historically established federal and state cattle
disease programs as models, such as the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis programs
as they existed prior to any NAIS modifications. The goal is to accomplish this
voluntarily for all adult cattle changing ownership by 2015. (As we accomplish the
adult cattle goal as an industry, we commit to evaluating the phased-in addition of
other ages of cattle based on an industry evaluation of the cost/ benefits, feasibility
and value to continually improving U.S. cattle herd disease surveillance, control
and eradication.)

7. Producers must be protected from liability for acts of others after cattle have left
their control.

8. The purpose should be solely cattle disease surveillance, control and eradication.
The only data required to be collected should be that necessary to accomplish this
goal.

9. Maintain the historical state flexibility allowing State Animal Health Officials
discretion in assigning an identifier for the person responsible for livestock.

10. The 48-hour Foot and Mouth Disease traceback model is currently unachievable.
The goal of this program should be to enable the cattle industry, state and federal
animal health officials to respond rapidly and effectively to animal health
emergencies.

11. Renewed emphasis on preventing the introduction of foreign animal diseases of
concern.

12. We support the flexibility of using currently established and evolving methods of
official identification.

99% Farms Family Owned

Here is another story about AFBF annual convention and some remarks from NY Farm Bureau President, Dean Norton, on family farms.

"About 99 percent of America's farms are family owned, Norton said, so the idea that there are these large corporate farms engaged in factory farm is really a myth.

"Sure there are bad apples," Norton said. "There are bad apples in every bunch, but people never look at the good stuff. They only look at the bad stuff. Only the bad stuff makes the news."

"American farmers have fed and clothed American families for more than 200 years and we're the leaders in the world in providing food and fiber," Norton said. "We're not going to let people not part of our industry tell us how to raise our animals healthy. We're already doing that."

Thaw

!Drip!

We are in the midst of a little one and it is truly a delight. Went out yesterday (several times) with no coat. Birds are everywhere; doves hang like delightful diamonds on all the dangly wires and branches. Dozens of gold finches, house finches, juncos and field sparrow (thanks to all who helped us with that identification) white-throated sparrows, and all the other common bird folk chink and cheep and flutter by. The yard is fearfully barren when they leave to glean the fields.

Lines of geese are flying urgently up and down the valley. When geese go somewhere they are very earnest about it, shouting out to one another and stretching their necks out eagerly toward their destination...even when they don't really have one and are just circling the river trying to decide where to land. Alas, the cove across from the house is frozen now, so I can't hear them when I wake up at night. They are all hanging around on the lawn down by the state transportation building instead. These are not migratory geese but rather residents, but they make a warm day feel like spring even though you know it isn't. I stood out in the yard with the dog, yesterday at midday, watching them flow by with the sun on my head and soft air moving slowly across my cheek and just reveled in it. It will get cold again...too soon...but I am going to enjoy this weather for all it is worth.


This is my garden pond (for FC, who has ice too...ice which I envy very much). Those marks are where I tried (and failed) to use my trusty hatchet to chop a place to set the venting heater...guess I waited just a little too long this year....

American Farm Bureau

Resolution on Cap and tax Trade.

"The delegates approved a special resolution stating that cap-and-trade legislation would raise farmers’ and ranchers’ production costs, and the potential benefits of agricultural offsets are far outweighed by the costs to producers. Due to these and other concerns, the delegates strongly opposed “cap and trade proposals before Congress” and supported “any legislative action that would suspend EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.”

“As Congress returns to the issue of cap-and-trade this year, the message of Farm Bureau will continue to be: ‘Don’t Cap Our Future’ agricultural productivity and food security,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “We will now send that message even more strongly.”

“Congress should focus on renewable energy that is better for the environment and our domestic energy security,” he added, “but it should not tie the hands of U.S. producers, whose productivity, historically, has provided the world’s food safety net. We should not shrink U.S. agriculture at the very time when many are concerned about how to feed a growing global population.”

New York Chainsaw Massacre

No humans were harmed in the destruction of this very expensive, perfectly tuned and sharpened, well-loved by its owner, chainsaw. I am very thankful for that.

Sure wish the boss had a better aim when felling trees though, and so does Alan, whose best saw this once was......sigh.......

Just When We Thought

....that the dairy industry might be beginning...just baby steps mind you...to crawl out of the terrible pit it has been in for the past year, comes yet another threat.

Favorable climate gives NZ farmers a huge advantage in dairying as their cows remain on pasture year round, expensive buildings are not required, and supplemental feed costs are negligible. Last time we got involved in trade talks with them and dairy was on the table, they got to send us Cheddar cheese, we got to send them cat food. Not so advantageous for our struggling industry.

Wordless Wednesday

Why

Was the calf in the kitchen? Well, it is pretty cold here still, although much warmer than last week's deep freeze. This guy was born either two weeks early or ten days late (not sure, but I am going with late) and he was walking around the barn when the boss and Liz got there Sunday morning.

It was cold.
He was wet and cold
His mama is a first calf heifer who had no clue what to do.

So Liz washed him with hot water in the milk house, dried him as best as possible, buckled him into a calf coat and then replaced that coat with a fresh, dry one when he was all dried out.

He reacted by getting out of the collar she tied him up with and falling in the gutter behind the cows while they were over at the house.

He was soaked, filthy and shivering so Alan gave him a second bath...however I didn't figure the calf coats were going to be sufficient to warm him. And although the Blitz cow was willing to be a substitute mama when he was just wet, this new form of wet was not so interesting to her.

Thus the kids carted him over to the house and put him in the big dog crate overnight so he could get truly warm and dry. As of last count he was fine, back at the barn, drinking up his bottle eagerly, so far none the worse for his adventures.

This is the house

And this is the kitchen............................................


What the heck is that calf doing here?

Sunday Stills...best shots of 09

A recent favorite

And one from way back last winter

For more Sunday Stills....

****For those of you who share my conservative leanings make sure and check out AKA Angrywhiteman's comment. I laughed so loud I scared the cat.