Rain Coming

Well, Lorna Thackeray has written a couple of stories on the drought and we all <a href="http://www.nowherethoughts.net/sarpysam/archives/000463.html">know what that means</a>. The series this morning on the drought is interesting but hardly new to anyone in ranch country.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/07/11/build/local/30-drought.inc">Patience evaporates when water users deal with consequences of drought</a><br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/07/11/build/local/34-hard-year-moving.inc">Ranch family deals with a hard year by moving its herd</a><br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/07/11/build/local/32-out-of-grass.inc">'Out of grass,' ranchers sell part of herd: But Pfaffingers manage to preserve core of their breeding herd</a><br />n<br />nThe first article on irrigators and water I understand but don't have to deal with since I have no irrigation but I have heard a lot of stories about these farmers getting in fights over the water. Fighting the weather is enough for me with out having to fight my neighbors.<br />n<br />nAs for the other two stories, I personally have avoided the worst of these stories so far but I have seen other people doing them and glad I haven't been forced to it yet. Don't get me wrong my cow herd size is down 25% from what it was at one time due to the drought but that it what has allowed me to keep running what I have. I have one neighbor that has expanded his herd through the drought and this year has decided to start throwing creep feed at his calfs to try to make his grass stretch further. How he does it is beyond me. The amount of grass he calls a fresh pasture is less than what I consider to be a grazed out pasture. When he is done with a pasture even the antelope avoid it since there is nothing left to eat on it.I keep thinking that one of these years something is going to have to break for him but he still keeps plugging away. Oh well, need to worry more about my own operation and not somebody else's.<br />n<br />nI always end my posts with a quote and todays is from one of the stories in the paper. It is so appropriate.<br />n<br />n<b>If you pass the ranch on to the next generation, it's starting to be considered child abuse. Jeff Okerman</b>