The Perfect Storm – HELL STRIKES SOUTH DAKOTA!

[OmahaBlueDog]

The Perfect Storm – HELL STRIKES SOUTH DAKOTA!

Hope Sickler for Real American Cowboy Magazine

Just east of Box Elder, two more families suffered incredible losses, The West family and the Simpson family. The West family who live 20 miles south of Union Center, sat in their house as the storm raged on, praying to God that he comforts the livestock in their pastures. When they were finally able to get out on Sunday, they went out to see what the storm had left behind
.
“What we first saw didn’t look too bad, but when we went and looked off over a bank unto the river bottom, our hearts sank. There were our cows, all dead in piles. They were trumped in mud and over in our hay field, baby calves and cows tried to get protection from some round bales we just put up, but not many were very lucky,” explained Amber Bruce West. “As we were riding through the pastures, looking at all these dead mama’s and babies that we raised and cared for, I came across 5 baby calves that were born during the blizzard we had back in April. We brought them in and kept them in our bathtub and those little suckers fought for their lives, we fought together and they made it through that storm and to see them lying dead after this storm was absolutely heartbreaking. It broke my heart into a million pieces. Those were our babies. Those were ours and there was nothing we could do to bring them back.”

Amber started counting how many they had lost but stopped counting when she got to 80 cows and 70-some calves that had been lost.

“We heard of a family close by that lost 350 out of their 400 head of cattle. That large number of cattle helped feed and support not only one, but two families! We were only 11 days from taking ours to the sale. We were hoping to pay off a good chunk of our cattle loan and get me a newer truck since mine was on its last leg. Now we don’t know what to do.”

More at: http://realamericancowboymagazine.com/2013/04/17/ryan-mcconnel-on-the-pbr-comeback-trail/

[Rebellious Republican]

1. Two ways to look at it, either god ignored their prayers because it is the end of time or God does

not exist. One of two things will likely happen as a result, they will blame it on Obama and the Dem's for causing this, or they will ask for a federal handout. OOps I forgot the third option, they will blame Obama and the Dem's for causing this and ask for a federal handout. Good luck with that while the Government is shutdown. I would usually feel empathy for these people regardless of their religious and political beliefs. To use a biblical saying "You reap what you sow".

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. Another way to look at it is that nature is frequently unkind to farmers

I take no joy in their misfortune.

[newfie11]

55. +1

[cordelia]

4. Wow. Taking pleasure in others' misfortune.

"usually feel empathy". Uh huh.

[Rebellious Republican]

6. No you are both wrong, just have not forgotten how it feels when other states needed help!

Where The No Votes On Sandy Aid Came From

South Dakota: 1
Kristi Noem

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/16/1171819/-Where-The-No-Votes-On-Sandy-Aid-Came-From

[cordelia]

9. Nope. We're exactly right. You place politics over people.

One part of of your user name appears to be accurate.

[Rebellious Republican]

10. So what did South Dakota do when their vote was needed? Pfft.

[cordelia]

12. Beats the hell outta me.

I don't force people to take some sort of purity test before I decide whether or not they need help.

Or at least have the capacity to feel sympathy for them.

[Rebellious Republican]

13. Guess you missed this line in my post.....

" I would usually feel empathy for these people regardless of their religious and political beliefs. To use a biblical saying "You reap what you sow"."

[cordelia]

16. No. I actually quoted that line from your post.

You "usually" feel empathy for people even though they *gasp* may not share YOUR political or religious beliefs.

BUT, these particular people don't deserve your magnanimity because the South Dakota legislature didn't vote correctly. Which they didn't. The victims of Sandy deserved aid as much as anyone else.

But these farmers - even though they may have been Democrats for generations - deserve to lose their herd and livelihood because of an idiot bunch of legislators.

Still stands - your original post lacks any sort of empathy.

[Rebellious Republican]

11. P.S. You have a gold star do a little research on RR before casting stones!

You may be surprised.

[Comrade Grumpy]

34. By your logic, why should we aid New Jersey? They elected a Republican governor.

Let 'em suffer for their sins.

[Rebellious Republican]

36. I can see you are on top of things, it was bigger than New Jersey....

Please do some research before you reply....

Hurricane Sandy: West Virginia, New York, Maine, And Many States In Between Recover From Superstorm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/hurricane-sandy-west-virginia-new-york-maine_n_2051964.html

Where The No Votes On Sandy Aid Came From

South Dakota: 1
Kristi Noem

[Autumn]

5. That's just ugly

[Rebellious Republican]

7. See post #6, that was pretty calious as well. Guess it is differant when the rooster comes home to

rest!

[Autumn]

17. It was a storm. Blizzards are a tremendous force.

Sitting one out for two to three days worried about your livestock and when it's over digging through five and six foot drifts to get the barn open to feed your animals is a damn hard thing to do. I speak with experience on that. To have them out at pasture with no protection is even worse. You have no clue how those ranchers voted. And the livestock had no vote. Your post was callous and ugly.

[Rebellious Republican]

18. So are hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, yes I can tell you how they voted....

They voted for the person they thought best represents their leanings. I have sat out many a storm (lasting multiple days) not only have I sat them out, I have had to be sent to devastated areas regardless of my own personal family, home and belongs when they occurred. I am a first responder. None of you no know nothing about me and what I have done or seen in my life. Get off your high horses and go help if you are that upset about it!!!!! I guess it is easier to command a keyboard and make false assumptions about people you know nothing about, Flame away, I been through much worse. If you guys want to go tit for tat, I will show you mine if you show me yours.

Where The No Votes On Sandy Aid Came From

South Dakota: 1
Kristi Noem

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/16/1171819/-Where-The-No-Votes-On-Sandy-Aid-Came-From

[cordelia]

19. After the posts you've made here and your callous disregard for human and animal life,

I know ALL I need to know about you.

Thanks for sharing.

[Rebellious Republican]

20. Thank goodness!

[cordelia]

22. That makes no sense.

[Autumn]

21. You've already shown yours.

Rebellious Republican. That's all I need to know.

[Autumn]

25. Says the one banging on his keyboard anonymously while

claiming to have done something to serve their community and country. Rebellious Republican

Have a nice day.

[Comrade Grumpy]

33. Kristi Noem got 57% of the vote in 2012. That means 43% of South Dakotans voted against her.

Not every South Dakotan is a reactionary republican.

I, too, will slap you down for your callous and stupid remarks.

[Rebellious Republican]

37. Well GOTV, make a difference.

I am sure you were speaking figuratively.

[morningfog]

49. Your empathy is conditioned on how a slight majority of their voters voted?

[Uncle Joe]

3. I believe I read on another thread that due to the Congressional shutdown of the government.

The ranchers in South Dakota are stymied in getting federal relief.

Ranchers in other states best beware of the same thing happening to them.

Thanks for the thread, OmahaBlueDog.

[tosh]

8. Wow, that is an excellent account of

how the storm developed.

<snip>

"You have to envision this storm, the perfect storm with the worse devastation imaginable. That is what happened last weekend in South Dakota. Several inches of rain came falling down late Thursday evening, early Friday morning and continued to rain all day on Friday until the rain soon turned to snow. The snow that fell was not the kind that blows away but instead the wet, sticky kind that does just that, sticks.

"The kind of snow that even if a couple snowflakes fell and brushed your bare skin, would send volts of shivers up and down your spine. After 2 days of total containment, people were finally able to shovel their way to their doorstep. After that, it was the snowmobiles and tractors that helped get them to their pastures of beloved livestock. Even still, some people were unable to get to their pastures and one rancher even hired an airplane to take him and fly him over his pastures because he couldn’t take the pain that was eating away at his heart worrying about his livestock, his four-legged family.

<snip>

[OmahaBlueDog]

50. Epoch Times: The Little Medicine Hat

An October blizzard swept down over western South Dakota. Nothing like it ever happened before. Not this early. “Look at the trees. The leaves are still green. It was 86 degrees two weeks ago. It was so hot I thought about putting the air conditioner on in the house. I said no, I’m not going to put an air conditioner on in late September,” this grandmother of 5 said. Karen is president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB).

The equine conservancy was started in 1960 by friends of Velma Johnston to support her work. Velma was more popularly known as Wild Horse Annie. The moniker started as a derisive term coined by enemies of her struggle to save wild and free roaming horses and burros. It was Wild Horse Annie’s mustering children from around the U.S. and around the world that caused Congress to pass protective legislation affording wild horses a modicum of protection from abject slaughter and cruel roundups by aircraft with gunners shooting into terrorized herds.

Karen now holds the reins to ISPMB. The non-profit organization maintains four distinct herds and many special care horses on a ranch in Lantry, SD. It’s a hard place to find. So far off the beaten tourist path that few are willing to make the 2 ½ hour drive from Rapid City to visit. The organization is totally subsistent on private donations. Its budget was pushed to the limit when last year’s western drought saw corn and sunflower crops reduced to 25% of normal yields and hay crops fail.

“In January 2012, I was paying $65 per ton for hay. By February it went to $90 a ton. I thought then, ‘How dare you ask that high a price.’ The hay farmers saw the drought coming. By March hay was still $90 a ton but the locals decided not to sell any more. I was on the phone every day trying to find hay. I bought hay for $100 a bale. It amounted to $175 a ton. By June and July I was able to buy hay in Timber Lake for $100 a bale. By August I had to buy hay from Canada for $100 a ton, Shipping was $3,000 a truckload. A truck can haul about 30 bales that weigh around 1,200 pounds each. I got all the hay from Canada until June 2013. My first six truckloads cost me the price of the hay plus $3,100 each truck for shipping. It was $210 to $220 a ton,” Karen said. The freight was exorbitant since there were no back hauls where truckers could make money on the return trip carrying freight.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/blog/the-little-medicine-hat/?photo=5

[freshwest]

71. Hurricane Sandy was a Perfect Storm, too, no? And it kept on going with snow as well.

Definitely not the same cause, but also labeled a perfect storm. All the conditions were in place. I don't usually think of ND as one of the convergence zones like Puget Sound, but they sure got it. What a mess for all regions.

[Auntie Bush]

14. What are they going to do with all those poor dead cows?

I feels sooooo sorry for all those farmers! How can you not feel for them...even if they are Republicans? They are human and Americans that we have strong disagreements with.
They won't even have the government to help them clean the cattle out of the rivers which will soon be polluted. Those people have lost everything!

[OmahaBlueDog]

41. Rendering

The only thing at this point is to get Darland (I think they're actually "DarPro" now) to truck the carcasses to rendering plants.

[hatrack]

66. They've also been using small-town landfills, some of which are filling up

nt

[Auntie Bush]

67. Yuck! That must be really stinky...especially if they burn off the landfill.

I feel sorry for all the livestock that met a horrible death and I hope the farmers who lost everything learned a good lesson...government IS important and necessary!

[steve2470]

15. ignorant question, can cattle ranchers buy insurance on their herds ?

My guess would be yes, but then again I don't know.

[1-Old-Man]

24. Yep, and they can also hedge their selling price and their feed prices

[steve2470]

28. ok thanks for your time ! :) nt

[itsrobert]

26. They are saddened their cattle died

A sad story they tell about their cattle dying. But then again their cattle would have been slaughtered eventually. So, it is not so much the cattle suffered, but they were crying over their lost of the mighty dollar.

[Logical]

31. Of course they don't want to go broke. That is how they make a living. What a shitty thing...

so say. But I assume that was your goal.

[itsrobert]

35. "Those were our babies. Those were ours and there was nothing we could do to bring them back"

Why not, "those were our mortgage payments, our truck payments, our food" Does a person kill their babies when they are all fattened up?

[Logical]

38. LOL, you care more about the cows than the people who lost their way to make a living. You....

on the correct web site?

I doubt I would enjoy your company.

[OmahaBlueDog]

42. I get what you are saying, but I get what the ranchers are saying as well

The animals aren't pets, to be sure, but ranchers do take a sense of pride and have genuine affection for their animals -- even though they are going to slaughter in the end. Think of it like you are a gardener who takes incredible pride in your tomato plants -- even though they will eventually end up on salad.

[polly7]

51. We had to sell our steers every year but I still knew

each one of them by sight and loved them all. There's a special bond between any farmer/rancher and his cattle and believe me, for most .... despite it being also the payday that keeps food on the table, sale day isn't one they look forward to.

[Coyotl]

39. A ranchers herd is the equivalent of a life's savings account too.

It ios their form of money ion a bank

[Demo_Chris]

46. No, they sell the calves. A cattle herd takes years to develop. nt

[ffr]

27. I mostly eat chicken and pork anyway.

Isn't this a heartland red state? Where's their political leadership?

Oh, that's right, it's a weekend and the government hasn't been funded by their leaders.

[Sunlei]

29. late season blizzard, brutal! Livestock need some kind of shelter and close hay to survive.

They'll freeze to death.

[DeSwiss]

30. K&R

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MORE

[OmahaBlueDog]

43. Thanks for the photographs!

[DeSwiss]

45. De nada

[2naSalit]

32. Lots of issues here

Congress didn't pass the Farm Bill (which also expired on Oct 1) so even if the gov't was not shut down, there would be no fed $$ for herd losses. Why didn't they bring in the cattle since they must have known there was a blizzard coming? Mean to tell me they don't have a barn or some kind of shelter? I don't know a single farmer/rancher who isn't up-to-date on the weather scene... and this after a bad storm only weeks prior?

Not making much sense unless, as suggested above, they were counting on operating on the cheap - no shelter for the cattle; left them out in the fields as long as possible to get that extra two pounds of market weight thus not shipping them off earlier to get them to a safe place before the storm... you know, protecting one's interests? There isn't a lot of sense to this until you figure in the $$ factor. If this is a "they gambled and lost" situation, sorry about your luck guys but it seems you could have been proactive in this case.

I feel bad that they seem to have lost everything but I don't think they are entirely circumstantial victims.

Just not a good situation. Glad I don't eat beef cuz the price just went up a whole bunch for anyone who does.

[Coyotl]

40. Many herds had not yet been moved to their ranches from the summer range.

A storm like this so early in the year just does not happen given past experiences.

[bluestate10]

44. Good point. Weather during the past Summer was difficult for farming. Farmers that

took action based upon past summers got surprised. That statement goes for various types of farming. Food prices will be higher because farmers from corn to fruit farmers dealt with unusual conditions.

[2naSalit]

47. Tell you what

and I don't mean to sound flippant or nonempathic... just some common sense;

I, not a farmer or rancher but live not all that far from this place in this OP and in an area where the similar ag activities take place knew that winter was coming early, in fact we started having autumn weather in late August. There were many natural indicators (known to folks from this area who live here year round) that the summer had come on early and looked to be ending early since back in May/June.

All the same, they should have been aware of forecasts and weather conditions in the immediate sense and acted on this knowledge since there was plenty of warning for those who pay attention. Besides, they said they had just suffered an early storm about five or six weeks prior... and that didn't make them consider that they might need to have a plan B? With that much in resources invested and not take action to protect that investment?

Out here in rangeland, this isn't the best way to go about tending to a wise business acumen. Had they engaged in some forethought, might have had a different outcome. The seasons have been "off" for the last three to four years, I don't buy the argument on this one. Even casual observers in the region have noticed these abnormal seasonal conditions for years now.

As I said before, I feel for them having suffered such a loss but I also think the losses could have been curtailed or avoided altogether.

[Enthusiast]

64. Few have barns that could accommodate such large herds.

I suspect. And the cattle are spread over such a large range that rounding them up would be problematic.

[2naSalit]

65. And I wonder just how much of that "open range" is private land vs public land... nt

[Enthusiast]

68. Exactly.

The BLM has to "cull" the wild horse herds because they compete with the cattle for vegetation. And ranchers lease that land dirt cheap.

These Western states enjoy many advantages. For one thing they have two senators even though their populations are very low. They sure get a lot of representation for their tax dollar.

[2naSalit]

69. Not just the wild horses

they "chain" the sage desert in NV, kill off wolves and eagles and sage grouse... don't get me started.

They pay the same rate for a cow/calf pair as they did back in 1960s... less than $2 a month (each requires many acres/cow in the first place). They have US pay for the removal of natural/native predators to protect their business ventures on public land in addition to the cheap grazing fees. Out here many of us call the USDA APHIS predator "control" folks the taxpayer funded private rancher's hit squad who go out in helicopters and crop duster style aircraft and kill our wildlife for the ranchers when they gripe about predation. But the inconvenient truth is that more livestock die from weather related events than predation every year...

A good read about that: WOLFER A Memoir​. Carter Niemeyer ISBN 978-0-9848113-0-4


I say, if you don't have a yard big enough for all yer dawgs, maybe you don't need so many dawgs.

[Enthusiast]

70. PLUS ONE! nt

[Doremus]

48. " Those were our babies. ...” Give it a fucking rest.

They had no problem at all sending their 'babies' off to slaughter so long as it lined their pockets.

If the cows had to die, I only hope it was fast and painless. And I'm thrilled those hypocrites didn't profit. Fuck them.

[NickB79]

52. Give it a rest

Unless you're a devoted vegan, you're just as much a hypocrite. Every farmer, even local-sourced, organic, free-range farmers, eventually sell their livestock to slaughter.

[Doremus]

56. I am vegan. nt

[Logical]

53. Whining again? You really hate farmers I can tell. How progressive of you. n-t

[Doremus]

57. Exactly wrong as usual.

As a plant-based eater, I appreciate farmers who work the land more than most consumers of the typical Western diet.

I don't call people who kill animals for profit 'farmers'. I call them murderers.

[Logical]

58. LOL, it is funny when I have no idea if you are serious. n-t

[cordelia]

59. Your empathy toward your fellow humans is, shall we say, lacking....

[Thucydides]

62. A new one has popped up, did you see this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023848394#post36

[bluedeathray]

54. Thank goodness FEMA is there to help! Oh, nevermind... nt

[OmahaBlueDog]

60. ..and the Department of Agriculture

never mind

[Thucydides]

63. Ok I am younger than rest of you, I just do not know how respond.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023848394#post36

I will try though.

[Thucydides]

61. OMG, another thread on the same subject dudes and dudettes!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023848394#post36