primitives discuss one effect of the Great Barack Drought of '12

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021109343

Oh my.

You know, I'm staying away from the RyanHateFest on Skins's island this morning, as the noise of the primitives whistling past the graveyard is deafening.  There's an incredibly stupid campfire lit by the brain-damaged primitive, for example.  The guy's infantile.

Anyway.

xchrom (79,397 posts)

Ranchers Send Cows To Slaughter As Drought Sears Pasture

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-10/ranchers-send-cows-to-slaughter-as-u-s-drought-sears-pasture.html

The grass in Melvin Korte’s 280 acres of pasture in northern Missouri is dead, burnt away in the worst drought in the Corn Belt in more than a half-century. Now he’s doing all he can to keep his herd of 63 cattle alive.

He’s using up winter hay and buying feed at prices more than a third higher than three months ago. Later this year, he may bale the dead corn stalks from his neighbors’ fields for feed. “There’s not much nutrition in it,” the 65-year-old farmer says. “But it gets something in the animals’ stomachs.”

Feed-rationing may help Korte save two-thirds of his herd as he and other cattle farmers struggle to feed animals grazing on the brown and barren fields. Otherwise, “liquidation” is the alternative. Without the government-backed insurance available to corn and soybean farmers, cattle-producers may be suffering the most under the drought, responding to higher costs by sending cattle for slaughter early, with some eventually selling their herds entirely.

“You tough it out,” said Korte, whose farm near Curryville is about 70 miles northwest of St. Louis. “People will be deciding how much they need to sell based on whether it rains or not or if they can make it through the winter.”

eShirl (10,787 posts)

2. does this mean a temporary drop in prices is coming up?

followed by a longer period of high prices?

we have a new freezer with barely anything in it yet...

Uh huh.

franksolich, who admittedly is no market expert, expects beef--and other food--prices to be sky-high by the last week of October, just before the elections.

Truly unfortunate for decent and civilized people, but too bad for the primitives, for two reasons.

Ilsa (29,808 posts)

3. You got it.

I might buy one this weekend.

[JohnnyReb]

Later this year, he may bale the dead corn stalks from his neighbors’ fields for feed. “There’s not much nutrition in it,” the 65-year-old farmer says. “But it gets something in the animals’ stomachs.”

Down here in the south we add a little molasses and mineral salts to non nutritious bulk feeds like corn stalks. Cows eat it like candy and it's good for them.

[Mr Mannn]

Down here in the south we add a little molasses and mineral salts to non nutritious bulk feeds like corn stalks. Cows eat it like candy and it's good for them.

Great, just what we need. Cows high on bath salts. Man eating cows loose in the prairie.

[JohnnyReb]

Great, just what we need. Cows high on bath salts. Man eating cows loose in the prairie.

We'll fence in and pasture them in blue states.

[67 Rover]

Great, just what we need. Cows high on bath salts. Naked Man eating cows loose in the prairie.

FIFY.