Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers

[Viking]

I'd be more inclined to guess it's yet another way the PETA parasites are trying to make meat prohibitively expensive for the commoners.

I can easily switch over from cow/pork to PETA-vegan...I bet there is a bit more trouble to butchering them, but they ought to taste just fine .

[MicroBalrog]

I blame Wickard.

[Waitone]

So they want to tax producers of meat products because of smells the animals produce.  Global baloneyists want a tax on methane production because methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide.

So what the idiots do when the figger out the the earth farts.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081203/full/news.2008.1275.html

[RocketMan]

Naughty Viking, naughty! 

On second thought, though lean, I'll bet they're tough and stringy.

[Teknoid]

So they want to tax producers of meat products because of smells the animals produce.  Global baloneyists want a tax on methane production because methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide.

So what the idiots do when the figger out the the earth farts.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081203/full/news.2008.1275.html

Maybe "Global warming" will fix that (if there was such a thing).

Vegans are known to pass a lot more gas than meat eaters, too. Maybe we should tax them for their "carbon emissions"?  

[Viking]

Naughty Viking, naughty! 

On second thought, though lean, I'll bet they're tough and stringy.

Marinade solves that, plus it'll give the meat a fantastic flavour . Mmmm, salt, lemon, garlic & chili sounds just fine for this, don't you think?

[Tallpine]

I don't raise cattle, but I know a lot of people who do.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes about a 100 cows to sorta support a family.  Look at the math.  Depending on the price, a hundred market steers/calves might bring $600-$1000 each.  So that's $60K-$100K per year gross - minus of course, calving losses, losses to predators, feed supplements, inoculations, buying or raising hay for winter feed, maintaining fences and other infrastructure, land taxes, cost of pickups, atv's, and/or horses to work with the cattle, plus whatever else the farmopoly of life throws at you (floods, drought, lightning, rustlers, etc).

I'm guessing you might be really lucky to clear $30K on a good year, in return for working most of 365 days of the year.  Plus side is you get to write off the 1950's house you live in.

Out here, to run that 100 cow/calf pairs you need about 40 acres per pair or 4000 acres (almost 7 sections or square miles), plus land to grow your own hay and room for house, corrals, hay barns, equipment barns, bull pasture, horse pasture, etc.  Since I don't do it myself I'm probably leaving out a lot of stuff that you need.

And this is all rough, rocky, and rolling range land (except maybe for the tiny percentage that is irrigated hay meadow) that can't be put to any other production except for deer, antelope, rabbits, and a few scrubby pine trees.

So - tell me again how this isn't intended to shut down every dairy farmer and beef rancher in the USA ...?  

[El Tejon]

And people wonder if "gun control" will be a priority for the Obama Administration!

[Tallpine]

And people wonder if "gun control" will be a priority for the Obama Administration!

Well, it will have to be if they think they are going to enforce this one 

[Regolith]

I wonder how many farmers have this number of cattle?  I honestly don't know.

My guess is that it's aimed at huge factory farms.  These things are especially large and stinky for miles around.

I doubt it was meant to affect the average small to medium size farmers, wether or not it actually does is another matter.

My experience with ranchers out west is about the same as Tallpine's.  Most of the small-time ranches around my area have well over 100 head of cattle. Some of the medium-sized operations may have several times that amount. 

[Tallpine]

What this would amount to is in effect a taking of property without compensation or due process, since the proposed tax is prohibitive. 

So then I suppose the enviro-greenies will be happy when the ranchers are forced to sell their land for subdivisions instead of maintaining them as open space and wildlife habitat...? :rolleyes:

[stevelyn]

I propose that anyone supporting this dumbass idea starve to death.

[Bogie]

Every member of the family should own "a farm." With the maximum number of critters.

I've been trying to talk my club president into introducing a "poison pigpen" resolution into our club's bylaws: If the club is forced out of existence, it will be turned over to pig farming.
 
Which the nice neighbors will _really_ not like.
 

[Viking]

What this would amount to is in effect a taking of property without compensation or due process, since the proposed tax is prohibitive. 

So then I suppose the enviro-greenies will be happy when the ranchers are forced to sell their land for subdivisions instead of maintaining them as open space and wildlife habitat...? :rolleyes:

They'll do anything to kill the way of life of people they don't approve of. Enviroment comes second to the fact that they can crush (or attempt to crush) all of "those stupid inbred gun-toting yokels".

[KD5NRH]

I wonder how many farmers have this number of cattle?  I honestly don't know.

A dairy with 25 cows wouldn't be able to produce enough milk to justify having it picked up before it would spoil.

Bear in mind that the bulk price of milk is about $.03/gallon delivered, (so that's still significantly more than the dairy gets) and each cow averages (over the course of a year) about 60lbs - less than 10 gallons - a day.  That's $0.30/day/cow or $7.50/day for 25 cows.

My family has always had about a dozen just to keep something grazing the land, but our neighbor is more of a hobby-rancher, and still maintains a beef herd of around 75-100.

Hogs, I don't know about.  Feral ones are a nuisance here, so we just shoot them and eat them.

[Manedwolf]

So then I suppose the enviro-greenies will be happy when the ranchers are forced to sell their land for subdivisions instead of maintaining them as open space and wildlife habitat...? :rolleyes:

Yes.

Then the lefties can move into those new zero-lotline subdivisions, buy plastic dreamcatchers and other plastic faux Native Americana and pretend that they've fled from the soulless city to live on the open plains.

Which they do.

[HankB]

Naughty Viking, naughty! 

Actually, I think Viking made what could be termed . . . a modest proposal (rimshot . . .  )

[MechAg94]

Most of the people with cows where I grew up only had them to qualify for the Ag exemption on property taxes.  Those would likely fall under this limit.  Anyone who raises cows for any sort of attempt at profit or support would likely go over it.  It takes a whole lot of cows to make a living and a whole lot more to make any money. 

[Bogie]

The folks on the coasts probably think that they also truck in the feed to the farms... And I'm guessing they probably think the feed is made in factories...
 
IMHO, every high school class should have a "farm to meat packing plant" day. See where your food comes from.
 

[Waitone]

IMHO, every high school class should have a "farm to meat packing plant" day. See where your food comes from.

Ain't it the truth.  We have the better part of an entire generation who no concept of where food come from.  Chicken and beef come from the grocery store in a little tray covered with a plastic wrap.  Milk comes from down the isle in white or yellow plastic jug.  No concept of how it gets to to the plastic.  No concept of what it takes to produce food.  Once upon a time in my life most kids had a passing knowledge of food production because mom and dad gardened.  Even that is going away.  Do not even ask about canning or freezing vegetables. 

Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" fame has done us all a service by casting light on dirty, unknown, but essential jobs.  Would that someone come up with a similar program for food production.

[Tallpine]

The folks on the coasts probably think that they also truck in the feed to the farms... And I'm guessing they probably think the feed is made in factories...
 
IMHO, every high school class should have a "farm to meat packing plant" day. See where your food comes from.
 

We went on a field trip to a dairy in junior high (also to the sewer plant that same day I think ... :rolleyes:)

I tried to get my best friend to ask them how many steers they keep for breeding purposes 

[Viking]

Ain't it the truth.  We have the better part of an entire generation who no concept of where food come from.  Chicken and beef come from the grocery store in a little tray covered with a plastic wrap.  Milk comes from down the isle in white or yellow plastic jug.  No concept of how it gets to to the plastic.  No concept of what it takes to produce food.  Once upon a time in my life most kids had a passing knowledge of food production because mom and dad gardened.  Even that is going away.  Do not even ask about canning or freezing vegetables. 

Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" fame has done us all a service by casting light on dirty, unknown, but essential jobs.  Would that someone come up with a similar program for food production.

We occasionally have school-classes on field trips at my place of work (slaughterhouse). I've never seen anything as pathetic as the kids (yes, I'm old at 23, and they are 16-19) who look terrified, covering their mouths/noses, and occasionally faces completely, or simply looks down on the floor (which has it's own way to terrify you though). Where the HELL did they think bacon, pork chops & beef came from in the first place? Bacon-bushes? Pork chop-trees? :rolleyes:
Idiots, the lot of them, with a few exceptions...

Agree with you regarding Mike Rowe. We need him, or somebody like him, to show the ignorants where the food comes from...

[lupinus]

I agree.

With so many animals that take up very little room and little cost, I'm surprised we don't see more of it.  Perhaps we will depending just how hard the economy gets?

It's been a bear trying to convince my future wife to agree with us raising meet rabbits and some goats after we get married and have our own home.  Both animals take up little room and are very economical to raise and slaughter your own.  And especially small animals like rabbits and guinea pigs are common in other parts of the world even in urban settings.

If my kids don't know where meat comes from, I'll feel like I have failed at something.

[longeyes]

Try to understand: WE and the American nation are not part of the "environment" the EPA wants to protect.

These are men of wax who live in sanctimonious, ideological theorizing.  If the U.S. economy has to be destroyed in the interest of holiness, well, no problem.

[Don't care]

The Federal and various state governments already subsidize dairy farmers and dairy processors to keep the cost of milk down.

Milk and other dairy, consumed by children, that is. How PC is this now?

Nuff said.