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Storm Atlas underpinned the damage of the American Shutdown.
Other | Wednesday 16th October 2013 | Alex
Now, I don’t claim to have any farming experience. I’m mostly what folks would call an “indoorsy type”, if that is such a thing. So when Carrie Mess’ article regarding the recent devastation that scores of cattle ranches have undergone this last week, I struggle to empathise with the situation these ranchers must be going through. This doesn’t mean that I don’t understand that this is a devastating and cataclysmic event for these people.
Mess’ article explains the difference between ranches and dairy farms, but, more significantly, how loopholes in insurance and the American government’s shutdown have proven to combine in a horrifying cocktail for Ranchers statewide. It was estimated around 4 feet of snow descended on South Dakota killing anywhere from 20-100,000 head of cattle, around 5% of the total bovine population. That’s a lot of cows.
Please RT for our friends in SD: "South Dakota Ranchers Seek Help for Cattle Lost to Winter Storm Atlas" #SouthDakota http://t.co/OzbDqkmuUE
— Sol to Seed Farm (@soltoseedfarm) October 11, 2013
To shorten Mess’ well-presented reasoning, the cows had no winter fur, which would have kept them warm, so when the rain started coming down they were soaked through. Throw in 80 mph winds which turn the rain into snow, and you get calves which suffocate under the snow and fully grown cows that freeze to death. This continues to destroy the ranchers’ livelihoods when they have no cows to sell-on the next year and so their livelihoods have come to an abrupt halt because two generations of their livestock are now dead.
It’s a story which really has everything to it. Personal angle, loss of life, and frustration that a bill to help these people isn’t going to be passed because the rich guys in the White House are too busy having sly jabs at each other. It’s ludicrous that the President was elected to his position so that he can attempt to put into practice some of his promises and is being held up by the deposed party. What’s more ludicrous is that, in a time of the direst need, people’s business and lifeblood has been wiped out and the government has SHUTDOWN.
As it stands, the carcasses of these deceased cows are being hastily thrown into mass graves in Pennington County and it all seems rather cathartic. Left to die and being thrown away. It’s a parallel worth drawing at the very least.
Alex Taylor http://youtu.be/uZa1KStTNXU
