Betty Jo Gigot, Editor and Publisher

Global warming was not evident in the High Plains as Mother Nature started the New Year with a vengeance for livestock producers. Back-to-back storms were bad enough, but five inches of rain before the severe drop in temperature brought havoc to cattlemen and feedlot managers alike in western Kansas. Ice snapped power lines and downed transformers and power poles like matchsticks, leaving area roads virtually impassable.

Southeastern Colorado feedlots and ranchers sustained death losses estimated in the thousands as they struggled to get to and care for stranded animals. Their problems will continue with more bad weather and animals that have been compromised because of their exposure to the harsh elements.

After a number of open winters, it is easy to forget just how devastating winter can be and “betting on the come” as far as the size and type of animals that can be brought that far north certainly can have a down side.

In the storms’ aftermath, one cannot help but be amazed at the reaction of the “city folks.” The opinion line in the Wichita Eagle had comments like, “Why would I want to see dead cows on the front page?” and even more interesting, “If those animals are so important to their [producers’] livelihood, why don’t they take better care of them?”

Equally as puzzling was the dustup between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Colorado’s outgoing Gov. Bill Owens. When asked to help feed and rescue the snowbound cattle, a PETA spokeswoman said, “You’re going to save them, and then in six months they’re going to be killed and end up on someone’s plate, so I don’t know that it’s really the most noble cause.”

Owens responded on a Denver radio station, declaring that PETA is “a bunch of losers” and “frauds.” They’re a “strange group of people. Don’t send money to PETA,” he said.

The PETA spokeswoman also said the group is not interested in helping wild animals suffering in the storm. According to her, the storm was an act of God and nothing could be done.

But just let a hunter show up out there and she would have been shouting from the mountaintops.

O O O

I could not believe that I actually did a search on Treehugger.com , but it certainly does remind one that the ethanol explosion has everybody’s interest. According to Lester Brown at the Earth Policy Institute, “Simply put, the stage is being set for a head-on collision between the world’s 800 million affluent automobile owners and food consumers. Given the insatiable appetite of cars for fuel, higher grain prices appear inevitable. The only question is, When will food prices increase and by how much? Indeed, in re2cent months, wheat and corn prices have risen by one-fifth.”

“For the two billion poorest people in the world, many of whom spend half or more of their income on food, rising grain prices can quickly become life threatening,” Brown continued. “The broader risk is that rising food prices could spread hunger and generate political instability in low-income countries that import grain, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and Mexico. This instability could in turn disrupt global economic progress.”

O O O

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection of the Anti-Packer amendment to Nebraska’s state constitution that would ban meat packers from owning or feeding livestock should raise some hackles. A packer ban was expected to be one of the possible planks in the new Farm Bill.

The court also agreed with a lower federal court, ruling that Nebraska’s Initiative 300 discriminated against out-of-state businesses. Passed in 1982, it was considered the country’s toughest anti-corporate farming law and was part of the state’s constitution, applying not only to land ownership but also to the operation of farms and ranches. A corporation cannot even own livestock that are custom fed or contract-produced in another feedlot.

With its demise, feeders in the state know that some of the yards will change hands – some already have – and that, in the long run, land values will increase as will the value of their facilities. In the background, Initiative Number 300 was strongly supported by some of the larger feeders in the state at the time of its passage because they were grandfathered in. It will be interesting to see what changes this development will bring to the state.