What if it Snows?

Screw worms and now mealy bugs. What next in the cattle industry?

Experts Warn of Pasture Mealybug Outbreak in Texas

 

An ecological friendly, non polluting, established business is being wage priced out of business. CA government at its best..

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A Bay Area goat landscaping company says it could be forced out of business if changes are not made to a new state law that would significantly increase compensation costs for goat herders.

Green Goat Landscapers in Gilroy, which uses about 1,000 goats to clear vegetation that can fuel wildfires, said the law could threaten the future of grazing operations that play a role in wildfire prevention across the state.

"We really provide a needed service, and it benefits all of California. Goats go where people and machines can't go, and that really reduces that risk of wildfire," co-owner Brian Allen said.

The company said its herders come from around the world and are compensated through a combination of salary, housing and other benefits.

However, a provision in a new state law requires goat herders to be paid on a 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week hourly basis rather than through the current monthly salary system. Sheep herders are exempt from the requirement.

According to the company, the change would sharply increase labor costs.

"It takes our wages from $64,000 up to $240,000 a year," Allen said.

The company said it cannot absorb those costs and warned that it would have to lay off its three goat herders if the law remains unchanged.

Without herders, these goats just can't be properly taken care of, and it will force companies to have to get rid of them.

One such group in Red Bluff said these proposed changes will lead to a grim outlook for their animals.

"We will effectively sell these goats to slaughter, and we will go out of business and probably file bankruptcy on this business and be done with it in the state of California," Western Grazers owner Tim Arrowsmith said.

Allen said his family-owned business, which has operated in the Bay Area for decades, could face a similar fate if lawmakers do not modify the law.

"We haven't got there yet. I don't want to get there. We're hoping that, like I said, that this issue will be taken up in the traveling session of the state legislature and it'll get resolved," Allen said.

The California Legislature has until Aug. 31 to make changes.

Allen said that without a correction, goat grazing operations, herders and communities that rely on vegetation management services could face significant consequences.

 

This was dad's dog when he was on the farm. That's his dad in the picture. Dog is Shep. Such a good picture.

 

Got woke up at 445 this morning by MONSOON TAIN. Finally got up aboot seven (7) and had two (2) eenches in the gage.

 

Mikes Custom Electrical Repair lol has a job. Flipped the switch for the back porch last night and breaker tripped. wtf. Flipped breaker back on and no joy. Bulb was ok so must be either the switch , which looks original to the house or the fixture.

Had to put batteries in my Fluke electron tester as the F batteries had leaked.
Took the fixture apart and not sure how it even worked at all. Wires were half ### connected with electrical tape
So headed to Ace hardware , with tge helpful hardware man

 

Call the man

 

If you're headed to Misuri.......bring a boat
The Black River at Lesterville rose 8 feet in an hour,
Missouri flooding: Campers rescued after building collapses into floodwaters
Hundreds rescued in southeastern Missouri as 1-in-1,000-year rainfall triggers catastrophic flooding

 

TikTok - Make Your Day

 

That's why I don't live close to a river or any other body of water that might invade my living room.

 

Risk of going down to it is prolly more than its height dangers present...... (I'm thinking Seattle is worse now than many years ago. Was weird in 57 and more so sometime in 80's)