SC - Lamb!!! (and kids)

[Decker, Terry D.]

>Australian sheep farming is a fairly laid back (ie well suited to 
>Australia) business. Some people get heavily involved, but most people 
>get the sheep, crutch and dip them once a year, and shear them in spring. 
>Sheep are worth a few dollars, and I have noticed that the people who 
>ignore them and the people who look after them every morning get about 
>the same results. THe difference is with farmers trying to raise 
>superfine wool in grubby parts of the country - then they manicure and 
>brush them twice daily (or so it seems). Sheep farming doesn't seem so 
>popular in the north - for some reason people think cattle are better in 
>the desert land. I think it may be because the wool is not so good. (It 
>may be just my own mistaken impression)

One of the problems with sheep in desert conditions is they tend to
overgraze unless you move the flock along.  Cattle ramble over a larger
area and as long as you don't over stock require less attention over the
long run.

>Our last Prime Minister gained a lot of notoriety because he had a very 
>large business raising pigs. But Australian Pig farmers are up in arms 
>because they are about to get a lot of US and Canadian pork dumped in the 
>country, which is much cheaper. (In Australia we are told that every US 
>farmer gets about a zilliojn dollars a week to keep the prices down, and 
>our farmers are all poor 'battlers' - an australian heartstring word. The 
>Sultan of Brunei is one of Australia's great farmers, and another is the 
>richest woman in the country, who runs a stable of racehorses as a hobby)
>
>Charles Ragnar

If you think you have problems with pigs come to Oklahoma.  Most of our
pig farms are small family operations.  I think the largest was a few
thousand pigs per year.  Our farming and environmental regulations are
geared to this size farm.  About 3 years ago, the first industrial pig
farm moved into the Panhandle near Guymon.  Today there are 78
applications pending for industrial pig farms in the Panhandle, all
100,000+ pig/year operations.

The head of the farm board overseeing hog farms is a hog farmer who has
contracts with one of the corporations trying to get a license.  He says
there is no conflict of interest.  Land O' Lakes, who is one of the
applicants, has already started building its facility before the
licenses are approved, violating a distance from neighbors regulation.
This particular family, who is protesting Land O' Lakes actions, have
had their property vandalized and shots fired at their house.  Just last
week, Seaboard, who already has a farm running, got caught disposing of
carcasses improperly and violating environmental regulation. 

It's a zoo and it is going to get worse.  Legislation is already being
proposed to "correct" the problems and when the legislature covenes in
February, I expect some fireworks at the capitol.  Also, it is an
election year, so money and bombast will flow. 

If the corporations have their way, Oklahoma will be flooding the market
with pork in a few years.  Of course, we got to keep those prices up to
turn a profit, so let's see, where can we export this excess --
Australia?

Bear

PS  If we do wind up with excess pork, I bet we start exporting it to
China, where Oklahoma seems to be making a lot of connections.
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