Gov't payouts.

NEfarmwife, I admire your decision very much, very honorable to think of others that were affected worse than you were during the floods. I think you deserved compensation as much as anyone else that lost cattle. Probably much more than some. I can't think of a better way for the govt. to use my tax dollars, than to help farmers like yourself that have suffered such losses.

I hope nobody thinks bad of me, but I once took some "free" money. It was a drought relief program. I was like the rest of you and didn't consider signing up for awhile. I was too busy hauling feed and water to be bothered with it. Death loss was horrible on those cattle bought during this period, we call it dust pneumonia. Thin sale barn calves are always a risk, but these had the deck stacked against them from the start. They had been surviving on soupy black water, breathing dust every time they put they're head to the ground, looking for grass that wasn't there. My feed and water, made these calves look better over night. But the stress of all of this shuffling, and hardship took it's toll. My vaccines didn't seem to work, might have even made things worse. A friend of mine necropsied some of his losses and they're lungs were full of mud, from breathing so much dust. It was a bad summer for me, but it rained that fall and things got better.

After all this passed, the talk of relief money to our states cattle producers came out. People started asking me if I had signed up for it, my answer was no. "Well you should Dr. so n so did and got $$$ and a new well to boot. I heard these stories over and over. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry had signed up and got a check. The gentlemen farmers, the ones that didn't even need it were the first to sign up. They really weren't even farmers, just people that had a few cows. It made me ANGRY! I went the next day to get my free money, just because I was mad. They needed to see receipts for every head sold that year and compensated you $20.00 per head. The lady at the office was super nice, and smiled the whole time she helped me. I laid that stack of receipts down and her eyes lit up. It was the easiest thing I've ever done. I got a lot more than Dr. So- N- So , I got more than a whole roomful of hobby farmers combined. I got the option for a "free" well to be drilled, I even got offered compensation for the ones that died! I walked out of that office feeling ten feet tall.

I declined on the new well, I declined the dead cattle compensation. The $20.00 per head for every head sold that year was good enough. I was paying for two farms and raising a family at the time. Part-time job straightening out cattle for someone else, and every dime I had was tied up in my own cattle. I was broke then and I'm broke now, but I buy and sell a lot of calves during the course of a year, and it worked out well for me that day at the extension office.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is if you don't sign up for this stuff someone else will. They set that money aside to give producers, and that is what they will do with it. It is very honorable to decline any assistance. I respect that. I signed up thinking every dollar they gave me would be a dollar they can't give to some goof-ball, that didn't really deserve it anyway. I used every penny of it towards feed, medicine, and stockyard bills. It was quick, and easy, and I felt good about it. That check came pretty quick too, the govt. don't mess around when they're giving away money. I urge you all to consider who will receive this money if you don't sign up for it. I'd rather see real cow people get it, than the Dr.So-N-So's, those farms are meant to be a right off anyway. Just my thoughts.

Had a gentleman here who got caught selling the hay he received from donations. I was LIVID.

I don't believe there were any repercussions for that either. Takes a lot of balls to do that. Especially in a community that'll rise up and help thy neighbor.