2014
By Susan Mannas and Cory Simpson
Benito watched the brome grass sway in the wind as he & Todd drove along the ridge line down to the swamp to check the mosquito trap. Benito had come to Montana in 2002 to help Todd (an older rancher) on his sheep ranch. His main job was to keep the coyotes away and keep the fence up, but today they were checking one of the mosquito traps to send back to Steve Hammond, a University professor in Western Montana. West Nile had just been discovered in a horse and Steve was taking samples from around the state to see where the virus was spreading. Steve had been pretty concerned about a lot of horses dying from it so Benito asked him if sheep could get it. Steve told him how they had injected a sheep with the virus and nothing happened so sheep were immune to it. (see genome article)
As Todd & Benito drove back from checking the mosquito traps Todd’s thoughts drifted to his friend John in Kansas. Todd and John had met at an ASI (American Sheep Industry Association) convention while arguing against the check off and the American Lamb Board that the ASI was pushing for, acting as USDA’s puppet. John had argued the practical reasons why it was a bad idea. That the government shouldn’t get into the business of advertising products because that’s the job of the individual business owner and that Americans didn’t raise enough lamb for domestic consumption so the new tax would only help people overseas importing their lamb to the US and that ranchers in the US would be taxed to advertise for their competition.
Todd had argued the liberty issue. That forcing people to pay for something they didn’t want was Tyranny. But alas, the USDA had forced the creation of the American Lamb Board and the collection of the check off tax on everyone.
As Todd & Benito got back to the house, Todd said; Benito, can you take the salt blocks down to the sheep? I’m gonna give John a call.
Sure Boss, Benito said.
As Todd picked up the phone he thought of the solution John had told him to fix the 50 year decline in sheep numbers due to government meddling. “You have to get kids involved in raising sheep. Not just as a project or a hobby, but so that they have a real passion for it and the independent farming lifestyle. So that they’ll stick with it and won’t be led around by the nose by the multi-nationalists.”
1 ring, 2, 3, 4, 5, John’s voice came on, “If you’re trying to sell me something you’re wasting your time, if not leave a message” beep.
