Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Well, the fallout from the drought continues in the ag community in a bad way here.

I went into town today to get stock feed and the hideously expensive alfalfa that I’m giving the goats and sheep instead of the much more hideously expensive hay. My stock is hurting…everyone’s is. The guys who unloaded their cows back in June and July were the smart ones. You can barely make the cost of the auction bill to unload sheep and goats at the stock pens. Cattle are going for next to nothing. Basically, anything that eats hay is being unloaded.

I’ve been trying to sell my guys for some months now, to people who want dairy and fiber animals rather than meat animals. But no takers…no one is interested. A few people that I talked to were interested, but never got back. I hate to think about it, but I may just have to put some of them down. Unthinkable, I know, but I can’t have them go hungry.

There’s this funny joke we tell in the summer about zucchini squash. If you’ve ever grown them, then you know that they can take over a garden pretty quickly. They are so productive that you usually end up with way too many zucchini and have to think up inventive ways to get rid of them. Anyway, there’s this thing you say, a joke really, about going around your neighbors houses in the dead of night to see if they’ve left the car doors unlocked. Dump as many zucchini in the backseat as you can and hope you don’t get caught.

My favorite clerk is home from school and working in the coop today when I go in to get my alfalfa. I’m upset because they are out, but they make a few calls and will have some in the morning. This stuff comes from Minnesota or somewhere and is shipped down here year round. We talk about the difficulty with the hay situation and the drought some. And she tells me this amazing true story.

A fellow who gets his horse feed there told her that he had gone to the horse sale a few counties over a week or so ago. He took his trailer with him just in case he bought something. After the auction, he came back to his truck and found three horses tied up in the trailer.

True story.

Like horses for zucchini.