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December 16, 2010
Billings County Pioneer
Page 3
Capitol Report
By Shirley Meyer
State Representative, District 36
Hello.
Boy, the cattle market is making
the news! Seems every couple of
days there is a story about the
record high prices. Which means
we are slightly above what we
received in 1973 and 1979! Wow!
In forty years, we finally increased
our pay by about five percent! I
guess if you took the rate of infla-
tion, we haven't done too well.
Kind of like the guy who said
that in 1970, it took twenty dry
cows to buy a 1970 pickup. Now,
thirty years later, you can still buy
that 1970 pickup for twenty cows.
We all have different methods
of marketing. Some guys sell off
the cow. Some background their
calves. Some contract their calves
early. Some finish their calves.
Some sell over the Internet. Some
sell over video auctions. Some
load up and go to the local auction
the first week in November. And
never vary. Some have no idea
what they are going to do. I fall
into the latter group.
I've contracted, auctioned,
backgrounded, fed, and held out
for more. I've sold dollar calves
for eighty cents and fat cattle for
fifty. I've sold here and there and
over the hill. I've hauled calves to
Dickinson and Watford and
Mobridge and Phillip and Faith
and various other auctions. I've
trailed them in and hauled them in.
I've sold by size. weight, and
color.
And every year, if I had gone a
week earlier, or a week later. I
would have done better. You know
how some guys are.
If you're buying calves, they
will tell you that you should have
been here last week. If you're sell-
ing calves, they will tell you that
you should been here last week.
You can't win.
But. when the market is good,
we know it will last forever. I
know a guy that bought them high
Hat Tips
By Dean Meyer
priced calves, to make yearlings
out of, in the seventies. The next
year, he couldn't get his original
investment back. So, he figured,
instead of selling them at a big
loss, and buying back a new set of
calves, he would just keep the first
ones another year. He. sold them
the following fall as two year old
steers. And never got his original
cost back! Now, that is tough!
One of my favorite shipping
stories is this fella over by Flasher
who was always on top of things.
He would watch the markets like a
hawk. He would gather early and
make sure his cattle sold at "prime
time" (this is the time when all
sales ring operators tell everyone
their calves will sell).
This one year, this guy loaded
his calves the afternoon before the
sale. He wanted them in early. The
next morning, him and ma loaded
the kids and headed /'or Mandan
for the cattle sale. They got there
about noon and found a good seat
ringside. And there they sat.
Minute after minute. Hour after
hour. Every time the door cracked
open they expected their calves to
come in. Hundreds of others.
Thousands. Darkness crept in.
Finally, Pa couldn't take it any-
more. He stormed into the office
and demanded to know why his
calves hadn't sold at two o'clock.
They checked the check-in sheet.
No calves. None.
The trucker had taken them, by
mistake, to McLaughlin the day
before.
And sometimes, I think that
would be best. Just load them up
and tell the trucker to sell them.
And wait for the check.
Heck, you wouldn't even have
to buy a round of drinks for the
neighbors then !
Later, Dean
The organizational session is
behind us, and we became a part of
history. For the first time in North
Dakota history we had a governor
resign willingly in the middle of his
term. We've had other governor's
resign, but they were charged with
crimes and kicked out by legal
means. Remember Gov. William
"Wild Bill" Langer? That was a lit-
tle before my time, but very inter-
esting to read about.
So now the reins are passed to
Jack Dalrymple. He outlined his
priorities in his budget address
before a joint session of the Senate
and House held in the House cham-
ber. I was especially pleased to see
$958 million allocated to benefit
state, county, and township roads in
the 17 oil and gas producing coun-
ties. These dollars would be com-
ing out of the permanent oil trust
fund that will have an ending fund
balance of $620 million, and the
Lands and Minerals Trust Fund.
These funds will be distributed to
counties based on road conditions
identified by a comprehensive
study, which was just recently final-
ized by the Upper Great Plans
Transportation Institute. Until this
f
A famous person in history once
said: "The best way for evil to tri-
umph is for good men (and women)
to sit back and do nothing."
This accurately describes the
whole state of our nation when it
comes to tolerance of those who
want do away with images of
Christmas. Christianity, etc.
Groups such as the ACLU want to
remove any reference to God from
everything. The result is that we
have wim py local governments
scratching their heads considering
the constitutionality about display-
ing images m observance of holi-
days like Christmas and Easter. I
don't think they understand the
Constitution in the first place.
Those wimpy elected officials
who don't want to offend anyone
should be made to work on
im
study was complete, I don't think
the magnitude of the impact of our
ever-increasing oil and gas develop-
ment was sinking in.
Although these dollars sound
huge to some of our legislators, we
need to make these kinds of invest-
ments if our booming oil economy
can continue.
The survey also included state
regulators' estimates that our oil
producing area in N.D. could see
more than 20,000 additional wells
drilled within the next 10 to 20
years. North Dakota had about
5,200 producing oil wells last
month. The study indicated that
2,000 trips by heavy trucks hauling
water, sand, equipment, and other
materials were required for each
well drilled. The report went on to
say the counties have 958 miles of
paved and 12,718 miles of unpaved
roads that carry significant oil
industry traffic.
Of the paved roads, 256 miles
need costly reconstruction work,
Christmas, Easter. etc.
Every year we are seeing more
elaborate displays for Halloween
which is more of a satanic holiday.
Nobody has a problem with that -
another good example of this coun-
try going down the toilet when it
comes to being a Christian nation.
Our founding fathers were men
of God that used the Bible as their
guide when drafting our
Constitution. They were not mixing
church and state. If they could
come back and see what is happen-
ing in this country they would be
heartsick. They would be appalled
to see us even considering whether
or not we are offending the athesist
or non-believer.
We are dealing with a force
called liberalism. Their main ambi-
tion in life is to force the rest of us
and 259 miles need thicker asphalt
overlays to bear the weight of heav-
ier trucks. The report also indicates
that 1,420 miles of gravel roads
should be rebuilt.
In addition, Gov. Dalrymple pro-
posed an increase in funding for the
Oil and Gas Impact fund to $100
million. Currently it is capped at $8
million a biennium. Just to demon-
strate the needs out here, last year
the Energy Development Impact
Office received $31.9 million in
grant requests for the $4 million in
available funding.
Of the proposed $100 million, a
large share, $35 million, would go
to the largest and fastest growing
cities. The balance of $65 million
would be available to the smaller
cities, counties, townships, and
other entities in oil and gas areas.
The governor also indicated that
this funding would also be available
to address the pressing need for
housing infrastructure, including
municipal water lines, sewer lines,
and other residential construction
needs.
But remember before we start
doing high fives, the budget given
to us from the governor is only his
recommendation. It has a long way
to go before his funding levels are
approved by the legislative body.
This session I will be serving on
the Finance and Tax Committee,
and the Political Subdivisions
Committee. I did ask to be put on
the Natural Resources Committee,
but I was denied that request.
Looking over the make-up of that
committee and several others, I
have grave concern about the lack
of western legislators serving on
committees that deal directly with
many western issues. The Natural
Resources Committee deals with
oil, gas, water, hunting, and miner-
als and we don't have one legislator
on that committee that li.ves west of
Mandan. Sometimes just living in
an area gives you the expertise on
how laws should be crafted, and
how a change in statute could
impact the people in your district. I
guess we will just have to be more
vigilant to make sure western N.D.
is well represented.
n evil wins
to conform to their way of thinking
and do as they do. Often they are
very hypocritical as they don't prac-
tice what they preach. The reason
these minorities are gaining power
is that we are tolerating them.
Pleasing these minorities is not the
answer and only adds to the further
demoralization of our great nation.
It all goes back to what I stated at
the beginning of this letter: "The
best way for evil to triumph is for
good men (and women) to sit back
and do nothing."
Ralph Muecke
Gladstone
Golva Co-op Elevator
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