Saturday, January 21, 2012
Good-bye Cattle, Good-bye Documents
Cattle Baron returned to the ranch to load his steers onto trucks and ship them off to greener pastures in Dalhart, Texas. (a mere 850 mile jaunt)
For the first time in recent memory, I am currently not the subject of any ExxonMobil witness subpoenas. I figured it would be a good time to do some house cleaning. Upon the advice of Camera Shy, I called McGinnis Lochridge three times to make sure they didn't object to my file purge. They gave me the green light. (Well, they didn't call me back which is a green light in my book.)
And in local news...Last April, I covered the hijack of some oilfield workers in the ExxonMobil Monte Cristo JV. The perps had confused real oilfield workers for a group of cloned oilfield workers that were smuggling merchandise stolen from another outfit that was also masquerading as El Paso Exploration sub contractors.
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Well, turns out this confusion wasn't an isolated incident. Earlier this months, the feds got involved. Here's their criminal complaint:
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5 comments:
I'm glad it is not too secret! Welcome back.
Those poor cows didn't have anything to eat but scrub brush...They were skin and bones!
I did enjoy the helicopter video though. I don't think they were all steers though because some of them had calves. A steer is a bull that has been cut, you know...they put on weight faster that way...if they're fed. Anyway they're worth gold now since cattle raisers sold off so much this past year because of the drought there was nothing left to fed them and now the supply of cattle in Texas is way down.
Yes, Cattle Baron did have a few cow-calves mixed in. He separated them out in the pens and just sold the steers and calves. The cows have a lot to eat! The ranch had no cattle on it for about seven years so the grass was very lush when they arrived. I think they look good. Cattle Baron would be really offended if he heard that someone called his cattle "skin and bone".
Sorry, I'm just comparing those cows to mine. I keep mine at a level where I don't see ribs or hip bones, but that's just me. He is at a whole different level than I am...The numbers of cattle he runs are huge and it's not cost efficient to feed like a smaller raiser with a herd might. I'm raising cows for calves, he is raising steers for dinner.
It's very expensive to feed cattle right now in Texas with all the stocks of hay depleted before last year even began because of the severe drought. Usually the cattle only need feeding in the winter but this year there was not any grass during the growing season. Hay has to be trucked in from Florida, Georgia and Louisiana at double+ the cost it was two years ago.
He moves his cattle to different ranches when he needs more forage for them.
I think he knows that they are a little skinny and that's why they're being moved. They need more forage. I understand this completely and didn't mean to offend him. In fact, I think what he does is fascinating.
He sells his cattle in private sales to big ranches that are restocking - That helicopter comes in handy! He doesn't have any full time employees. He gets the steers vaccinated at the sale barn when he buys them and then sets them loose on the ranch. He only has to round them up when he's ready to sell. No offense taken.
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