Autumn Flare

Autumn Flare

Pumpkins say it all right. Autum flare.... Who hasn't been on a hay ride or fall festival...

That cool crisp air makes it all the better.

4x4 oil on canvas panel.

For sale or auction at my DPW gallery just follow the link to pay via PayPal

Hay Day

Hay Day

Painted for a challengs of the sky for DPW challenges.

6x6 oil landscape on gallery wrapped canvas.

The Munchies

The Munchies

Just standing here eating something good. Ah! Of course it is good. Fat free and no sugar added.

This is one healthy cow. 

Oil on 6x6 gallery wrapped canvas.
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$50

Making Hay and Losing Birds

As human population numbers have increased in the U.S. and across the world, more and more pressure has been put on America's farm land -- the source of 15% of the world's cereal production.

The good news is that record crops are being produced despite the fact that less and less land is being put under the plow.

The bad news is that this increased production has required more automation, less fence-row cover, and more intensive management of farm habitat than ever before.

A good example of what is going on can be seen by taking a look at America's hayfields. While 40 years ago a hay field might have been harvested once a year, most hayfields are cut three times a year now, thanks to automation. The second and third hay harvests typically occur just as grassland birds are breeding. The result -- a tremendous decline in grassland breeding birds across the U.S. (PDF at link)

The number of hayfields in the U.S. is also in decline -- a direct consequence of fewer horses and fewer grass-fed beef cattle, and also a decline in grass-fed dairy production.

Today most cattle are fed and fattened on grain, which produces both greater milk yields and more rapid beef production. While consumers benefit, grassland bird populations are in general and rapid decline.
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Possums and Horses

A possum around the barn could be detrimental to a horse's health because possums are carriers of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), a neurological disease they acquire from eating dead birds. The disease itself is caused by a single-celled protozoa by the name of Sarcocystis neurona.

As part of its life cycle, this parasite may travel through a opossum and infects the cells in the animal's gut. It is then passed out of the possum in its feces, which, in turn, can be ingested by horses grazing in the pasture or in hay kept in a loft.

The bad news is that more than 50 percent of all horses are exposed to the parasite.

The good news is that only a few actually become affected by disease, which may require an immunity deficiency in the horse for the disease to actually become fatal.

EPM is hard to diagnose because it mimics other diseases, such as Wobbler's syndrome, equine herpes and West Nile virus.

The disease effects the horse by inflaming tissue around the parasite within the spinal cord.

Eliminating possums around a barn or horse pasture reduces the chances of horses contracting EPM.

The disease is not transmitted between infected horses -- only between possums (and possum scat) and horses.

Bottom line: If your farmer has horses, offer to toss the terriers up into the hayloft a couple if times in the Fall and Winter when possums are most likley to be looking for winter shelter. A warning, however: Be able and ready to move those large round bales should your dog find deep in the stack.

The Cow and the Derrick

I hunt several farms where corn and soy are grown and beef cattle are raised. One farm is entirely organic, and the cattle there are grass-fed Angus. Another farm has a mixed herd of cross-bred beef cattle, and they too are grass fed. A third farm has few cattle, but they raise over 1,500 acres of soy and roast it for cattle feed. All three farms also grow corn.

I mention this because in many ways these farms are oddities. When I was a young boy, almost all beef cattle were grass-fed, but today most beef comes to the table not from the farm, but the feed lot. You can drive a long way in parts of America today and see mile after mile of corn without ever seeing a cow.

A corn field is a lovely thing, but if you know what you are looking at it's easy to have mixed emotions. If you walk through a modern American cornfield today, you will find no weeds; almost all corn is now "Roundup Ready," which means it has been genetically engineered to be immune to the powerful herbicide "Roundup". Most soy is now Roundup Ready as well.

It has been said that the rise of modern feed lots has transformed cows from natural solar-powered ruminants into artificial fossil-fuel-guzzling hamburgers on the hoof. Because corn depends on fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides -- and machines to harvest, plant, and transport it -- it has a high "oil price." It takes about 1.2 gallons of oil to grow a bushel of corn which is then converted into a few ounces of beef.

Corn, and to a lesser extent soy, are the main live stock feeds used today because they are so cheap and plentiful. This is due, in part, to federal crop subsidies (in the form of cheap water, low-cost loans, and price support programs), genetic engineering, and petrochemical fertilizers. It is also due to the tremendous natural potential of America's lands, and the expertise of American farmers.

As a result of our tremendous corn-and-soybean glut, the USDA encourages farmers to find a new markets for corn and soy, and -- absent a new market to dispose of it -- that means turning as much of it as possible into animal feed.

Compared with grass or hay, corn is a compact and portable, making it possible to feed tens of thousands of animals on small plots of land -- the modern American feedlot.

We are not going back to grass-fed beef, for the simple reason that there are too many people in the U.S. and they are too demanding. Grass-fed beef tends to be harvested in late Fall, after fattening up all summer, and before the grass grows dormant in winter, while corn-fed beef can be harvested all year round. People want to eat McDonalds, and they do not want to eat beef "in season" like sweet corn and tangerines.

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