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Whoops!
In the post below (The true cost of a bull) I forgot to credit the link to Juliet Cleave, aka: The flower of Cornwall! Sorry.
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What cold looks like….
….this was the thermometer outside the door at our friend, Dr. Sue Beal’s home in northern Pennsylvania this morning. Something like minus 22 but at that reading, what’s a degree or two? And keep in mind this is actual temperature, not the new-fangled “feels like” stuff. Actually, Sue says the wind has mercifully died down….the sun is bright. Which means her neighbor Punxutawney Phil will be seeing his shadow. Which means still more winter to come…six more weeks!
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The “new” journalism….
….here comes “the old fogey” again. You’re warned! Back when I was learning to be a reporter, there was a course you had to take at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism that was based around a book with the title “How to Lie with Statistics”. The idea was that great lies were always buried in those supposedly cold numbers put out by our government….at all levels. I was reminded of that when I read that the new Farm Bill was going to “save” $20- to 30-billion over the next five years. Now that’s not the Congress that I know very well. But that’s the headline I am seeing today in…
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The true cost of a bull….
….in recent weeks, we’ve noted the same concern expressed on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, Farmers’ Weekly is warning that pumping up bulls with grain for shows and sales is setting up the buyer for an expensive disappointment. Farmers’ Weekly says, as we’ve noted here before, the heavy use of grain results in not only poor quality semen….but shortened useful life. Meanwhile, Kit Pharo, in his weekly newsletter, calculated the actual cost to the American cattleman for his “bigger and better” fixation. First, here is the British view: http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/24/01/2014/142976/make-sure-breeding-bulls-are-fit-for-purpose.htm Pharo has made the same point before, and so have we, but Pharo takes it a step further…