DeltaBluez Tess Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Check out this article about sheep, shepherds and drought http://deltabluez.blogspot.com/2012/12/drought-and-economy-plague-sheep-farmers_11.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smalahundur Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 That´s quite a depressing read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Diane, You might want to put a note at the top that you are reprinting it from another source, or move the link to the top so it's clear that you have reprinted it, or better yet, just post the link here, since it's not original to your blog anyway. Otherwise, it looks like you wrote the article (because you're sending people to your blog to read it), and unless someone clicks on the link they have no way of knowing you didn't write it. I wouldn't have realized it at first if I hadn't already seen the article on Facebook. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geonni banner Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Is this a typo? "...have battered Mr. Bartmann and the 80,000 ranchers across the county who raise sheep." Can there really be 80,000 sheep ranchers in one county? Either there are too many zeros or it should be across the country - at least I would think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Yes, Geonni. If you go to the NY Times article, you will see that it says "across the country." J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted December 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 added reprinted at top.... quite a few folks around here have downsized....we are feeling the pinch now....out hay went up from $250 a ton to $335 a ton..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olivehill Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 As a writer by trade, I'd strongly urge you to just post a link to the original article. Reprinting a piece in its entirety without permission is plagiarism, even if you have said it's reprinted. And, aside from the legalities, it's just plain morally icky as writers today increasingly depend on the traffic their pieces receive for making a living. They may be paid by the piece just as always, but if their pieces do not perform well they're not likely to be assigned more work with the publication and publishers now have those metrics minute-by-minute. By posting the entire article on your blog you're capitalizing on Mr. Healy's work without so much as throwing him a breadcrumb. If you want to link to it from your blog just post the first paragraph as a teaser and a link to "read the whole article at NYT". Off to read on NYT now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olivehill Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 I don't think this is unique to sheep farms, though some of the components may be. We're all struggling right now; beef, hogs, dairy.... even poultry. At a conference this past spring one of the speakers queued up a certain slide during his presentation that I think really says it all, it was the overall profitability of average beef feed lots over the past 30-ish years. Of them, about five were in the black. We're on the heels of a particularly profit-heavy era in agriculture, if the past two years is any indication some serious adaptation is going to be needed to keep it that way for even a portion of livestock producers going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted December 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 if you read the blog to the END you will see I posted a LINK to the article.......if you don't want to read my blog, that's fine by me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olivehill Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Diane, it's not about whether or not I want to read your blog. I actually read it rather frequently and enjoy it, it's just about the morality of reposting another writer's work in its entirety and the potential effect that has on the writer. I, perhaps unwittingly, thought you probably didn't realize what posting it in its entirety did and thought explaining may have helped, but maybe not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smalahundur Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 I feel the title of the article is abit of a misnomer. The drought does not seem to be the main reason for the trouble, but the way big compagnies in the US took complete control of the food producing chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 I feel the title of the article is abit of a misnomer. The drought does not seem to be the main reason for the trouble, but the way big compagnies in the US took complete control of the food producing chain. Now that you bring it up, I was also struck by the thought that the supply chain pricing and consolidation of buyers were contributing to the low prices paid to producers. For those of you who direct market your sheep, what is your take on this article? And how have prices held up (or down) for you? Jovi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 My prices have held steady for the most part (I sell direct off the farm), but feed/hay prices are steadily rising and moderate drought/drought have necessitated feeding more, so I think I fit the profile of at least part of the population being referred to. If lamb prices go down while feed prices go up, that's when you're really squeezed (as in the case of the large producers who rely on feedlots and the consolidated buyers), but even if lamb prices stayed the same or went a bit higher, those prices would be unlikely to offset the increased cost of feed (corn is being used in other markets (e.g., ethanol), and the drought killed a bunch of the crop in the midwest, so corn prices went through the roof. Same with hay--drought means there's less of it, more competition for what there is, the cost of shipping it from somewhere else if you're in an area hit by drought, and so higher prices). Under those conditions it is difficult to make a living raising any livestock. The lower price being paid for lamb is only one aspect of the larger issue. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.