High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

Ridgetop

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Only need transport slips for cattle here in California. Sheep, hogs, goats, poultry, and equines can move throughout the state with no accompanying paperwork, unless there is some type of epidemic. In the case of epidemic, either none of that species is allowed to enter other counties, you have to have vet health certificates, or there is a self imposed quarantine to avoid contracting the disease and bringing it home.

Some years ago, there was an outbreak of one of the horse diseases suddenly popping up in several states. I forget which one but it is one of the fatal ones with no vaccine. It was traced to a show in Las Vegas. The contestants had returned home bringing the disease with them. Outbreaks started appearing around several states and quite a few valuable horses died. People were warned not to take their horses to shows. Events were cancelled. Many of us stopped trail riding because we might come into contact with infected horses. Six months later attendance was half of normal at Bishop Mule Days. Many Mule days contestants come from as far as Kentucky, and didn't want to take a chance on getting the disease and bringing it back to their barns.

The only reason for a paperwork trail on livestock, other than sales receipts, is to track disease. Most of us quarantine new arrivals for a couple of weeks anyway, but some just turn the new animals in with the flock. Without a health certificate, you could be bringing in anything. That does not mean that the flock the new animal comes from is diseased, but your animals might not be resistant to something that doesn't bother the newcomer. Self imposed quarantine of new livestock is a good safety measure, while the health tests required to transport animals across state lines help to protect the industry.

There is a reason USDA regulations do not allow a downed animal at a kill facility to be put into the food chain. Unless it is a broken limb, you don't know what disease the downed animal could have.
 

High Desert Cowboy

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I’ve been busy busy busy but I’m finally back! Looks like I missed a good conversation on animal movement, and @Ridgetop i remember when EHV appeared after that show. I had a few friends lose horses to it because of one horse that had been at the show. I only had my horse Bro at the time, and he’d had direct contact with two of those horses and a third got sick with it in the stall across from him. He never got sick though, the state vet figured he must have some sort of immunity to the virus. Then it showed up a year later and killed a couple more horses, and I finally found a new place for my horse. I was keeping him at the fair grounds close to school because I decided I was taking my horse to college with me, but the fairgrounds were a joke. They took “precautions” during EHV and did nothing to enforce it. People would walk through there to see the pretty horses and pet them all, taking hay from one and giving it to the other, etc. Finally this old cowboy and I took it upon ourselves to put up caution tape and warn people to keep out, sometimes not all that politely, to people who persisted. The staff got complaints and got mad so we talked to the guys who’d lost horses and they gave their vet bills and replacement horse costs to the county. Suddenly caution tape was a great idea and no one complained when we got irritated with the illiterate. The only employee who’d gripe was the secretary, but she didn’t like me much seeing as she’d been wanting me to go out with her for 3 years and I kept telling her no.
But I’m back and I’m still alive, we’ve just had a rough couple weeks around here and i haven’t had a free moment.
 

High Desert Cowboy

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I love how some things never change. Since they were babies the twins Lambert and Dotty have butt heads...literally. Most summer days I could look out at the sheep and see those two playing in the sage brush, running around mom, and then colliding head to head. I got Lambert back on Wednesday, my friend’s had him since January. Dotty came up, sniffed him, and then they proceeded to butt heads just like before!
Alfalfa has found a new favorite snack, goldfish crackers. My 2 year old was following me around for chores while snacking on goldfish and of course if Alfalfa sees her eating something it’s gotta be good. He snuck up behind her and stuck his nose in the bag to snag a few. His eyes rolled back in his head! I don’t know if that’s a goat trait or just an Alfalfa thing, when he gets a snack he loves his eyes roll back in ecstasy or something. He then spent the rest of our time outside trying to sneak another goldfish while my daughter tried to protect her bag. He’s too well behaved to knock her over, so he resorts to watching for the perfect moment to steal another bite. Probably not the healthiest goat snack, but I’d say he earned em. There are always worse things to pick up. I had a friend whos family loved Coca Cola. And it translated over to their animals they had a horse who loved it too. But the best was one of their parrots. If you opened a coke in front of her she’d say “YUMMMM!” And expected you to share with her. And she’d remember you if you didn’t and exact her revenge. She had free range of the house and chewed a hole in the bathroom wall. She would lurk in that hole and heaven help the poor soul who answered the call of nature after they’d given her offense. Fortunately you were in an appropriate place for when she scared the s*** out of you with a surprise assault. True fear is being ambushed by a coke addicted bird with your pants around your ankles. They thought it was funny and never fixed the hole, though they themselves sometimes fell prey to her wrath. And that’s why I drink Mountain Dew!
 

High Desert Cowboy

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So we went from being in the high 70s- low 80s back down to the fifties and endless rain. We needed 26 inches of snow water equivalent to fill the nearby reservoir. Today we’re at 33 inches. Cooler temps and rain are putting more snow on the mountain, and once the heat comes we’ll have more water than we can handle. But then I see what’s going on in the Midwest and I’m sorry you guys have to deal with that and hope everyone is ok. For now the rain is putting a damper on several projects I wanted to get done, but where they’re not critically essential at this moment I’m going to let it stop raining for a moment before I resume
 

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