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Mark Reynolds said:
Air tanker plane fighting Oregon 'mega-fire' disappears, officials say

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...1&cvid=d45e997ba6914c649a539b66964866dd&ei=61
apparently this has happened on "Dave's Fire" 😟😢
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Not on the Durkee fire. I can't remember the name of the fire but it is north of Burns. Between Burns and Seneca. Mostly big pine forest in that area. The fire is over 100,000 acres.
farmerjan said:
How are the cows/calves y'all moved down the road the other day?
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Cows and calves are doing good. No sick calves. Lot of hungry cows. 200+ cows on about a 20 acre hay field that the hay is already gone. I fed 2 big squares this morning. The cows were nearly climbing on the truck. One of the other cow owners was going in with more hay a little after I fed.
 
Dave said:
Not on the Durkee fire. I can't remember the name of the fire but it is north of Burns. Between Burns and Seneca. Mostly big pine forest in that area. The fire is over 100,000 acres.

Cows and calves are doing good. No sick calves. Lot of hungry cows. 200+ cows on about a 20 acre hay field that the hay is already gone. I fed 2 big squares this morning. The cows were nearly climbing on the truck. One of the other cow owners was going in with more hay a little after I fed.
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I gotta work on my geography, but still not good.
 
The plane went down near the Falls Fire which is now at over 142,000 acres. It is located SW of the Durkee Fire that wiped out Dave's grazing for this year. I heard he went down while returning from dropping retardant on the Parasol Fire which is a bit NE of the Fall fire, so a little closer to Dave.

My neighbor had a heifer out on the road near me. I texted him that we had put her back in, but there were reports of some more out on another neighbor. He let me know they were in the middle of trying to get cattle removed from the Falls Fire area. He said it took 5 guys a week of gathering, but they had them all out and in a safer location. Considering how much pasture burned in Eastern Oregon, I expect hay prices will be rising and many calves will be weaned early.

I have OnX on my phone. I don't use it for hunting, but I find it immensely useful for may other things, including keeping tract of fires and checking land ownership. It is very entertaining for someone as snoopy as me. I had always wondered exactly where Dave lived. With OnX, and hints Dave has left over the years, I was able to figure it out. :sneaky: I also discovered that a man I have known for years as a local rancher and owner of several businesses, owns another 15,000 acres NE of Dave.
 
Katpau said:
My neighbor had a heifer out on the road near me. I texted him that we had put her back in, but there were reports of some more out on another neighbor. He let me know they were in the middle of trying to get cattle removed from the Falls Fire area. He said it took 5 guys a week of gathering, but they had them all out and in a safer location.
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Many of us here can't ever imagine that kind of stock gathering. Even back when my old county was open range it wasn't that kind of terrain and under those kind of dire circumstances. My old hat's off to all of you out West.
 
We sorted out cows and drove ours this way about 4 miles to an irrigated pasture which B leases. First time I had seen B in 11 days. He said that he lost 95% of his grazing. He listed off others who lost 90-100%. We had a pretty good discussion about the fire. The fire fighters were for the most part great. The management of the fire, personal, resources was terrible. Always said that government promotes people to their level on incompetence. That IC ever came back here he might get sent home in a box.
 
Dave said:
We sorted out cows and drove ours this way about 4 miles to an irrigated pasture which B leases. First time I had seen B in 11 days. He said that he lost 95% of his grazing. He listed off others who lost 90-100%. We had a pretty good discussion about the fire. The fire fighters were for the most part great. The management of the fire, personal, resources was terrible. Always said that government promotes people to their level on incompetence. That IC ever came back here he might get sent home in a box.
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@Dave , what can WE do, as a forum, to help? Please tell us. What do all of you need? both NOW and LATER.
 
Dave said:
We sorted out cows and drove ours this way about 4 miles to an irrigated pasture which B leases. First time I had seen B in 11 days. He said that he lost 95% of his grazing. He listed off others who lost 90-100%. We had a pretty good discussion about the fire. The fire fighters were for the most part great. The management of the fire, personal, resources was terrible. Always said that government promotes people to their level on incompetence. That IC ever came back here he might get sent home in a box.
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You bring up a good point. The firefighters do as they are told. Sometimes I questioned why we were doing some things. But i tried my best to keep them small.
 
Mark Reynolds said:
@Dave , what can WE do, as a forum, to help? Please tell us. What do all of you need? both NOW and LATER.
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Nothing. Part of what I post is just venting and part just news. We have a potential buyer for the old cows and calves. A different route than the past. We will see if that works out. We will see what happens with the hay situation locally. People feeding hay 4 months early will have an effect. How many cows got burned up? How many will sell out remaining cows? What kind of disaster relief programs come along? Over 600 square miles on the Durkee and Cow Valley fires. That is a lot of fence. I am the chair of the local soil and water conservation district so I am in a position to hear of those relief programs fairly early. On the good side will have lots of grass next year and in other years going forward. This had to have burned up a lot of rattle snakes. Hopefully some wolves, coyotes, and cougars got caught up in the fires.
 
Dave said:
Nothing. Part of what I post is just venting and part just news. We have a potential buyer for the old cows and calves. A different route than the past. We will see if that works out. We will see what happens with the hay situation locally. People feeding hay 4 months early will have an effect. How many cows got burned up? How many will sell out remaining cows? What kind of disaster relief programs come along? Over 600 square miles on the Durkee and Cow Valley fires. That is a lot of fence. I am the chair of the local soil and water conservation district so I am in a position to hear of those relief programs fairly early. On the good side will have lots of grass next year and in other years going forward. This had to have burned up a lot of rattle snakes. Hopefully some wolves, coyotes, and cougars got caught up in the fires.
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Sounds good. Let us know.
 
Superior's Winnemucca sale is going on this week. I looked at the catalog. Weaned Steer calves from Oregon sell tomorrow. I see that a couple of my neighbors who had calves consigned to this sale scratched them. Probably not sure what they will have. Not good to sell a semi load of steers and find out you are 20 or 30 short.
I did see that some calves from just across the state line into Nevada sold really well.
 
Sitting on pins and needles here -- fire 50 miles to the north started yesterday and blew up to 28,000 acres and is 0% contained. Fire north of Boulder, CO took off yesterday as well. We didn't grow much grass this spring, but there is quite a bit of residual from 2023 that is bone dry and it is in the 90s for the next week.
 
I had to run down to Ontario today to get some things. It is about 25 miles on the freeway from here to Farewell Bend. You can see black the entire way. Some is back a little ways and some is right on the edge of the freeway. One spot it jumped the freeway, the river, the RR tracks, and old hwy 30. Luckily it was at the site of the old lime plant. Above hwy 30 it ran on to the old plant site which is mostly bare dirt and rock. Once you start down the hill toward Farewell Bend you can see a long ways to the southwest. It is black for as far as you can see. I am thinking in about September I am going to have to take a drive on the back roads. For now I will wait for things to calm down and cool down. It is supposed to be 100 again tomorrow.
 
I get a lot of "Wow" reaction to my pictures of the fire damage on our place. The Cow Valley fire and the Durkee fire both happened in July. They meet up with each other for about 10 miles along Willow Creek. The total burned area exceeds 600 square miles. We own a little over 1,200 acres. I did the math. Our burned ground is 0.0025 of the area burned. To me that is a WOW. Hard to get the mind around that.
 
Dave said:
I get a lot of "Wow" reaction to my pictures of the fire damage on our place. The Cow Valley fire and the Durkee fire both happened in July. They meet up with each other for about 10 miles along Willow Creek. The total burned area exceeds 600 square miles. We own a little over 1,200 acres. I did the math. Our burned ground is 0.0025 of the area burned. To me that is a WOW. Hard to get the mind around that.
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That would be 400 ranches of your 1,200 acre ranch. I am curious how much 'loss' that is but am afraid to ask. When I worked on the BAER team on the Colville Reservation I remember when the IC was ready to lynch me for the quote I gave him on fence loss. He told me I had to adjust the figures to 1/3 of what I said it would be and that the tribe could request and get more if it was needed. I/we/the tribe ended up requesting the full original amount, and about another $8,000, in the end to complete the fencing, and that was around 30,000 acres only.
 

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