Fire

[puzzled in oregon]

Have you thought of flying over the burn ?

 

[Dave]

Is that to the south of your place?

I would be standing north and a little west of my when I took the picture. It is looking pretty much south. That peak is south and just a hair west of my place. I am near the northeast corner of the fire.

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.

I have no idea how much fence. That 1,200 is just my deeded land. I have grazing rights on 2 BLM allotments. One is 5,000 acres and the other is 10,000 acres. All the 5,000 is black and only around half of the 10,000 is. Pastures tend to be pretty big here.

 

[Dave]

Have you thought of flying over the burn ?

Nope. There are flyers on all the information posts which read. If you fly we can't. Still way too much activity happening.

 

[kenny thomas]

Dave, i think you or someone said that BLM wont allow cattle back on these areas for 2 years. How will this effect how you buy the one and done cows? Will you have to skip a year?

 

[Travlr]

I got to thinking about this picture I took back in 2021 while deer hunting. Everything in this picture is now black. Including that peak on the horizon and about 15 miles on the other side of that peak.

View attachment 47625

On the upside... grass should be good for the next few years.

 

[Dave]

Dave, i think you or someone said that BLM wont allow cattle back on these areas for 2 years. How will this effect how you buy the one and done cows? Will you have to skip a year?

The BLM will have no affect on the one and done cows. They go out on a private lease. The fire only burned about half that property. How that will effect things is yet to be seen. Most certainly several miles of fence. How much fence can get built between now and next spring? Things could really be free range around here next year.

 

[farmerjan]

Are all your cows the ones that got moved down the road that day? Along with other ones? How is the neighbor with the wagyu and the cross cattle ? I think that is "B", that you refer to when you are doing some helping and such? Are the fires getting controlled or just moving to other sections?
For strictly a comparison, it would be sad but maybe a stark lesson for those of us, especially that have not ever seen the vastness of your area, to see a picture from that same spot looking out the same direction, to see what the actual devastation would look like... It would make it come home to people what that kind of destruction does....
I go on some of the newspaper accounts from out there and look at some of what is burned and it is really hard for me to grasp the immensity of the land, and the destruction....and it makes me ever more thankful for what we have here.

 

[Travlr]

The BLM will have no affect on the one and done cows. They go out on a private lease. The fire only burned about half that property. How that will effect things is yet to be seen. Most certainly several miles of fence. How much fence can get built between now and next spring? Things could really be free range around here next year.

Did you ever mention the belties with the new neighbor? Someone asked but maybe I missed the reply. How did they do and have you seen the guy?

 

[farmerjan]

Did you ever mention the belties with the new neighbor? Someone asked but maybe I missed the reply. How did they do and have you seen the guy?

I think @Dave posted that they did not get any of the fire on that property...

 

[RockinRB]

This is what things look like on my side of the mountain.

This would be facing south. The mountain in the background is totally black and and is black for miles and miles on the other side too.


Across the water is the Cow Valley fire, and this side is the Durkee Fire

 

[Travlr]

This is what things look like on my side of the mountain.
View attachment 47650
This would be facing south. The mountain in the background is totally black and and is black for miles and miles on the other side too.

View attachment 47651
Across the water is the Cow Valley fire, and this side is the Durkee Fire

That kind of country might starve a goat...

 

[farmerjan]

Thank you @RockinRB , the pictures are devasting to look at and make it so much more real to me as to the horrendous situation. Are those your cattle in the area in the picture that looks like the fire missed? Did you have many out and did you lose any? Those are the 2 fires that merged right?
Will you have any access to any supplemental hay or other resources?

 

[Dave]

This is what things look like on my side of the mountain.
View attachment 47650
This would be facing south. The mountain in the background is totally black and and is black for miles and miles on the other side too.

View attachment 47651
Across the water is the Cow Valley fire, and this side is the Durkee Fire

I have thought about taking that drive but decided to wait until it cools off a bit. On a Monday, probably 2 weeks ago I went down to Ontario, to Vail, and up 26. That day I went clear over to Austin Junction. It was still dicey around Bridgeport or going over Dooley. A day or two later it turned and ran to 84. That was when we moved our cows.
I wonder if the fish are biting in the reservoir?
I bet there was a lot of cows standing on the edge of the reservoir by the time it was through.

 

[Dave]

Are all your cows the ones that got moved down the road that day? Along with other ones? How is the neighbor with the wagyu and the cross cattle ? I think that is "B", that you refer to when you are doing some helping and such? Are the fires getting controlled or just moving to other sections?
For strictly a comparison, it would be sad but maybe a stark lesson for those of us, especially that have not ever seen the vastness of your area, to see a picture from that same spot looking out the same direction, to see what the actual devastation would look like... It would make it come home to people what that kind of destruction does....
I go on some of the newspaper accounts from out there and look at some of what is burned and it is really hard for me to grasp the immensity of the land, and the destruction....and it makes me ever more thankful for what we have here.

The lion's share of mine got moved. Only about half that place burned. Since the fire B caught 5 pairs from there. He saw 2 more pairs but he was on a quad and they cut back on him. He sent the cowboys over to get them. They couldn't find them. Black cows with black calves, they go up into the black and lay down they are hard to spot.
The Wagyu spend the summer on flat irrigated pasture north of Baker miles from the fire. The Wagyu cross calves are from his first calvers. Didn't burn where they are. He told me Friday that he only knew of one cow that he has lost. I saw one of his cows on the road in front of my place. She was missing some hair on her butt but was moving good. His son spent 2 full days riding Pedro Mt. His uncle has a lot of cattle up there. Only found 3 dead ones and 6 he had to shoot. So 9 head out of many hundreds.

 

[farmerjan]

Sounds like he was overall very fortunate. Losing even those 9 is terrible, for his uncle, but it could have been much worse.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

I guess you can see a lot of it without flying
I believe someone mentioned that (BLM?) was going to set off a large back fire in an area that had livestock. Did they follow through with that ?

 

[Dave]

I guess you can see a lot of it without flying
I believe someone mentioned that (BLM?) was going to set off a large back fire in an area that had livestock. Did they follow through with that ?

I don't know everything BLM was up to. But I can tell you they are big on back fires and not afraid to burn thousands of acres of good grass. The head of our local rangeland protection group said he had a 30 minute discussion with someone (I didn't catch who it was with). After 30 minutes this other person asked, well what did the BLM do that was good? He spent several minutes think and couldn't come up with an answer. The individual fire fighters were great for the most part. The management was absolutely terrible.
Talked to a man at church this morning. He is a volunteer. One of the ones sitting at my house with a pumper that first night. he told me of some volunteers who were pumping water on the fire. The BLM literally shut their water off at the truck because the BLM wasn't planning on stopping the fire there. Their plan was to let another mile burn. I could go on for a long time but I don't need to do that here. There will be letters written with details sent to news outlets, BLM all the way to the top, and any and every elected official.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

I watched one of their public updates they had over in that area, could sort of tell by the ranchers(?) reaction to some of the speakers they weren't overly impressed with some of them.

I have a few negative theories on some of this, but will refrain from babbling on and on about those topics.

 

[farmerjan]

If these letters get written and published , clue us in on where and what papers... would like to keep up on some of this insanity...

 

[Dave]

These pictures are from a few years ago. The pictures posted by Rockin RB would be just to the left of this view by a bit. Looking south from the Malhuer City cemetery and then the cemetery gate. This little green cemetery sits alone in the middle of miles of sage brush. I heard that they saved the cemetery although I don't know that to be true. If they did it is spot of green in the middle of miles of black.