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Trade you?

H

Hereford76

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
1,163
Location
North Central Montana
Just wanted to put out an offer. If there is anyone out there interested in being a montana rancher for a few days I would be more than interested in trading jobs for the next few days.

Heres the situation and what you would need to get done in three days.

4 years ago I applied for an EQUIP grant to help establish water for livestock on this place. I got on a waiting list for two construction companies to rip in 2 miles of water line and put in three 13 foot tire tanks. 4 years pass and these construction guys can't find the time to do the job until this November and in the meantime more than doubled the price to do the job. So, feeling confident I could squeeze in the job and do it myself for about 1/3 of what they quoted I went to work with the agreement with the NRCS that if I didn't finish by December 15th I could roll the project over and finish next year. Well, after 9 straight 12 hour days trenching with an excavator, laying pipe, etc I had to go back working cows and getting ready for winter and decide to just finish next year. This morning I get a message from the NRCS saying that they are getting audited and they will be terminating all projects that are not completely done by Monday December 15th and I will not receive the 50% cost share. Oh and by the way when I originally signed the contract they told me since I was under thirty years of age at the time they considered me a young farmer/rancher and would cost share 75% - well it took them about a month to find a loophole on that one. One of the stipulations to being a "young farmer/rancher" is that you cannot of had more than 10 years of "farm income" - well how many 28 year old farmer/ranchers in Montana don't have more than 10 years of "farm income"... anyhow

There isn't much left for you to do if you want to trade jobs for a few days, but starting Friday night we are predicted to get 8 inches of snow and 44 mph winds and highs of 8 to 15 below for a few days straight. Pouring concrete and working with water in those conditions should be a breeze... oh, and don't forget you will need to start feeding cows friday night too. So here's a good opportunity for someone out there that always wanted to run a ranch in beautiful montana. PM for further arrangements.
 
To bad you couldn't have gotten my brothers in law. They have been doing that work for a few years. My son spent a summer on a back hoe for them and really enjoyed it. They dug most of their lines in deep. All frost free.

Up here they sell cement bottoms precast for those tire tanks.
 
Tell 'em Obammy gonna change all that! Hope, Change, Great weather year round!

Don't sweat it. A few years back I foolishly signed up for cost share on some cross fencing with EQUIP. After I got the first section in I decided I wasn't gonna finish it, as my long term plans had changed. Bottom line, I paid 'em around $800 to get out of the contract, and it was some of the best dough I ever spent. They sent me a bill for the amount I owed, so I mailed the check. About a month later, I got another bill for like $1.49 additional penalty....I woulda liked to sent it in pennies, but I fired off another check to the greedy you know whats.

Document anything you can, from weather to the idiot contractors putting you off. If they wanna growl, let 'em.

These problems can be avoided by staying OFF the government tit!
 
NRCS has been running pretty loose for several years and pumped a lot of EQIP dollars out. I don't know the reason, but they are clamping down hard and fast and this audit requires them to have their house in order by the end of this month. Its like they are expecting some change come January or something.......
 
I had them out one time they wanted alot more control than I was willing to give so I just let it be.
 
Probably not enough time left but there's an outfit up here that sells rubberized plastic inserts complete with stand pipe to fit tire troughs.Simple to install; caulk & lagscrew to bottom tire bead. Simpler & more leakproof than cement. We have several and prefer them over our cement bottom tires.
 
I've done a few EQIP projects over the last five years. I've come to the realization that it would have been cheaper to just do my waterline on my own rather than being saddled with all the other projects that go along with the waterline(fences,trees,and bird waterers). And on another note who says they are going to pay half. This year my project came to a little over $30,000 and I was given $12,143. Seems that they dont take into account extra backhoe work for the waterline or the fact the steel posts have gone up 4 fold. I'll quit bitchin.
 
Yep- EQUIP the reason all ranchers are getting the farmers "mailbox roll" shape to the brims of their hats...
:wink: :lol: :P
 
No thanks, maybe next time.

Hey cowsense, do you have the info on the rubber bottoms for the troughs? We're getting ready to put some in too.
 
>>These problems can be avoided by staying OFF the government tit!<<

AMEN!

Just don't mess with the dirty buggers. Their dirty money is not worth the strings attached!
 
cowsense said:
Probably not enough time left but there's an outfit up here that sells rubberized plastic inserts complete with stand pipe to fit tire troughs.Simple to install; caulk & lagscrew to bottom tire bead. Simpler & more leakproof than cement. We have several and prefer them over our cement bottom tires.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't have a picture of those rubberized plasic inserts. I want to try and find someway to seal them up that way rather than cement in the centers.

These problems can be avoided by staying OFF the government tit!
Click to expand...

Yeah - I can definitely say the hassle wasn't worth the cost share. Never again will I get in bed with the gov like that. I guess I can't complain too much for financial help though - I wouldn't have been able to afford for another 5 years or so.

If anyone up there nows a place from maybe Milk River to Lethbridge that might be selling some sort of plate to screw over the whole in the tank I sure would like to know.

thanks
ace
 
Can't say I know anything about those inserts, sorry. Ours all have concrete bottoms that we did ourselves.

As for the program, we had one like that here. Was called the EFP = Environmental Farm Plans. You attend the workshops, they help you identify places on your farm where you can become more eco-friendly, and they cost share the projects. Problem was, they threw out all their friggin' money in the 1st few years, and the well's run dry. They tried for more funding and the Gov't said NO.

One gal told me most of the funding went to things like switching openers on air seeders to go no-till, or double-walled fuel tank containments, chemical containments for herb-fung-pesticides, etc. We wanted to dam up a spring on one pasture that would have created a very large pond backing up in the canyon, allowing us to water 2 sections in rotation. And naturally, it would be stocked with fish so as to be as "Green" as possible. I guess I'll just have to do it myself and see how cheap I can get a trackhoe from a former employer. :wink:
 
Got woke up at 5 am from a blast of wind that hit our house. Wind was blowing about 40-50 mph. It is now blowing 25 mph.
Got a good blizzard going on.
 
Just talked to Big Muddy, I'm going to pick him up on my way, since his place is a little off course we may be a week later than earlier mentioned.
By then it will be the Holiday season and we will be working for triple time wages.
Let us know if you still want our assisstance. :lol:
 
I can't find a website for the company but they do make a tire trough insert very similar to what we use. The molded plastic inserts are a flat round disc with the stand or riser pipe ( ours are about 12 inches in diameter) molded in. We use payloader tires ( 7 to 9 ft. diameter) as winter troughs for the cow herd and prefer the plastic risers as they don't seem to draw the cold as much as steel and are easy to cut for installing bulkheads for float attachments.

Contact info; Buffer Valley Industries , Vonda, Sk.
(306) 258-4422

If you can get your hands on a copy of THE BOOK; PRAIRIE FARMERS CATALOGUE, BVI has an ad on pg. 231. This catalogue is sent to quite a few Montana dealerships & possibly someone in your area has it.
 
Just talked to Big Muddy, I'm going to pick him up on my way, since his place is a little off course we may be a week later than earlier mentioned.
By then it will be the Holiday season and we will be working for triple time wages.
Let us know if you still want our assisstance. Laughing
Click to expand...

Are these one of those deals where you go back on your word? I've never heard of such a thing from such good neighbors!
 
I tell you what I got s&#t - house lucky on Friday morning. The neighbors about 10 miles down the road showed up in the yard Friday morning wanting to start hauling the hay they bought. So I told them I would knock off some money if they stayed the day to help on the water line. We got it almost all done yesterday. I went out this morning and spliced it into an existing water line and made sure everything worked. Just got to seal up the tanks now and push a little dirt up to the sides of the tanks to finish. I think I am going to try just filling the centers of those tanks with gravel and then contact cement in some neoprene (spelling) 1/4 lining to seal up the tanks.

Wish I would have made an effort to take pictures today - it is nasty outside. When I came in as the sun was coming down tonight it was 17 below and the wind was sustained all day above 25 mph. I think I frostbit right above my cheek behind my eye, I guess tempel area and my fingertips trying to splice in the new water line. I just kept telling myself I can do this, I can do this, and finally got it.

Cows sure were happy to see some hay also today - I think they got caught in the start of the storm last night. I couldn't find about 60 calves most of the day and finally found them down in the farthest southwest corner of the place all bunched up freezing. Had to push them about a mile to get them out of the elements cause they didn't know to and wouldn't follow the feed pickup. Just lucky I found them before they drifted through the fence cause after that they could have gone all the way to Great Falls. Almost drove right through one of the gates after feeding. I think the brakes froze up plowing through snow to find cattle and didn't realize until I tried to stop for the gate. I stretched the wires a little with the front bumper. Oh well I guess we all lived to see another day.
 
I Luv Herfrds said:
Got woke up at 5 am from a blast of wind that hit our house. Wind was blowing about 40-50 mph. It is now blowing 25 mph.
Got a good blizzard going on.
Click to expand...

So if it was blowing 40 to 50 outside how fast was the wind inside the house.

say hi to darrel
 

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