Drought devastates county's pastures

The Marin Municipal Water District needs to drain Lake Soulajule to cap the old mercury mine that is at the bottom, why don't they donate the water to the poor starving farmers like Grossi ?
Soulajule was built by the ratepayers of MMWD as a reserve in case of another drought, and has never been used since it was built, because there has not been a drought since 1977-78 in Marin. That is a question, is it really a drought in west Marin ? or are the farmers unhappy because they cannot make as much money this year as usual ? According to all the water districts that serve Marin county (except Novato, that uses Sonoma water) there is no drought at all ! So is this just media hype in the case of the west Marin drought, and wealthy landowners begging for welfare from the state ? Could be !

Obviously, Brunello Otaggi knows nothing about cattle ranching. Then again, maybe he does. Has he found a way to get that water he is talking about from Soulajule to the pastures? Does he think they've got sprinklers all over the place, or what?

Bob Cleek - Novato wrote:

Obviously, Brunello Otaggi knows nothing about cattle ranching. Then again, maybe he does. Has he found a way to get that water he is talking about from Soulajule to the pastures? Does he think they've got sprinklers all over the place, or what?

Bob, I don't think they have sprinklers all over, and no I don't have a plan to get the water to Grossi's ranch, but how about good old fashoned water tankers.
This exact same article has been run 3 times this summer in the IJ, and Grossi has written letters about how he needs freight trains to somehow get feed out Novato Blvd. to his ranch near Stafford Lake. Grossi claims he can save money on feed if it is trained and trucked in, so he can make even more profit, but don't expect the price of milk to go down 3 cents a quart.
I don't know anything about cattle ranching or running a dairy, but I use cream in my coffee daily and eat beef about 10 times per year, mostly filet mignon, super well done to a crisp.
I don't doubt that there are droughts in other parts of the state, but in northern Marin the bare hills always get brown every year, and in the rest of Marin there is no drought at all, even though the grass does get brown, that is normal. I think Dominic Grossi payed the IJ to run this ad, he is very much pro train and development in Novato, but not on his land. I don't know how much he owns or produces in a year, but I would guess it is substantial, and if he has to not make a killing for a few months out of the year, then he should just kick out some dough and buy some feed like every other farmer has to do seasonally, he is not going bankrupt because of no trains.

Are THE NATION OF ISLAM goons still playing body guard to the Obama's?

Brunello; go smoke some more dope. From a guy who spent his first 25 years of his life milking cows in Pt. Reyes; I feel for dominic and ted McIssac. If these farms and ranches fail; let's just roll over and let the regimes in China and Russia control our agriculture!
Where is it going to stop. The news always goes after ag price supports. Shouldn't a farmer get a fair price for his corn, rice; etc. What would a union worker do if it was fair market price for his labor; in building a house, car or working at a factory? There would be a major work stoppage. But the farmer/rancher goes out there every morning; come rain or snow and does his job; so you rich suckers can have cream in you coffee!

Dan wrote:

Brunello; go smoke some more dope. From a guy who spent his first 25 years of his life milking cows in Pt. Reyes; I feel for dominic and ted McIssac. If these farms and ranches fail; let's just roll over and let the regimes in China and Russia control our agriculture!
Where is it going to stop. The news always goes after ag price supports. Shouldn't a farmer get a fair price for his corn, rice; etc. What would a union worker do if it was fair market price for his labor; in building a house, car or working at a factory? There would be a major work stoppage. But the farmer/rancher goes out there every morning; come rain or snow and does his job; so you rich suckers can have cream in you coffee!

All I have to do is drive by Grossi's ranch and I can see that he is much, much richer that me, because I am not rich at all.
I do know that ranchers work and have paid their dues to provide quality meat and dairy products that we all enjoy, I don't take that for granted at all.
The only reason I question the integrity of the article is because of Grossi's letters to the editor trying to justify the freight trains.
The freight trains will not serve Marin at all, and will not eliminate any truck commerce off of 101, and will not bring down the consumer costs of dairy products. Now the train supporters are using this big water emergency to try and con the public into allowing trains to run through Novato.
How about a fleet of Sirkorsky's dipping into Soulajule and dumping water on the affected ranches in north Marin and Sonoma, the lake could be drained right quick.