Marijuana is
now legal in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and very lenient medical marijuana
laws in California. Much like the old western films the marijuana
sod busters are expanding into rural communities of the Northwest, unfortunately
we don’t have the villainous Rancher destroying their crops. Ranchers and weed growers have coexisted for
many years and even some of them have dual agriculture roles. Recently a marijuana grower purchased 160
acres next to one of my pasture leases in the Southern Oregon Cascades. He is currently growing 90 plants in one area,
and possible more in other areas, but my recon skills are lacking to gather
anymore intel. Please don’t think that I
am some goody two shoes against drugs, in fact I grew up in Humboldt County
California in the 1980s, so I am very familiar with the Chronic, The KGB*, and
The Icky Sticky.
I think that
I am just jealous of marijuana growers, they get to live out in the mountains
grow a product to sell and make a hell of a lot more money than me. For example
my neighbor could possibly gross $250,000 from that 160 acres and I could maybe
run 5 pairs on that 160 acres during the growing season and gross $7,500. Believe it or not I did graduate from
college, I just wish I would have taken more business courses. I have not yet
had any problems with my neighbor but for some reason he has a problem shutting
gates, I am not sure if he is constantly testing his product or he wants my
cows to provide free fertilizer for his plants.
The marijuana
industry has done a better job marketing their product than the beef Industry.
The marijuana Industry came up with medical marijuana and they claim it cures
everything, and all the beef industry could come up with was “Beef it’s what’s for dinner.” Agriculture
producers should promote medical asparagus, medical milk, medical potatoes, and
medical beef, or maybe if people consumed these products more often they would
not need medicines.
This fall I
will gather and ship my cattle to the market and my neighbor will cut, trim and
ship his product to market. I will get a small check and he will get a bundle
of cash, but I know my product will be much better for people and society.
*KGB: Killer
Green Bud
