Author: Evelyn Pyburn

Beef Backlog Could Pose Future Problems

22 June 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

The US Department of Justice is taking the concerns about distorted cattle prices seriously, and an investigation is underway, according to the President of Montana Stockgrowers  Association, Fred Wacker. Wacker in discussing Montana’s beef market with the Yellowstone County News, said he has had recent contact with the Department of Justice, and while he is confident that the matter is being pursued he is not authorized to discuss details.

In an interview, Wacker not only commented on the status of the investigation, but explained the status of the cattle market in Montana and how it has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis – a very important issue to Montana since the cattle industry is the state’s largest industry, according to Wacker. When the cattle market struggles, the state struggles.

Hopefully, the worst of the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the industry is over, according to local cattle buyer, Brian Okragly, Billings, who reported that the number of cattle being slaughtered weekly, is once again on the rise, after plummeting with the closure of the packing plants. Beef prices, too, are coming back into alignment, he said, in an interview with Yellowstone County News.

Okragly is a licensed and bonded cattle dealer, who has spent the past 27 years buying and selling feeder calves, yearlings and finished cattle.

Besides his leadership role in the Montana Stockgrowers Assoc., Wacker raises black and red Angus cattle in the Miles City area on the Cross Four Ranch. His cattle are non-hormone and non-antibiotic grown to serve outlets such as Whole Foods. Much of what he raises is sold to Europe, Japan and China.

“We raise cows and calves!” he stated. And, Montana raises the best cattle. “They are sought after,” said Wacker, “Buyers drive through four and five states to get them”

Montana’s Attorney General Tim Fox, along with AGs from 21 other states sent a letter in early May to US Attorney General William Barr, to request an antitrust investigation of the beef processing industry to determine if the packing companies have entered into agreements that thwart competitive bidding. The beef packing business in the US is dominated by four major companies.

Puzzling everyone was why cattle prices were so low for ranchers but are at record high levels at the grocery counters. In simple terms, as explained by Wacker, “We are getting $1.90 pound, but the packer is getting $4.65 per pound. ..We feel it is Ok for packers making $300, but when it is double and three times that; it is very excessive.”

The rancher typically hopes to make about $50 to $100 profit per head.

“We don’t think there is enough cattle being bartered,” Wacker said, “That’s what makes it a market.”

Another aspect of what’s happening in the cattle market is the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, which have created shortages in the retail beef supply, which are alarming consumers. Besides meat prices in the grocery stores being at all -time highs, the shelves are often empty, and signs are commonly posted limiting the amount of meat the customer can buy.

To some extent the shortages reflect deeper problems within the industry. Beef packing plant closures have squeezed narrow supply lines and unveiled weaknesses of the highly regulated and concentrated beef industry.

It’s not just beef that has been impacted by plant closures. The coronavirus caused the closure of chicken and pork meatpackers and other food processing plants, as an estimated 12,000 plant workers tested positive for the disease and 48 workers died. Other workers went on strike, concerned about working conditions.

As of April 28, according to Bloomberg, processing plant shutdowns wiped out a quarter of the nation’s pork-processing capability and 10% of that for beef.

As the plants closed so did the processing of fat cattle – animals ready for slaughter and distribution to grocery stores and restaurants.

Before the COVID-19 virus hit, the industry was experiencing record kills nationwide of about 650,000 a week, according to Okragly. “We were looking really good,” he said, “The futures market looked good.” As COVID-19 hit workers and forced plant closures, the slaughter number dropped 200,000 animals a week – down to 450,000, and the futures market dropped 25 to 30 percent.

The reduction in the number of animals being processed, began a backlog of fat cattle and then of feeder calves, and on down the supply chain to the ranchers’ rangeland.

Not liking the prices they were being offered ranchers began deferring sales. There were reports that some producers – of cattle, pigs and chickens —  were having to euthanize animals because of no ability to place them, or feed to feed them.

With most packing plants now open and kill numbers coming back to 600,000—“almost at full capacity,” things seem to be improving, but “We are going to have backlog down the road. What that will do to feeder cattle this fall is uncertain,” said Okragly.

In addition, the carcass weight of the back-logged cattle will be heavier, by about 48 pounds per head – “that’s a lot of tonnage on the market.”

The heavier carcasses and backlog will play together and cause a build-up of numbers,” he continued. How that will work itself out with the resumption of normal supplies, “is hard to tell.” The industry has never experienced anything like this. “There is no play book for what lies ahead.”

One positive of the situation is the grain and corn prices are low, which Okragly hopes remain low. “We need to market the beef and hope and pray for a big beef demand, domestically,” said Okragly. Even at that, Okragly said he expects a market lower than it was last year at the same time – but he added predicting the cattle market is like predicting the weather.

Wacker explained that ninety percent of the calves raised in Montana are shipped to “mid-west feedlot states.” Weighing 500-600 pounds the calves are fattened to about 1400 pounds and then sold to one of the four major packing companies.

About 15 percent – around 300,000 head — of Montana calves are retained by growers who “winter” them and then sell them in the spring as “yearlings” that weigh about 950 to 1500 pounds to be “finished” in Montana feed lots.

There are no major packing plants in the state. Wacker said that he wished there were.  “I would love to see more [cattle] stay in Montana. , I would love to see more competition.  I’d like to see feed lots and a nice processing plant,” he said, “It would be a great growth thing for the state.”

Airport Traffic Down 95%; Gets Millions from CARE

22 June 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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Even though traffic at the Billings Airport has dropped to just 5 percent of normal levels, the facility will go forward in sound financial condition thanks to substantial grants from the federal government under the CARES Act, according to Kevin Ploehn, Director of Aviation  & Transit, in his report to the Aviation and Transit Commission during their regular monthly meeting.

Impacts to the MET in Billings by the COVID-19 crisis have not been as severe.

“While March started out great, by mid-March traffic was falling off drastically.” reported Ploehn regarding airport boardings. During April the Airport was doing  96 TSA screenings per day on average, as opposed to 1,197 in April 2019.

All industries related to travel were seeing decimated revenues, said  Ploehn, and airlines had already had voluntary layoffs and early retirement buyouts to reduce the number of employees and costs.

Ploehn said that he did not think things would return to normal until the Summer of 2021, and maybe later if people change their attitude about travel, use technology more for virtual meetings, there are more social distancing requirements, and if people cannot afford to travel. The airline industry is likely to be much smaller in the “near future.”

Ploehn projected that the Billings Airport would see a revenue shortfall of $4 million to $5 million, mostly due to a drop in concession and airline revenues. However, they will be very well compensated for that loss with the $12,721,011 the Airport was allocated under the CARES Act, which will cover two or three years of revenue shortfalls.

Additionally, the CARES Act included other benefits for airports such as dropping the requirement for matching the regular 2020 AIP funds. The Feds will pay 100 percent. The change could be worth $700,000 to $800,000 to the Airport depending on how much in AIP (Airport Improvement Program) Discretionary funds the Airport receives this year. 

In order to shed some costs to the Airport, two of the Airport Police Officers were reassigned to MET Transit to patrol the transfer centers and bus stops due to transient issues.  Additionally, some custodial staff will transfer to MET and do deep cleaning and other tasks to enhance the cleanliness of the MET facilities.  No seasonal employees will be hired, some maintenance contracts were halted, and very little capital dollars will be spent this year.

Ridership on MET buses was down 31 percent in March, which was largely accounted for by the decline in student riders, since the schools were closed. MET continued to have 600 to 800 passengers daily.  However, MET too will be saved from financial hardship by funding from the CARES Act. MET received an allocation totaling $5,358,483.  Ploehn said that this additional funding would keep MET fiscally sound for a number of years.

Benefits of the CARES Act funds include, no expiration, all expenses 100 percent reimbursed, and the funds can be used for capital procurements or projects.

Since the direct purchase of tickets from the drivers became a safety concern, fares were waived for April and May, which costs the city enterprise around $48,000 per month. MET staff has put together a Request for Proposals for an Electronic Fare Collection System so that passengers may buy their tickets electronically to avoid the interaction with the driver.  Individual fares only account for approximately 10 percent  of MET revenue.

Ploehn noted that the CARES Act also changed the regular 5307 operating grant from a 50/50 Federal/Local match to 100% Federal for items related to COVID-19, which MET can use for the two Airport Police Officers working for MET and the hours of the Airport Custodial to clean MET facilities.

Construction of the $60 million Terminal Expansion Project is progressing. The anticipated funding for the project will come from AIP grants at $29,100,000; PFCs of $1,600,000; financing or bond funds of $24,000,000, and $5,300,000 of Airport local match funds for a total of $60,000,000.

A Request for Qualifications was advertised for financial institutions interested in the financing of the Terminal Expansion Project.

Empty Meat Counters will Trigger Changes to Beef Market

19 May 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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The impact of the disruption of our economy with the business shutdowns across the nation, due to the COVID-19 crisis, is yet to be understood and will be full of surprises. But one thing is certain, impacting as it is two of Montana’s basic industries – travel/tourism and agriculture – Montanans are in for a lot of changes and probably a bumpy ride.

One aspect of those changes is already making the headlines – the production and processing of beef. Although a long-standing problem that has frequently elicited complaints and controversy among livestock growers and the ag community, for the first time in his tenure, Governor Steve Bullock has addressed the issue with a letter to the USDA.

Attorney General Tim Fox, and gubernatorial candidate, has joined forces with other states demanding an investigation of price fixing charges. Other politicians, too, are now proclaiming that something must be done.

What’s prompted the sudden interest? Consumer awareness of the issue, says one local economics expert, Ed Ulledalen, Billings.

The whole issue comes down to what the consumer wants, says Ulledalen, and for the most part US consumers wanted low-priced products. They are usually not aware of how the market works and what risks might exist. The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the nation’s vulnerability in several regards, most especially in our food and medicine supplies.

As an independent financial consultant, Ulledalen deals “with all kinds of farmers and ranchers,” in Montana, and he has long understood that “this is an on- the- ground concern of a lot of farmers and ranchers.” Now, “with the meat shortage it has become a kitchen table concern.”

Shortages on grocery store shelves have captured consumer awareness. “The bell rang when you walked into Costco and the meat counter was empty,” said Ulledalen.

That awareness is going to bring about changes – changes that could mean the unraveling of the way the economy has been functioning. What all that will entail is uncertain, but it will most definitely mean changes for Montana.

The question becomes, why don’t we have meat? said Ulledalen. Answering that question requires going down “all the rabbit trails.”

“It is not something to reverse quickly. It will take years.” Ulledalen suggested that low-costs will go away and “our meat industry will be more like it is in Europe. They don’t have the same kind of structure.”

Consumers will direct the changes.

Consumer demand for cheaper products has driven the industrialization of all kinds of markets, and it has resulted in the “industrialization of the food chain,” explained Ulledalen.

What we are going to see is a reversal of “50 years of globalization,” he added.

Little realized is how much concentration there is of beef processing plants. And, that foreign countries operate two of the four companies that dominate the US market, including China that owns Smithfield Foods, based in Virginia and with a plant in South Dakota. To underscore the cultural as well as the economic status of the industry, Ulledalen pointed out that within the Smithfield plant, 40 different languages are spoken.

About the economy in general, Ulledalen says there is lots of uncertainty — “the bad economic news hasn’t even come out yet.”

“The Federal Reserve and the federal government have weighed in so hard that they have stopped us from going into a second recession,” said Ulledalen. It is still unclear, however, what the consequences are going to be over the next five or ten years, “because you screwed up the world economy, not just the US.”

“We are going to get some kind of surge as the restrictions are lifted. Some business will come back but …maybe 20 percent of the economy won’t come back.” Especially vulnerable, and of most important to Montana, are the travel industry and agriculture. And, “it’s not to be resolved in a matter of weeks.”

Said Ulledalen, “We have a biological contagion that has potential to morph into a financial contagion and an economic hard –stop. An “economic hard stop” is very unlike most descents into a recession, which usually happen in gradual and incremental weakening in various market segments.

Most beef processing in the US is done through four companies, Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. While there was a time when there were many meat processors scattered throughout most states, the industry has been concentrated for many decades, a situation that is sure to create problems – such as the ability to control prices.

Attorneys General from 11 states, including Montana’s Tim Fox, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, asking him to investigate possible price fixing among the country’s four largest beef processors, who control 80 percent of the industry.

President Trump threw his weight behind the request, sending his own request that the federal agency proceed with an investigation. He pointed out that supply and demand forces, within a competitive market environment, should prevent price gaps from playing out to the extent that they have in the U.S. meat-packing industry.

According to an Associated Press report,  a  disparity in the price of live cattle and the retail cost of boxed beef that is sold to consumers, “shows the market lacks fair competition.” According to the report, “Live cattle futures recently hit 18-year lows, while both the price of boxed beef and consumer demand remain healthy as consumers stockpile meat in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The state attorneys general suggested that if, after an investigation, there is no appropriate enforcement action that can be pursued, regulatory strategies should be explored to promote competition. A suggestion that even Montana’s Governor seems to believe is worth considering.

Nuances of regulations in the industry has left tons of beef sitting in lockers during the COVID-19 crisis with no place to go. The distribution system for grocery stores is different than that which serves institutions like schools and hospitals. School closures have left them with unused supplies but because it has a different “stamp” on it, and has gone through a different inspection process than those that serve retail markets, regulations prohibit the product from being sold elsewhere or even given away.

Requests to the USDA to allow the Montana Department of Livestock to consider modified protocols have been denied.

Governor Bullock’s letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asked that regulations be temporarily set aside to prevent the food from going to waste, at a time when it is needed in other areas. He also asked that the regulatory agency set aside some rules to allow some local processing in order to avoid food waste.

Perhaps even more significantly, Bullock suggested that the USDA encourage new ideas to reduce barriers for Montana meat processing capacity and improve markets for rural producers in Montana over the long term.

His suggestion is nothing new. For decades everyone from beef producers, to would-be local butchers, to restaurants and other consumers, have had a wide range of complaints about an industry that cannot adjust to demands. Could this be the impetus for long awaited change?

A Matter of Life & Death

6 May 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

The one thing the coronavirus crisis has surely demonstrated is how many people have no understanding about the economy and no respect for the role it plays in our lives – no respect for those who make it work. We are very much reaping the disaster of generations of limited economic education and the consequences lay before us.

Let’s make clear that the economy is not the stock market, ledgers, accounting schedules or a bunch of data points. The economy is PEOPLE LIVING THEIR LIVES.

Shutting down the economy is to destroy people’s lives. We are not all going “to get through this, together,” no matter how often the mantra is repeated.

Economic losses at every level of business are about life and death conflicts, every bit as much as the risks of a virus. It is without doubt a terrible thing to have to choose courses of action between the two, but it is even more tragic if the importance of one side of the equation is trivialized and minimized. When that is happening, how good can decisions really be?

There is little balance in the analysis that is taking place. When business closures are presented as nothing more than “minimal inconveniences,” it seems rational to conclude that the spread of the virus is the worst possible outcome. The need to shut down the economy becomes very convincing, if one doesn’t look at the economic side of the equation too closely.

Oh no, our leadership really cares. Such will surely be the claim.

The tone of conversations, directives or other public comments show little evidence of that. The tone of political leaders and bureaucrats who are still restricting the operations of business, as well as citizens who want to continue the shutdown, reveals that a huge segment of our population truly believes that “milk comes from the grocery store.”

Pleas to convince the public to accept the business closures blatantly trivialize the importance of business.  They subtly chastise us about being resistant to their decisions. We are told we shouldn’t be reluctant to give up parties, dining out, having a drink with friends at pubs and bars, or missing a ball game.  That’s all they mention, as though that is all business closures is all about – as though that is the only consequence of what they are doing. Given the reality, though —of people watching years and years of building a business go down the drain, food items disappearing from grocery shelves, or struggling to provide the necessities for their families – such repeated chastising is an insult.

From the beginning of decrees to close businesses— while there were lots of numbers quoted regarding infections and deaths, masks, testing and ventilators, and projected impacts of the virus— there was not one number quoted regarding the closure of businesses. Not one.

There was not even a warning about how many people should be prepared to lose their jobs the very next day. It was as though this was a very benign decision and no one would lose their jobs. There seemed to be no awareness that billions of dollars were to be lost to the economic base of our communities – much less any numbers to estimate how much that could be.

There were no decision- makers saying that many local small businesses may never reopen again. Or that over a third of workers would be unemployed. One comment suggested that if “only” 40 percent of business failed, that would be an acceptable outcome. A loss easy to bear, when it’s not yours to bear.

Closing businesses is apparently only about foregoing a beer with friends. How could anyone object to shutting down the economy?

Alongside not spending an evening at the pub, decision-makers might have mentioned the young single mother who is a server at that pub, dependent upon tips at the pub to pay rent and to feed and clothe her children. They could have mentioned her, but they never have.

I heard one astonished man upon hearing the decrees declare, “Don’t they know that losing a month’s salary for some of these people will take years to make up?”

No they don’t. Either they don’t or they don’t care. They would mention it, if they thought it important.

Among the other data they might have compiled and spoke about, as part of the public pronouncements, was the mention that maybe a fourth of businesses will fail within the next couple of years as a consequence of the closures. They might have compared the number of virus deaths with the deaths that would surely result from economic declines, including the increase in suicides. They might have foreseen the potential of food shortages, had they understood that “economics” is all about life and survival. If only they knew that milk doesn’t just materialize on grocery store shelves.

But since they never had to know, and those more knowledgeable always took care of economic realities, the consequence of closing businesses seems a minor thing. It certainly doesn’t compare to the threat of disease, a disease from which 99 percent survive. In that ignorance, there seems no reason to weigh pros and cons.

Maybe one benefit of this economic destruction – of which most of the consequences are yet to befall us — will be a better understanding, that the economy is not some esoteric academic indulgence for an elite few, but that it is everyday common people living life and without which there is no life.

Hope for the Future

8 April 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

Did you know that one of the reasons for the shortage of the COVID-19 test kits was that, not only did the CDC, a large purchaser in the market, restrict their purchases to one company, but they eventually imposed a law on the private sector that basically made it illegal for any other companies to manufacture test kits?

Why a government agency would create such a monopoly advantage for one company can be left to the imagination, but it is an example of the kinds of rules and regulations that have weighed down the health care industry for decades and decades.

There has to be more than a little irony that when the government rushed in to take care of business in regard to the COVID-19 virus they found as primary stumbling blocks the same regulations they had forced upon the industry, and about which many people have long and vociferously complained for decades, as hobbling efficient production, and as being the primary reason for the extremely high cost of health care in the US.

If this alone — the removing of these regulations and focusing a light upon regulatory practices for their crippling impact on the industry and patients – if that should be the only benefit of this upheaval of American life and business, then it will have been well worthwhile.

One has to temper optimism with the realization that there are high-profile politicians (NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, for example) who, right now, are actually advocating that we should double down on top-down control by nationalizing private businesses ….as though there is any evidence that they have ever been able to outperform the private sector. Coercion and political clubs have never created a single marketable product or innovation.

One has to be puzzled about why any rational person would advocate practices that have been so thoroughly discredited as being a benefit to consumers.

All kinds of nonsensical regulations have been falling over the past few weeks as health care workers and other market providers had to be freed from government shackles in order to do their jobs.

For example, they had to remove regulations so that doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals could practice medicine across state lines. Government commonly restrains all kinds of industry segments with this kind of restraint. It is absurd regulation and cannot be justified as being for the prevailing good for consumers. It may empower government but it does not deliver inexpensive, convenient and quality medical care.

Or how about a regulation that dictated how doctors may contact their patients? One of the recently rescinded regulations is that The Department of Health and Human Services suspended a federal regulation that forbids doctors from using their personal phones to communicate with Medicare patients! In this day and age??

Said Pat Barkey, Montana’s premier economist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, “If doing this at a time of crisis is warranted what would be the harm of doing it all the time? Our economy is choked with senseless regulations that are mindlessly implemented and do us immense harm.”

When government steps in to tell the private sector how to do things, there is no end to the level of minutia they can reach. The regulations are routinely imposed to solve some problem with never a glance at the broader negative impacts.

So silly and trivial can be their tinkering, and so greatly do they exceed common sense, that one of the difficulties in persuading the uninformed that this is a problem, is that when you tell them some of the specifics, they believe you must be making it up or exaggerating.

Absurd regulation is of course not just a federal issue but it reaches down to local levels. In Montana, for example, some health care providers in order to get licensed must go to state bureaucrats and “show need” for their services. The fact that someone is willing to step into the market, invest money and go through all the regulatory hoops isn’t enough to convince government that entrepreneurs can see a need / opportunity. The whims of un-invested, detached and usually market naïve bureaucrats have final sway over the services, products and prices that are made available to Montana consumers. And, most outrageously, often times it is other bureaucrats, protecting their government funded agencies, who stand up (also at taxpayer expense) to object to the “competition.” They seem not to know that they are not the same as a business. They seem not to understand (or maybe they do) that if the private sector can outperform a government agency providing the same service, the logical process should be for government to bow out and save the taxpayers the expense of something that can be provided better in the private sector.

To “show need” was  at one time common as a regulatory demand in all states,  but most states have  abandoned it. Not so Montana, even though it has been brought forward repeatedly to the state legislature. It is such an absurd approach to advancing health care with its rapidly changing technology, new products and ideas for increasing and improving services, one has to be baffled at the motivation of anyone opposed to eliminating a costly and purposeless barrier.

We have to hope that this is a life lesson for the bureaucrats and politicians who are now struggling to combat the coronavirus.  Let’s hope that they are realizing what free market advocates have been saying since the founding of the country: government regulation hampers the ability of free people and civil society to innovate and solve problems, and to meet consumer demands at the lowest cost, most efficient and prudent means possible.

Let’s hope that this misfortune brings about more affordable health care!

Evergreen Ace Open Now

8 April 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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Evergreen King’s Ace Hardware store is open at 1540 13th St West.

Over the past few months, the 34,000 square foot building has been the site of a massive half-million dollar remodel, converting it from the former IGA Grocery Store, to the largest King’s Ace Hardware store in the region. It will be the sixth store in the area, owned by Skip King who has been in the hardware business since he was a boy working alongside his father.

L-R Skip King, Owner Ace Hardware; Tyler Powers, Assistant Manager, Mike Albertson, Manager

If the interest in the neighborhood about what’s going on is any indication, the store will be a welcomed addition. In visiting with Skip King at the front door, people kept pulling off the street and into the parking lot to ask questions about the opening and what the plans are. That’s been going on all during construction, said King — people in the neighborhood wandering in and taking a look around and asking questions.

“I think the store is going to impress people when they walk in,” he said.

It’s not the first time that there has been a hardware store at this location in mid-town Billings. In the early 60s, the Odegaard family operated, quite successfully, a hardware store at the same location. King believes a need for a hardware store to serve that neighborhood still exists, and he spent a lot of time looking for the perfect site. When he heard the news that the IGA store was closing, he wasted no time in striking a deal for the property.

The store will employ about 30 people, most of whom are already in training at other King Ace Hardware stores. Its manager will be Mike Albertson, and assistant manager is Tyler Powers.

King’s Ace Hardware also engages many high school students with their stores, giving them exposure to the retail business and on-hands experience, a program for which they are being recognized by the National Hardware Association.

King is especially excited, not only for the size of the new store, and the wide variety of wares that it can carry, but it has a large enough parking lot to allow for many activities that he’s always wanted to be able to do at his stores. Things like grilling demonstrations or pet grooming workshops, both of which are extensive departments in the new store. They have space enough that they may also be able to provide a community room.

The store will be the location of employee training, not just for King’s Ace Hardware stores but for Ace Hardware stores throughout Eastern Montana from Bozeman to Malta – events which often draw as many as 300 people to Billings. Ace Hardware is a buying group that serves a membership of store owners.

“It’s going to be a fun place,” said King. Adding to that mix will be something distinctively new for a King’s Ace Hardware, a soup and sandwich shop. To be operated by the Hoefle family — Stu, Cydney and Mitch — the shop will open sometime later than the hardware store. It will comprise about 2300 square feet of the same corner of the building in which IGA had a luncheon area.

Evergreen King’s Ace Hardware will be similar to the Zimmerman Trail store – a full service hardware store, but also featuring a Hallmark gift store and a Montana-made boutique.

The store will also have a large garden center with four green houses, to be open just in time for the spring gardening season.

A large grilling and patio section will feature a full line of Traeger grills. The store is one of only two sanctioned Traeger dealers in the state.

They will also feature a full line of Benjamin Moore Paints and offer basic lumber and building supplies. They will have the largest selection of fasteners in town.

King’s Ace Hardware is also a Honda dealer for power equipment.

Customers may also order on-line from the Ace Hardware website and have items shipped to the store postage free.

Panic Has a Price

7 April 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

Evelyn Pyburn
Evelyn Pyburn, Big Sky Business Journal

The coronavirus is a scary thing.

Not so much because of the threat of the disease but for the demonstration of how easily an entire population can be whipped into hysteria that far exceeds the reality of a threat.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called the panic “dumb.” And, it is.

It’s not that the coronavirus (CORVID-19) isn’t a serious issue that needs to be taken seriously but it isn’t a crisis that should make people terrified to come out of their houses.

We the people of this country deal with problems and issues of this magnitude — and in fact much greater magnitude — every day, folks!

Usually, we take for granted that we can deal with the problems. Perhaps we shouldn’t take so much for granted, but we do have a great track record and we should be far more confident than what the current panic would indicate.

Why is everyone freaking out?

For all the world it feels a great deal like political correctness gone amuck. Is it somehow cool to lose your cool? Leaders of businesses and organizations are making decisions and taking actions that seem more directed toward public perception than dealing with a real problem.

So far 39 people in the US have died of this virus. 39.

Of the thousands of people who come down with the regular flu every year, 57,000 people in this country die from it. And it’s not just the flu; a similar number die from tuberculosis each year. Why aren’t people hysterical about these health threats if it is health threats they are really concerned about? They could be in panic-mode every year.

Back in 1918 we had a real flu epidemic. A forerunner of COVID-19, the Spanish Flu, swept the planet killing between 20 million to 50 million people worldwide, including some 675,000 Americans. It happened during World War I and many US soldiers fighting on European battlefields were left wondering why they no longer heard from home, only to return home and discover all their family had died from the flu.

But that has not happened since because, we the people, have done many things to mitigate such threats. From greater education about why it happened, to better hygiene, better medicine, better technology and medical facilities and smarter and more talented medical professionals. We took care of things, and so we will this time.

The problem with the panic is that it is creating other problems—really serious problems that are causing far greater harm than the disease. The panic is putting large companies into bankruptcy which creates far more job casualties. Jobs lost mean lost income, lost health insurance, leaving families unable to meet other health care needs.

Small businesses too are being pushed out of business, destroying the livelihoods of many others, not to mention the destruction of life-long investments. Lower returns on savings destroy the capital for future businesses or the viability of retirement funds for thousands or millions of people.

As distribution lines close and manufacturers shut down, all kinds of parts and components and materials needed to produce other important life-sustaining, business sustaining, job sustaining products are not available.

The impact of panic is immense and long –term and will never be fully measured.

It all makes so little sense, once one considers all that we have going for us.

And, have you talked to a little kid lately? All the crazy so-called adults are scaring them to death. Little kids shouldn’t be scared in such ridiculous ways.

Perhaps there is one positive thing that might emerge from all the extreme caution and health care prevention. Maybe fewer people will get the regular flu and fewer than 57,000 people will die this year. That would be one  every big positive.

Large Power Users & Job Providers in Montana

7 April 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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American Chemet

Ash Grove Cement

Aspen Air

Barretts Minerals

Billings Clinic

Boeing of Helena

Calumet Montana Refining, LLC

CHS

City of Billings

City of Great Falls

Colstrip Energy Partnership

Community Medical Center

Cryptowatt

Express Pipeline LLC

ExxonMobile

GCC Three Forks

General Mills

Golden Sunlight Mines, Inc.

Grain Craft

Graymont Western USA Inc.

Hyperblock, LLC

Idaho Forest Group

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Yellowstone

 Development

New Approach to Fighting Wildfires Could Save Millions

22 February 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

If it seems that there have been fewer wildland fires in southeastern Montana, over the past few years, that is indeed the case. And, the reason could be the results of a new approach to firefighting that is being explored by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC).  It’s an idea devised by Derek Yeager, DNRC Southern Area Fire Program Manager and Montana Fire Warden.

Formerly a member of “hot shot crews” himself, after the devastating fire season of 2012, Yeager started thinking “Something has to change. We have to do it better.”

2012 was a particularly bad fire year.  The Southern Area experienced over 1,000 wildland fires exceeding the 5-year average of 704 a year. The year was dry, with lots of ignition sources, and resources were slim. . Large fires burned homes, property, natural resources like pasture land, destroyed fences, and forced people to evacuate, and others lost all they had.

Said Yeager, “ We were dealing with 1,000+ acre fires literally every other day, sometimes daily.  Volunteers were on fires daily, sometimes for multiple days straight. The costs of fighting those fires was particularly troublesome to me. Being the local guy, I knew of fire departments who were engaging fires. I saw their efforts. I went out and lived it with them and gained an appreciation and respect and understanding of what they were experiencing. I also recognized the value in applying as much common sense to this situation as could be.

“The idea to redirect our focus and commit funding and time and energy into increasing the capacity of local fire departments to respond fast and heavy, to hit fires small, to keep them small was the product of simple common sense, and in recognition that the wildland fire system abroad, while purposeful and powerful in many ways, has a finite capacity for the number of large fires it can staff.”

In analyzing the situation and, most of all, in talking to all the factions involved –Yeager came up with an idea, which, as Southern Area Fire Program Manager with oversight of seven counties, he has been able to try out in a pilot program, beginning small in the fall of 2015 in Yellowstone County.

Calling the new strategy a really big deal, Yellowstone County Commissioner John Ostlund said that he is proud that Yellowstone County has been able to serve as its proving ground. The new approach in dealing with fires is going to have major impact across the country, believes Ostlund.

“It has been enormously successful,” said Ostlund, “It is saving millions of dollar in firefighting costs, and saving in lost property, injuries and lives.”

At the base of Yeager’s idea is to get resources onto a fire as soon as possible. Instead of hours or even days, his goal is to have resources on a fire within minutes.

The approach seems to be working. After a number of years in which major fires would routinely rage through the region in late summer and early fall, filling skies with smoke and ash, and costing hundreds of millions of dollars to battle, Yellowstone County and surrounding areas haven’t seen a major fire in over three years. And, the fires that have occurred have been under a hundred acres.

Yeager emphasized that simply communicating – having discussions with the various factions involved with firefighting, has been key to developing and implementing the program. “There are so many different levels of government agencies involved, and while all have the same interest, they couldn’t come together in a way that kept fires small,” he said.

As a state agency, the DNRC maintains an operating agreement with the BLM, USFS, NPS, USFWS, BIA, and numerous other states, which allow them to trade and utilize each other’s resources, with each paying the costs associated with using the resource.

Simply by talking with all the many individuals and agencies, Yeager created “buy-in,” to “give it a try.” Continuing that process of getting “buy in” will be vital in advancing the approach. The program is in its “infancy” characterized Yeager, “but it is starting to get attention.”

According to Commissioner Ostlund, explaining how the program works will be part of the agenda of the next statewide meeting of the Montana Association of Counties, where “for the first time” he expects to get “buy-in” from most of the county commissioners “who are excited about being able to better protect landowners.”

Almost all of the area fire districts are participating in the program, although some districts are too small or face other barriers to participation.

 Last year, had the largest participation, involving 400 volunteer fire fighters at 31 of 54 fire departments throughout the seven counties, including those in Yellowstone County, such as Worden, Shepherd, Lockwood, etc.

According to Yellowstone County’s Disaster and Emergency Coordinator and Fire Warden, KC Williams, Yellowstone County’s fire chiefs are excited about the program. He added, that although Yellowstone County’s fire chiefs and agencies always worked well together – and although he hasn’t been long on the job – as the plan has been implemented he has witnessed even greater coordination and better communication among the local  factions.

Under the new program, no more waiting after a fire starts to see if it becomes large enough to justify greater assistance, which has been the strategy of the past. Now, resources are put into place in advance. The results have been that rather than taking days to get resources to a fire, they now are there in a matter of minutes, while it is still a small fire.

The approach has made all the difference in the world.

Not only is it more effective, it is less expensive and it is a boon to local fire departments. It supports the volunteer fire fighters, bearing in mind, says Yeager, volunteer fire fighters are at the core of success in all firefighting efforts.

The new plan serves to support local fire departments through an agreement between them and DNRC, which places DNRC fire fighters on duty at local fire stations under the supervision of local fire chiefs. The fire fighters are local volunteers, who become employed by DNRC, throughout the core fire season.

In the past, after a fire became large enough to be deemed qualifying, fire fighters and equipment from elsewhere in the country would be brought into the area to help fight it. Transporting them to the fire site would take critical hours and perhaps days – with the fire burning and expanding all the while. Once they arrived, the fire fighters invariably were unfamiliar with the area, with its culture and priorities, and with the local people with whom they had to work. The cost of transporting, housing and feeding fire fighters contributed greatly to the cost of firefighting.

Under the new program not only are local departments reinforced with the addition of the state-paid fire fighters, the fire fighters are local people, emotionally attached to the area’s well-being, familiar with the area and with the people and agencies with which they have to work.

The arrangement also helps local fire departments with the common dilemma of having to send their own fire fighters to fight wildland fires, elsewhere, for what is often a matter of days or even weeks – leaving little back up to provide protection for the local community.

While the DNRC fire fighters are on-duty they perform duties related to being successful in performing “rapid and aggressive initial attacks,” including  training, maintaining equipment, and checking out lightning strikes.

The wages the volunteers receive improves their ability to be available. Most  volunteers are usually dependent on other jobs, which they can’t afford to leave for extended periods to help fight fire, but being paid by DNRC not only makes that a greater possibility, but becomes an incentive for others to serve as volunteers.

The idea of sharing resources with local fire departments is not new for the DNRC. For some time now they have loaned local departments fire trucks in order to have the equipment available in locations with potential fire risk. Across the state DNRC has 75 fire trucks on loan to local stations under cooperative agreements – eight of those are located at fire districts in Yellowstone County.

Yeager’s program also has in place, in advance, many other processes, permissions and contractual arrangements required in dealing with firefighting, which before were not dealt with until a fire had grown large. Previously, a fire chief would call for help and then physically have to go through a required check list before anyone would give assistance. Getting through that check list could take from 24 to 72 hours, said Yeager. “That meant that meaningful help would not happen.”

The data shows that the new approach has a 8-1 benefit ratio, says Yeager. That means it costs about 1/8 of that of fighting a raging wildland fire.

While the number of reported fires has not changed – about 800 fires per year – “We don’t have any large fires,” said Yeager.

Although July through September is the core fire season, fires happen year round. They are more prevalent when there is no snow cover. For example last weekend, before it snowed, there were over a dozen wildland fires reported within a 48 hour period. So, the DNRC plans for fire occurrence during all 12 months of the year.

Free Stuff Enslaves

20 February 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

A few months ago, I encountered a news story about a recent court decision that was at once heartening and disheartening.

A federal judge ruled that children do not have a fundamental right to learn to read and write. A surprising ruling, given the state of our judicial system, but a wonderful ruling for freedom.

The ruling essentially addresses a claim that is also in the Montana Constitution – that everyone has a right to an education.

It’s an absurdity that this should be found in a document that ostensibly supports freedom, because government cannot promise something to one without obligating another – obligating them against their will – the antithesis of individual freedom.

Whether it is education, health care, food, housing, or a cell phone, to declare some “thing” as a “right” for some people is to immediately enslave others. Who is to be enslaved to provide the promised goods, by virtue of nothing more than the fact that they were born? Is there some group within our society that is undeserving of freedom, while another group, superior to them, is deserving of the unearned?

It is a lack of understanding about this issue that leads so many people down the road to socialism. With better understanding of what they are really asking for, they would know that freedom is not about free stuff, but about freedom of action, something that socialism sets out at the very beginning to quash.

A “right” is not a gift card. Rights, as set up in the Bill of Rights, are about being free to act. You don’t have a right to education, you have the right to try to obtain education. You don’t have a right to a job, you have a right to try to get a job, to earn a living, to earn the food and housing you need.

Rights are about being able to live as you choose. They are not without obligations. Your primary obligation is to negotiate and navigate through society in such a way as to gain what you need WITHOUT using FORCE against another person, as becomes necessary if one group is enslaved to provide for another.

(The only justifiable use of force is in self-defense, and that includes the purpose of the government of a free nation. And, this is a moral issue that is not suspended because government is conducting the theft on your behalf. For the government to force one group to provide free education to another, is just as immoral as a student mugging a businessman in a back alley.)

For individuals to function as they choose in a moral society, while most often means to act to earn the things you need, and to be free to barter and to make voluntary exchanges  . . . it also means being able to voluntarily help one another. To voluntarily donate to a cause that helps others, to form organizations that voluntarily provide support to those who need it, which would include supporting free education because they believe it to be vital to a strong economy and enjoyable society. They could also voluntarily fund research and exploration, and civic activities that improve society and advance civilization.

The disheartening thing about the report on this court decision is that it was immediately followed (in a not so objective way) by quotes from teachers denouncing it as outrageous.

“The message that it sends is that education is not important,” said the President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

This person – involved with the education of our children – does not see that the decision is underscoring the importance of freedom. What this teacher fails to understand is that without an environment that assures freedom, no true education is remotely possible. You end up with exactly what we see happening in our colleges today – where students are without the intellect to ponder differing points of view. . . where the only way they can dispute ideas with which they disagree is to silence those who present them, and to insulate themselves from the adversity of new ideas or people who are different.

It is disheartening that we have teachers, who are teaching our children — not about the profound underpinnings of the Bill of Rights — but to demand the unearned and to advance an enslaved society.

The court case was, of course, not quite as clear cut as this. Fundamentally, this case was about the fact that government is collecting people’s taxes with the commitment to provide their children an education. The case was brought on behalf of students who failed to get an education. Parents claimed that government was obligated to provide it – a claim that in a sense cannot be denied given government’s excuse for the process of seizing taxes.

Government makes commitments all the time that it fails to keep, but it seldom causes anyone to rethink their expectations. These parents were not arguing that they wanted to change that. They were not demanding the freedom to pursue their own educational choices.

And, while this judge declared that the children do not have a right to expect government to provide an education, he said nothing about the fraud perpetrated upon the parents and students by a government that failed to live up to the commitment it made. At least in the private sector, purchasing the education they wanted, the parents would have had a case.