Huge, Huge Cattle Auction In Southwestern North Dakota; North Dakota State Budget Hits School Funding -- December 18, 2016

State cuts in public school funding coming to North Dakota. From The Williston Herald, data points:

• oil revenue down
• new budget released by the governor: $13.7 billion; $2 billion less than proposed budget two years ago
• foundation aid makes up 60% of the Williston district's budget; that will be frozen during first year of the biennium
• possibly a 1% rise the following year of the biennium: $9,646/child; up from $9,742/child
  2007 - 2008: 2,100 students
• currently: 3,735 students, a 56% increase, but Rapid Growth funding will be nonexistent in the new budget

North Dakota budget: probably easiest to read is at Ballotpedia.

• Between fiscal years 2014 and 2015, total government spending in North Dakota increased by approximately $1.2 billion—from $6.6 billion in fiscal year 2014 to an estimated $7.7 billion in 2015. This represents a 15.1% increase

A biennium budget always confuses me but I suppose Ballotpedia's 2015 $7.7 billion is one-half the biennium budget. If so, that equates to $15.4 billion vs $13.7 billion this biennium.

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Bowman Auction Market

Updates

 First we had:

• the Chisholm Trail
• the Santa Fe Trail
• the Oregon Trail

Now, we have the Bowman Trail:

Original Post

 

I'm hoping the national press picks up this story. I've sent a note to a reporter over at The Wall Street Journal. I don't follow the cattle "industry" in North Dakota but a reader tells me this is huge. He says that this is the largest livestock auction in Bowman in history, or at least in his history. The announcement is at the Bowman Auction Market. He says there are 4,250 head of cattle to be auctioned. I did not count, but it looks about right.

According to the reader, 4,250 head of cattle works out to fifty-five (55) semi-trucks / cattle trucks. If I see a convoy of a dozen or even two dozen cattle trucks on the road, it would catch my attention. I assume all trucks won't all be full -- different destinations, etc. -- so we could easily see five to six dozen of trucks leaving Bowman on January 9, 2017.

It's almost worth a special trip to North Dakota just to see this.  Maybe Vern Whitten will be flying that day: if so, take an aerial photo of the auction site on January 9, 2017.

In case I forget: can someone send me a note if any newspaper reports the results of this auction?

I was going to post a trucking song but wanted to go with something a bit different:

Cattle Call, Eddy Arnold