Cows know it's time to fatten up for winter

Fall is approaching; you can feel it in the air. Kids tucked back into school. River running low.

Cows keep their heads down nearly all day now. Feeling the coolness coming, they eat steady, getting the last bits of green grass before frost comes and nips the ends. One little scrawny, orphaned, black calf wants out in the field. He feeds along the fence separating him from the hay field where the main herd pastures. He wants to belong.

The neighbors adopted this little guy. Fed him milk replacer then recently let him out of his makeshift corral next to their house and released him into the joint pasture behind our houses. He is not sleek and shiny like the calves who are still nursing off their mothers weighing anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds. He is small, the size of a young fawn, with black hair tipped brown. His hair color indicates low mineral absorption. His mother died this summer close after his birth. He is so little the grass he eats doesn't give him all he needs. To make it he'll get a hay belly then grow some more. I've seen it happen before.

I'm not too worried about him. We all keep an eye on him as he watches the fat cows and calves through the fence.

The old dog isn't doing so well himself. Went to the local feed store to get him wormer. I asked the owner of the business, who is also the local brand inspector, if I needed two dewormer packets. One should do it, he explained. We could always treat the dog again in 4-6 weeks if necessary.

"You'll be here next month then, won't you?" I joke casually. This feed store has been around forever, or at least as long as I have.

"All depends on Walmart," he replies.

The allure of cheap prices makes Walmart an attractive option to a working single mom with two boys planning on college. Or a growing family with limited assets, or the elderly on fixed income, or just general folks looking for a good deal. But it is easy to throw stones at Walmart, too.

They have been sued over their treatment of female employees' non-promotion practices. Documentaries have been made addressing the real cost to a community when a Walmart store comes to town.

Walmart knows it has an image problem and is trying to manage it.

The company has started give back to the community programs. Touts health care benefits and room for advancement for its dedicated workers.

After all it was sued to improve its business practices with its employees. But what a blow it gives established businesses in areas it opens a new store.

We all often hear competition is good for businesses. Let free markets prevail. Survival of the fittest and all that. Simple survival isn't what makes a healthy community though. Sustainable, thriving community-supported business and those businesses giving back to the community is healthy.

If Walmart establishes another store in Douglas County, Douglas County should ask for some community assurances. No more deferred revenue trade-offs or reduced tax incentives. A new taxable revenue can benefit Douglas County but will those new revenues and more be needed to repair the damage done when the real cost of cheap prices comes to town?

Marie Johnson is a Carson Valley rancher.