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Show Lake flooding strikes home as he once again drove away. "Normally we lose about 20 percent per-cent of our animals, but this year started off good, down to about five percent. ..at least until now. You've seen one dead calf already-that's already-that's another $223 out of our pocket. And that other one. ..She might make it., "IT'S A tough life but if you're raised in this environment, then it's difficult to leave. You always keep thinking that next year will be better. bet-ter. But I wouldn't gamble on it. There are some things we can't control." And the Great Salt Lake is one of them. WEST KAYSV1LLE - To the Davis County "city slicker," the rise of the Great Salt Lake is a topic of conversation and a source of televised statistics: "THE LAKE surface is now logged log-ged at 4,21 1.64 feet, a new record high. ..Flood danger is extremely high. ..The previous high water mark was recorded in 1873. ..The lake level has climbed 39 inches since it reached its seasonal low in November of 1985. ..The flood index in-dex is not gauged at 9.4. ..Our moisture mois-ture for the month of May is now at 150-200 percent of normal, etc., etc." To the "city slicker," the bloating bloat-ing of the lake is a futuristic threat: WILL IT spill over the free way?... How can we ever get to Wendover?...What might it do to the Salt Lake International Airport?" Air-port?" But to many farmers and cattlemen cattle-men in this city, the Great Salt Lake is more than coffee shop talk-.. talk-.. .Their land is already under water. IN A BLUSTERY weekend driZ-le driZ-le uf hiimnprl slnno Khirl I an we could use it. Thirty years from now maybe my children can see it again." AND IT'S affected his remaining 150 acres as well. Alfalfa fights moisture, and when the rains or the lake wins the battle, then the alfalfa grows stodgy and short. "This hay should be 50 percent higher than it is now," said the farmer. far-mer. "We've got other hay in Wyoming, so we can survive. But some of these other buys can't ...And the corn crop is way behind. be-hind. A lot of these farmers rely on their corn." HE DRIVES the pickup to the water's edge and peers at the blurry blur-ry image of Antelope Island. "In the 1950's, the lake hit an all-time low and we could walk out to the island about 10 miles away without ever touching water. The 1950's weren't that long ago, you understand. It shows you the changing power of nature." FOR THE farmer, nature is not the only thing to have changed. So has the economy, delivering a cruel one-two punch to an embattled entrepreneur. en-trepreneur. The government's de- while the farmer at the wheel of his pick-up gestured toward the rolling waters encroaching on another pasture. "That's the next one to go," he said. THE OTHERS have already gone. His 300 acres, once used for fall-winter-spring grazing, is now down to 150 acres. The lake has claimed the rest. "If you don't live down here, you don't understand what it's doing," he said. "We used to keep 60 head of cattle on this land; now, we'll have to cut back in half.. .And I won't see it come back in my lifetime. If we have only average rainfall, then it would take 10-15 years for the water to recede--and then another 10-15 years after that to irrigate the salt out of the land so cicion to buy out dairy herds has decreased the already low price of cattle, flooding the market with excess ex-cess beef. "Look at these yearlings over there," said the farmer. "They just sold for $57 per hundred-weight. Last year we would have got close to $65. Now if you figure we sell one hundred yearlings, then we just lost $4,800 without any effort at all." THE TRUCK wound its way through his staring herd. He found one calf that had died during the evening, another one collapsed and barely breathing. He searched the truck for a veterinary kit and, waving wav-ing away the calf's bellowing mother, attended to the stricken animal. "This one might make it, though she's in pretty sad shape," he said |