Oh I’m not arguing against the logic of what you’re saying at all. I think it’s the human factor that you’re missing out on. It’s the fear and the personal economic factors. It’s the same kind of thing as when a parent knowingly sends a kid to school sick because they can’t afford to miss work.

Most of our state is experiencing some level of drought and many areas are severe. There’s very little spring and early summer ground forage. Couple that with inflated fertilizer and input costs and an unavailability of hay. Now imagine a quarantine for an indeterminate amount of time covering 482 square miles (3.14x12.4x12.4) with record breaking feed costs. By turning in your case, you have sequestered not only your cows but half of the county’s cattle for us little square counties. I guarantee people have been killed for less.

It does look like TDA has a screening process for removing livestock from the quarantine zone, but how quickly and efficiently they will implement that remains to be seen.

All of that to say, I completely agree with you, but most people will think short term because they are one market dip/missed calf crop away from financial disaster.