Ever in the red, the decrease in paper mail has hit the PO yet again.
Where once they handled tens of billions of pieces of mail, they have seen a drop in billions each year in recent times.
700 offices are slated for possible closure and large layoffs are looming. Saturday deliveries are surely to be curtailed.
The once iconic image of stalwart service, undeterred by ice or sleet or dark of night, may be falling victim to the electronic age.
Ramifications for Us
It's highly likely in the near future, that home mail delivery will come to an end. There will still be a need for some sort of mail service, but you will have to go get your packages and letters at some central office. This will apply whether you are in the city or country. Much of the cost of current mail service is tied up in home and business delivery.
It is likely there will be a general slow down, too. Ironically, the very thing that has made the mail viable in the modern age will hurt it - air travel. Almost all mail goes by air now at some point in its travels. The less mail there is, however, the more costly air transport will become.
In time the movement of mail will revert to large packet transport by rail and road, as it once was. Sadly, one of the worst things we ever did was dismantle the efficient rail networks criss-crossing this country. That will come back to bite us, I assure you. It is possible to envision a mail service little better than it was in the Wild West. That scenario is highly unlikely, of course, but a reversion of some sort seems inevitable.
So What About CHICKENS?
What will this mean to the hatchery business many of us depend on? I can't imagine it will be good for the current hatcheries, although in the near future it is likely to raise costs to the end consumer.
It should open the door for local breeders and small hatcheries to expand - again the way it was before the postal delivery of chicks was possible. For those who don't know, that hasn't always been a possibility. The postal delivery of hatching eggs and chicks (by rail, in those days) was revolutionary when it first appeared in the late 19th Century.
Chicken "fancy" will likely diminish, too. Fewer and fewer specialty and fancy breeds will be available, and in time, just the efficient producers, the old line breeds and some newer types, will emerge. As long as people have discretionary income and can obtain affordable food - not relying on their chickens for sustenance - bird fancy will survive.
Let that change, and the focus will shift to chickens that pay back as opposed to look good.
The Future Flock
My hope is folks will retain enough knowledge about flock management so that the entire stock of the nation doesn't suffer.
The typical hobby backyarder is not keen on culling for performance, instead relying on someone else to do it. If the resulting flocks of "yard candy" become entangled in the general stock available, it will take some time to breed the bad blood back out.
A hundred years ago, the flocks of America were a hodgepodge of quality. Some were good, where people banded together locally to make them so. Others were shabby and hardly more than scrubs, where people were viewed chickens as an after thought. This is the main reason why an Australian hen took and held the worlds egg laying record for years - Americans didn't care enough to know or do better with their chickens. It took a lot of work to turn that around.
Good hatchery stock nationwide that is up to snuff and readily available through efficient delivery is the result of that work. This and the NPIP's disease eradication programs have made quality flocks possible for all of us. If postal delivery dries up or becomes spotty, we could revert back to where we were a hundred years ago - "cells" of good stock here and there, but the general poultry stock suffering. All the good work done will have been for nothing.
The one trait we must instill above all others, going forward, is vigor - where we have to rely on ourselves and our neighbors for stock replenishment, that trait becomes paramount.
Fortunately, thanks to places like BYC, people are better at managing their flocks than they used to be. We know more and we are more aware of what it takes to net predictable results. It could be that the demise of the post office may thrust one thing upon us that 'til now has remained mostly a dream: self-reliance.
That may be what we need more than anything, right now.
Where once they handled tens of billions of pieces of mail, they have seen a drop in billions each year in recent times.
700 offices are slated for possible closure and large layoffs are looming. Saturday deliveries are surely to be curtailed.
The once iconic image of stalwart service, undeterred by ice or sleet or dark of night, may be falling victim to the electronic age.
Ramifications for Us
It's highly likely in the near future, that home mail delivery will come to an end. There will still be a need for some sort of mail service, but you will have to go get your packages and letters at some central office. This will apply whether you are in the city or country. Much of the cost of current mail service is tied up in home and business delivery.
It is likely there will be a general slow down, too. Ironically, the very thing that has made the mail viable in the modern age will hurt it - air travel. Almost all mail goes by air now at some point in its travels. The less mail there is, however, the more costly air transport will become.
In time the movement of mail will revert to large packet transport by rail and road, as it once was. Sadly, one of the worst things we ever did was dismantle the efficient rail networks criss-crossing this country. That will come back to bite us, I assure you. It is possible to envision a mail service little better than it was in the Wild West. That scenario is highly unlikely, of course, but a reversion of some sort seems inevitable.
So What About CHICKENS?
What will this mean to the hatchery business many of us depend on? I can't imagine it will be good for the current hatcheries, although in the near future it is likely to raise costs to the end consumer.
It should open the door for local breeders and small hatcheries to expand - again the way it was before the postal delivery of chicks was possible. For those who don't know, that hasn't always been a possibility. The postal delivery of hatching eggs and chicks (by rail, in those days) was revolutionary when it first appeared in the late 19th Century.
Chicken "fancy" will likely diminish, too. Fewer and fewer specialty and fancy breeds will be available, and in time, just the efficient producers, the old line breeds and some newer types, will emerge. As long as people have discretionary income and can obtain affordable food - not relying on their chickens for sustenance - bird fancy will survive.
Let that change, and the focus will shift to chickens that pay back as opposed to look good.
The Future Flock
My hope is folks will retain enough knowledge about flock management so that the entire stock of the nation doesn't suffer.
The typical hobby backyarder is not keen on culling for performance, instead relying on someone else to do it. If the resulting flocks of "yard candy" become entangled in the general stock available, it will take some time to breed the bad blood back out.
A hundred years ago, the flocks of America were a hodgepodge of quality. Some were good, where people banded together locally to make them so. Others were shabby and hardly more than scrubs, where people were viewed chickens as an after thought. This is the main reason why an Australian hen took and held the worlds egg laying record for years - Americans didn't care enough to know or do better with their chickens. It took a lot of work to turn that around.
Good hatchery stock nationwide that is up to snuff and readily available through efficient delivery is the result of that work. This and the NPIP's disease eradication programs have made quality flocks possible for all of us. If postal delivery dries up or becomes spotty, we could revert back to where we were a hundred years ago - "cells" of good stock here and there, but the general poultry stock suffering. All the good work done will have been for nothing.
The one trait we must instill above all others, going forward, is vigor - where we have to rely on ourselves and our neighbors for stock replenishment, that trait becomes paramount.
Fortunately, thanks to places like BYC, people are better at managing their flocks than they used to be. We know more and we are more aware of what it takes to net predictable results. It could be that the demise of the post office may thrust one thing upon us that 'til now has remained mostly a dream: self-reliance.
That may be what we need more than anything, right now.
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