Recognizing that recovery from the drought that affected much of the farm belt will be a lengthy process, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the scheduling of four regional meetings which will outline available resources to assist with local, regional and state recovery efforts. USDA will coordinate with State and local partners, working closely with the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to facilitate these meetings....More

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation has joined several land-grant university extension entities throughout the United States to form a “community of practice” that will fight the growing feral hog problem....More

On July 1, Australia’s government introduced a price on carbon, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions by allowing the buying and selling of permits for emissions of certain pollutants, or credits for reductions in emissions. The emissions-trading scheme doesn’t actually begin until July 1, 2015, but the carbon price has been fixed in the meantime at $23/ton and will rise 2.5% a year in real terms until mid 2015....More

Incorporation of a complementary enterprise into your ranch operation certainly isn’t a new idea. Many ranches, for instance, have been using the income from hunting leases for years as a secondary income stream. The idea takes on new importance, however, when drought cuts your cash flow and high input prices take a bite from the bottom line....More

Rattlesnake Mountain offers sweeping views of the historic McWhorter Ranch in Benton County, WA, a pristine property largely unchanged since it was settled in 1903. Laced with dry grasses and sagebrush and home to elk and other wildlife, the ranch stretches down the mountain's south face across more than 20 square miles of Washington's shrinking shrub-steppe habitat....More

Deep-pocketed environmental groups are collecting millions of dollars from the federal agencies they regularly sue under a little-known federal law, and the government is not even keeping track of the payouts, according to two new studies....More

A farm family that raises Angus seedstock and puts most of their farm acres into commercial hay production is the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association’s state winner of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP). Greg and Lola Wood and their son Chris operate their farm operation, called BitterSweet Acres, near Greenville in Clay County....More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come under scrutiny for conducting aerial surveillance over Midwestern concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The practice is used by Region 7 (Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas)....More

It’s well known that many beef cattle living at high altitudes are afflicted with pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs, and that these animals are at risk of dying from congestive heart failure if they are not moved to lower altitudes and medically treated. The health issue is commonly called brisket disease because fluid often collects in the lower chest cavities of cattle affected, swelling the brisket area....More