AgClips
Recent AgClips
Success spoils a program to round up wild horses
The New York Times | Posted onOctober 14, 2016 in Federal NewsThe Bureau of Land Management has horses grazing on a ranch the agency rents, one of 60 private ranches, corrals and feedlots where it stores 46,000 wild horses it has removed from the West's public lands. The cost:49 million a year. The expense eats up 66 percent of the federal budget for managing wild horses. The program cannot afford to continue old management practices that created the problem, or afford to come up with solutions that might fix it.
NH:Dairy relief board asks Legislature for $3.6M amid drought
Concord Monitor | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsA heavy burden – the potential future of the state’s dairy industry – now rests on the shoulders of the New Hampshire Legislature. The Milk Producers Emergency Relief Fund Board met for the second time in as many weeks Tuesday and recommended that legislators approve a $3.6 million one-time payment to the state’s dairy farmers in response to this year’s drought. The recommendation, one of three included in the board’s annual report, will be passed along to Gov. Maggie Hassan and House Speaker Shawn Jasper on Wednesday.
Food prices are dropping. Restaurant prices aren’t.
The Washington Post | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Food NewsThe United States is awash in pork, beef, eggs, milk and bountiful harvests. U.S. meat companies are producing nearly 5 percent more beef than in 2015, thanks in part to plentiful feed supplies. In turn, the big food producers like Cargill, are seeing profits rise. The Minnesota conglomerate recently reported a 66 percent jump in profits because of demand for its steaks and hamburgers. And yet the boom in supply is driving down prices at the grocery store, pinching retailer profits.
TripAdvisor to stop selling tickets to attractions where animals and humans interact
LA Times | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Rural NewsOne of the nation’s most popular travel booking sites is taking a stand on animal welfare by halting the sale of tickets to attractions that let tourists ride or touch wild or endangered animals. TripAdvisor announced plans to adopt the changes by early 2017, partly in response to pressure from animal rights groups to stop selling tickets to attractions that they feel exploit animals without offering any educational value.
How does flooding impact NPDES permits?
North Carolina Dept. of Justice | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Agriculture NewsGary Baise found this ruling on the impact if flooding on animal agriculture that is very pertinent to what our some of our coastal regions are facing. The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of a pollutant into the navigable waters of the United States without a permit, specifically an NPDES permit. Under the Clean Water Act, discharges from certain animal feeding operations that occur under certain rainfall conditions are subject to a narrow exemption from the NPDES regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Global Harvest Initiative examines down cycle in annual ag productivity report
DTN | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Agriculture NewsA coalition made up of large agribusinesses and various consulting groups released its annual updated Global Agricultural Productivity report. The Global Harvest Initiative typically uses its agricultural productivity report to spotlight a particular topic in the U.S. as well as food production gains or challenges in a developing country around the world. This year the group tied together the needs of production, farmer economic needs in a down cycle and long-term sustainability goals for agriculture.
Animal activist Anita Krajnc: Thug, buffoon or both?
Watt Ag Net | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Agriculture NewsAnita Krajnc has been arrested multiple times for incidents involving pigs that are being transported to slaughter. While wanting to prevent pigs, chickens or other animals from suffering is a noble cause, when a person’s actions to get that point across break the law and become a drain on legal system resources, perhaps things have been taken too far. And being a nuisance to law enforcement officers and the court system appears to be just what Canadian animal rights activist and Toronto Pig Save co-founder Anita Krajnc has done.
Substantial changes ahead in poultry antibiotic usage
Watt Ag Net | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Agriculture NewsA recent WATT-Rennier Poultry Confidence Index poll predicted substantial changes in the use of antibiotics for broiler production. In five years, 70 percent of respondents predicted that most antibiotic usage would be for the treatment of sick flocks, while the no-antibiotics-ever (NAE) category would represent 28 percent of broiler production.
PETA Attacks Indiana Poultry Operation
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Agriculture NewsPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has launched an attack on a Northern Indiana poultry operation.
Fed approval paves way for low-cost cellulosic ethanol production
The Business Journal | Posted onOctober 13, 2016 in Energy NewsIn a first-of-its-kind ruling, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Pacific Ethanol’s registration of its Stockton ethanol plant to generate valuable credits by producing cellulosic ethanol with the same equipment the company uses to produce corn-based ethanol. The EPA approval now allows Pacific Ethanol to generate so-called “D3 RINs” (Renewable Identification Numbers) using proprietary technology from one of its partners, Visalia-based Edeniq.