Want to help the farmers and ranchers recover from the disaster of Hurricane Harvey from afar? Please donate to the State of Texas Agriculture Relief Fund. The Texas Animal Health Commission has set up a Harvey Hotline: 512-719-0799 at the Animal Response Operation Coordination Center. If you or someone you know is looking to volunteer, donate, offer shelter for animals, report live or dead animals please call the Harvey Hotline. [node:read-more:link]
In a radio interview in Iowa late last week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt made pretty clear the rational that went into his agency proposing lower levels of cellulosic biofuels, advanced biofuels, and total renewable fuels that would be required for blending under the next Renewable Fuel Standard rule: “Production levels and demand matter.” Pruitt goes on to express his concern that his agency is being “used in setting those [RFS blending targets] in a way to encourage ‘blue-sky’ thinking.” He is referring to the concept that the standard’s annual blending targets (Renewable Volume Obliga [node:read-more:link]
About 1.2 million beef cows are in the 54 counties that have been declared disaster areas due to Hurricane Harvey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The total is a “conservative estimate” and encompasses 27% of the state’s herd, according to Texas A&M University livestock economist David Anderson. [node:read-more:link]
But as the Trump administration sits down to renegotiate the 23-year-old free trade deal with Canada and Mexico, governors will be hoping for minor adjustments rather than the “very big changes” Trump has promised.Trump’s tough talk wins him applause from voters who blame trade deals for shutting down factories and reducing blue-collar jobs in their neighborhoods. [node:read-more:link]
With Monsanto Co's latest flagship weed killer, dicamba, banned in Arkansas and under review by U.S. regulators over concerns it can drift in the wind, farmers and weed scientists are also complaining that confusing directions on the label make the product hard to use safely. Dicamba, sold under different brand names by BASF and DuPont can vaporize under certain conditions and the wind can blow it into nearby crops and other plants. The herbicide can damage or even kill crops that have not been genetically engineered to resist it. [node:read-more:link]
Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the waters between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, and officials are asking people to catch as many as possible. Tribal fishers, concerned about native salmon populations, call the accident “a devastation.” [node:read-more:link]
But the U-S-D-A says the state made 1.3% more milk in July compared to .7% in neighboring Wisconsin, which is the nation’s second largest milk producing state. Minnesota farmers made 840-million pounds of milk last month, up from 815-million in July 2016.The Gopher State’s new total is the eighth highest among the 23 major dairy states. [node:read-more:link]
Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe. [node:read-more:link]
Over the years, researchers have found various methods of editing the genes of organisms. They involve amending the DNA within an organism’s nucleus, rather than inserting transgenic materials from other organisms into the nucleus. Since 2013, scientists have been pursuing an efficient approach of directly targeting sites in a cell’s chromosomes. The technique uses the cell’s own bits of RNA strands to guide its Cas proteins in ways that apply highly specific amendments to the DNA, thus altering the organism itself. [node:read-more:link]
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has directed the Department of Ecology to put on hold any new permits for net pens after thousands of Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound earlier this month from a damaged salmon farm.State officials also announced Saturday the formation of a response team comprised of the departments of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife, and Ecology. [node:read-more:link]
