The Washington beef industry wants lawmakers to exempt cattle feedlots from the state Clean Air Act, complaining the Department of Ecology has adopted a no-tolerance stance on dust rising from thousands of animals in dry conditions. “They have adopted what I would call a new no-tolerance interpretation as it relates to dust,” Agri Beef director of regulatory affairs Jayne Davis told the House Environment Committee on Monday. [node:read-more:link]
Gov. Paul LePage abruptly withdrew his nomination of a former state lawmaker to the Land for Maine’s Future board on Friday, giving no reason for his action on a nomination that had drawn fire from environmentalists. LePage, in a three-sentence letter to House Speaker Sara Gideon, wrote that he is no longer nominating former state Rep. [node:read-more:link]
Environmental groups are challenging an Environmental Protection Agency decision to allow the sale of an herbicide marketed as a solution for farmers dealing with difficult weeds ( Nat’l Family Farm Coal. v. EPA , 9th Cir., No. 17-70196, 1/20/17 ). The challengers, which include the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America, filed a lawsuit Jan. 20 in the Ninth U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Ranchers could receive compensation for livestock killed by mountain lions under a bill heard by a legislative committee. House Bill 286, introduced by Rep. Ray Shaw, and brought before the House Agriculture Committee, would add mountain lion predation to the purview of the Montana Livestock Loss Board. [node:read-more:link]
The single biggest labour challenge for the dairy, poultry and egg commodities will be finding skilled and experienced farm managers, including owner-operators. For these commodities, management and ownership jobs account for almost two-thirds of the current workforce, and between now and 2025, they will account for the majority of the jobs going unfilled due to a lack of domestic workers. [node:read-more:link]
A west-central Illinois company has withdrawn its notice of intent to build a 20,000-hog-capacity barn. Carthage, Ill.-based Professional Swine Management LLC withdrew its notice from the Illinois Department of Agriculture last week after meeting with the Fulton County Farm Bureau. Citing “sustained protests” from farmers complaining of potential river and stream pollution from waste at the site, the newspaper stated that Professional Swine Management, which provides comprehensive management to family-owned breed-to-wean and wean-to-finish pork facilities, withdrew its notice. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers are officially on the 2017 legislative docket. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley presented a relief funding bill to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday. “It’s hard to imagine drought after all the moisture we’ve had over the last couple months,” Bradley said. [node:read-more:link]
It was written at a time when the United States was facing historic change and progress of every kind from industrial capacity to oil production to even major innovations in agricultural technology and production. Although the country was predominantly rural, it was rapidly growing its urban centers. One can imagine that Amelia E. Barr, the poem's author, observed this new trend with a bit of alarm. Despite listing a number of professions and describing their importance, Barr concludes we still need farmers – emphasizing their significance by ending each stanza with the repetitive verse. [node:read-more:link]
The volume of new farm loans dropped sharply in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to respondents to the Survey of Terms of Bank Lending to Farmers. The survey, which asks bankers about new loans to farmers, indicated the volume of non-real estate loans in the farm sector dropped 40 percent from a year ago. The 40-percent drop was the largest year-over-year decline in nearly 20 years. The sharp reduction in the volume of new farm loans at commercial banks occurred during a prolonged decline in farm revenue. [node:read-more:link]
Crop damage from the last growing season is done, but Missouri and Arkansas lawmakers are taking steps that aim to prevent future devastation from dicamba, the herbicide widely blamed for a rash of illegal spraying that sowed financial pain and [node:read-more:link]
