Agriculture

An Aurora organic farm is suing a co-founder of New Seasons and his son, saying they failed to stop their dairy cows from escaping and defecating on the farm's crops.  The $210,000 lawsuit states that the cows belonging to Chuck Eggert and his son, Charlie Eggert, forced neighboring Simington Gardens to throw out its contaminated winter squash and leafy greens and shut down the field for 120 days because of the exposure to manure. The cows got out of a gated enclosure about midnight on April 16, 2014. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. and British officials announced an ambitious collaboration designed to accelerate the discovery and development of new antibiotics in the fight against one of the modern era’s greatest health threats: antibiotic resistance.  CARB-X, for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, will create one of the world’s largest public-private partnerships focused on preclinical discovery and development of new antimicrobial products.  The undertaking includes two agencies within the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A pig breeder is challenging the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s order to build a confinement facility for his hogs, arguing it would hurt their health.  Luther Clevenger and his wife, Julie, raise Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs and other livestock on their 15-acre property near Aumsville, Ore., which has experienced water drainage problems during heavy winter rains.  ODA inspected the operation repeatedly this year after receiving several complaints that Clevenger’s 200 pigs were “creating a huge mess and affecting the property values of all the adjacent property owners” and that water [node:read-more:link]

Handling baby chicks or other young poultry can be dangerous to your health and has caused an upswing in illness from salmonella this year. The Minnesota Department of Health has confirmed 19 cases of salmonella infections associated with live poultry contact between early April and early July, including three that required hospitalization. As a result, officials are warning people to wash their hands and take other precautions if they touch or hold newly hatched chicks, ducklings or young turkeys. [node:read-more:link]

The H5 avian influenza A virus that devastated North American poultry farms in 2014-15 was initially spread by migratory waterfowl, but evidence suggests such highly pathogenic flu viruses do not persist in wild birds. While wild ducks and other aquatic birds are known to be natural hosts for low pathogenic flu viruses associated with milder symptoms, the results of this study indicate that is not the case with the highly pathogenic flu viruses that are associated with more severe illness. [node:read-more:link]

Through cooperative agreements with farmers in California’s Central Valley, a historic one hundred percent of rare Tricolored Blackbird colonies on agricultural fields were protected during the 2016 harvest season. Working with the USDA California Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and their Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) Tricolored Blackbird Project, Audubon California helped seven farmers delay the silage harvest, saving roughly 57,000 birds on 378 acres.
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A second mega-dairy is planned for Eastern Oregon, close to Threemile Canyon Farms, one of the largest confined animal feeding operations in the nation.  The proposed Willow Creek Dairy would house 30,000 animals. [node:read-more:link]

runching across a brushy, logged-over slope near Corvallis, Oregon, Reed Wilson points his trekking pole at an ancient Douglas fir in a neighboring patch of forest. The tree is more than an armspan in diameter, its toes decorated with saprophytic orchids and millipedes.  One of 117 behemoths among these otherwise young stands, this tree and 38 others also wear necklaces of pink tape. Tree-climbing citizen surveyors left them to mark the presence of red tree vole nests. [node:read-more:link]

The family of a rancher authorities say was shot and killed by two Adams County Sheriff’s deputies has filed a legal notice of their intent to sue the county. The family of Jack Yantis filed a tort claim earlier this year as a precursor to a wrongful death lawsuit seeking $500,000. Authorities say the deputies shot and killed the 62-year-old Yantis after one of his bulls was hit by a car and charged emergency crews on a highway just north of the tiny town of Council in west-central Idaho. Authorities said the deputies planned to shoot the injured bull when the rancher arrived with a rifle. [node:read-more:link]

Oklahomans will decide as part of the November general election whether to add a right-to-farm amendment to their state constitution. It’s the third time since 2012 the idea has been tested at the state level. North Dakota approved a right-to-farm amendment in a 2-to-1 landslide in 2012, and Missouri approved its amendment by a razor-thin margin in 2014. [node:read-more:link]