AgClips
Recent AgClips
Iowa city opens park to help pollinators thrive
KTIV | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Rural NewsOfficials and volunteers in eastern Iowa have opened a park on a former vacant lot with hopes of increasing habitat for bees, butterflies and other insects and demonstrating the importance of such efforts. The Muscatine Journal reports that the Pollinator Park opened in Muscatine May 19. Volunteers planted new plants during the ceremony.Jon Koch is a founding member of the nonprofit Pollinator Park Project group. He says they hope to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other flying insects with the plants.Volunteers from Nature Conservancy of Iowa, U.S.
Mange in bears in Pennsylvania reaches epidemic rate, study launched
Lancaster Online | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Rural NewsOver a lifetime, some Lancaster County residents may have seen a fox with mange. Hunters may have glimpsed an infected coyote. It’s a horrible sight with clumps of hair missing from the beautiful animals. Now, unfortunately, the scourge of mange has spread to bears, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission recently declared that the highly contagious disease has reached epidemic proportions in the state’s population.
Teacher shortages are especially acute in rural areas. Here’s one solution in Colorado.
The Washington Post | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsMany schools across the country are struggling with a crippling teacher shortage. The number of students entering university-based teacher preparation programs has steadily declined and the number of teachers retiring or getting ready to retire is increasing; adding to this, current working conditions and public perceptions of the teaching profession have led to increased turnover rates — and according to some organizations, this growing shortage of teachers is at crisis level.This is especially true for rural communities, including in Colorado.
Scientists find major change in freshwater caused by agriculture and climate
Newsweek | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Agriculture, Rural NewsWater, water everywhere—but not necessarily in the places it used to be. Even just in the past two decades, freshwater has been on the move in what scientists are now realizing represents "major hydrologic change." That's according to a new study published in the journal Nature.
US forces Germany's Bayer to shed $9 billion in ag business in biggest ever antitrust sell-off
CNBC | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Agriculture NewsBayer has agreed to sell agricultural businesses and assets worth about $9 billion to chemical company BASF. The divestiture is the large antitrust-related divestiture ever, according to the Justice Department. The sell-off will allow Bayer to proceed with a proposed $66 billion of Monsanto.
Michigan lawmaker introduces bill that would ban debarking of dogs
Detroit Free Press | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsState Rep. Tim Sneller, D-Burton, has owned dogs all his life, including his current rescue pet Oscar, a miniature Dachsund whose woof is always welcome. He wants to make sure that other pet owners appreciate that a dog’s bark is an essential multi-purpose signal —that they need to go out, eat or provide a warning of impending danger — and prohibit veterinarians from performing debarking procedures.He’s introduced a bill that bans the procedure of removing tissue from a pet’s vocal cords in order to reduce or soften a dog’s bark.“That’s the way the dog communicates with us,” he said.
1000th Burmese python eliminated from the Everglades
WTXL | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Rural NewsThe Python Elimination Program, run by the South Florida Water Management District, recently celebrated a milestone: the 1,000th Burmese python has been captured. “We’ve got the best hunters this state has ever seen,” Mike Kirkland, the program’s project manager, said. “We also have a great team of district staff too and together we’ve formed this cohesive unit working together and that’s why this program has been such a success.”Experts say there are between 10,000 and 100,000 pythons in the Everglades. It is difficult to tell because the snakes are experts at hiding.
Wolves breed problems for Washington ranchers
Capital Press | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Agriculture, Rural NewsFewer cows have been breeding on the range since wolves migrated to northeast Washington, an economic loss little known outside the cattle industry, according to the owners of the region’s largest ranch. The Diamond M ranch estimates that the rate of “open cows” — females that didn’t become pregnant — has increased to about 20 percent from the historic rate of 5 percent.“If wolves were attacking people night and day, I don’t think you’d have too many people pregnant,” said Len McIrvin, the patriarch of the family-owned and -operated ranch.
Premature Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut Down
Inside Climate News | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Rural NewsShutting down power plants that burn fossil fuels can almost immediately reduce the risk of premature birth in pregnant women living nearby, according to research published Tuesday.
State inspection programs – the debate continues
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onMay 30, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsA new bill has been introduced that would permit state-inspected meat and poultry to be shipped anywhere in the country. Twenty-seven states have inspection programs that have been judged ‘equal to’ the federal inspection program run by FSIS. Generally, however, meat and poultry produced in a plant under a state program can be sold in-state only.