AgClips
Recent AgClips
Pending transport regs could be bad for live animals
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsElectronic Logging Devices (ELDs) are promoted as the solution to keeping sleepy drivers off the road, even if the load is livestock. That sounds simple on the surface, but ELDs are being used as control tools for unrealistic regulations. Under Federal rules, after a maximum of 14 hours of time in the truck (11 hours of driving), truckers must take a whopping 10-hour sleep break!
Nutria out of control in California
KTVU | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Agriculture NewsLast week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said wardens had found more than 20 "nutria" in wetlands, rivers and canals and in Merced, Fresno and Stanislaus counties. Wardens were trying to figure out how to eradicate the rodents, which are as big as small dogs and breed as fast as rabbits. If they take hold, wardens said, nutria could wreak a lot of havoc. "They burrow in dikes and levees and roadbeds so they weaken infrastructure.
Farm act would exempt farms from emissions reporting
Brownfield Ag News | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Federal NewsNew legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would exempt farms from reporting air emissions.
Six Tennessee ag businesses awarded grants from state
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Tennessee Dept. of Agriculture has recognized the first round of recipients of grants aimed at supporting rural agricultural programs in the Volunteer State. The grants from the Agricultural Enterprise Fund (AEF) are part of a plan to facilitate job creation, economic development and agricultural development in rural Tennessee, the agency said in a news release.
Their new neighbors are 10,000 hogs. Do they have the right to sue?
Des Moines Register | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in NewsShould the Iowa Supreme Court declare unconstitutional a law that shields large animal feeding operations from lawsuits? That’s the question the justices heard Monday night during oral arguments in Honomichl v. Valley View Swine. Its answer is likely to have an impact on the number and type of nuisance lawsuits brought by rural residents against the operators of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.A pair of hog confinements built in Wapello County in 2013 prompted this lawsuit. But the broader question is who can sue, and why.
Raw feeding trends continue to rack up risks for dogs
Veterinary Practice News | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Food NewsIn a new study, researchers at the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital found that consuming raw chicken meat increases a dog’s risk of developing acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN) by more than 70 times. The cause of APN in dogs has baffled the veterinary community for a long time, said Matthias le Chevoir, DVM, DECVN, chief investigator on the project.“It is a rare but very debilitating condition where the dog’s hind legs first become weak,” he said. “It can then progress to affect the front legs, neck, head and face.
The Home Farm Comes Inside
Wall Street Journal | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Agriculture NewsDon Beland is converting his five-bedroom suburban home in Holly Springs, N.C., into a farm— indoors. In the kitchen he has set up shelves that hold 12 trays of tomato seedlings, arugula, spinach and microgreens. In about two weeks, the tomato plants will move into the dining room, where Mr. Beland will replant them into a 7-foot high soilless growing system he is building. Near a window, jalapeño and habanero pepper seeds germinate in a 3-foot wide miniature greenhouse.The house is typically aglow with purple LED lights that can be seen from the street.
‘Canada does not treat us right,’ Trump complains on trade, the border
The Star | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal News“We lose a lot of money with Canada. Canada does not treat us right in terms of the farming and the crossing the borders,” he said at a White House event on his new infrastructure proposal. “So they’ll either treat us right or we’ll just have to do business a little bit diff… really differently,” he said. “We cannot continue to be taken advantage of by other countries.” The Canadian government has disputed Trump’s frequent claim that the U.S. “loses” money on trade with Canada.
States look to lower drug costs, consider Canadian imports
Stat News | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsLawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are considering ways to reduce prescription drug costs, including importing them from Canada, as they strive to balance budgets without knowing for sure what their government’s share of the tab will be. A total of 87 bills in 34 states of all political stripes seek to save money on prescription drugs, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. Six of those states are considering bills that would allow drugs to be imported from Canada, where they cost an average 30 percent less than in the United States.
Houston-area officials approved a plan for handling a natural disaster — then ignored it
Texas Tribune | Posted onFebruary 22, 2018 in Rural NewsSeven months before Hurricane Harvey inundated the Houston area with a trillion gallons of water and led to widespread criticism of the Red Cross, Harris County adopted a disaster-preparation plan whose key assumption was that the Red Cross would be slow to act. “In a major disaster where there is widespread damage, the local resources of the Red Cross may be overwhelmed and not available immediately,” stated the plan.