livestock

Last week, House Agriculture Chairman David Scott announced the intention to introduce a bill to help small family farmers and ranchers and address the national crisis in our nation’s beef supply chain. Scott said, “What has been missing from the conversation is help for the very beginning of our food supply chain, which is our nation’s small family farmers and ranchers.” The bill Sco...

Washington's state 4-H livestock judging contest is on the move.  WSU announced Thursday the contest, set for Saturday, will take place at the Grant County Fairgrounds in Moses Lake, WA.  The annual event is typically held in September at the Washington state fairgrounds in Puyallup. “The Grant...

Smithfield Foods said it will stop all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, CA, in early 2023 due to the rising cost of doing business in the state. At the same time, the company will align its hog production system by reducing its sow herd in the western region ...

The most recent USDA's prices report shows that in April, farm commodity prices received by farmers rose faster and farther than production expenses. Gary Crawford breaks down the numbers. If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia... Read More ...

Starting July 1st, livestock and dairy producers will see greater flexibilities in three insurance products for the 2023 crop year. "Dairy revenue protection, this change allows people some flexibility to go back and look at the production from a previous quarter ...

USDA is reporting that the nation's cattle feed lots on May 1st were feeding 12 million head. "Which was the highest May 1st number since the series began in 1996." And 2% above May 1st a year ago. USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam said that's partly of the result of large numbers of placements of cattle into feed lots during March, and now during April, placements were 1 ... Read Mo

Due to the continued significant risk of wolves to livestock in the Wallowa County area, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has extended a kill permit. That permit for the Chesnimnus Pack was set to expire May 24th. This extension means the permit will now be valid until June 14th ...

Investigators with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have been very busy in the John Day area over the past couple of days. On Friday, May 20th, crews were called out to the Middle Fork John Day area of Grant County after a livestock owner found a dead six-month old, 350-pound calf, in a 1200 acre, private-land pasture about 400 yards from his corrals ...

The Butcher Block Act, which supporters say will boost U.S. meat processing capacity, won bipartisan support from the House Ag panel last week. The legislation is in contrast to the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act, which was fiercely contested, advancing only along partisan lines ...

When it comes to responding to reported detections of high path avian influenza, currently compared to the infamous bird flu outbreak of 2015, "we are in a much better place now than we were before," noted Dr. Rosemary Sifford, with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ...