livestock

Drought in the Horn of Africa has killed the livestock of nomadic herders and forced thousands of pastoralists into refugee camps, dependent on food aid. Authorities in Ethiopia, while dealing with the crisis, are looking into longer-term adaptations, such as introducing irrigated agriculture and small farms in the country's Somali region, "a land long known for just herding animals," says the Washington Post.

With drought intensifying in the northern Plains, the USDA is taking an additional step to help ranchers short of livestock forage. The owners of land idled in the Conservation Reserve have USDA approval to harvest hay from the set-aside land in counties in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana where drought conditions are rated as "severe" or worse.

Dairy farmers in three counties in California's Central Valley have temporary permission from local officials to bury or compost hundreds of cows that died in a June heat wave, says the Fresno Bee. Ordinarily, the dead animals would be sent to a rendering plant, but there are too many carcasses and a mechanical malfunction reduced the plant's capacity.

Doctors have prescribed the antibiotic vancomycin for 60 years against disease and infections in people "and bacteria are only now becoming resistant to it," says Britain's Press Association. "Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States have now modified the drug so it works in three separate ways on bacteria, making it much harder for them to develop resistance."

Gov. Larry Hogan stood aside and let a Maryland law take effect without his signature that will bar use of medically important antibiotics to promote weight gain among cattle, hogs and poultry. The Maryland law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2018, the same implementation date as a similar law enacted in 2015 in California, the only other state to control antibiotic use with the goal of preserving the effectiveness of the drugs to fight disease in humans.

Last year, the USDA’s Wildlife Services killed 76,859 coyotes, in large part to protect livestock, especially sheep and calves. But killing coyotes may actually make the problem worse, says New Food Economy.

Sharply higher sales of soybean, cotton, and livestock products are leading a rebound in U.S. farm exports this year, said the USDA. With four months left in the fiscal year, it estimated exports at $137 billion, up nearly 6 percent from 2016 and reversing two years of declining sales.

Around a third of large livestock farms in Wisconsin are operating with expired permits, says Wisconsin Public Radio. It's not uncommon or illegal "but it is a source of frustration for farmers and residents concerned about oversight."

The European Commission has been in a two-year deadlock over whether to remove formaldehyde from livestock feed. The chemical, which is used to kill salmonella, has been linked to cancer.

Experts worry that as the gray wolf population just outside of Yellowstone National Park continues to grow, looser hunting restrictions in surrounding states could change pack behavior and hurt one of the most comprehensive research studies on the species anywhere in the world.

Wolves can now by shot on site in 85 percent of Wyoming, after a federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled last month that the animal no longer warrants endangered species protection in the state, says the Casper Star Tribune.

Excrement from industrial livestock operations is poisoning Virginia’s Shenandoah River and putting people at risk for E. coli poisoning, says a report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Long considered ecological foes, some kinds of livestock grazing might actually benefit endangered sage grouse, says a study in the journal Ecological Applications.

Utah could soon become the first state to make it illegal to harass livestock with drones. Passed unanimously by the House, HB217 would make it a class B misdemeanor to harangue livestock with drones, ATVs or dogs, says The Deseret News.

Floods spawned by Hurricane Matthew killed "at least tens of thousands of chickens, hogs and other livestock" in eastern North Carolina, said the Washington Post. Some environmentalists said the losses could reach the millions because of the large livestock production in the flooded area; North Carolina is one of the largest hog and broiler-chicken producers in the nation.

California state agriculture officials ordered the recall of raw milk from a dairy farm in the Central Valley after tests found bird flu virus in a sample from the farm's bulk tank. The state Department of Food and Agriculture warned against consumption of milk from Valley Milk Simply Bottled on the grounds that it "may lead to infection with this rare, emerging flu virus." No illnesses were reported.