cattle industry

14 Stories

As Heat Rises, Cows 'Are Just Dropping'

'I've never seen anything like it,' Iowa farmer says

(Newser) - The summer heat has been deadly for hundreds of cows in Iowa and other states in the Midwest. Iowa officials say that on the last day of July, the world's hottest month on record, they received a request to dispose of almost 400 cows that had died from the...

Farmers Who Raise Cattle Facing a Fraught Question

Shell out the money for feed, or sell?

(Newser) - Much has been written about the impact of heat on humans in recent weeks. But for humans who raise cattle, it's a double whammy. CNN describes things at "a boiling point for farmers and ranchers," who are dealing with the extreme drought conditions that are plaguing some...

Ranchers' Beef: Slogan Isn't American Enough

Cattle producers say marketing campaign is milking them to pay for foreign, fake products

(Newser) - Cattle producers for 35 years have been bankrolling one of the nation's most iconic marketing campaigns, but now many want to end the program that created the “Beef. It's What's for Dinner” slogan. What's the ranchers' beef? It's that their mandatory fee of $1...

Dozens of Vials of Bull Semen Explode in Fire

The containers were worth thousands, went up in flames at Australia lab

(Newser) - An Australia building that was destroyed by fire in the wee hours of Tuesday housed a cattle breeding laboratory—and more than more than 100 cryogenic cylinders filled with bull semen, worth thousands of dollars, exploded during the blaze. Yarram Herd Services has for two decades provided artificial insemination, breeding...

Your Milk May Soon Come From Cows That Can Text

Sensor can track basic health metrics, predict pregnancy with 95% accuracy

(Newser) - Cows across 350 farms in nearly two dozen countries around the world are now embedded with hot-dog-sized wireless sensors in their stomachs. It may sound a bit Orwellian to some, but the idea is to help larger farms better manage their herds—by catching major health changes early and then...

Chinese Group Buying Chunk of Australia

Board needs to approve sale of S. Kidman holdings

(Newser) - About 1.3% of Australia might be sold to foreign buyers after all. Australia's fifth-largest cattle producer, S. Kidman, which has been trying to get rid of 40,000 square miles of farmland since last summer, has agreed to sell its holdings to China-based Dakang Australia and Australian Rural...

Sustainable Farm Fuels the Left's Sheldon Adelson

Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer pushes environmental issues

(Newser) - A hedge-fund billionaire and his wife, a community bank CEO, originally aimed to use their 1,800-acre California ranch to show off soil conservation techniques—but today, it's become a model sustainable farm, and apparently a highly profitable one. At TomKat Ranch, Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor raise grass-fed...

US Cattle Herd Smallest in Six Decades

Drought takes a toll in the heartland

(Newser) - The severe drought that scorched pastures across the American heartland last summer helped shrink the US cattle herd to its smallest size in more than six decades and encouraged the movement of animals to lusher fields in the north and west. The National Agricultural Statistics Service said today that the...

Drought Forcing Ranchers to Sell Cattle

Which means you can expect beef prices to go up

(Newser) - The lingering drought spanning much of the nation is leaving farmers with wizened pastures and crops, forcing them to sell off cattle—and fast. The AP spoke to several ranchers, including Ken Grecian of Kansas, who has already sold 40 pairs of cows and calves since the dry spell began....

Florida Ranchers Give Returning Panthers a Break

Their cows are disappearing, but they're working with conservationists

(Newser) - Florida’s endangered panther population has come a long way; thirty years ago there were just 20 of the big cats left, whereas now there are more than 160 of them. That’s the good news. The bad news? Panthers will be panthers, and Florida ranchers are reporting increasing deaths...

Aussies Ban Indonesia Cattle Exports After Shocking Videos

Images of slaughterhouse cruelty horrify nation

(Newser) - Australia has banned the export of live cattle to Indonesia amid a public outcry over cruelty in the Islamic country's slaughterhouses. Horrific images broadcast on Australian TV last week showed cattle being whipped, kicked and beaten before painful slaughter. Some cows were left to bleed to death after repeated...

Mexican Wolf Recovery Is Howling Flop

(Newser) - A US effort to relocate endangered wolves along the Arizona-New Mexico border is actually rendering them extinct, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials moved eleven Mexican gray wolves to the Gila National Forest in 1998, where managers are trapping, penning, and shooting the wolves to control their roaming and cattle-killing...

Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years
Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years
opinion
Jun 19, 2008 6:58 PM CDT

Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years

Lust for beef, ethanol drives deforestation; nations must act now

(Newser) - An "unprecedented" combination of ills is threatening the Amazon, and if nothing is done to ease the pressure on the world’s largest rainforest, more than half of it could be gone or withered in 20 years, Rhett Butler writes for Yale Environment 360. After a three-year decline, forest...

Texas Tops US in CO2 Emissions
Texas Tops US
in CO2 Emissions
Feb 29, 2008 3:35 PM CST

Texas Tops US in CO2 Emissions

Activists fight to clean things up

(Newser) - Texas—the land of big oil, big agriculture, pickup trucks, wide-open spaces, and little mass transit—not only is the biggest emitter of CO2 among states, it ranks eighth in the world, a new study says. It’s also one of the few states without any climate plan in the...

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