In a May 29 letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, all five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation demanded answers by June 10 to about 25 questions regarding EPA’s covert aerial surveillance inspections of livestock operations in their state.

New runoff rules adopted by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board that cover all or part of eight counties from San Mateo to Ventura, CA, have raised the ire of the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF), the Grower-Shipper Association of...

The new permit requires EPA to publicize nutrient management plans of producers who must report manure production volumes, how the manure is treated, and how it is applied on fields. Feedlot operators who have had their existing permits extended will have 90 days after May 9 to apply.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) increasing surveillance flights over feedlots in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa are generating a controversial buzz among ranchers and cattle producers who chafe at what they perceive as an invasion of privacy that easily could be abused.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) may consider appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court if a U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia rules in favor of retaining U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) greenhouse gas regulations that would hurt ranch and farm operations.

The Wyoming Game & Fish Department is taking comments until Feb. 28 on a draft brucellosis management plan for the Cody area in Wyoming’s northwest corner. Such plans have been finalized for seven elk herds in the Jackson/Pinedale area, but not for the Cody area east of Yellowstone.

Some western and Midwestern states are resorting to innovative measures to control prairie dogs that wreak havoc wherever they proliferate and voraciously devour vast expanses of grasslands, depriving grazing livestock of feed and boosting costs for ranchers.

Defenders of Wildlife is promoting enactment of the Protect America’s Wildlife Act of 2009, introduced by U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein and Rep. George Miller, both D-CA, which would close a loophole in the Aerial Hunting Act of 1971 that’s designed to put an end to aerial hunting by private citizens.

Reacting to the EPA report, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said the report was scientifically questionable. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said new EPA rules restricting fracking could devastate the economic recovery of his state, where about 3,000 wells use fracking.

USDA’s Dec. 1 cattle on feed report showed the nation’s feedlots, over 1,000 head, held 4 percent more cattle than a year ago at 12.1 million head. This is the second largest number on record, and analysts are suggesting that cattle on feed numbers has reached its seasonal peak.