agriculture

National Agriculture Day is right around the corner on Tuesday, March 21, and to honor the annual holiday Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan spoke with Jessica Crowder, executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust. The organization does a lot of work with ranchers, wildlife and the land in Wyoming.

A recent report by the University of Wyoming Extension looks into methods to mitigate the impacts of horn flies on the cattle industry throughout the Cowboy State and Mountain West.

A new podcast from Montana State University Extension and the Western Landowners Alliance digs into the controversy of wolves. Co-host Alex Few said “Working Wild University” is for those who are passionate about open spaces and wildlife in the West and the healthy communities that sustain people and wildlife in the West. She told Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska that those values are not understood everywhere.

Colorado has pledged to eliminate thousands of acres of irrigated agriculture in a focused region on the eastern plains. The burden falls mostly on private landowners. But the state also has irrigation wells there. And local farmers say they shouldn’t be the only ones to sacrifice their water rights.

The University of Wyoming-based Wyoming Wool Initiative has launched a new program known as the Lamb-a-Year program. Loosely based on the Steer-a-Year programs found nationwide, it’s designed to give students hands-on experience with raising lambs and to give Wyoming producers valuable knowledge about lamb production in the state. It’s the first to do it with sheep.

The cost of goods has increased in America by about nine percent over the last year, which is the largest increase in 40 years. It has affected the price of everything, including groceries, gas, clothes and hay, an essential good for livestock in our region.

State fairs across the country have historically been major events for not only the agricultural community but for the public as well. And as many state fairs have experienced a decline over the years, the opposite has been true in the Cowboy State. This year's event drew about 15 percent more attendees than last year's.

The AgriStress Hotline is staffed 24/7, similar to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. The difference is, if a farmer or rancher calls, they’re going to get a response from someone who’s trained to help agricultural workers.

Dryland wheat farming on Colorado’s Eastern Plains has never been easy. But there’s a new and growing challenge. A native bug that has lived on the plains for at least 150 years has now become a scourge of the wheat fields.

Weeds. Cannabis Consulting is testing several hundred plants in central New Mexico to see which cannabis strains can best tolerate heat and drought. They hope the experiment will help cannabis farmers throughout the West grapple with drought and climate change.