Ranchers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a 3% drop in the country's cattle and calves inventory as of Jan. 1. The number of beef cows was down 4%, the smallest count in more than 60 years.

A new podcast wants to create a mutual understanding between both sides of the working lands and wildlife conservation debate in the West. The first season focuses on wolves.

A new partnership between Wyoming and the federal government will support ranchers and their conservation efforts.The state of Wyoming and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are officially working together to conserve big game migration, and a key factor to the health of wildlife is private land, which in Wyoming is often big ranches.

The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame is taking nominations through the end of February. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards sat down with Scotty Ratliff, a former legislator and a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, to hear why he decided to start a list of Wyoming's most famous and skilled cowboys.

The myth of the cowboy is as deeply interwoven into the American identity as bald eagles and the stars and stripes. But that cowboy hat, that lasso, those pointy boots? They actually trace back to the Spanish vaquero. As Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards found out, it's a way of life that's still alive and well in the American West.

When you think of Chihuahua, Mexico, it's probably a dry desert with little plant life. But it hasn't always been so arid. Now, ranchers there are trying to bring back the tall grasses, wildlife and rain using a holistic approach to land management, a method that could be used in the American West in the face of droughts and climate change. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards spoke with Alejandro Carrillo who runs the family's Las Damas Ranch and started the advocacy group Pasticultores del Desierto.

This summer, drought reigns supreme across the West. A reminder that, here, water is valuable. One source, though, seems safely tucked away--groundwater. But is it? Ranchers in southeast Wyoming are fighting to protect their groundwater, as one family aims to pump billions of gallons out of it. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards reports.

A massive hacking incident against beef processing giant JBS caused an estimated 20% of U.S. beef packing plants to grind to a halt earlier this week. JBS was quick to get things back online, but the attack raises questions about cyber security and market consolidation.

Tom Kuka has been ranching on the Blackfeet Reservation for nearly 30 years. His ranch is about 20 miles east of the Rocky Mountain Front, where jagged...

On a hot, sunny day in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, Annia Carter diligently walked out into a pond across the road from her house."I'm gonna check it and if we…