ranching

In the middle of February, Hannah and Ryan were abruptly fired from their federal jobs with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.

Ranchers have long used wood and metal fences to graze cattle in certain areas, but that makes it hard for big game to migrate. Some say virtual fencing could be a win for ranchers and conservationists.

At least three ranches in the Elk Mountain area lost 50 cows to an all but unheard of disease in the U.S. Shortly after the cattle diagnosis, one rancher had potential symptoms of the disease too. We learn more about the handling of the rare disease and how it eroded some local trust in government and public health agencies.

When ranchers move cattle across state lines, they must show documentation that their herd has been screened by a veterinarian for potential disease. By the end of the year, the Wyoming Livestock Board will no longer provide paper digital certificates of veterinary inspection, though ones that were previously printed will still be accepted.

It’s no secret that ranchers are having a hard time. They’ve got more drought, more conflict, and expensive land. And they’re no spring chickens – the average age of a rancher these days is 58. But this fall the University of Wyoming launched a new degree called Ranch Management and Agricultural Leadership (RMAL). The goal is to re-envision the rancher of the future. This summer, the program’s first registered student attended a UW-sponsored ranch camp for ag students who attended from around the world.

Can we amuse our democracy back to life? Can we incentivize empathy and compromise, instead of viciousness and dysfunction? These are the driving questions behind the TV series, “Breaking Bread with Alexander.” Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon appears as a guest in Season 2.

More local meat, produce and grains will be hitting food bank shelves this summer thanks to a more than $500,000 Local Food Purchasing Agreement Grant for the Food Bank of Wyoming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The goal of the funding is to buy more food from small-scale Wyoming producers and distribute it to folks in need across the state.

Newly released data from the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility shows that vast swaths of the grazing land administered by the Bureau of Land Management do not meet the agency’s land health standards. States in the West showed a wide range of compliance with those standards, with 82 percent of assessed rangeland in Montana meeting standards compared to just 10 percent in Nevada.

Wyomingite Walt Gasson has published award winning essays in "Wyoming Wildlife Magazine," "High Country News" and "Trout Magazine." They’re now included in a new book titled "Craven Creek." Wyoming Public Media’s Grady Kirkpatrick recently spoke with the author about the essays.

Like hundreds of other ranchers in Colorado, the Stanko family is anxious about wolf packs being airlifted back to this state, where they were eradicated by the 1940s.