Latest news with #cattle
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cattle Futures Turn Higher as Tuesday Progresses
Nearby August and October delivery cattle futures were fading Monday's gains on Tuesday, but have turned higher at midday. Overall, prices are up 17 to 67 cents. Heat stress is a concern, with heat index readings as high as 110 projected for today or tomorrow in some feedlot areas. Live cattle futures were $1.67 to $1.95 higher on Monday. Preliminary open interest was up 4,462 contracts on Monday, suggesting new buying interest. Cash trade on Friday saw KS at $230-231 and $240-242 northern action. Activity thus far has been limited to accumulating show lists. Feeder cattle futures were up $3.50 to $3.70 on Monday. As of midday on Tuesday, they are again trading higher, by $.80 to $1.00. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up $3.52 to $325.80 on July 18. Monday's OKC feeder cattle online auction showed 4,500 head sold, with prices listed $4-8 higher. Feeder heifers were listed steady to $3 lower, with calves up $5-10. More News from Barchart Brazil Coffee Harvest Pressures Slam Coffee Prices Brazil Coffee Harvest Pressures Hammer Prices Cocoa Prices Rally as the Pace of Ivory Coast Cocoa Exports Slows Our exclusive Barchart Brief newsletter is your FREE midday guide to what's moving stocks, sectors, and investor sentiment - delivered right when you need the info most. Subscribe today! USDA Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed in the Tuesday AM report. Choice boxes were quoted $1.23 higher at $373.30, while Select prices on average dropped $2.32 to $347.73. USDA estimated cattle slaughter for Monday at 105,000 head. That was down 7,000 head from last week and 8,887 head lower vs. the same early week figure in 2024. Aug 25 Live Cattle are at $225.600, up $0.375, Oct 25 Live Cattle are at $221.825, up $0.200, Dec 25 Live Cattle are at $222.400, up $0.650, Aug 25 Feeder Cattle are at $328.600, up $1.000 Sep 25 Feeder Cattle are at $329.000, up $1.300 Oct 25 Feeder Cattle are at $327.275, up $1.300 On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Colorado utilizing grazing cattle to help prevent wildfires in at-risk areas
As part of a growing effort to reduce the risk of wildfires in Colorado, cattle are being deployed to eat dry grass that often fuels fast-moving flames. City officials in Boulder County have partnered with local ranchers to bring herds into at-risk neighborhoods, including areas near Wonderland Lake Park, where 70 cattle grazed 35 acres of land. Paul Dennison, who is with Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, told Fox News that cattle grazing began in early June, which brought the grass height down from the three to four feet expected if left unmanaged. Historic Grand Canyon Lodge Destroyed By Wildfire; North Rim Closed For 2025 Season The Colorado region's mountainous terrain, dry climate, and frequent winds make it especially vulnerable to wildfire. Dennison explained that using cattle to keep vegetation low can slow potential fire spread and give firefighters more time to respond. "As the cattle trample as they graze, they break up some of that thatch, so we are looking at reduction of fuel height in the grasses, and we are also looking for some decomposition and degradation of the thatch that lies underneath the living grass," Dennison added. Read On The Fox News App Horrified Tourists Watch As Bison Boils To Death In Yellowstone Hot Spring Local ranchers bring the herd in by trailer and rotate them through five-acre sections over two-week periods, Dennison said. U.S. Forest Service Deputy Chief John Crockett said most people think cattle are the primary grazer, but the agency uses cattle, sheep, goat and "basically anything that uses the grasses and fine fuels as a food source." Colorado Uses Cattle Grazing To Reduce Wildfire Risk In Boulder County Boulder Fire Rescue's public information officer, Jamie Barker, said grazing cattle are great for their fire department in both the warmer months and the fall. This year's heavy rainfall has created even more vegetation, which is good for now, but a future concern as it dries out, Barker explained. "I think a lot of people are really excited, because their green is getting greener and growing taller," said Barker. "But at the end of the day, that green that's getting greener and growing taller is also going to dry out; and that's going to pose a risk to some capacity for wildfires." The U.S. Department of Agriculture says similar grazing programs are becoming more common across the West, with states like Idaho and Nevada also using livestock to help manage wildfire risk. Boulder officials said the plan is to move the herd to another at-risk area later this article source: Colorado utilizing grazing cattle to help prevent wildfires in at-risk areas
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Cattle Battle: How wolves and livestock collide – and how one Idaho project offers solutions
Ranchers Jay and Chyenne Smith raise Black Angus cattle near the tiny town of Carmen, Idaho. The ranch is located just over the ridge from one of the original sites of wolf reintroduction, and the Smiths say wolves have killed more than 200 of their cattle in the past 20 years. (Photo courtesy of Jay and Chyenne Smith) This is the fourth installment of Howl, a five-part written series and podcast season produced in partnership between the Idaho Capital Sun, States Newsroom and Boise State Public Radio. Read the first installment, Carter's Hope, the second installment, River of No Return, and the third installment, Fixing Yellowstone. Idaho rancher Jay Smith has a wolf problem. Over the last 20 years, Smith said wolves have killed more than 200 of his cattle and caused major financial harm to his family's business. 'At today's value at nearly $2,000 a head, times that by 200 and see if we could have invested that money over time what would that have been?' Smith said. 'Significant.' Smith and his wife, Chyenne, raise Black Angus cattle near the town of Carmen, a tiny community near the Continental Divide, just west of the Montana border. Jay grew up nearby; his family has been ranching in the area since 1924. Last year, the family celebrated its centennial on the land. But their history goes back even longer. Smith has a family history book documenting cattle ownership back to the 1600s. 'So my family's cattle raising lineage goes way back,' Smith said. There's something else that goes way back in Smith's family: Warnings about wolves that have been passed down through the generations. The J Lazy S Angus Ranch is situated in a green valley set in the shadows of high mountain peaks, some of which rise above 10,000 feet. Wildfire smoke often hangs in the air during the summer. And on the other side of the valley, the Salmon River cuts through the landscape. The ranch features a classic red barn, a horse corral, an assortment of farm machinery and a renovated old cabin surrounded by shade trees. They have a small herd of Morgan-Quarter Horse crossbreeds and an array of cattle dogs that go everywhere with the Smiths, including high up in the surrounding mountains. 'One of the main reasons Chyenne and I bought this place is A, because ranching is in my blood,' Smith said. 'But B, it's exactly how we wanted to raise our children. I wanted them to have the work ethic and the animal husbandry background that I grew up with. I think it's very important.' Running cattle and working the ranch is all he's ever known, and Smith wouldn't trade it for anything. 'I don't know if you ever watch TV, but I got to be a cowboy every day of my life, so I don't know how you go wrong there,' Smith said. '(There is) a lot of freedom. These ranches are big, and so we had a lot of private property where us kids could go a long ways without getting in trouble or being in the wrong spot. And I don't know how a city kid could ever get their head around that, but we could literally go for miles and not be somewhere we shouldn't be.' The Smiths' several hundred cattle have a lot of room to roam, too. During summers, the cows live in the high country. They spend 12 to 16 weeks each in a cow camp way up in the mountains, roaming far and wide on public land. And that's where they run into trouble with wolves. Only a few ridgelines separate Smith's ranch from wolf ground zero: one of the original sites of reintroduction 30 years ago – Corn Creek in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. From their porch on the ranch, Jay and Chyenne Smith can see the Diamond Moose Grazing allotment, where wolves have a track record killing and harassing livestock, Smith said. 'It's been one of the most consistently conflicted allotments throughout the years,' Smith said. Jay Smith was 22 years old in 1995 when the government reintroduced wolves. He has seen ranching before wolves were reintroduced and the difference the animals made after they were reintroduced. 'We worked really hard to keep (reintroduction) from happening,' Smith said. 'And then when it became inevitable and we could see the writing on the wall, then we started trying to position ourselves for how to live with the inevitable. It was coming. We've been here 100 years. We're not leaving. So now how do we make this work?' Not only do the wolves literally eat into their business, but every time the Smiths or other ranchers speak out or try to do something about it, they say they are vilified. 'The negativity and the hate towards ranchers is worse than the wolves, in my opinion, and it's because the public's been fed this fairy tale of what wolves are,' Chyenne Smith said. 'And we're the bad guys in every one of those stories.' Jay Smith said he hasn't seen a nickel in compensation for the livestock wolves killed. 'We have been paid for zero head ever,' he said. Although Smith said he hasn't been paid for any of his livestock losses, other Idaho ranchers have. The state of Idaho has a compensation program to reimburse livestock owners the fair market value of animals that are killed by wolves or grizzly bears. It applies to cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, chicken, llamas and even bees – basically any animal used for food or in food production. From 2014 to 2022, the state of Idaho's livestock compensation program paid out $687,029.50 to 299 different livestock producers for compensation for verified livestock losses, state records show. But to be paid, livestock owners must have a confirmed wolf kill claim filed with the Office of Species Conservation each year. 'In the topography we run in, we can't find them in time,' Smith said. 'They just simply don't come home. We'll find a pile of bones. We'll find wolf scat right on top of those bones. I mean, we know what happened to them. But as far as Wildlife Services coming in and being able to make a confirmation report to send to the Office of Species Conservation to put us in the reimbursement program, we are zero for 200. That's our batting average.' State records show that most investigations of wolf complaints don't conclude that wolves were definitely responsible. From July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, Idaho Wildlife Services investigated 99 complaints of livestock losses blamed on wolves, state records show. About 28% of those investigations ruled wolves' responsibility for livestock deaths were 'confirmed' or 'probable.' But more than two-thirds of the wolf complaints, about 68%, were classified as 'possible/unknown.' In some cases, wolves may have eaten the carcass of livestock after the animal was already dead but did not kill the animal. Smith said his losses add up. 'We have lost over 200 head of livestock in that 20-plus years to wolves,' Jay Smith said. 'One year we'll lose 20 head of cattle, and one year we'll lose zero,' he added. 'And we just never quite know how to explain or how to do better, or how to mitigate that risk. It's very variable, and it's very unknown. But it's remained over the years. It hasn't gone away. It sounds like it's come and gone, but the wolves are still back there.' And even if wolves don't kill livestock like cows and sheep, even the presence of wolves can distress animals enough that they aren't as healthy and wouldn't be worth as much at market. But wolf supporters say the number of livestock killed is extremely low. In Idaho, Montana and Wyoming wolves are confirmed to have killed an average of less than 300 domestic animals per year – out of 6 million cows and sheep in those states. But even if the overall numbers and percentages are low, the cost is high for the farming and ranching families like the Smiths. With 30 years of experience since reintroduction and all the claims made by wolf advocates and all the meetings with the feds, nothing has changed Smith's mind about wolves. He opposed reintroducing wolves, and now that they are here, Smith thinks there are too many of them. As a result, he thinks ranchers should be given broad authority to kill wolves to protect their livestock. And as the chairman of his local county's Republican Party central committee, Smith has helped make that happen. He said he co-wrote a 2021 state law that helped make it easier to kill more wolves by expanding when and how they can be hunted and trapped. The law allows hunters to purchase an unlimited number of wolf tags to kill wolves and makes trapping on private land legal year round. 'There's still people vehemently against every proposal we have,' Smith said. 'And I don't know why. We're not out to kill them all. We're just out to make a living and keep our livelihoods.' Chyenne Smith agreed. 'It's about not being able to do everything we can to protect what's ours when we need to,' she said. When there are problems with wolves harassing or killing livestock, ranchers often call on trappers to catch the predators. And one of the best people at trapping wolves is Rusty Kramer. He's the president of the Idaho Trappers Association and the incoming president of the National Trappers Association. Whether it's badgers, beavers, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, muskrats or wolves, if it's legal to trap in Idaho, Kramer has probably caught it. Depending on the animals, he's used scent lures, bait or even blind set traps, hoping to entice an animal to step on a silver dollar-sized pan, which triggers the trap's jaws to lose around the wolf's foot and seize hold. Once a wolf is trapped, Kramer shoots it behind the shoulder with his .22 magnum pistol, killing it. Since wolves were reintroduced, he's trapped and killed 25 to 30. Kramer was born and raised in Fairfield, Idaho, near the Sawtooth National Forest in central Idaho. 'I just learned how to trap looking over my dad's shoulder and riding around with him and just kind of fell in love with it as a kid and I've been doing it ever since,' Kramer said. It started as damage control, trapping ground squirrels and marmots, also known as rock chucks, to protect the alfalfa. Later, he moved on to coyotes and muskrats. Kramer's father taught him how to process and sell the pelts, stressing the importance of using every part of the animal. As a kid, the pelts put a little extra money in his pocket. For him, trapping is a way of life and a family tradition. Today, Kramer said the Idaho Trappers Association runs the largest fur sale in the United States, in Glenns Ferry, where a trapper can make good money for a wolf pelt. A quality wolf pelt can go for $500 or more. For 10 years as an adult, Kramer lived in Boise – the state's largest city – about a 90-minute drive from Fairfield. After Micron Technology laid him off, Kramer returned to Fairfield. But it's tough to make a living on trapping alone, and Kramer also runs an alfalfa farm and is the watermaster for his local water district. It's the farm where Kramer and other farmers run into trouble with wolves. Ever since wolves came back, Kramer says, a lot more elk are hanging out in the valley where he and many other farmers grow alfalfa. He says the elk hang out there to keep safe from wolves, who tend to avoid agricultural areas because of the human presence. The elk trample the fields and eat the alfalfa, creating a headache and a cost for Rusty. 'I don't hate wolves,' Kramer said. 'I very (much) admire wolves. How far they can roam and how cunning they are and survive out there.' But he thinks it was a mistake to reintroduce wolves to Idaho. 'I'm under the opinion it would be cool to snap your fingers and it's back to 'Dances with Wolves' days,' Kramer said, referring to the 1990 movie starring Kevin Costner. 'You know, where it's buffalo from Ohio to Oregon and grizzlies and wolves. But there's only so many places that grizzlies, wolves and buffalo can have in the 21st century, because they just roam so far. These aren't foxes and coyotes that can live around humans.' 'There's just not enough space for them in the 21st century, in my opinion,' Kramer said. Suzanne Asha Stone is trying to to demonstrate that ranchers can live side-by-side with wolves today. Thirty years ago, Stone was an intern working on the wolf reintroduction project. Since then, she's become a prominent wolf expert and advocate. She is the executive director of the International Wildlife Coexistence Network and a co-founder of the Wood River Wolf Project in Idaho. Lately, Stone has been focusing on helping ranchers protect sheep and cattle without killing wolves. Stone said the catalyst for the work was a 'train wreck' of conflict between wolves and sheep in 2007 in central Idaho's Blaine County. Unaware that wolves were denning with pups in the area, a rancher let out his flock of sheep with some livestock guardian dogs for protection, Stone said. 'So to wolves, having those dogs come in meant that they had strange wolves coming in and were a significant threat to their pups,' Stone said. 'The rancher, of course, didn't know this. He had no idea that the wolves were there. But within 24 hours, we had dead sheep, dead livestock guardian dogs and a (wolf) pack with a death warrant on their head.' Stone said the community came together after the event to look for a way to project sheep and wolves. 'It was at that time that the residents of Blaine County pushed back hard and said, 'We really enjoy having wolves here. We had our own little Yellowstone happening right in our backyard, where we could go out and watch these wolves and their pups, and we want to keep them alive,'' Stone said. From there, Stone sat down at the table with ranchers in the area, as well as an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services. Stone said just about everyone was skeptical, even wolf biologists who wanted to keep more wolves alive. 'And so we sat down with all of them and then reached out to the ranchers and just said, 'Let us try these nonlethal tools. Now everybody's telling us we're going to fail, but let's try and see what happens,'' Stone said. Stone started using something called fladry. It's nothing more than a barrier of waving flags, but it has proven successful to deter wolves in Eastern Europe and help sell high-mileage Hondas stateside. 'It looks like the flagging that sits around used car lots, basically,' Stone said. 'It doesn't look intimidating to us at all. Wolves don't like it. They don't trust it. And so we were able to keep the sheep behind those fladry pens for the rest of the season without having a single other loss. And the wolves were right there raising their pups for a good part of that summer. No more incidents at all.' Stone's critics called it beginner's luck and questioned whether she could replicate her results over long periods of time or large areas. That led to the creation of the Wood River Wolf Project, which for the last 17 summers has been partnering with ranchers in the area to use non-lethal tools and techniques to protect sheep from wolves. The project area covers about 4,600 square miles of rugged, mountainous terrain. Stone says there's no one-size-fits-all solution to wolf conflicts – different terrain, different predator behavior, even varying access to electricity can affect what works. So, she'll try just about anything – and her group has over the years. They've used lights, blasted air horns and played recordings to scare wolves away. In one case, wolves were feasting on llamas at an eastern Oregon ranch. So Stone's team set up those 20-foot air dancers you see at car lots and lit them up at night. 'So when the wolves came over the top of the hill, they saw this enormous monster up there flapping around and making all kinds of noise, and oh my gosh, they were in the next county the next day,' she said. 'We've only lost two wolves in the 17 years now of the project and an average of less than five sheep a year for that entire 17-year period,' Stone said. 'So it's the lowest loss of livestock to wolves in any area where wolves and livestock overlap in the Western United States, probably beyond that. It's a very successful project, and we use less money than what they do to kill wolves outside of the project area, where they're losing more livestock there.' But Stone hasn't convinced everyone. In fact, one key holdout is her own state government. Even when nonlethal methods of wolf control are available, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's written policy preference is to kill wolves to reduce the overall wolf population in the state. 'A lot of what we've learned here is being applied in countries all over the world, just not in the state of Idaho, and not to any real extent beyond our project area, because the state is so determined to kill wolves rather than to live with them,' Stone said. Idaho Capital Sun, like the Oregon Capital Chronicle, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@
BBC News
16-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Cattle return to Ashford as 'natural strimmers' to vegetation
A herd of cattle have returned to act as "ecological engineers" to keep the vegetation at a Kent woodland at bay, a wildlife trust has year, Dexter cattle are used to "munch down" the vegetation, push back the brambles and keep the clearings open at Ashford Warren, Kent Wildlife Trust manager Ian Rickards said the trust had been using cattle as a "stimulus to nature" at the site for more than a decade."They are our ecological engineer, they are shaping the countryside around us and they do it much better than we can," he said. The trust said the reason cattle were used was because they were "more natural than strimmers and chainsaws", while also providing benefits for benefits include opportunities for seed germination thanks to hoof prints and seed transportation around the site by sticking to the coats and bellies of the cattle, it added. Mr Rickards added: "They keep clearing open spaces with butterflies and wildlife to move into."Plus their dung is an excellent way to spread seeds and provide food for a myriad of insects."In total, there are five members of the herd. All are cattle will be on the east side of the woodland until 22 July before they move to the west herd will be on site until 11 August.
ABC News
12-07-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Gippsland farmers fight to keep Yanakie weather station operating
Farmer Matthew Marriott has spent a lifetime monitoring the weather on Victoria's picturesque Prom Coast. His family has run cattle at Yanakie since 1975 and Mr Marriott knows the area like the back of his hand. But he cannot predict the weather. "We're right on the coast, so conditions here are always changing," Mr Marriott said. Mr Marriott usually checks the forecast multiple times a day, but that has changed since the Yanakie automatic weather station shut down at the start of July. The station began operating in 2012 with a one-off federal government grant and is one of 650 stations dotted across Australia recording temperature, wind speed and rainfall data. About 200 of them are owned by local councils or privately, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) operates and maintains them. Robert Tracy, who also farms beef at Yanakie, said there was a big gap in weather observation data without the station. "That became especially clear after a severe storm hit our region in 2011," he said. "So the Yanakie station was set up the following year with enough funding to run for 10 years." But that money dried up and the station was closed. "Initially the South Gippsland Shire Council and the bureau discussed the future of the station with no input from the community," Mr Tracy said. "We didn't hear about the planned shutdown until April, so there was certainly no transparency." A spokesperson for the BOM said it could maintain and oversee weather stations only where a "formal funding agreement" was in place. The BOM has closed three automatic weather stations in the past five years, at Hay Point in Queensland, Kanagulk in Victoria and, most recently, Yanakie. The spokesperson said the closures were "due to the customer advising the bureau to cease operations". For another farming community at Nilma North, about 125 kilometres north-east of Yanakie, it's all too familiar. Their weather station was also set to close at the start of July, but retired dairy farmer Colin Gray led the charge to keep it going. "We got a letter from Baw Baw Shire Council to say the station would be closing down, and I thought to myself, 'We've got to do something,'" he said. "Within a month, we had everyone writing letters and contacting their councillors about it. "And it just snowballed from there." The council has agreed to fund the Nilma North weather station in conjunction with the BOM for another three years. "I think people started to realise whether you're a farmer, a tourist, or just an everyday person, we need local weather information," Mr Grey said. Back in Yanakie, the South Gippsland Shire is now advocating for continued funding for the local station there. "Council representatives, including the mayor and deputy mayor were recently in Canberra," the chief executive Allison Jones said. "They met with government representatives to advocate for the continuation of the Yanakie weather station service," she said. Mr Tracy is glad the council is listening to the community and he hopes it will make a difference. "We need to know what the weather is doing." Mr Marriott agrees, saying farmers, fishers and residents will continue their fight. "It provides critical data for us farmers, as well as local fire brigades, park rangers, professional fishermen, recreational boaters and tourists. "Even local painting contractors rely on it."
