Category: Agriculture

I found <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0430/p03s01-usec.html">this article</a> very interesting. Complaining about the price of food going up. I will admit the price of some commodities have gone up, particularly beef and other meats, but what is the problem with that. Our prices to produce the product has been going up for years and the price we receive…

I can remember the commercials for Wendys a long time ago where the advertising slogan was, where's the beef. Today's advertising slogan is beef, it's whats for dinner. In <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/04/12/build/world/70-cubans.inc">Cuba </a>though it is the first slogan, not the second, that prevails on that island.<br />n<br />n<i>In communist Cuba, only the state is allowed to…

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/04/04/build/business/65-droughtforum.inc">MSU-B sets drought forum</a>. I guess I just don't get this. If a farmer or rancher hasn't figured out over the past 6 years of drought how to deal with the situation they need a lot more help than a simple forum. I was hoping for a good year but hope of that is…

<a href="http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2004/03/18/build/wildlife/dog-hearings.php?nnn=2">FWP seeks comments on moving prairie dogs</a>. I know where they can move them to. But they sure enough wouldn't like my suggestion very well.<br />n<br />n<b>It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say. Jawaharlal Nehru</b>

One of the things that I read in farm magazines all the time is strategies to make your farm/ranch more profitable. One of the strategies they talk about is staring a sideline business that is in line with your operation. Like a rancher having a dude ranch or a farmer guiding bird hunts in their…

Here is a very good article on the biggest threat American agriculture faces today.<br />n<br />n<i>"Brazil is the 800-pound gorilla of farming," said U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, who has joined a procession of Minnesota officials to Brazil in recent months. "From the perspective of agriculture, they're the competition."</i><br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4647358.html">Brazil: The new breadbasket</a><br />n<!–more–><br…

I see Secretary of Interior Gale Norton has the answer to everybodys concerns about <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/02/19/build/state/25-prbasin.inc">coal bed methane production</a>.<br />n<br />n<i>As for coalbed methane, Norton said cooperation between companies and surface landowners will be needed to limit the effects of development. Some steps might include "common sense things" like reclaiming the land, putting pipelines beneath…

It always amazes me to see the different free trade stories. They always seem to mention the sugar industry and in the <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/02/09/build/world/35-freetradepact.inc">new agreement with Australia</a>, sugar is completely exempted. How does the sugar industry have such clout is what I would like to know? Australia produces lots of cattle, sheep, and wheat and…

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever understand how politics work. Today we are seeing all kinds of stories stating that <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/01/28/build/nation/55-madcow.inc">the Democrats want national ID system for cattle.</a> Now the Agriculture Dept. has been working on this from before the <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> scare and has accelerated their progress on developing it…

The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/tolestom/">editorial cartoon in the Washington Post today</a> deserves a look see. Really makes you wonder about what to eat.<br />n<br />n<b>Don't play for safety&acirc;