Recently, a pig in Oregon tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu, which is the first known case of the flu infecting a pig. According to Richard Webby, a flu specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, there is concern that this may be an indication that the virus can mutate in pigs to a point where it could begin to infect humans.
The Mississippi River shipping is suffering from low water levels on the River for the third straight autumn. Moderate to extreme drought conditions in the upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers has left the lower Mississippi River so shallow that barges are starting to run aground, even as shippers have been forced to send lighter loads downstream. According to Bloomberg News, shipping costs are currently about 55% above the average for the past five years, which is creating a price disadvantage for grains being shipped from the Midwest at Mississippi River ports to Gulf of Mexico ports and then shipped to world markets.
Cattle graze hundreds of millions of acres of pasture, range and forest lands annually in the U.S., turning forage into meat and milk. But some climate activists are concerned about the greenhouse gases produced in the rumen of cattle as they digest grazed forages. To address these concerns, Oregon State University researchers have received a $1 million grant to study the impact of adding seaweed to the diets of beef cattle as a way to reduce these methane emissions. Researchers will determine if feeding Pacific dulse seaweed to cattle grazing on sagebrush landscapes, which are common environments in the western U.S. The seaweed is grown commercially on the Oregon coast for human consumption. It is an edible saltwater algae, which resembles leafy, red lettuce that provides both fiber, proteins, vitamins, trace minerals, healthy fatty acids, and antioxidants. Researchers contend that dulse seaweed is good for both people and cattle to eat and it also will provide restorative effects for the ecosystem.
I recently spent a week or so in the Midwest visiting farmers who raise corn, soybeans and cattle. Crops were being harvested two to three weeks earlier than normal due to warm weather and dry fields. I’ve determined that the cab of a combine, harvesting grain , or a tractor hauling grain from the combine to grain bins, and the cab of a truck taking grain to an elevator, is a good place to visit with farmers about their near and long term plans for their operations. Although the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City recently stated that lower crop prices and high production costs have contributed to a rapid uptick of farm operating debt, the farmers I visited with were still optimistic about how they would navigate a downturn in the ag economy.
A weather watcher who lives near Yellow Jacket gave me an update on precipitation at his farm, which generally gets a little more rain and snowfall than I get at my farm that’s located north of Cortez. He recorded almost 3.2 inches of rain in October, and 12.65 inches of precipitation since January 1st of this year.
Historian, social critic, and intellectual, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote, “Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on the truth always feel that they are the only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics “
