Current News Stories

Update 8:00 a.m. 7/24: At 9 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, the Bureau of Land Management Type 2 Incident Management Team in charge of

Posted on Facebook by Brilyn Steadman. Photos of the Mussellshell River near Winnett, MT at 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, July 23.

the Lodgepole Complex Fire in east-central Montana reported that the fire has now reached 226,000 acres

Fire in Montana! Monday, 7/24 8:00 a.m.:  The Lodgepole Complex Fire — currently affecting Garfield, Petroleum, and Rosebud Counties — is a true disaster for this drought-stricken area of Montana. Western Ag Reporter’s editor Linda Grosskopf is establishing a Lodgepole Complex Fire Relief Fund, 100% of which will be used to support residents and volunteer fire departments involved in this

Statement from the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center Board of Directors:

After five years of good faith effort to develop our cultural center in Big Timber, Montana, the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center’s land contracts have been terminated by action of the landowners. Rather than remedy the previously undisclosed and presently unmitigated wetland

Editor’s Note: It’s amazing how many groups and/or politicians are patting themselves on the back about being THE entity that persuaded Ag Secretary Perdue to allow emergency grazing on CRP in certain areas of the drought-stricken plains. How classless it is to try to use someone else’s misery to create your own bragging rights and pander for votes

By Holly Michels

Billings Gazette, 7/16

The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame is stepping back from plans to open a large facility in Big Timber, Montana, after years of planning, saying undisclosed wetlands on part of the properties leased by the organization swamped their plans. Back in 2012, the non-profit picked Big Timber for its first physical location

Due to the drought across most of the Northern Plains, FSA has authorized emergency haying on CRP lands beginning July 16 through August 30 for counties designated as D2 or greater on the U.S. Drought Monitor. In June, Secretary Sonny Perdue authorized emergency grazing of CRP acres in counties designated as D2 or greater on the U.S. Drought Monitor. This

By Leesa Zalesky

A state of emergency has been declared in certain areas of California’s Central Valley after a triple-digit heat wave baking the state has killed an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 head of cattle and thrown the state’s dairy industry into turmoil. The staggering number of carcasses has overwhelmed California’s remaining rendering plants, which typically do daily pickups

Montana. Another week of hot, dry, windy weather with very limited precipitation occurred for a majority of the state. High temperatures ranged from the lower 90s to middle 100 degrees, and low temperatures ranged from 37 degrees in West Yellowstone to the lower 60s. The highest amount of precipitation was recorded in Pompey’s Pillar with 0.55 of an inch of

By Leesa Zalesky

Scandal-ridden JBS SA has reached a deal to sell its Lakeside Feeders in Brooks, Alberta, Canada, the company has announced. The $50 million Canadian ($39.5 million U.S.) Lakeside sale to MCF Holdings, Ltd., includes the 75,000-head capacity feedlot and JBS-owned adjacent farmland. MCF Holdings is a subsidiary of Nilsson Bros., Inc., a livestock-based business in Alberta,

On Tuesday, July 18, the USDA announced that an atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been diagnosed in an 11-year-old Alabama cow. The case was discovered through routine surveillance of cattle at an Alabama livestock market. The animal was not processed and did not enter the food chain. Testing performed by the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection