Ag News Briefs

The following are news briefs on issues affecting agriculture from around the nation and world.

(LAST UPDATED: 8/23/2017 AT 4:52 P.M.)

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Critics: Utah horse meeting is secretive 'slaughter summit'

(AP) -- Swollen populations of federally-protected wild horses roaming 10 Western states are starved and damaging rangelands, Utah and U.S. government officials said at conference Wednesday, an invitation-only meeting that mustang-protection advocates say is promoting the slaughter of an icon of the American West.

Members of Utah's congressional delegation and a U.S. Interior Department official speaking at the National Horse and Burro Summit in Salt Lake City all described an unsustainable population of wild horses that's nearly three times the size that federal officials think the rangeland can support.

Horse-protection groups who weren't allowed into the Utah State University-hosted event protested outside the downtown hotel where it was held, calling at "slaughter summit" that's kowtowing to livestock interests to promote increased roundups and slaughter of wild horse from California to Colorado without public input.

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Getting Drought-Relief Hay to Northern Plains No Easy Task

(AP) -- Farmers around the country are donating tons of hay for ranchers whose livestock are suffering from the drought in the Northern Plains, but the officials and groups lining up the aid aren't finding it easy getting the feed to the region.

North Dakota's Agriculture Department has issued a plea for truckers to help haul donated hay hundreds of miles from other states for a hay lottery program, while an effort in the eastern U.S. started by a tractor pulling team is seeking thousands of dollars to pay for fuel.

About a dozen semitrailer loads of hay have been donated through the effort spearheaded by Tom Bedgar, a Pennsylvania man who farms, hauls grain and runs the competitive tractor Patriot Pulling Team. Some of the hay has been hauled to North Dakota --- at a cost of $1,000 per load in fuel and tolls --- but there is plenty more to send, according to Bedgar.

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Health Care Costs Keep Older Farmers Working

(Dow Jones) -- Low crop prices and incomes are hastening older farmers' exit from the business, though the high cost of health care means many can't afford to retire altogether. Mark Bernard, a Minnesota agronomist, says a multiyear farm slump that's meant mounting losses is pushing older growers in his state give up farming their own land, though many must find other work in order to cover the cost of health insurance. "It's that 55 to 64 age bracket that really gets clobbered," Bernard says, adding that retired farmers are finding work driving trucks or helping other growers plant or harvest their crops until Medicare kicks in.

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Jordanian State Grain Buyer Purchases 50,000 Tons of Wheat

(Dow Jones) -- The Jordanian state grain agency bought 50,000 tons of milling wheat as part of a 100,000-ton tender that closed on Tuesday, according to traders on Wednesday.

The grain will be shipped in one 50,000-ton cargo, delivered in the second half of January. The shipment cost $212.50 a ton excluding shipping fees and was bought from Ameropa, a local trader added.

The purchase marks the third partially successful tender out of Jordan's four most recent attempts, and is only the fourth purchase the Middle Eastern nation's state grain body has made out of its most recent 12 attempts.

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USDA Says 295,220 Tons of Soybeans Sold to Unknown

(Dow Jones) -- Private exporters reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture export sales of 295,220 metric tons of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations. Of the total 11,220 metric tons is for delivery during the 2016/2017 marketing year and 284,000 metric tons is for delivery during the 2017/2018 marketing year.

The marketing year for soybeans begins Sept. 1.

The USDA issues both daily and weekly export sales to the public. U.S. exporters are required to report to the USDA any export sales activity of 100,000 metric tons or more of one commodity made in one day. Sales totaling 200,000 tons or more in any reporting period, except soybean oil, made in one day to one destination, must be reported by 3:00 p.m. eastern time on the next business day. Export sales of less than these quantities must be reported to the USDA on a weekly basis.

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Jury Refuses to Convict 4 in Nevada Ranch Standoff Retrial

(AP) -- A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states' rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

More than 30 defendants' supporters in the courtroom broke into applause after Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial.

(BE)

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