Acreage of organic forage, such as hay and alfalfa, has grown 40 percent in the past two years, yet isn't keeping pace with demand. In particular, high-protein crops like soybeans that are necessary feed for dairy cows are in short supply in some regions, forcing some companies to import them from as far away as China. They make up only a small slice, about 3 percent, of the nation's food market, but increasing demand is pushing more farmers to make the switch in hopes of higher returns....

The event, which allows invited guests to watch the latest Harry Potter film in exchange for a donation of pet food, supplies or money, is the brainchild of Dr. The items collected are used in the shelter or distributed to pet owners who are going through hard times and cannot afford to buy pet food or supplies, Crawford said. He came up with the idea after a fellow dentist in Oregon organized a community event that included free food, music and activities for his patients. Event screens...

Their results are successfully quantifying and predicting the nitrogen needs for growing corn, saving farmers money and reducing environmental impact. This indicates that the forage grass and/or legume gave enough nitrogen back to the soil to feed the following year's corn crop, he said. None of the 16 first-year corn trials evaluated in 2005-06 responded to additional nitrogen after the starter fertilizer, said Cornell graduate student Joseph Lawrence. He says the precision nitrogen...

Sundlof concedes that the FDA wasn't prepared for the pet food crisis. Also, if people are unsure, they could call the FDA from markets and pet stores using cell phones, a good idea since some pet foods recalled this spring remained on shelves after they should have been removed. Complicating matters during the pet food recalls, the FDA had to deal with erroneous reports, which typically began on the Internet, and were also carried in the mainstream media. While FDA state representatives...

But there's special food for indoor cats and for outdoor cats, active cats and lazy cats, food for old cats with weight issues, food for nursing mama cats and food for cats with hairballs. Diana had sent us home with some canned food that resembled fois gras pat , but it soon ran out. Sally and Stripes were tiny and frail, and Diana and her colleagues through love and attention and a diet of pricey kitten food coached them back to health. After polishing that off, Louis would begin his...

The possibility that the nation's food supply could be targeted by terrorists has existed since at least the anthrax letters of October 2001, but recent events have underlined just how real the threat is. Suspects in last month's failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, for instance, include physicians, a reminder that terrorists can have biomedical know-how. And imports of contaminated food from China pet food laced with the chemical melamine, toothpaste with the poisonous compound...

Topics of discussion include: New Innovations in Forages, Developing and Monitoring Quality Summer Pastures, Mineral Selection for Grazing Beef Cattle, Pasture Weed Control, Grazing Considerations for Horses, Parasite Control in Goats on Pasture, Managing Pastures for Goat Production, Economics of Rotational Grazing, and Using Warm Season Grasses in Rotational Grazing Systems. Topics of discussion include: New Innovations in Forages, Developing and Monitoring Quality Summer Pastures,...

The program is set up to assist producers in developing and expanding new agricultural products while finding new ways to utilize current agricultural commodities, according to the Commonwealth News Center press release. The county will be given $117,550 to improve pastures for grazing, reducing producer costs for feed and the quality of the feed. The second criteria is how much of the farmer s total annual income comes from farming and the third is if the farmer has ever received money...

The sprawling abandoned mine 300 feet below the surface, once a prolific producer of coal, is now a prolific producer of water loaded with acid and heavy metals. Today, it stands out for its stunning production of acid mine drainage, which has chased off trout and the food on which they live. The main mine entrance, which is no longer open, is located just off the road that dips down into Belt, and the horizontal mine lies 300 feet below the grade of U. OSM taxes coal on a per-ton basis in...