In good faith you can't charge a livestock producer what it would take to make up the loss. Nationally, drought, winter kill, spring freeze and the switching of hay acres to corn and other crops have cut the hay supply by 30 percent since last year, 46 percent from 2005, according to the U. That acreage should have produced 150 tons of hay. The switch to soybeans reduces Borchers' hay ground this year from 200 acres to 140, matching a national trend. Livestock producers who depend on...

I am quite sure that it will not surprise you to know that the pet food industry denies that any companian pets are used in pet food. The Labeling Act states that pet food must list the name and address of the company that produced the pet food. It will probably come as no surprise that the pet food industry takes in billions of dollars every year in sales. However, the source of the protein in the pet food can be from practically any source: condemned material from slaughterhouses,...

Will it now take an even worse scenario for the FDA to initiate aggressive new changes in the way it inspects imported products for human consumption?As disturbing as that possibility is, nearly six years after the United States was viciously attacked by terrorists, it appears more likely than not, considering the FDA's sorry track record. Will it now take an even worse scenario for the FDA to initiate aggressive new changes in the way it inspects imported products for human consumption?As...

The high-quality beef that consumers buy is usually fed with hay that is produced during the spring. Hay auction prices indicate that the hay quality is competitive and quality hay is still being made, Carter said. Extraordinary hay crops, farmers say, allow them to produce high-quality beef and livestock. The hay that is there now is good quality if we can get it put up and preserved. Farmers harvest their hay crop between May and late summer in order to raise beef prime for the grill and...

Some producers in traditional Northwest hay areas have also either totally switched from hay to corn production or have planted corn after their first cutting of hay. Hay prices started to climb last winter when there was a shortage of hay because of poor harvesting conditions earlier in 2006, and now they re going to stay up because of increasing costs to grow it. Power rates are going up almost 15 percent, and pumps are necessary to irrigate hay fields beyond the spring rains in order to...

Hay reserves aren't nearly as plentiful as usual because of a subpar spring hay crop blamed on an early April freeze followed by the current dry spell. Garry Lacefield, a University of Kentucky extension forage specialist, estimated that statewide hay production was off at least 50 percent this spring. With much of the state in moderate to severe drought, hay is becoming a precious commodity in Kentucky, the nation's leading beef cattle producer east of the Mississippi River. Without some...