Animal Welfare

This is the second in a series of columns featuring conversations with state Farm Bureau presidents about current issues in agriculture.

A biosecurity plan will be different for every cattle operation.

I cannot emphasize enough how wet it is in southern Illinois. The row crop guys were able to jump in and get some planting done, but may be wishing they hadn’t.

This cattle market is crazy good and has me wondering how long it can last.

The Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition has worked successfully through the tension of whether it would still have grant funds for events after the days of DOGE.

Four members with outstanding projects that include cattle, flowers, sheep, auctioneering and hay production were presented the prestigious star awards during the 97th Illinois FFA State Convention.

The Jersey cows are lined up waiting their turn for the afternoon milking as Ken Ropp and Brett Yoder readied the parlor equipment.

The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation that bans carbon sequestration within the Mahomet Aquifer.

Compeer Financial announced 22 middle and high schools across Illinois will receive up to $4,000 each to support agricultural education programs and equipment through its Agriculture Education and Classroom Equipment Grant Program.

These students have been selected district winners for the Star in Agriscience award after an extensive process of evaluating the students and their record books.

The Star in Agricultural Placement award will be presented during the Stars Over Illinois ceremony on Wednesday, June11.

Five district winners for the Star Farmer award will be honored on the stage of the Illinois FFA State Convention.

Jason Baldes drove down a dusty, sagebrush highway, pulling 11 young buffalo in a trailer from Colorado to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days.

If a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak occurs in the United States, the day-to-day operations and how beef producers do business will be different.

Merck Animal Health announced the commercial availability of Armatrex silane quaternary ammonium salt, an Environmental Protection Agency-registered, spray-on antimicrobial solution.

Limiting stress and maintaining a strong relationship with a veterinarian are vital for a rancher’s success in fighting bovine respiratory disease.

This is the first in a series of columns featuring conversations with state Farm Bureau presidents about current issues in agriculture.

The mill has been busy. We have received a lot of new fiber orders and working through the ones already had.

Although U.S. beef producers have met the challenge of reducing injection site lesions in beef carcasses, one issue they have not fixed is eliminating foreign objects.

A lot of growth has occurred in the agricultural department at Peotone High School since Abby Cowger started teaching and advising the FFA chapter in 2018.

Down in southern Illinois we could almost make the claim that it hasn’t stopped raining since December.

May is National Beef Month, a month-long celebration to kick off the unofficial start of summer grilling season and, of course, promote America’s favorite protein — beef.

Cow comfort and herd health are nonnegotiables for achieving higher milk quality and production. Bedding plays a critical role in both, which is why many dairy farms have long relied on sand as their go-to bedding.

Janna Morgan is the fifth generation of teachers in her family.

Heat stress not only impacts lactating dairy cows, it also affects dry cows, as well as first-gestation heifers.

To McCord Snider, FFA is not just a club, organization or another group at school.

Authorities in Central Europe are working to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle populations that has caused widespread border closures and required the killing of thousands of animals.

The focus at TWG Ranch is to raise reproductive, maternal cattle with longevity and product merit.

Science plays a massive and multifaceted role in the world today. It is woven into pretty much every aspect of our lives, whether we notice it or not.

Cow size has been on the rise for decades. Cows today weigh 1.4 times as much as their predecessors in 1980. In fact, cow weight is rising 100 pounds every 10 years.

Shepherds should consider what diseases are on their farms to develop a disease prevention strategy.

Tags on bags of livestock feed must meet specific standards.

Animal monitoring systems are a trusted solution for accurate heat detection, but their impact extends beyond that.

Some of the highlights I came away with from the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition’s 2025 Grazing Conference are: soil microbes help the water percolate through the soil and cover crops help feed the soil microbes which make them multiply.

We have faced several consecutive days over a six-state area where there have been multiple tornados causing damage, a lot of rain, lightning, hail and serious flooding and washouts of roads and bridges.

Vegetation management is a vital part of the development plan for solar arrays since shade is the No. 1 enemy for collecting sunlight by the panels.

If you ask most working adults about their required annual certification processes, you may get an eye roll with their response.

Illinois cattlemen have an abundant supply of low-cost feed available for their herds with the millions of acres of corn grown each year in the state.

Over 35 million birds, mostly egglayers, have been lost in the United States by highly pathogenic avian influenza since Jan. 1.

There have been 985 confirmed cases of avian influenza in dairy cattle across 17 states since first confirmed in March 2024.

More than 2,400 students attended a virtual field trip to a dairy farm during National School Breakfast Week.

March is a month that I sometimes struggle with. The weather is starting to warm up, then a cold snap comes through. It is a month of anticipation for the upcoming spring and summer projects.

We continue to have lamb customers since March is Ramadan and they come out before, during and after that holiday, and they all want eggs, too, but our supply was limited until just this week when I was able to get some hens from a fellow emptying his barn.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture held its 2025 Winter Policy Conference. Members adopted 16 policy amendments and 10 action items.

I saw robins, snow geese and green grass all in the same frame last week — it must be spring!

As March hit, we finally got some relief on the weather and had some nice days that first week. February stayed ugly until the end and muddy, muddy, muddy.

Members of Illinois Agri-Women gathered for their annual meeting to elect new officers, conduct association business and learn about several Illinois agricultural organizations.

Raising cattle is both demanding and fulfilling. Each day offers new possibilities for producers to improve their herd and work toward greater profitability.

With egg prices soaring, the Trump administration is planning a new strategy for fighting bird flu that stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock.