Chinook salmon runs returned to the Lemhi River Basin near Salmon, Idaho, with a vengeance in September 2014. It was one of the largest runs in 50 years. Lemhi River ranchers, who raise cattle on private lands along the river, have made multiple improvements to their operations to enhance fish habitat for Chinook salmon, steelhead bull trout and resident fish. See more at www.lifeontherange.org

Corn silage levels have been increasing in forage programs the past few years for a number of reasons. The volatile costs of corn and alfalfa hay, coupled with regional drought conditions and subsequent hay availability, have contributed greatly. Given these high corn silage rations now fed, it is no longer sufficient to rely on traditional testing for crude starch content of feed ingredients for ration formulation, especially when opening new crop corn silage.

Earlier this year, Progressive Dairyman announced GEA Farm Technologies planned to install the first-ever automatic rotary parlor in North America. The 72-stall rotary parlor was to be built at Mlsna East Town Dairy in Cashton, Wisconsin, and would have been the largest robotic milking system in place worldwide.

As finished cattle grow heavier each year, Certified Angus Beef LLC has chosen to adjust the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) brand weight limit to 1,050 pounds, effective Nov. 24.

Producers looking to sell their products online should be prepared to ship, says Tammy Stephens, who works in marketing at Eichtens. Eichtens is a cheese and bison farm that sells cheese and bison products on Amazon and Overstock, which just opened a Farmers Market section.

Recently yogurt was declared New York’s official snack. "This designation is a fitting recognition of the importance of this state's yogurt industry, which has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal article by Jon Campbell.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday said a USDA grant has helped initiate a partnership that is improving the environment, creating a market for carbon credits generated on working grasslands. Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, recently purchased almost 40,000 carbon dioxide reduction tons generated on working ranch grasslands in the Prairie Pothole region of North Dakota.