Leaders from some of Idaho’s agricultural sectors share their expectations and priorities for the 2026 legislative session.

 
Everyone knows a livestock producer who’s lost animals to bloat. Because of the risk, some folks flatly refuse to graze their stock on dense stands of clover or alfalfa. Others kind of shrug, saying they’ve rarely lost animals and don’t worry about it much. So … what gives?

We’ll focus on the selenium accumulator plants that thrive in arid regions – the toxic plants that distressed Marco Polo, the toxic plants notorious in cowboy movies for causing “blind staggers” and “alkali disease.”

For many properties in Idaho, particularly rural properties, fences and other physical markers are often believed to be the boundary between neighboring properties and are treated as such.

Dr. Paul Tew, a mixed-animal veterinarian in Rexburg, Idaho, is 71 years old. He’s been seeking retirement for several years now. So far, it’s been out of reach.

Cowboy humorist Baxter Black once quipped, “Working dogs is like manipulating a screwdriver with chopsticks, like doing calligraphy with a plastic whip, like bobbing for apples, like threading a needle with no hands, like playing pool on the kitchen table.”