Many years ago, in a college course on toxic plants, I learned about the popular ornamental houseplant dieffenbachia, also known as “dumb cane.”

For years I’ve recommended a very simple diet for ewes in their lambing jugs: a few pounds of alfalfa pellets in a tray hanging on the side of the pen. Nutritious, convenient and waste-free.

Feed costs comprise 60% to 80% of the typical farm budget. If we can reduce those costs by 20% or even 10%, it will happily lower our break-even price. Read more about some grazing strategies to lessen the need for stored feed.

Recently, I attended a meeting where the presenter spoke glowingly about a new miracle product his company was marketing. His PowerPoint slides dutifully showed fancy tables and graphs, but as I looked around the room, I noticed that some folks were beginning to nod off.

If you shorten the lambing period by two weeks, you can treat yourself to a well-earned vacation, finally. Two weeks saved from lambing can translate into two weeks on a warm tropical island with palm trees, a blue lagoon and long, white sand beaches.

Vetch is not vetch is not vetch. Poison ivy is not an ivy, and poison oak is not an oak. Yes, names for common plants can be delightfully whimsical and inconsistent, but there’s nothing delightful about the toxins in these plants.

Yes, Virginia, there was indeed gold in California – not only in the ground, but also in sheep.

By midsummer last year, many streams were just a series of stagnant pools. When livestock crowded the streambanks for water, state and local officials issued stern warnings again and again.

Three traits have revolutionized the game of sorghum breeding.

Is fiber important in human nutrition? Ask your doctor. Ask the internet. Ask anyone this side of Neptune. But then follow this up with a simple question: “What exactly is fiber?”