Resting a pasture for two growing seasons postburn is a common recommendation in the Intermountain West since at least the ’80s. “The question is, ‘Is there a real reason two full years rest are needed after fire?’” says University of Idaho (U of I) area extension range educator K. Scott Jensen. “Can it occur sooner than that without delay or harm to postfire recovery? We wanted to put some science to it.”

Johnston Club Lambs’ market is 95% selling club lambs to youth to show in 4-H and FFA. Lambs are sold to youth throughout the states, from local kids in Payette County to kids living in the suburbs of Houston, Texas.

Regenerative agriculture is about farming and ranching in a way that supports people, the environment and soil health by employing specific practices that vary from one region to another.

In 2023, the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board announced a new initiative to control wolves on private property and approved spending up to $50,000 per year for producers to undertake wolf removal projects – with board approval.

Devastating damage for livestock owners across southwest Idaho is prompting land and fire managers from multiple agencies to declare this year’s fire season the worst in over two decades.

Originally founded by John Peavey in 1996 as an event to show the townspeople the tradition of moving sheep off the range every year, the Trailing of the Sheep Festival attracts numerous individuals, vendors and tourists alike, from literally all around the world.

“It’s not a complete silver bullet, but nothing is,” says Jay Smith of the J Lazy S Angus Ranch of Carmen. He and his wife Chyenne are using virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on their Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) permits after the 130,000-acre Moose Fire scorched their USFS grazing allotment in 2022. “I think the proof’s in the pudding when I say we want to keep using it,” he says. “The cost and the work were worth it.”

 
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.