Agriculture

MADAS, Ore. — A habitat conservation plan aimed at protecting several species while shielding farmers from legal liability in Oregon’s Deschutes River basin will be formally announced next week.

Blake Rowe, 63, announced earlier this year he plans to retire from the Oregon Wheat Commission and Oregon Wheat Growers League. The organizations announced Sept. 19 they are searching for a r…

U.S. farmers are cheering a new trade deal with Japan that they say will put them on equal footing with overseas competitors.

A slight increase in U.S. hop stocks is indicative, a leading producer says, of a relatively good balance between supply and demand.

Gov. Kate Brown selected Marty Myers, of Threemile Canyon Farms, to serve a second four-year term on the board, which makes policy recommendations for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

BEND, Ore. — Though preventing leaky canals from losing water doesn’t seem like a particularly controversial idea, irrigators in Central Oregon have found out otherwise.

Clive Kaiser, horticulture professor and Umatilla County extension agent for OSU in Milton-Freewater, will take over as interim director at HAREC beginning Sept. 3.

MAUPIN — There’s a lot of time to think while sitting behind the wheel of a combine.

Researchers at Oregon State University have determined a combination of factors — apart from pesticides — may be to blame in part of bumblebee deaths beneath linden trees.

The USDA's Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center in Pendleton, Ore. plans to hire three new positions after receiving an additional $2 million in funding through Congress.

Anita Azarenko will take over as interim Vice Provost for University Outreach and Engagement and director of Oregon State University Extension Service beginning July 7. She replaces Scott Reed…

PORTLAND — A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting two Oregon ranchers pardoned last year on arson charges from grazing cattle on four federal allotments.

A key group of Oregon lawmakers has recommended spending $700,000 to implement new regulations allowing farmers to clean more sediment from ditches with less red tape.

There was the late blight scare, bouts with silver scurf, corn smut and a beet leafhopper that came from out of the blue and transmitted a deadly plant virus.

Working off the farm can have many upsides but the underlying motivation is usually simple: Making ends meet.

Oregon State University Extension plant pathologist Jeremiah Dung hopes to engage growers in a citizen-science approach to monitor for ergot in grass seed crops.

Positive developments on the trade front with Mexico, Canada and Japan are welcome news for U.S. beef, pork and lamb industries.

Threemile Canyon Farms, Oregon's largest dairy producer, is planning to turn millions of gallons of cow manure into renewable natural gas, if state regulators approve a permit for the project.

Acquisition adds international capacity, service opportunities

Two Eastern Oregon ranchers have volunteered to test a new strategy aimed at preventing further conflicts between wolves and livestock.

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The U.S. loses more than 3 acres of farm and ranch land to development each minute, the leader of a national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting ag land told a …

Oregon farm regulators have issued a fine of more than $187,000 to a Boardman dairy, citing more than 220 violations of its wastewater permit between last December and late August.

A new framework for managing wolves that repeatedly prey on livestock may have the support of both Oregon ranchers and conservation groups, if the state can find enough money to pay for it.

PORTLAND — Wastewater problems at a controversial Oregon dairy have persisted despite a federal trustee taking control of the operation last month, state farm regulators said during a hearing Friday.

Ranchers in north-central Oregon are just beginning to recover from a devastating wildfire season that saw hundreds of thousands of acres of dry grass and rangeland go up in flames.

Les Schwab Tire Centers of Oregon has partnered with Oregon FFA in a “Drive Away Hunger” Initiative to help raise as much food as possible for those in need.

A “perfect storm” of high demand and increased production carried the Oregon wine industry to significant economic growth in 2017, according to an annual study by the University of Oregon Inst…

Months of intense heat and smoky skies are not expected to diminish Oregon’s potato crop, with farmers across the state predicting average to above-average yields heading into the bulk of harvest.

A bankruptcy judge in California will appoint a trustee to operate Lost Valley Farm, Oregon’s second-largest dairy, after finding owner Greg te Velde is “unwilling, or unable to comply with hi…

Drought intensified in Oregon and Washington over the previous week, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported this week.

Help is on the way for farmers and ranchers in north-central Oregon who lost tens of thousands of acres of cropland in a series of large wildfires that swept through the region earlier this summer.

PORTLAND — A judge has sided with a troubled Boardman dairy’s remedies for violating a settlement deal over wastewater management.

A controversial Boardman dairy will not be shut down despite violating a settlement agreement with farm regulators over wastewater management.

Founded in 1852, seven years before Oregon became a state, a farm in Saint Paul is continuing to build on its legacy as a family operation.

Seven ships loaded with soft white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest are bound for Yemen in the Middle East to feed millions of people on the brink of famine in the war-torn country.

Rep. Greg Walden is the latest among several high-ranking Oregon politicians to request federal aid for farmers and ranchers suffering through a particularly intense wildfire season across the state.

A subsidiary of the Tillamook County Creamery Association has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop accepting milk from a troubled Boardman dairy in bankruptcy proceedings.

The Boardman dairy facing a slew of financial and regulatory problems won’t be forced to auction off its cattle and will instead seek to sell the animals together with the facility and land.

The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a $145.1 billion agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2019.

The Klamath Tribes are suing three federal agencies over management of endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers in Upper Klamath Lake.

The owner of a Lost Valley Farm in Boardman wants to sell the facility and cattle rather than immediately liquidate the herd as sought by a major creditor.

Stephen Machado reaches into a clear plastic Ziploc bag and pulls out the brittle but still intact remains of a pine branch collected from the Umatilla National Forest in Eastern Oregon. The b…

April Aamodt likens it to the zombie apocalypse.

Ranchers and the federal government have defeated a 15-year-old environmentalist lawsuit that claimed grazing imperils threatened bull trout in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest.

Oregon State University announced April 18 it has hired Ryan Graebner, who just a week earlier obtain his Ph.D. in crop science, as extension cereals scientist.

A judge has ordered a controversial Oregon dairy not to interfere with the liquidation sale of its cattle herd to satisfy the demands of a creditor.

HALFWAY — A Baker County cattle rancher’s request to have the wolves preying on his herd killed was granted Tuesday by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

While Oregon’s mountain snowpack is in much better shape than it was just two months ago, it is likely too little, too late.