Latest News From WEATHER

The amount of moisture received across the US southern high plains since October has been ridiculously low. Forecasters warn of intensifying drought and wheat crop losses.

Who decides when drought has lowered pasture production low enough to remove the cattle?

Southwest Kansas, like many regions in the central plains, are turning into kindling for wildfires.

One year after massive wildfires tore through the Plains, ranchers once again are facing that dangerous threat in 2018.

Fire crews and emergency personnel were able to contain the wildfire in Clark County, Kansas.

Calving season has begun, in a winter season that has had some extreme temperature swings. Drastic temperature changes can continue to be a concern when caring for newborn livestock.

Calving season has begun, in a winter season that has had some extreme temperature swings. Drastic temperature changes can continue to be a concern when caring for newborn livestock.

Dangerous drought is causing some Australian farmers to make difficult decisions about their livestock.

Mud and cold, wet conditions are much more difficult to manage than just the bitterly cold.

David Dahlberg, a fire prevention technician with the U.S. Forest Service, was honored by President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.

Drought in the central and southern Plains is causing a higher than normal risk of wildfire through April.

Temperatures seen 15 to 25 degrees below normal, NWS says.

The rancher from western Wyoming wears tan overalls pulled over a U.S. ski team jacket, and is every bit as versed in the nuances of hay farming as the subtleties of snow grooming.

2017 will be remembered as one of the most destructive and costliest years for natural disasters in history.

Nine months have passed since wildfires charred parts of the central and southern Plains during a three-day span of furious fire.  Now, a proposed disaster relief package may offer more help to ranchers in need. The House recently unveiled a disaster aid plan to help cover some of the cost of hurricanes and wildfires the country faced in 2017.  House Republicans are releasing an $81 billion disaster aid package, funding that’s nearly twice the request the White House made.  The money could be split between a host of federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Agriculture. AgDay national reporter Betsy Jibben looks at how producers in Kansas and Oklahoma are recovering and still rebuilding.  She talks with Dr. Randall Spare, a veterinarian from the Ashland Veterinary Center, and producers Jenny Betschart in Ashland, Kansas and Bernie Smith in Beaver County, Oklahoma.

Forest Service using new tech for post-fire work in Montana

Livestock producers struggle to rebuild their operations with few resources to date

Wild fires burned in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas earlier this year, destroying thousands of acres in its path.

Texas lost more than $200 million in crop and livestock losses, according to economists with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

The cattle herd is finally recovering from the severe drought that the northern Plains experienced earlier this year. This drought is still a reality, hitting portions of South Dakota hard.

Hurricane Irma cost Florida’s cattle ranchers $238 million. That’s based on preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)

Harvey may not have dealt devastating blow to Texas ranchers

Farmers in the Northern Plains have been struggling with drought, making it difficult and expensive to scrounge up enough feed for their livestock to last through the winter.

Ranchers are assessing damage and trying to evacuate livestock after Hurricane Harvey invaded the Texas coast, bringing torrential rains, tornadoes and high winds.

Study: Montana's average temperature continues to increase

Snow is falling across a large portion of Montana today, bringing relief to areas struggling to control multiple wildfires. Some mountain passes could see up to 8” of snow by Saturday.

Florida Farm Bureau is working to assess farm damage from Hurricane Irma.

Flooding from Hurricane Harvey is slow to drain in some areas of southwest Louisiana one week after the storm made landfall. Agricultural fields consisting primarily of rice and soybeans are suffering from the most damage.

According to agents from the Louisiana State University AgCenter say the biggest concern is moving cattle to higher ground and feeding them.

Texas agricultural officials fear thousands of cattle may have died in the aftermath of Harvey, resulting in losses to ranchers of tens of millions of dollars.

Wildfires have burned wide swaths of the western U.S. the past week forcing evacuations of communities, cattle to move pastures and highway closures.

‘Significant’ amount of ranches affected, industry group says.

Minnesota company, Plains farm aid group set up hay convoy

North Dakota's largest livestock group and its biggest corn organizations have launched efforts to help ranchers devastated by a summer of drought.

Loss and risk are an assumption in farming; devastation is not. Crops in the Dakotas and Montana are baking on an anvil of severe drought and extreme heat, as growers and ranchers make difficult decisions regarding cattle, corn and wheat.

The ranchers bringing back the iconic beast have a healthy, trendy, profitable meat—and, some say, an answer for global warming.

Farmers in the northern Plains are well aware of the dry conditions, and now they have to resort to drastic measures in order to deal with eroding conditions that are destroying crops and pastures.

The wildfires that tore through more than 1.5 million acres in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Colorado in March destroyed an estimated more than 18,000 miles of fencing. AgDay's Betsy Jibben travelled to Texas to learn more about the ongoing work being done to repair the fences damaged this spring. 

Adults are not the only ones who are helping those affected by the wildfires that hit Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado this March.  4-H and FFA members, as well as others in Oklahoma realized they could help the victims of wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres in northwest Oklahoma. 

A new study by the University of Nebraska shows that wildfires across the great plains region are becoming more frequent.

Several devastating fires are currently raging in the western U.S.—and hot and dry weather will only exacerbate wildfire danger through the weekend.

Already short on hay and forage after a hard winter, ranchers in North and South Dakota are continuing to reduce herds in response to severe drought conditions.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R-SD) has declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in his state.

Dryness is intensifying in the northern Plains, and cattlemen and grain markets are responding.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that most of the Dakotas are experiencing drought conditions that experts say are harming farmers and cattle producers.

A multitude of wildfires rolled its way across the High Plains in early March and destroyed acres, homes, livestock and took the lives of countless livestock and people. The Texas Panhandle was an area hit hard by the wildfire. 

Ranchers in Kansas and Oklahoma learned more about how grasslands recover after wildfire in a joint educational seminar hosted by Extension personnel from Kansas State University and Oklahoma State University, at Snake Creek Ranch, on the state border. According to Extension sources, plentiful precipitation will be the greatest help in getting grass regrowing.

By May 18, more than 600 donations had been made online or by mail totaling more than $350,000.

Deep snow is melting into western mountain streams, but some farmers and ranchers on the high plains are struggling amid a lengthy dry spell and the aftermath of destructive wildfires.

Cattle stranded by flooding in California are being fed with a helicopter.