Idaho was well represented at the 97th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the end of October. Among the highlights, Lucy Barney from the Rigby FFA Chapter earned national recognition as the champion in Equine Science Placement as part of her Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), marking a major achievement for Idaho FFA.

The first three quarters of 2024 saw over 300,000 agricultural workers enter the country through the H-2A program, which provides temporary visas for foreign workers to perform seasonal agricultural jobs. It is an important source of labor in the West, with California and Washington ranking third and fourth in the nation, respectively, for H-2A workers.

Did you know that every entity registered with any state secretary of state must complete an additional Beneficial Owner Information report or face a $500-per-day late filing penalty? I hope you knew that, but I bet this got your attention if you didn’t know.

Many large corporations have made goals to become carbon neutral. To reach those goals, companies must lessen their emissions, purchase offsets or a combination of the two. This has led to a voluntary market for carbon credits in the U.S. where carbon, verified as sequestered, can be sold, thus providing opportunities for agricultural producers.

To help answer these questions, we have designed a study and outreach plan that focus on better characterizing the ways in which weed management among PNW farmers and ranchers has changed in recent years and the different approaches that have been taken in response. 

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.

With the holiday season approaching, I have created a list of the gifts that are wasted on me. First up … hair tonic. If you don’t know me well, I am so completely bald that I make bowling balls jealous. I can talk about the hair on my head in the singular rather than the plural. Obviously, hair tonic is a gift wasted on me.

And yet I cannot divorce my freezers. Just know, if we ever have a weeklong power outage, the Colemans will be hosting the greatest barbecue ever visible from outer space.