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.

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.

When is the best time to graze after a fire? This question seems simple but is quite challenging to answer because there are many factors that contribute to the context.

No matter the choice of protein, consumers often want a memorable dining experience for the holidays, and if done right, direct-to-consumer businesses have the opportunity to capitalize on these traditions.

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.