First animal case of New World screwworm in 10 years discovered in Florida

An animal wound with New World screwworm eggs,
larvae and an adult. (Photo by Samantha Gibbs, FWS)

The first New World screwworm animal case in 10 years was discovered in Florida earlier this week, prompting farm leaders and state officials to acknowledge that, although current protocols prevented this infected animal from entering the U.S., the noxious pest's reentry may be inevitable.

The blowfly larvae rode in on a horse "from Argentina [that] presented for routine inspection at an import quarantine facility in Florida," report Chris Torres and Joshua Baethge of Farm Progress. Larvae samples collected from a wound during the horse's examinations were "shipped to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa, and it was confirmed that the larvae were New World screwworm."

Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner, said "the detection is proof of the importance of USDA’s import inspection and quarantine protocols," Torres and Baethge write. According to Miller, "Our federal inspection system is working exactly as designed and is an additional biosecurity tool that will protect our industry."

At the annual Lancaster Cattle Feeders Day in late January, Colin Woodall, the CEO for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told fellow cattle producers, "You should be worried about [NWS] because no doubt there will be a market impact." Torres and Baethge add, "Woodall said beef producers should be prepared for an outbreak."

Using millions of sterile male NSW blowfly dispersals, the USDA and Mexican authorities have been trying to get ahead of the pest's travel through Mexico and into the U.S., where it's most likely to cross into Texas. Farm Progress reports, "The USDA also announced a new dispersal area for sterile flies going as far as 50 miles into Texas to stop the insect’s northern spread."

Female screwworm flies most often lay their eggs in the open wounds or scratches of sheep or cattle, but the larvae will feed on the flesh of any warm-blooded animal, which should leave more than cattle producers worried. Torres and Baethge explain, "Miller says screwworms can infest any of the 200 mammal species in Texas. That’s bad news for pet owners, not to mention the state’s multibillion-dollar wildlife industry."

Cotton field project helps farmers and students learn how to outsmart bugs while saving money and time

Pests are identified by AI as they fly through a light sensor
inside this trap. (Photo by D. Mcgee via The Conversation)

Researchers working to introduce precision agriculture practices to farmers and agriculture students made progress during their recent project, in which AI was deployed to outsmart cotton-eating bugs in Jenkins County, Georgia.

Jenkins County, with a population of roughly 8,700, is "among the top 25 cotton-growing counties in the state," write Debra Lam, Atin Adhikari and James E. Thomas for The Conversation. The area's farmers rely heavily on expensive pesticides to defeat "stink bugs, cotton bollworms, corn earworms, tarnished plant bugs and aphids."

The project aimed to help farmers determine when to spray their crops by combining "AI-based early pest detection methods with existing integrated pest management practices and the Georgia Cotton Insect Advisor app," according to the report. By integrating those tools, researchers learned how to "improve pest detection, decrease pesticide exposure levels and reduce insecticide use."

The project's outcome demonstrated that AI tools could reliably predict where and when pest infestations would occur, providing farmers with the knowledge they need to save money and labor costs by applying pesticides only where and when necessary.

Through the use of AI sensors, the research provided farmers with practical and intuitive ways to plan and protect their crops. According to the report, "Even after the sensors are gone, farmers who used them become better at spotting pests. . . . AI dashboards and mobile apps help them see how pest populations grow over time and respond to different field conditions."

The project was part of Georgia's ongoing effort to train more farmers and students on how to integrate precision agriculture into their farming or pest management practices. According to The Conversation's report, "The same tools could help local governments manage mosquitoes and ticks and open up more agtech innovations." 

Scientists and technical staff who inspect imported items for invasive pests have been fired from USDA

The firing of plant protection workers can lead to economic
 consequences. (Photo by Ante Hamersmit, Unsplash)

Nearly 6,000 workers were recently cut from the USDA, including highly trained scientists and technical staff who screen imported items.

According to Suzy Khimm’s article for NBC News, “the firings have dealt a serious blow to the federal inspection process required for imported food, plants and other organic matter — a program that the agency calls “essential” to preventing infestations and disease outbreaks from crippling America’s trillion-dollar agricultural economy.”

Jonah Ulmer, who was the “government's foremost authority on tiny invasive pests,” was among the 145 people fired from plant protection.

Ulmer told NBC News about the importance of the job. “The one that you identify as a nonquarantine pest, and it comes in the country and wreaks havoc? The impacts of that could be millions or billions of dollars in economic damage.”

Khimm wrote that this effort could lead to economic consequences for farmers and consumers.
To read more about the potential impacts visit NBC News.

Coyotes can be friends, foe and sometimes just pests. They kill smaller vermin, but they can kill pets or livestock, too.

Coyotes aren't very aggressive, but they are still predators.
(Unsplash photo)

Coyotes have “increased their range more than 40% since the 1950s” and made their way North, East, South, West, onto farms and into your backyard, Whitney McKnight reported for The Edge.

Due to the extinction of wolves and mountain lions, and the near extinction of black bears in Kentucky, smaller predators have taken their place at the top of the food chain, including coyotes, foxes and bobcats.

“Coyotes are partially filling the niche wolves did in the state about 150 years ago,” John Cox, a University of Kentucky associate professor and wildlife management and conservation expert, told McKnight.

Even though they are considered pests, Cox said, “coyotes are good farm inhabitants, given that because of their flexible diet, they can clear a farm of voles, mice, and rats, even if they might also occasionally help themselves to the chickens.”

According to an Oregon State University study, due to coyotes' territorialism and their diet, they can also be beneficial for keeping away other predators. They can make unintentional guards for flocks of sheep, and farmers should consider letting them settle in that area.

While they aren’t often aggressive or bold predators, winter is coyote breeding season and sightings might become more frequent this time of year. McKnight said she has been seeing increased warnings on social media about keeping an eye on small pets and children.

Oftentimes if you see a coyote it is just because they are curious about you. If you do happen to have an encounter, it is important to remember that coyotes are predatory creatures and not to run from them or approach them, as advised by Kentucky wildlife management officials.

Helping to save the world might start with inviting bugs back; they've got a lot to offer

Praying mantes are farmers' little helper.
(Photo by Rosie Kerr, Unsplash)

Entomologists appreciate all sorts of insects, and in his opinion for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank encourages all humans to give bugs some love because they are vital to the food chain and human survival. He notes that when insects are allowed to be in their natural habitats, bugs that bite, bite less:

"Here, in the mountains, I walk the fields and putter about in the woods without wearing my usual Eau de DEET, and yet the mosquitoes do not feast. I sit on the porch at dusk, baring my arms to all comers — and not so much as a nibble. . . . It isn’t my imagination. Entomologists tell me this is part of a worldwide phenomenon. We’ve worked so hard to banish bugs from our lives—destroying their habitats with pavement and lawns, killing them with insecticides and stressing them with climate change—that our cities and suburbs are now insect wastelands but for a few hardy pest species, such as the disease-carrying mosquitoes that feed on the blood of people and pets.

"In the country, by contrast, the ecosystem is in better balance. There are actually more mosquitoes here, but a smaller proportion of them dine on human blood and carry disease. Competition with other insects keeps their numbers in check, and the other abundant species in the ecosystem — spiders, frogs, fish and bird—gobble up the mosquitoes. In other words, the problem isn’t that we have too many bugs in cities and suburbs; the problem is that we don’t have nearly enough."

The world, not just humans, needs insects to survive.
(Photo by Europeana, Unsplash)

Millbank writes, "Multiple studies show that the overall insect population is declining by one percent to two percent per year, which means losing perhaps a third of all insects on the planet within 20 years—moving us toward what’s often called an ‘insect apocalypse.’ . . . If this mass extinction of insects isn’t reversed, it will decimate the entire food chain, threaten crop pollination and generally cause havoc.

"Agricultural pesticides are a big problem, but there’s some evidence that we use even more insecticide per acre in cities and suburbs. In the sterile environment we’ve created, a few nasty species flourish, such as the tree-devouring spongy (formerly gypsy) moth, the crop-destroying spotted lanternfly, the domestic cockroach, the bloodsucking mosquito. . . . Luckily, the insect apocalypse is relatively easy to reverse compared with other anthropomorphic disasters. And unlike climate change, you can quickly make a noticeable improvement in your backyard, or even on your apartment balcony. You simply need to invite bugs back into your life. They’ll quickly accept. As a bonus, you’ll also wind up with more songbirds — and you just might save the planet."

Disease-carrying ticks a growing problem in rural America

Disease-carrying ticks are a growing problem in rural America, and experts say climate change is a big reason why. "Public health officials say ticks are emerging earlier and staying active longer because of climate change and land use changes, resulting in a rising risk of infection carried by the parasites, reports Melissa Patrick of Kentucky Health News.

"There are more tick-borne disease cases every year," Dr. John Aucott, director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center, said during a June 8 Association of Health Care Journalists webcast. "This is an insidious epidemic. It hasn't been as dramatic as Covid-19, so it has crept up on us."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the total number of tick-borne diseases reported to it rose 125% in 15 years: to 50,865 in 2019 from 22,527 in 2004. "These numbers are generally considered to be underestimated because most aren't reported to the agency," Patrick reports. "For example, the CDC estimated that between 2010 and 2018 the number of Americans with Lyme was closer to 467,000 based on an analysis of health insurance records."

As the climate warms, ticks can live longer each year and reproduce more, and hat makes for larger tick populations and expanding tick habitats, Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder. 

Moreover, the number of tick species that can cause medical problems is increasing, according to Ohio State University extension agent Tim McDermott. "The number of species that are medically important is expanding too, he said. About 20 years ago, he said, there was only one tick species, the deer tick, in Ohio that could potentially make you sick," Carey reports. Now there are five, and they carry everything from Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever to the increasingly common Powassan virus.

Not only are there more ticks in more places and more kinds of tick that can harm people, but a larger percentage of ticks are infected with diseases, says the CDC. "McDermott said while the risk of tick bites is rising, and the number of ticks carrying diseases is high, there are ways to protect yourself," Carey reports. "One way is properly managing tick habitats, through mowing and keeping your yard clear of brush, tall weeds, and grass. Another is to wear appropriate clothing – light-colored, long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into socks or boots – and to apply tick repellent on skin, clothing, and footwear."

Climate has changed most in the West, the North and Florida; state-by-state figures may indicate local examples

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data; Axios map, adapted by The Rural Blog

"Climate change is often cast as a global issue. But in reality, it's already affecting each of us in our backyards," write Andrew Freedman and Michael Graff of Axios. "The more people see the impact on their own lives, the more likely it is that they'll look for things they can do about it — from the candidates and policies they support to the personal changes they can make." Washington state just hired its first climate epidemiologist, Crosscut reports. Meanwhile, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere broke a record in May, The New York Times reports.

Local climate impacts include weather problems of farmers and "the fire ant and its march through North Carolina," Axios reports. "The non-native species with the unforgettable sting was first discovered in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in the farthest southeastern corner of the state along the South Carolina line, in the 1950s, about 20 years after it arrived in the U.S. from South America. Now 78 of North Carolina's 100 counties are under fire ant quarantine area designations, according to a North Carolina Agriculture report from January. The fire ants aren't migrating simply because the temperature is warming farther inland. They also float as colonies around their queen, hitching rides inland on floods from more frequent and intense rainfall events."

Some effects aren't quite so apparent, until they are. "Climate change unfolds in the margins day to day until it becomes impossible to avoid," Graff and Freedman write. "Perhaps one morning you realize the place you live experiences totally different weather conditions than when you first arrived there, or that your community has seen three so-called 100-year floods in the past two years. . . . Heavy precipitation events have become more frequent across the country, especially in the Midwest and Northeast. When Climate Central studied rainfall at 150 U.S. weather stations, it found that hourly rainfall intensity has increased since 1970 at 90 percent of them."

N.H. and Vermont on the lookout for tick that can cause a meat allergy, a species moving north with climate change

Inside Climate News graphic; click on the image to enlarge it.

A tick that can cause an allergy to red meat may be expanding its territory to  northern  New England due to climate change.

When a lone star tick—so-called for the distinctive white spot on adult females' backs—bites a human, sometimes it "transmits a sugar molecule called alpha-gal that triggers an allergic response to lamb, pork and beef and, in some cases, other animal products. There is no cure, and the reactions range from eczema and a runny nose to difficulty breathing that can prove deadly," Claire Potter reports for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. "The tick also carries ehrlichiosis, Heartland virus disease, southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), Bourbon virus disease and tularemia."

Though individual lone star ticks have been found in Vermont and New Hampshire, scientists believe they hitched a ride with migrating birds, since no breeding tick populations have been found locally. But that day isn't far off: lone star ticks have already spread as far north as Massachusetts and New York. Because of climate change, "We’re expecting them to make their way here," Eliza Doncaster, the vector management coordinator at the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, told Potter.

Alpha-gal-triggered meat allergies are becoming more common. That's not just because lone star ticks' habitat is expanding; because of climate change, they're living longer in the year, sometimes even surviving over the winter, and breeding more. So all tick-borne diseases are going up, as are diseases caused by similar pests. In fact, diseases from ticks, fleas and mosquitos tripled between 2004 and 2018.

Does someone in your community have an alpha-gal-triggered meat allergy? Check and see with this self-reported interactive map (note: the map shows cases entered by site users and is not verified). And here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to avoid tick bites (see graphic also).

Quick hits: 3G phones will die next year; legal battles have little impact on N.C. hog farms; Wisconsin wolf hunt halted

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Phones on 3G networks will stop working next year, which will disproportionately affect rural Americans. The Washington Post has the rundown of what will happen, when it will happen, and what consumers need to know. Read more here.

Years of legal battles over hog-farm pollution in North Carolina has changed little for nearby residents. Read more here.

A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary injunction to block the state's fall wolf-hunting season, agreeing with advocacy groups that holding the hunt would be unconstitutional. A judge presiding over a similar lawsuit at the federal level declined to issue an injunction because the first one is already in place. So the details of the hunt, meant to start tomorrow, are still up in the air. The state held a wolf-hunting season in January with a limit of 119 kills, but hunters killed 218 in just four days. 

The National Park Service could soon have its first Native American director, if Charles "Chuck" F. Sams III is confirmed. Read more here.

The Biden administration has promoted Fish & Wildlife Service principal deputy director Martha Williams to head the agency. Read more here.

Vultures descended on a North Carolina town a year ago. They won't leave. Read more here.

The South Dakota Department of Education has resumed its review of social-studies curriculum standards after protests that a local Native American tribe's history was deleted. The department will review the new standards over three years, providing more chances for the public to weigh in, and will publish lesson plans on the Oceti Sakowin tribe for teachers who want to use them. Read more here.

Lyme disease is now found in all states; meanwhile, a new tick species threatens U.S. livestock

Asian long-horned tick (CDC photo)

Lyme disease has now officially spread to the entire nation: Every state "has residents who have tested positive for Lyme, a bacterial infection that can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including joint aches, fatigue, facial palsy and neck stiffness," Linda Searing reports for The Washington Post.

The news comes from clinic laboratory Quest Diagnostics, which analyzed the results of 6 million diagnostic blood tests ordered by doctors. Pennsylvania had the most positive cases last year at 10,001; it, combined with the six states of New England, accounted for about 60 percent of all cases, Searing reports.

Between 2016 and 2017, positive results spiked in states traditionally linked to the disease — by 50 percent in New England and 50 percent in Pennsylvania — but also in states that aren't. "Florida, for instance, had 501 infections, up 77 percent since 2015. California had 483 people with positive test results — a 194.5 percent increase from 2015," Searing reports. A May report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes tripled in the U.S. between 2004 and 2016, aided by warm winters that keep pests alive longer.

The spread of ticks is especially concerning because, for the first time in 50 years, a voracious new tick species has been identified in the U.S. The Asian long-horned tick was first found last summer in western New Jersey, and is now rapidly spreading in the eastern U.S. Specimens have since then been reported or sighted in New York, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Donald McNeil Jr. reports for The New York Times.

The tick hasn’t been found to carry any human diseases in the U.S., but does threaten livestock and other animals. "Known in Australia as bush ticks and in New Zealand as cattle ticks, long-horned ticks can multiply rapidly and suck so much blood from a young animal that it dies. The ticks bloat up like fat raisins until their tiny legs are barely able to support them," McNeil reports. "After a blood meal, females can lay hundreds of fertile eggs without mating."

Scientists say people should use the same precautions to protect against both domestic and long-horned ticks: wear long pants and sleeves, use repellent, and check for ticks after walking in the woods or tall grass.

Tick-, flea- and mosquito-borne diseases tripled since 2004

Lone star tick. (Wikipedia photo)

Make sure to put on your bug spray before the family cookout this summer: Diseases spread by bites from mosquitoes, fleas and ticks tripled in the United States between 2004 and 2016, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those diseases include Lyme disease, West Nile virus, the plague, and Zika.

Lyle Petersen, director of the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases at the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infections Diseases, said "The data show that we're seeing a steady increase and spread of tick-borne diseases, and an accelerating trend of mosquito-borne diseases introduced from other parts of the world," John Tomasic reports for Route Fifty.

In addition to the diseases they cause, bites from the lone star tick can trigger something weirder: an allergy to beef and pork, Zoya Teirstein reports for Grist. Because of global warming, the once-scarce tick has expanded its range to most of the eastern half of the U.S. Lone star ticks thrive in warm, humid environments, and with fewer days below freezing, they're able to stay active longer and breed more. Reforestation efforts may also contribute to the lone star tick's resurgence: they love to hitchhike on white-tailed deer, which are coming back because they have more room to roam.

When 26,000 stinkbugs invade your home

Brown marmorated stinkbug
(Photo by bugguide.net)

A few years back in October, Pam Stone went upstairs in her cabin just outside Landrum, South Carolina, to close the french doors that led from her bedroom to the deck. When she got to her bedroom, the walls were "crawling with insects—not dozens of them but hundreds upon hundreds. Stone knew what they were, because she’d seen a few around the house earlier that year and eventually posted a picture of one on Facebook and asked what it was. That’s a stinkbug, a chorus of people had told her—specifically, a brown marmorated stinkbug. Huh, Stone had thought at the time. Never heard of them. Now they were covering every visible surface of her bedroom," Kathryn Schulz writes for The New Yorker.

Stone's hair-raising example isn't unique or even extreme, Schulz writes: stinkbugs are an invasive species that has spread across 43 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states since it arrived. Brown marmorated stinkbugs are a particular nuisance, destroying crops as well as invading homes. Schulz's piece is a long one, but well-worth the read.


Read more here.

New soybean cultivar expands growing range and season, resists soybean cyst nematodes

Researchers at Clemson University have developed and released a new soybean cultivar that will extend the soybean planting season and expand southward the regions where it's possible to profitably grow soybeans. It is also resistant to soybean cyst nematodes, which are the primary pest of soybeans.

"The Agustina soybean cultivar was developed and released by soybean breeders Benjamin Fallen and Emerson Shipe. Fallen said this cultivar possesses the long juvenile (LJ) trait which gives it the ability to produce high yields even when days get shorter and daylight hours are fewer. The LJ trait also allows the Agustina soybean to be grown in regions not suited for most existing soybean cultivars," Morning Ag Clips reports.

Most soybeans in the U.S. grow between 35 and 45 degrees north, roughly from Arkansas to Minnesota. But Agustina performs best from 22 to 29 degrees north, and performed well in tests even as far south as Tampico, Mexico.

Agustina seed will be sold commercially in the U.S. and Mexico beginning in the spring of 2018.

Soybean cyst nematode distribution. University of Kentucky Plant Pathology map; click on the image to enlarge it.

Effort to clear wild hogs out of creek valley in far Western Kentucky has been successful

Rural areas being plagued by wild hogs (map from December 2014) might take some cues from an effort in far Western Kentucky. Leaders of the Obion Creek Feral Hog Project say they have eliminated most of the feral swine in Graves, Hickman and Carlisle counties, report Brianna Clark and Justin Jones of WPSD-TV in Paducah.

The furrows in this cornfield look man-made, but they were dug
by feral hogs going down freshly planted rows of corn. (Photo
via Graves County, Kentucky, Cooperative Extension Service)

"About six years ago, numerous agencies from federal, state and local levels got together" to start the project . . . and began tracking down these destructive animals using trail cameras," the station reports. The hogs were trapped, hunted and shot from the air, the Graves County Cooperative Extension Service reported.

"We're actually having a hard time finding any pigs to go shoot now," Jeff Berryhill told the station. "There are still a few left, a scattered one or two here and there, and those are the ones we are trying to clean up." A U.S. Department of Agriculture helicopter found only one in a sweep last week.

Feds to establish seven regional climate hubs to assist and inform farmers during disasters

The Obama administration has announced the creation of seven climate hubs and two sub-hubs spread out regionally across the U.S. and one in Puerto Rico to help farmers during disasters. "The hubs will provide information about ways producers can prepare for potential threats to their crops and livestock as parts of the country are experiencing increasing severe weather events and pest invasions, which scientists have tied to the effects of climate change," David Nakamura reports for The Washington Post. "And they will coordinate resources through federal and state governments, universities and non-governmental agencies."

"The announcement is part of President Obama's post-State of the Union push to build public support for his initiatives, including a series of executive actions aimed at advancing his agenda in areas where he has not gotten much cooperation from Congress," Nakamura writes. Climate hubs and sub-hubs will be located in Ames, Iowa; Houghton, Mich.; Durham, N.H.; Raleigh, N.C.; Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; Fort Collins, Colo.; El Reno, Okla.; Corvallis, Ore.; and Las Cruces, N.M. (Read more)

What's that purple stuff in the fields? The answer is one of many landscape stories worth telling

If journalism is broadly defined as helping people understand the world around them, perhaps rural journalists should take opportunities to explain why the land looks the way it does from time to time. Relatively few rural Americans are involved in agriculture, though it helps define the landscape around them. Shouldn't they know how that landscape works? Here's one example. If it's too late for this year, save it for next spring.

Starting in the Upper South a few weeks ago and now reaching the Upper Midwest, unplanted crop fields have turned a light purple from the flowers of henbit (left, from SierraPotomac.org) and purple deadnettle (above, from SinJones.net), two similar members of the mint family. But most people who drive by the colorful shows have no idea what plants, natural systems and human systems are at work.

In many cases, the plants are thriving on nitrogen fertlizer remaining from previous years' applications, and rains that may have left the fields too wet to plow and plant, notes Pam Smith, crops technology editor for DTN/The Progressive Farmer. And she notes that fields with winter annual weeds like these (chickweed and shepherd's purse are other examples) "provide the perfect site for black cutworm moths to lay eggs" as they migrate from the South, where they overwinter.

Cutworms, which are actually caterpillars, can do heavy damage to seedlings, especially soybeans, so there's an economic menace lurking in those purple flowers. Little stories like these abound on the American landscape. Let's do them.

Farms and forests will suffer generally from climate change, USDA says in new reports

Climate change will have a generally detrimental effect on American farms and forests, especially after 2050, the Department of Agriculture said in two reports this week.

"Over the next 25 years, the effects of climate change on agricultural production and economic outcomes for both producers and consumers in the United States are expected to be mixed, depending on regional conditions," USDA said in a press release. "Beyond 2050, changes are expected to include shifts in crop production areas, increases in pest control expenses, and greater disease prevalence." To download a 193-page PDF of the report, click here.

Climate change will make farmers "alter where they grow crops and costing them millions of dollars in additional costs to tackle weeds, pests and diseases that threaten their operations," Christopher Doering reports from Washington for USA Today and other Gannett Co. newspapers. Jerry Hatfield, lead author of the study, told Doering, "We're going to end up in a situation where we have a multitude of things happening that are going to negatively impact crop production. In fact, we saw this in 2012 with the drought." (Read more)

Forests will face increased threats from fire, insects, invasive species, "and combinations of
multiple stressors," the release said. "Wildfire is expected to increase throughout the United States, causing at least a doubling of area burned" by 2050. For a PDF of the 282-page USDA report on forests and climate change, go here.

Dairy farmers struggled through drought, now battle armyworms; will suffer without Farm Bill

Dairy farmers will lose up to 10 percent of their monthly income from milk beginning in October because the Milk Income Loss Contract expired when the Farm Bill wasn't renewed on Sept. 30. MILC is a program that provides dairy farmers with payments when the price of producing milk is more than the price for which it's sold. (Oklahoma Farm Report photo)

MILC payouts were cut to 34 percent, from 45 percent, when the Farm Bill expired, Melissa Miller of the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau reports. High feed and gas prices have forced farmers to sell their least productive cows to slaughter, and some small farmers are considering leaving the business. Miller writes that the armyworm is adding to farmers' misery. The pest strips pasture grass, which often replaces expensive feed. Dairy Farmer John Schoen told Miller most farmers are likely losing $10,000 to $15,000 a month.

"Dairy is one of the few commodities that will get hit immediately by this [Farm Bill expiration] because we're on a monthly schedule," Jefferson County Farm Bureau president Michael Kiechle told Ted Booker of the Watertown Daily Times in far upstate New York. "We probably won't get anything now until the crops go in the ground next spring."

Commercial dairy farmers in Maine "depend on subsidies in the [Farm Bill] to help them get through tough times," reports Jay Field of Maine Public Broadcasting. They are selling milk for less than it costs to produce it because of high gas and feed prices. One farmer told Field he will spend $6,000 more on fuel this year, and is barely covering operating costs right now.

Common use of genetically modified crops leading to rise in pesticide, herbicide use

Use of genetically modified crops has become commonplace in agriculture, but has led to an increase in use of pesticides and herbicides, according to a new study. Weeds and pests have have adapted to the modified crops and become resistant to the chemicals used to protect them, so farmers have been forced to spray crops with increasing amounts of the chemicals. The use of pesticides increased by 404 million pounds from 1996 to 2011. Herbicide use increased by 527 million pounds, and insecticide use by 123 million pounds.

Charles Benbrook, lead author of the Washington State University study, said it "undermines the value of both herbicide-tolerant crops and insect-protected crops," Carey Gillam of Reuters reports. Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds were a hit with farmers, who enjoyed the benefits of being able to spray their entire crop, killing weeds and bugs without hurting their crops. However, more than two dozen weed species have become resistant to Roundup.

The amount of herbicide needed to fight "superweeds" is increasing by about 25 percent every year, Benbrook said. The annual increase has risen to 90 million pounds in 2011, up from 1.5 million in 1990. Insecticide use dropped 28 percent from 1996 to 2011, but is now rising, Benbrook said. (Read more)

Climate change keeping pests alive through winter

Climate change is not only causing crop-killing drought, but its increasing the longevity of at least one species of pest that can devastate potato, tomato, pepper and about 40 other crops. The potato-tomato psyllid, right, sucks plants dry and can spread "zebra chip" disease in potatoes that causes potato chips to have a burnt flavor, Gabriela Quiros of Quest. That disease has cost producers in three states about $8 million so far. (University of California photo by Jack Clark)

Farmers have dealt with psyllids for more than 100 years, but rises in temperature are allowing them to survive through winter. "Our temperatures have increased by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, and that seems to be enough to keep them from being frozen out during the winter,” said University of California, Riverside entomologist John Trumble. If pests can live through winter, they can attack crops early in the growing season, which could leave to even more widespread loss of crops because of the bugs, Trumble said. (Read more)