He was also to give blue ribbons to the best lambs and red ribbons to the lambs that could have used a little more work. His job was to determine a grand champion lamb and a reserve champion (second-place) lamb. Nick grew up in the sheep business as his parents, Veril and Barbie Nelson, had about 200 ewes during his preschool and grade school years. I raised more lambs that finished better than mine did at the lamb show, the younger Nelson said. During his junior high school years, Nick...

It is our farmers who have been facing the drought for the past two years and have had input costs like fertiliser and feed spiralling out of control. There is no question that drought is a contributing factor to supply and demand price movements, but it is just one of a multitude of factors contributing to the rises. Egg producers meanwhile, have been compensated for less than half of this increase at the farmgate price. Lamb could also be set to rise, with the lamb market tipping $100...

Meanwhile, AWI agreed to encourage genetic research into the development of a breed of sheep that does not require mulesing and label non-mulesed wool. Australian sheep appear to be the biggest winners in the 2 1/2-year legal battle between Australian Wool Innovation and animal rights group PETA, which settled less than two weeks ago. It will also provide PETA with quarterly reports outlining its investments in alternatives to mulesing and introduce an education program for sheep farmers....

And yet people are always popping up to say that agriculture is a sunset industry, and that we need to develop high-tech, so-called "knowledge industries" to compete in the future. This is despite our producers battling in international markets against competitors who are protected by trade barriers and who exist to a large extent because of state subsidies. It's vitally important we get our policy settings right, because this country, and agriculture in particular, faces some great...

Rocky Mountain News - Denver and Colorado's reliable source for breaking news, sports and entertainment: Other Recreation ****JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. Once thought of as only an insulating material for cold conditions, wool also has significant performance values - namely breathability and the ability to pull moisture away from the skin and speed its evaporation - that apply to warm-weather applications as well. Once thought of as only an insulating...