Before the grand showing, they shower care upon their animals, scrubbing them, brushing their tails, scrubbing their hooves - all in pursuit of the blue ribbon. With the arrival of the fair, the animals' days are numbered, and Becky knows exactly where her pigs will end up. But winning the grand prize usually means the animal ends up on the dinner table of the highest bidder. In animal raising, youths deal with love, death. On the farm, kids learn life lessons. Life and death is a constant...

The group said rural areas in the South where most poultry farms are located suffer from chronic unemployment and are places where desperate people are far less likely to organize against or even know about the negative human health, environmental and economic effects of these industries, the report stated. It claimed manure from large livestock and poultry operation pollutes air and water and poses a significant health risk to neighbors. Food and Water Watch took a shot at...

Stability and predictability are rare commodities in today's industry, wrote James Baarda, in his article, "Major changes in agriculture raise big questions for nation's cooperatives. They've gone from selling farm produce on a table to a wagon, to a farm store, and from picking peas by hand to a pea-shelling machine. And, Baarda said, farmers face potentially rapidly changing international and transnational political forces, fluctuating exchange rates and new communications systems and...

Livestock judging comes later in the week, with competitions starting this afternoon and lasting through Friday; however, all livestock was identified and weighed by noon today. This project wasn t just a fun project to do for school and 4-H, Hunnicutt plans to use the trailer to haul anything from truck parts to hay on his farm. Topics ranged from crafts, fashion and sewing, photography, food and agriculture to woodworking and construction. The project was started in his large-trailer...

Higher prices were needed to stimulate farmers to raise global grain and oilseeds production and to start cultivation on unused land, it said. Higher sales of animal feed, oilseeds and vegetable oils were largely behind a 3 percent increase in traded volumes on the year to 39. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Rising biofuel production would also lead to...