Farmers

EMINENCE, Mo. -- From his pickup on a rise above the Current River, Bill Smith scanned the wild horses grazing below to see if all were members in good standing.

That's not always the case these days with Missouri's only wild horse herd, which descends from animals set free in the Great Depression by farmers who couldn't afford to feed them.

Because it's happening again in the Great Recession. Strapped owners are dumping horses in what is now the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, apparently thinking they will be warmly received by the wild bunch that runs the thousands of public acres along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers.

LUCKNOW, India -- Two farmers fed up with alleged bribery demands emptied three bags filled with slithering snakes in a busy tax office in northern India, an official said Wednesday.

LAYTON -- Wolves may not be creeping into Davis County farms yet, but the predatory animals are a concern of every Utah farmer.

How to handle the unwanted visitors is just one of the many issues Utah farmers are discussing at this year's Utah Farm Bureau Convention. The convention, which began at the Davis Convention Center on Thursday and continues Friday, gives the farmers the opportunity to discuss issues impacting agriculture and propose solutions to correct them.

MINNEAPOLIS -- On May 17, Craig Staloch just snapped, his lawyer says.

Within the space of a few hours he smashed thousands of American White Pelican chicks and eggs -- all the offspring in one of Minnesota's largest colonies -- even though a wildlife officer had told him the day before that they were protected by federal law.

In southern Minnesota's hog country, homes are seldom locked. But the barns are being bolted tight, guarded by surveillance cameras, motion detectors and alarms.

Until the thieves who stole nearly 750 pigs from two farms are caught, it won't be assumed that every loading truck pulling into a farm before dawn is above suspicion.

BERLIN — German vegetable sprouts caused the E. coli outbreak that has killed 29 people and sickened nearly 3,000, investigators announced Friday after tracking the bacteria from patients in hospital beds to restaurants and then farm fields.