cattle

From deadly wildfires to choking dust storms to decimated crop harvests, this year’s drought has left its mark across the country. For the hardest hit areas, such as the Great Plains, recovering from the far-reaching impacts of this historically dry year won’t be easy.

Bison grazing on native prairie for three decades transformed the landscape, allowing wildflowers to thrive that can feed legions of bees and butterflies.

Drought is taking its toll on western Kansas cornfields this year. And all that dead corn could mean higher prices for products that depend on the state's grain supply, such as ethanol-infused gasoline and corn-fed beef.

Environmentalists are praising the news of an electric vehicles battery plant coming to Kansas, but this "green industry" comes with its own issues. Plus: An experimental farm in southern Missouri is trying to prove that grazing animals in forests is better for everyone, including the cows.

Silvopasture is the practice of grazing livestock in a forested area instead of an open pasture. It’s a very old practice that might see new life.

Climate experts say summer nights have gotten warmer. One study found the average minimum temperature in the United States has gotten warmer by 2.5 degrees over the last 50 years. For farmers, this means crops and livestock could suffer.

More than 2,000 cattle carcasses were put in landfill piles or pits after dying in the southwest Kansas heat. But that’s not a prohibited or uncommon method of livestock disposal.

The weather event that killed thousands of cattle in southwest Kansas last month was a rare combination of extreme factors. But it highlights the ongoing risk that heat stress poses for cattle, especially as climate change pushes temperatures higher.

The National Audubon Society is taking a market-based approach to conservation. Its “bird-friendly beef” certification program proposes to measure ecosystem health by using birds as a metric.

High food prices are affecting many in Kansas City, and there are two crops that play an outsized role: corn and soybeans. Plus, one rancher in Kansas is outfitting his cattle with GPS collars to save money and protect the grasslands.

Prairie wildlife needs a patchy landscape, in which different areas bear the marks of varying degrees of grazing. Scientists have a plan to achieve that.

Temperatures topped 104 degrees in the state's top cattle county. In widely seen video footage, rows of carcasses are shown lined up along the edge of a field.