Two pieces of legislation are announced that could impact farmers, ranchers, and rural residents; "Farms Under Threat" looks at threats to agricultural land from expanding commercial, industrial, and residential development; a drop in cattle numbers due to drought is leading to the possibility of higher beef prices; and monsoon rain events have been very patchy in the Four Corners Region this summer.

A look at food price increases over the past year, the factors behind increased retail prices for beef, the Food and Drug Administration will now require a veterinary prescription for injected antibiotics for livestock, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature adds the monarch butterfly to its “red list” of threatened species.

Entry into farming remains difficult for young want-to-be farmers who are not in line to take over or inherit an established farm or ranch, food price inflation declines slightly in June, some tips for spending less on food, and a look at the schedules for upcoming fairs in the Four Corners.

Monsoon rains bring much needed, albeit inconsistent, rain to the area, a new report contends that 11 million acres of America’s agricultural land were developed or converted to uses that threaten farming, a breakdown of water use by agriculture, and the 2023 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year Contest is underway.

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed two bills on Wednesday dealing with the regulation of the cattle industry, an activist organization specializing in research about agricultural subsides reports that the government paid a record $41.6 billion in a variety of subsidies to farmers in 2020, double the amount they received in 2018, and reintroduction of wolves in Colorado remains a controversial topic with livestock producers.

Drought persists although the Four Corners Region received a little rain, paleoclimate evidence shows a drought in the Colorado River basin in the 2nd century AD, and a conservation group ranks the Colorado River as No. 1 on its list of the country’s most endangered rivers.

The Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey asks consumers about how food and agricultural issues affect them, inflation is pushing grocery prices up almost 12% in the past year, and while many farmers are concerned that the ag economy is in trouble, other farmers and investors remain bullish on farmland.

Cattle ranchers are getting squeezed by high costs of maintaining their herds while calf prices fall, the government continues to fund a variety of agriculture programs, United Nations officials warn that the war in Ukraine threatens a hunger crisis, and a farm in Ukraine takes in displaced animals.

Farmers in the Conservation Reserve Program will have an opportunity for a one-time voluntary termination in order to expand production, a brief history of government initiatives to encourage farmers to produce more crops, and the USDA is making $200 million available to create a new meat processing capacity expansion program.

A USDA Crop Progress report has rated half of the country's pasture and range conditions as poor, filling a tractor tank daily now costs some farmers $1,000, twice what it was a year ago, and the USDA addresses baby formula shortages and possible milk substitutes.