Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the launch of an on-the-job training program for military veterans interested in careers in the agricultural industry. This training opportunity expands the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs’ On-the-Job Training initiative to allow veterans to use their military benefits while obtaining useful job skills on the farm. With assistance from Cornell Small Farms Program, Western New York’s Kreher’s Farm in Clarence, has been approved as the first farm in the state to offer this program to veterans. [node:read-more:link]

Are you an animal farmer looking for a veterinarian? A new tool is available to help you called "Find-A-Vet." This online tool was created by GlobalVetLink (GVL), and according to their website, it "allows animal owners to quickly find a veterinarian in their area who offers digital services such as Certificates of Veterinary Inspection (ICVIs/health certificates) and Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA/Coggins) certificates. [node:read-more:link]

Often portrayed as pulling Santa's sleigh, reindeer are a Christmas staple. Now, ecologists have found that reindeer are shrinking due to the impact of climate change on their food supplies. [node:read-more:link]

The only remaining sugar mill in Hawaii is ending its final harvest. “Hawaii produced over a million tons of sugar per year for over 50 years. At one time that was 20 percent of all the sugar that was consumed in the United States,” said Robert Osgood, a retired consultant for the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center and co-author of “From King Cane to the Last Sugar Mill.” Sugar farms in Hawaii have closed or consolidated, and competition has increased worldwide. Alexander & Baldwin reported an operating loss of about $30 million in agribusiness in 2015. [node:read-more:link]

Evolution is allowing some urban fish to survive in a lethal, human-altered environment, according to new results published in the journal Science. While environmental change is outpacing the rate of evolution for many other species, Atlantic killifish living in four polluted East Coast estuaries turn out to be remarkably resilient. These fish have adapted to levels of highly toxic industrial pollutants that would normally kill them. [node:read-more:link]

pipeline leak has spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into a North Dakota creek roughly two and a half hours from Cannon Ball, where protesters are camped out in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.Members of the Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes, as well as environmentalists from around the country, have fought the pipeline project on the grounds that it crosses beneath a lake that provides drinking water to native Americans. They say the route beneath Lake Oahe puts the water source in jeopardy and would destroy sacred land. [node:read-more:link]

Net cash farm income is forecast at $90.1 billion and net farm income at $66.9 billion for 2016, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.Both measures are forecast to decline for the third consecutive year after reaching record highs in 2013 for net farm income and 2012 for net cash income. Net cash farm income is expected to fall by 14.6 percent in 2016, while net farm income is forecast to decline by 17.2 percent. [node:read-more:link]

California farmers and Southern California cities were aghast last winter when much of the heavy rainfall that fell in Northern California washed through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and out to sea. In their view, it represented a lost opportunity to capture high river flows and pump water to arid regions south of the Delta.  This winter could prove dramatically different. [node:read-more:link]

Amid “a growing sense of risk in the farm sector,” bankers across the U.S. are demanding farm real estate as collateral on short-term operating loans, says the Ag Finance Databook compiled by the Kansas City Fed. Real estate provided one third of the collateral on loans of $250,000 or more issued during the summer vs. 10% a year earlier. It was an abrupt reversal of the five-year decline that began during the ag boom.  Interest on non-real estate loans is shifting higher. Some 85% of loans carry a floating rate, for only the second time since 1977. [node:read-more:link]

A Monsanto Co. shareholder’s lawsuit to block the agricultural giant’s merger with the German chemical company Bayer AG was thrown out by a Missouri judge. The investor alleged that Monsanto’s board of directors had breached its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders by accepting Bayer’s $128 bid for Monsanto shares. The shares were worth more than that and the directors stood to reap financial windfalls from the deal, according to the complaint.St. Louis County Circuit Judge John D. Warner Jr. [node:read-more:link]