Bovine tuberculosis was found in a 2-year-old steer in the state's thumb region. United States Department of Agriculture's food safety inspection service identified the Huron County steer as possibly diseased during inspection and removed the animal from the human food chain, according to a statement from Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. [node:read-more:link]

On both sides of the Atlantic, many of the people who are most upset about the new free trade deal between Canada and the European Union are dairy farmers. But they have opposite worries.  The deal was nearly derailed by enraged farmers in the Wallonia region of Belgium because of how much they had been struggling. In Canada, by contrast, farmers are anxious because they have been doing so well.  The way the country’s “supply management” system works now, Canadian dairy farms are almost guaranteed to prosper. [node:read-more:link]

Miller, who graduated from The University of Iowa in 2009, heard about a program in North Dakota that was financing grants for telepharmacies, a business model that blends traditional pharmacy services with telemedicine technology. Miller was inspired and intrigued by the program. "I began building a similar platform for my family's business," he said.  Even so, the family was forced to close one of its pharmacies and sell another. The remaining four the family owned were at risk, and Miller knew he needed a solution to save them. [node:read-more:link]

Despite his misgivings, von Lossberg couldn’t stop thinking about the data he’d received from local members of Moms Demand Action, comparing states that have passed gun safety measures to those that have not.  In the eight states that require background checks on all gun transfers, there were 38 percent fewer deaths of women shot by intimate partners, as well as lower rates of gun suicides and aggravated assaults with firearms. By contrast, Montana ranks fifth in gun deaths per capita and received an “F” from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in 2015. [node:read-more:link]

A new report shows Iowa is deriving more than 35 percent of its electricity from wind energy, an increase from statistics made public earlier this year.  The American Wind Energy Association says in a report released Thursday that Iowa has increased its percentage of in-state electricity that comes from wind turbines. The data, backed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is based on a 12-month rolling average through the end of August 2016.  The association says Iowa is now the first state to generate more than one-third of its electricity from wind energy. [node:read-more:link]

Andrew Florance hires hundreds of recent college grads for research and tech jobs for his  real estate data firm CoStar Group. [node:read-more:link]

Over the last two decades, the big companies—that is, Monsanto, DuPont—have led the way with massive investments in biotechnology research and with seed and biotechnology company mergers and acquisitions. Historically, the seed-biotechnology companies have been dependent on numerous small and medium scale companies as major sources of innovation (Fuglie et al., 2012). The new small and medium-sized enterprises were specializing in developments of transgenic seed traits. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture officials are working hard to stop the spread of screwworms that are threatening endangered key deer in Monroe County. Officials showed reporters boxes that each hold 76,000 sterile male flies. Once released, their job is to trick females into thinking they have mated. Because the male flies are sterile, the females stop breeding and do not lay new eggs."We do this rain or shine for as long as it takes to eradicate this," John Welch, from the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The cows are being put to pasture—forever.  The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is preparing to end a program that puts convicts to work alongside state farm employees to maintain animals and gardens. The program is being slashed to make more room for “more meaningful career training opportunities,” the prison system said. But not everyone agrees with that logic.  At least 50 state employees will lose their jobs as the program is phased out, which has rankled the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association. [node:read-more:link]