Food, agriculture and animals

The science of getting rid of more than a million Northwest chickens infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza

Northwest rancher Cody Easterday recently turned himself in to a minimum security prison camp at Lompoc just south of Santa Maria, California. Easterday carried out one of the largest cattle swindles in U.S. history, from near Pasco, in Washington state.

More than a million chickens at a farm in Franklin County, Washington, are set to be destroyed because of bird flu. Officials are now deliberating on how to transport, bury, compost or incinerate the birds.

A big-time Northwest rancher has snatched himself a last two-week extension of freedom, before he goes into federal prison.

There was a major drought last year that shortened crop seed supply. Now, a deepening drought this spring paired with a dearth of forage for cattle, is causing a Western-wide run on crop seed. Meanwhile, hay is in short supply. And Northwest cattle operators are surveying their empty, dried-up watering holes, calculating how much grass they’ll have this spring.

One of the historically largest farm equipment sales in the country is happening this week in the Northwest. It follows the bankruptcy of the Easterday family empire after its multi-million-dollar cattle swindle.

The saga of the troubled Easterday ag empire is spreading to rural Idaho. At issue: The fate of an Easterday ranch centered on a beautiful meadow that contributes water to the Spokane region.