Humphries to run Mich. DNRE

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm has named Rebecca Humphries as the director of the new Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Humphries has been the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) director since 2004. Granholm merged the DNR and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in an executive order last year. DEQ Director Steven Chester resigned two weeks ago to resume his law practice.

The Michigan Environmental Council said Jan. 13 that Humphries was the choice of virtually the entire Michigan environmental and conservation community. The Michigan Farm Bureau also supported her selection.

Granholm’s executive order combining the two departments took effect Sunday. Humphries began working for the DNR in 1978 and was appointed director by the Natural Resources Commission six years ago.

2 arrested in cattle stabbings
MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies in Poweshiek County say they have arrested two men in connection with the stabbing of 17 cattle at a sale barn in Montezuma earlier this month.
Poweshiek County Chief Deputy Lawrence McNaul said deputies arrested 20-year-old Robert Edward Fults and 22-year-old Jamey Leroy Christofferson Jan. 13 evening. Fults and Christofferson, who are both from Montezuma, are each charged with 17 counts of livestock abuse.

McNaul said both men refused to make any comment.
Workers at the Montezuma Sales Co. sale barn found the cattle with stab wounds the morning of Jan. 6. The wounds were severe enough that all 17 animals required veterinary treatment and three had to be euthanized.

McNaul said detectives quickly ruled out insurance fraud or possible cult activity in the investigation.

New S. Korea foot-and-mouth

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reported two additional outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease at farms in the country’s north Saturday, bringing the total number of outbreaks in a week to four.

Eight cows at two farms in Pocheon, just north of Seoul, tested positive for the disease, Agriculture Ministry official Lee Sang-soo said. All 124 cows on the farms were slaughtered as a precaution. Quarantine workers were also slaughtering 50 cows on a separate farm near the two latest outbreak sites as a precaution, said the ministry.

The three farms are a short distance from another farm where six cows were confirmed to have been infected with the disease on Jan. 7 – South Korea’s first outbreak since May 2002, Lee said. South Korea has so far slaughtered some 3,100 animals since that outbreak to prevent the spread of the disease, said Lee.

Foot-and-mouth disease is often fatal for cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, causing blisters on the mouth and feet. It does not affect humans.

The disease last hit South Korea in 2002 when some 160,000 pigs either died of the disease or were slaughtered to prevent its spread.

Gates aids Africa with MSU grant

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University will expand access to agricultural education materials in Africa with a $1 million grant from the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The East Lansing school says AgShare Open Education Resources is an 18-month pilot project. Michigan State said participating African institutions “will create a virtual hub of resources and curriculum” for master’s degree programs in livestock, crops and agribusiness.

Faculty from the Michigan school will work with Nairobi, Kenya-based OER Africa and others to develop ways to share teaching techniques and materials. MSU Assistant Provost Christine Geith, professor John Kaneene and assistant professor Cliff Lampe are leading the project.

Barn fire kills 11 Tenn. horses

CEDAR HILL, Tenn. (AP) — A barn fire caused by an engine backfiring has destroyed a Middle Tennessee barn, killing 11 horses.

WSMV-TV in Nashville reported the blaze broke out Jan. 9 at a farm in the Robertson County town of Cedar Hill. The homeowners said a piece of farm machinery backfired, setting hay ablaze inside the barn. They were able to get four horses out, but the others were killed.

The homeowners told the station the animals were Tennessee walking horses, which they often exhibited in horse shows.