Reading Time: 3 minutes London | Reuters — While Pakistanis count the cost of one of the country’s worst recorded floods, heavy rain is hitting southwestern China as the Texas city of Dallas recovers from a 10-inch deluge in a single day last month. Each of these rain-fuelled disasters followed a heat wave, suggesting the regions have been swinging […] Read more

From Pakistan to Texas, big rains after extreme heat deliver double punch

H7N3 avian flu found in chickens in Mexico, near Texas border
Reading Time: < 1 minute Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico’s agriculture ministry on Saturday reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic H7N3 bird flu virus in two hatching egg production barns in the northern state of Coahuila, which borders on Texas. The strain in question has existed in some regions of the country since 2012, the ministry said in a statement. […] Read more

Harvey’s floods scatter cattle in Texas, swamp cotton fields
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — South Texas ranchers are scrambling to relocate cattle from massive flooding spawned by Tropical Storm Harvey, with many hauling livestock up to the north of the state while others rush to move the animals to higher ground nearby. About 1.2 million cattle are located in a 54-county disaster area drenched by […] Read more

Harvey’s rains sending fuel prices higher
Reading Time: 2 minutes Houston | Reuters — U.S. fuel prices surged on Monday as two more Gulf Coast refiners cut output and a third considered reductions, leaving more than 13 per cent of the country’s refining capacity offline after Tropical Storm Harvey flooded plants and shut seaports. The storm swung back over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday […] Read more
U.S. Plains wildfires leave thousands of cattle dead
Reading Time: 2 minutes Austin | Reuters — Fast-moving wildfires that burned through nearly two million acres of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas this week have devastated ranches and left thousands of cattle and other livestock dead, officials said Thursday. Many of the grass fires grew rapidly on Monday due to dry weather and parched prairie land in the Texas […] Read more

Cargill to sell two Texas feedlots
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Cargill, a top U.S. meat processor, said Friday it will sell two Texas beef cattle feedlots to Amarillo-based Friona Industries pending final agreements and regulatory reviews. Under the deal, Friona will acquire Cargill’s cattle feedlots at Bovina and Dalhart, Texas. Cargill said in a statement it will retain ownership of its cattle feedyards […] Read more
Texas fertilizer plant blast deemed criminal act
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A blast that killed 15 people three years ago triggered by a fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas was a criminal act, a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigator said Wednesday. ATF Special Agent in Charge Rob Elder said a reward of up to US$50,000 was being offered […] Read more