EnvironmentThe harmless rat snake guards crops from rats; do not mistake it for the krait
The rat snake is harmless and a farmer's friend, while the night-roaming common krait is deadly; writer Almas Tahmid explains how to tell them apart.
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Environment
HealthSight restored after 16 years: Bardhaman Medical's first DSEK cornea transplant
Doctors at Bardhaman Medical College Hospital in West Bengal restored sight in the right eye of a 70-year-old woman, blind in it for 16 years, with a free DSEK corneal transplant on 25 September.
Environment
15,000 saplings and palm seeds in 18 years: one man's joy in planting trees
Since 2008 Zobayer Ahmed Khan Opu has planted about 15,000 saplings and palm seeds across Tangail, Gazipur, Dhaka, Dinajpur, Sylhet and Sunamganj.
IslamThe heart in the Quran: from the sound and tranquil to the sealed heart
Mufti Mahbub Hasan draws on the Quran and hadith to describe the states of the human heart and why Islam stresses keeping it pure.
AgribusinessPOET and Maersk fuel a ship with 100% bioethanol in a US first
POET supplied corn-based bioethanol for the first 100 percent bioethanol bunkering of a vessel in the United States, a Maersk trial in Houston that opens a possible marine-fuel market for US farm products.
EnvironmentDrought will drain Central Oregon's Wickiup Reservoir to extreme lows
Water managers expect Wickiup Reservoir to drop to about 20,000 acre-feet this fall after a severe drought, as North Unit Irrigation District farmers endure an eighth year of reduced water allotments.
AgrotechBranValt's dual narrow pan aims to measure combine grain loss in tall stubble
BranValt's Dual Narrow Pan, an add-on for its 40-inch SmartPan drop-pan system, is built to land upright in tall corn, sunflower and canola stubble so that farmers get a true sample of the grain their combine leaves behind.
LivestockRecord-heavy US cattle can no longer hide record-low feedlot placements
Feedlots have kept inventories steady by feeding cattle longer, pushing August slaughter weights to 1,438 pounds, but record-low placements and dearer feed mean that buffer is running out, Pro Farmer reports.
AgrotechSteyr and TU Wien test a hydrogen tractor fuelled from on-farm hydrogen
The Hytrac research project, led by Vienna University of Technology with Steyr and other partners, is building a hydrogen-combustion tractor with an electric power-split transmission and on-farm hydrogen production and refuelling.
CropsPalmer amaranth spreads and resists more herbicides, from Idaho to New York
More than 70 percent of Idaho's documented Palmer amaranth populations resist glyphosate and New York populations show metabolic resistance to atrazine, researchers told the GROW weed-management network.
Health
Swollen ankles to yellow nails: signs in the feet that can point to liver trouble
A failing liver can show up as fluid in the feet and ankles, itchy soles or yellowing skin and nails, though none of these alone confirms liver disease.
Environment
Erosion swallows a Shahjadpur village, 350 of Dhitpur's 500 homes gone
Two years after Barpakhia village vanished into the river in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, erosion is eating Dhitpur and Kurshi, and many families say they have had no government help.
VegetablesIreland imported almost €2bn of fruit and vegetables as growers dwindle
Ireland imported €1.97 billion of fruit and vegetables in 2025 against exports of €492.5 million, a deficit of about €1.47 billion that has revived warnings about food security and the shrinking horticulture sector.
CropsTirlán pays €220/t for feed barley as its grain intake falls to 190,000t
Irish co-op Tirlán set harvest prices of €220/t for green feed barley and €230/t for green feed wheat, up €30/t on last year, but took in 190,000 tonnes against almost 223,000 in the 2025 bumper harvest.
EnvironmentThai floods hit 41 provinces and damage more than 580,000 homes
Floods since 16 September have covered 41 Thai provinces and killed at least eight people, after Bangkok received 320 mm of rain in two to three days.
Market ManagementFour-year Seaway labour deals steady a route that moved 13 million tonnes of grain
Unionised employees of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation ratified four-year agreements, giving grain shippers more certainty on a corridor that carried about 12.9 million tonnes of grain in 2025.
Crops
Sirajganj workshop urges zinc-rich rice in state food programmes
Officials in Sirajganj pressed for zinc-biofortified rice in social safety-net and school feeding schemes, with seed and training planned for 3,600 farmers this boro season.
AgribusinessUS farm real estate rates may rise 44 basis points by year-end, AEI estimates
Average US farm real estate loan rates fell to 6.97 percent in the second quarter of 2026 from a peak of 8.04 percent, but with the Fed raising rates and Treasuries above 5 percent they could climb about 44 basis points by year-end.
LivestockBluetongue reaches Aberdeenshire as vets urge earlier vaccination
Seafield Veterinary Group has confirmed bluetongue in Aberdeenshire, one of 38 cases in Scotland this season, and urges farmers not to wait until spring to vaccinate sheep, cattle and other ruminants.
HealthFarm Dog nonprofit aims to fund a "trusted ear" for every US farmer
Farm Dog, a nonprofit launched on 8 September, wants to remove cost and stigma from farmers' mental health care by funding professional sessions and pulling agribusinesses' separate efforts into one pathway.