LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ranchers are telling a Nevada state panel that despite ongoing regional drought, there's plenty of grass on the range and they want to be allowed to turn cattle out to graze on it.
Accounts of rains bringing plentiful wildflowers in some northern parts of the state surfaced during a Nevada Drought Forum hearing Wednesday hosted by the state Department of Agriculture in Sparks.
Eureka County natural resources chief Jake Tibbitts says ranchers are reporting abundant forage but little for cows to drink.
State Climatologist Douglas Boyle says the summer's been wetter than normal, but mountain snowpack was below-normal last winter and many accounts report that 2014 was a record warmest calendar year.
The hearing is a final information-gathering session ahead of a Carson City drought summit in September.
