Kansas producers at odds with Ag Department memo

The Agriculture Department has backed away from a memo that would have required Kansas farmers to register their premises with state and federal agencies. But a week after the USDA backed away from the mandatory requirement, the state animal health department still had not been notified. "I have not heard anything official," said George Teagarden, the state's livestock commissioner. Teagarden's office is responsible for animal diseases and welfare, as well as the premise registration program sponsored by both the state and federal government. Both programs, however, are supposed to be voluntary. When it authorized the state's registration program, the Kansas Legislature mandated it remain voluntary. In Kansas, response to the program has been lukewarm, with only about 6,000 producers registering premises out of the nearly 37,000 known to exist. Premises eligible range from locations where only a few cattle are housed, such as in the case of a 4-H program, on up to a locations where thousands are based....