Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Ranchers Weigh in, Criticize Proposed Cattle Identification Rules
The comment period for proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture rules on Animal Disease Traceability will come to a close late tomorrow evening at 10 o’clock. Among other things, the proposed rules would remove hot-iron cattle branding from the list of acceptable USDA forms of identification for livestock moving across state lines. Instead, the main identification form would be an ear tag for cattle. Proponents say many ranchers have already made the change, adding that putting a focus on numeric ids in ear tags would make the US more competitive in the global beef export market. But the group Ranchers–Cattleman Action Legal Fund, or R-Calf, says the change would cost cattlemen more with little pay off. Bill Bullard, executive director of the group, says R-Calf estimated the cost at about $30 per calf. “That’s not the cost of the tag, that’s the cost of the labor, time and equipment needed to catch each animal in a head gate, apply the tag and record the tag’s number,” he says. Under the new rule, Colorado and 13 other states would still allow ranchers to use the brand as a form of identification within state boundaries...more
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