Ranchers mostly pleased with omnibus bill

NCBA Director of Communications Chase Adams said the bill also prevents funding for EPA to require producers to obtain greenhouse gas permits for livestock and mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from manure-management systems. It also maintains range and grazing management funding at FY 2014 levels, providing necessary resources for the agencies to continue working through a backlog of environmental analysis regarding permitted grazing, PLC stated. The bill also restores $1 million to compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves and rejects the administration’s proposal to add a $1-per-animal unit month tax on livestock grazing. AUM is used to regulate grazing on public land based on the amount of forage consumed. The American Sheep Industry Association is pleased with those initiatives and also recognizes some particular wins for the sheep industry. The bill urges the Forest Service to work with USDA on the issue of disease transmission between domestic sheep and bighorn sheep, a conflict that has adversely affected sheep producers’ grazing permits, Orwick said. The bill also denies President Obama’s budget request for the termination and redirection of sheep research programs or the closure of the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho. NCBA and PLC are also applauding the bill’s provisions that: instructs the secretary of agriculture to submit recommendations for changes in federal law to bring country-of-origin labeling into compliance with World Trade Organization rules; directs the secretary to stop any further efforts to implement a second beef checkoff program; and continues to defund marketing-reform provisions under the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration...more