Trich and Treat

Biosecurity

Trich and Treat

Fences

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            I talked to Joe Bill.

            I told him his recognition as New Mexico’s ‘Cattleman of the Year’ was an honor not just for him but for his family and the industry. Sure, he has always been active in the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, but his award reflects the nomination of a cattleman that doesn’t live in the more predominately private lands sanctity of eastern New Mexico nor has he been a presiding president. He’s a federal lands rancher from a family that has prevailed through an uninterrupted presence now reaching into its third century. That alone is worthy of his award.

            Following the congratulatory words, ranching ensued. Fencing was the issue. Joe Bill is our neighbor. As he has done on much of his country in recent years, he has made a pass across our common boundary and made major repairs. Our contribution to what he completed has been meager and we owe him. I told him I appreciate him greatly, and I do. He makes us both better.

            Yes, that tedious cliché is in order. Fences do make good neighbors, but good neighbors and fences together make even … better neighbors.

            Biosecurity

            This morning The Westerner reported the shooting death of the former Gulf Cartel leader in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, ‘Toro’ Loiza Salinas, has led to a power vacuum as the next jeffe takes control. Nearly 400 Mexicans have been butchered. Anywhere else that would be considered war, but, in the control of the drug corridors of our southern border, that is simply continuing drama.

            Indeed, a border wall is necessary, and, to those who disagree, the welcome is out to come and live in the shade of any fence they can find along its course.

Yes sir, reach and out spread goodwill to any and all comers. Welcome signs to those wayward straggles trudging northward could be made, but, be beware. After bienvenidos hermanos y hermanas, Tervetuloa veljet ja siaret, or huān ying xiōng di jiĕ mèi the conversions just get plain unspellable much less pronounceable.

‘Toro’ Salinas’ nickname highlights yet another issue that worries every border rancher and that is the matter of feral bulls or cows or any livestock. Heaven help us if some terrorist organization decides to disrupt our food supply. A pair of pliers can do irreparable harm to our biosecurity at any spot along the 85 miles of New Mexico/Mexican border where only barbed wire fencing still exists. Nip the fence, drive a wad or individual animal with hoof and mouth disease through it, plug the hole so they don’t return, and go to the nearest cantina and drink to the success of the deed would be all it takes to start a firestorm of domestic injury.

The bottom line is biosecurity alone is justification for the border wall, or fence, or whatever livestock, terrorist, and cartel proof barrier that must be installed for our nation’s protection and economic wellbeing.

            Trich and Treat

Hoof and mouth disease isn’t the only threat.

There are more than 40 herds of New Mexico cattle that are quarantined for the sexually transmitted Trichomonas fetus (the reality is there are many times that many impacted but untested for this cowering nightmare). This microscopic protozoon is a silent killer of unborn cattle fetuses. As such, it is a wrecker of ranching profitability. When our operation faced this debacle earlier in this decade, the protocol overseen by our state veterinarian called for multiple bull testings and full sexual rest for the cow herd, but the real defense was thought to be the removal of bulls before the age of six. Our program was copied from a northern New Mexico rancher who adopted the practice of starting fresh with a new bull battery after every fourth breeding season.

The problem now is there is evidence that bulls younger than six retain the protozoa and can become carriers. Further, the belief that cows will clean themselves up with full sexual rests through a minimum of three cycles has also been discounted. In fact, there are most likely chronic carriers that are disguised by carrying calves to full term. Apparently, their uterine inflammation resulting from the protozoan is not severe enough to result in fetal abortion.

This has become a true epidemic. It is spread by carrier animals, normally bulls, that are passed back and forth between and among ranches.

It is the same absence of biosecurity that an ineffective international boundary livestock barrier presents. Ranches, like countries, must have effective, closed boundaries so herd health can be protected, guarded, and maintained.  Unlike the Mexican border, however, there is no constitutional mandate to control ranch boundaries, but there is a huge federal implication. Every border ranch in New Mexico (within direct primary cartel reach) except one is dominated by federal ownership. With their dominion of ownership responsibilities, policing power over ongoing operations, and the shortfall of any management plan consideration to head the problem off, there should be immediate and joint efforts to control the spread of Trich and every other disease of national consequence that a comprehensive biosecurity barrier should address.  Currently, there is no dedicated partnership program to install any perimeter fencing. It is the requirement of the rancher to address it. With 80 year old perimeter fencing infrastructure, suffocating NEPA regulatory demands, and hundreds of miles of fencing involved, few ranches can consider such large scale undertaking.

To make it worse, those 40 ranches that are now impacted by national monument status and have no guarantee to even stay on the land have an even bigger problem. They simply cannot enter into the financing liabilities that such an undertaking would require.

This is a huge problem and it needs to be included in the scope and the intent of biosecurity along the southern border.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Joe Bill Nunn should be recognized for one most important thing … he accepts no government payment.”

I too want to add my congratulations to Joe Bill and Lauren, friends for almost 50 years now. We played baseball together in College, and since then its been Cattlegrower meetings, team ropings and various federal land management issues. Good friends, good times and a well deserved honor.

---Frank DuBois