Livestock Producers from Mexico, Canada and United States Seek New Trade Policy and Market Reforms

Representatives of consumer groups and livestock producer organizations from Canada, Mexico, and the United States today called on leaders to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and address concentration in livestock markets. The groups have been meeting in Billings to address the challenges faced by family farmers and ranchers from trade policy and uncompetitive livestock markets. "NAFTA is not working for Mexican and Canadian farmers," said Gilles Stockton, a rancher from Grass Range, Mont., representing the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC). "It is certainly not working for U.S. farmers and ranchers. We also learned that it is not working for consumers." Representatives of Mexican hog producers said NAFTA has severely affected agricultural and livestock sectors in Mexico. U.S. exports of pork to Mexico increased about 40% between 2007 and 2008 and now supply about half of the domestic pork consumption in Mexico, said Alejandro Ramirez González, with the Confederation of Mexican Hog Farmers. Powdered milk imports from the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and New Zealand threaten Mexican dairy farmers, which supply only two-thirds of the domestic demand, according to Victor Quintana with the Peasants' Democratic Front of Chihuahua. "Hundreds of thousands of Mexican dairy farmers will be driven into bankruptcy if Mexico's federal government does not change current agricultural and food policies, Quintana said...Press Release

Montana - House takes up bill to approve slaughterhouse

The Great Falls Tribune reports:

The House Agriculture Committee hearing room was packed to capacity on Thursday as lawmakers took up a controversial bill that would authorize equine slaughterhouses in Montana. Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, the bill's sponsor, said Montana is ideally suited to help address a national demand for a horse slaughtering facility. "What we're looking at in this bill is, first of all, trying to solve a problem," Butcher told the committee. That problem, he said, is that the last equine slaughterhouse in the nation closed in 2007, leaving horse owners with few options for disposing of sick, injured and unwanted animals. Butcher said House Bill 418 would create a new industry in the state, while at the same time addressing the state's economy-driven unwanted horse problem. Butcher's bill also prevents Montana courts from issuing an injunction to stop or delay the construction of an equine-processing facility. Supporters of the bill said unwanted horses used to be sold for slaughter when there were facilities to take them. When the last horse-slaughtering facility closed, horse owners were left with few options. Supporters also testified that without slaughterhouses owners are forced to pay to have horses euthanized and disposed of, shoot them and bury them on their property, or illegally abandon them. Several county commissioners said that abandoned horses are creating serious problems in rural counties...

Utah - Resolution supporting horse slaughter passes

A nonbinding resolution to allow the transport of horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter passed the Utah Senate on Thursday 19-8 and soon will cross the governor's desk. Sponsors of the resolution -- Rep. Brad Winn, R-Ephraim and Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan -- intended to send a message to the federal government about states rights. Legislation at the federal level would outlaw horse slaughter in the United States and also ban their transport across borders for that purpose...Salt Lake Tribune

Ty Murray & Jewel on "Dancing With The Stars"

They will compete against each other according to this story. The program begins March 9.

Horse therapy helps youth deal with life issues

The teens frantically wave their arms, snap their fingers and make clicking sounds with their tongues in an attempt to get the horse to follow them and step over a piece of plastic pipe suspended across two overturned plastic buckets. Unexpectedly, the pipe rolls from its perch onto the ground and the horse unintentionally steps over it. Psychotherapist and registered nurse Pat Dubois reminds the kids that the verbal instructions were quite simply to get the horse to step over the pipe without touching the animal with their hands or pretending they were holding food. The teens from A New Day Youth & Family Services, a short-term shelter for at-risk children, were engaged in exercises as part of Raising Hands for Horses, a program that Dubois operates out of her Corrales home. The "equine-assisted psychotherapy" program focuses on emotional issues, while a related "equine-assisted learning" program focuses on life skills and issues related to academics and behavior. The interactions between people and horses are useful in helping individuals and families deal with such issues as grief and loss, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, depression, anxiety, learning disorders and more...High Plains Journal

Rooted in rivalry

The Museum of New Mexico was founded 100 years ago this week in a political movida over the use of the Palace of the Governors. Early in the 20th century, the Palace housed two museums — a private one focusing on history and another focusing on archaeology. Lawyer and territorial politician LeBaron Bradford Prince started the history museum in 1883. But in the years leading up to statehood, educator-turned-archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett edged out Prince's dominion over the Palace as the first director of the state museum system. In 1883, Prince got permission for the society to use two rooms for a museum on the east side of the Palace after the Territorial Legislature left for the new Capitol. Four years later, when the Territorial Law Library moved to new quarters, the society expanded into its space. From 1889 to 1893, Prince served as territorial governor — a job that included an apartment in the Palace. Hewett, nicknamed "El Torro," grew up on farms in Illinois and Missouri, attended college in Missouri, taught school and worked as a superintendent of public schools in Missouri and Colorado, and earned a master's degree in "pedagogy" from the Colorado Normal School in Greeley, where he served as a department head. New Mexico rancher and lawyer Frank Springer, head of the Board of Regents of the newly formed New Mexico Normal School (now New Mexico Highlands University) in Las Vegas, N.M., was so impressed by the young educator that he hired him as the school's president in 1898...Santa Fe New Mexican

Amados and the land are one

Freeways and shopping centers sprawl where the cattle once ran, all the way from Nogales to Cortaro. And on those cattle rode the brand "MA," for Manuel Amado, patriarch of a family whose roots run deep in Southern Arizona. The name lives on through the settlement of Amado, off Interstate 19 south of Green Valley. And it lives on in Amado's many descendants, including his great-grandson Henry Amado, who still ranches in Southern Arizona. From Spain and Mexico the family moved north, settling about 1850 into Southern Arizona, then part of Mexico. In 1852, Manuel Amado began ranching south of Tucson between the Canoa and Otero Spanish land grants. With no fences, his cattle roamed from the border to north of Tucson. For a time the family also ranched near Mission San Xavier del Bac, where they ran a dairy. But after what is now the Tohono O'odham Reservation at San Xavier was established in 1874, the Amados were eventually forced out. In the August 1955 issue of Arizona Cattlelog, Manuel's son, Antonio Amado, recounted how, as a 6-year-old in 1880, he was on an errand in Tucson when he saw dense, billowing smoke to the south. Government agents had set fire to the family's ranch. And so they retreated to what would become Amado, on their ranch called El Alamo Bonito, beautiful cottonwood...Arizona Daily Star

122 Jurisdiction Questions Submitted to DOJ & DOI

Dear NLSA Members and Interested Ranchers:

The attached “Request for Admissions”, or 122 questions, pursuant to Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was submitted to Department of Interior and Department of Justice officials to request their authority to conduct law enforcement actions and confiscate livestock. The cause of action for this Request was federal livestock confiscations in disputes over grazing allotments. However, the federal government’s admissions to their limitations of authority within the republic states have a far broader implication than this narrow cause of action.

As many of you are aware the federal land management agencies continue to seek ways to circumvent state law, confiscate livestock and attempt to extinguish Nevada rancher’s pre-existing and vested property rights within their grazing allotments by extortion and intimidation. Any future federal attempts to round up livestock will require the involvement of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, and therefore the Board of Agriculture, since the federal government will need to obtain a brand clearance certificate before they can move or dispose of livestock.

As a Member of Board of Agriculture and a State Officer, I requested answers to 122 questions ex rel or a relator for the people of Nevada, which by law these officials are required to answer under FRCP 36. I requested the agencies involved to provide their authority for most of the legal issues that arise as a result of these livestock confiscations. The federal government was unable or refused to answer any of the 122 questions after being properly noticed and have by their silence, by law, admitted to the claims made therein. They are now estopped or barred from raising these matters in future judicial and administrative proceedings. This is a public document and self authenticating for the purposes of evidence. A certified copy can be obtained from the Lyon County Recorder’s Office in Yerington (see below) and submitted into any court in the U.S. as evidence of the federal government’s admissions.

This Request is actually 5 documents combined which include not only the 122 questions and their answers but also provide the government with Notice and an Opportunity to Cure. I would recommend reading the 122 questions and their answers beginning at recorder’s page #56 (top right hand corner). Both the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice were asked to respond within a total of 30 days as the law requires, but while they acknowledged receipt of the Request by signing the return receipt, neither of the federal departments answered the letters within the required time.

I have also enclosed the “Response to Deputy Attorney General in Nevada” to provide background to the controversy. For your convenience you can visit the Cornell Law website to easily look up any of the references to the U.S. Code, rules of evidence, etc. referenced herein. While I realize this is an extensive document which will require some reading, I think if you will read it you will find it incredibly valuable and educational to you personally. You also may want to forward it to your attorney and send it by certified mail to your local officials like the sheriff and district attorney. A certified copy can be submitted as evidence if you have any matters pending with the federal agencies.

Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.

Warmest Personal Regards,
Ramona Morrison
Member, Board of Agriculture


Lyon County Recorder
27 S. Main Street
Yerington, Nevada 89447
775.463.6581

You may contact Ramona at rhmorrison@sbcglobal.net and request copies of the two pdf documents referred to in this post.

Patricia K. Jennings, May 26, 1955 to Feb. 14, 2009

Patricia K. Jennings died peacefully at her home Saturday morning, Feb. 14, 2009, after a courageous battle with breast cancer. She is survived by her beloved husband, Timothy Zeph Jennings; her children Courtney Ikard, Elliott Ikard and his wife, Melanie, Katherine Ikard, Zeph Jennings and Zachary Jennings; her mother, Marilyn Burcham, and her husband, Neil; her father, Doug Berryman, and his wife, Margaret; her sister, Fredda Blair, and her husband, Rick; her brother, Doug Berryman, and his wife, Rhonda; her brother, Dan Berryman; her brother, Joel Berryman, and his wife, Tish; and her sister, Shelley Petersen, and husband, Eric. She is also survived by Frances Jennings, James Jennings Jr., Mary Maloney, John Jennings, Thomas Jennings and Carol Rolfs, as well as many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. The family wishes to express a special thanks and appreciation to close friends Geneva Bailey, Debbie Armstrong and Michelle Lujan Grisham for their love and care.

Patty grew up in Amarillo, Texas, but lived most of her life in New Mexico. She had been a resident of Roswell for 20 years. Patty was a golf enthusiast and enjoyed classical music, with a special fondness for pianist Douglas Montgomery. Patty had a distinguished career as an advocate for early intervention, special education and other services for children and families with special needs. She was instrumental in the creation of the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool, providing health care coverage for New Mexicans who could not obtain or afford health insurance. She was also instrumental in obtaining funding for Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research and numerous other projects to support and enhance the quality of life for New Mexicans. Although Patty was known as a tireless advocate, the truth is her career was second to her love and passion for her family.

A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, at 2 p.m., at the Roswell Convention & Civic Center, 912 N. Main St. Pallbearers will be Jason Sandel, Joe Andreis, Stuart Ingle, John Vincent Morgan, Jesse French, Bill Wolf, Bill Armstrong and Tom Jennings. Honorary pallbearers will be Andres Morales and Alfredo Gomez. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Patricia K. Jennings Foundation, P.O. Box 1797, Roswell, NM 88202.

If friends wish to leave their condolences, they may do so online at www.lagronefuneralchapels.com.

Arrangements are under the direction of LaGrone Funeral Chapel.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Mi corazón es muy frio

Julie Carter

Love on demand. That's my definition of Valentine's Day, a commercial holiday conveniently placed between Christmas and Easter designed to feed retailers and give people a reason to spend money.

I've been on the receiving end of a number of lovely red and white somethings: jewelry, candy, flowers and cards. All appreciated, just not necessary.

The head cowboy got to town late one year and all that was left were the cards written in Spanish. Mine said something about my corazón and forever.

He ate the chocolates on the way back to the ranch and, with no apology, told me he knew I was on a diet and he sure didn't want to contribute to any failure of that effort.

In the meantime, that same day it had snowed about 10 inches after it rained for a few hours.

The corrals were knee-deep in mud covered by a deceivingly benign-looking white blanket of snow. It made a mush that sucked off your boots and hindered any kind of movement other than a determined trudge.

I was on heifer-calving duty while the head cowboy was somewhere else. The weather dictated frequent checks to make sure some new, wet, steaming baby calf wasn't born in a mud hole and chilled down before he ever got a chance at life.

Heifers by their very youth and nature are stupid, skittish and determined to be contrary in spite of what's in their best interest. When weather is bad, the calving kicks into a higher gear just because.

I cut laboring heifers out of the OB corral and penned them in warm stalls as they neared the birthing moment. That in itself was a visual as they ducked and ran and turned and did everything except go through the gate I needed them to go through.

I was in packer boots, every warm piece of clothing I owned, and looked like the Michelin man in a dance competition. Moving fast to cut off a heifer as she tried to cut back was not a pretty sight.

In all this, there was one heifer on the very far end of the corrals, a long alleyway from the barn, that decided to lie down and have her calf in the mud and snow in spite of my efforts. By the time I got to her, she was well into the business of pushing him out into a puddle of ice-cold mush.

She got up the minute she saw me and came at me with definite intent to harm. I deftly jumped (OK, that may be an exaggeration) behind the gate I had just come through.

I let her run through the gate opening, preferable to running over the top of me. I quickly shut a couple gates behind her for safekeeping while I rescued the slimy newborn that was blinking and sputtering trying to get his first breaths.

The calf weighed more than he should have for a first calf and was long, wet and slippery. I lifted him up by his front end, hugging his back to me, my grip tight around his body just behind his front legs. His back legs still touched the ground and I knew all I could do was walk backwards and drag him up the alley to the barn.

In no particular order, I tugged and trudged and grunted and pulled. About 10 feet from the barn door, I went down. My foot had pulled out of my boot and my sock was fast soaking up freezing wet corral muck.

I was sitting on my frozen "corazón" with a slimy calf in my lap, trying to figure out how to get out from underneath him, get my boot and start over.

As perfect as timing could be, it was then the head cowboy came around the corner of the barn.

He first grinned and then with decidedly poor judgment, he laughed. He rescued the calf off my lap while asking, "Was this all you got done today?"

It was probably a week after the snow was gone before things thawed out at the ranch house. Valentine's Day had come and gone but there was no doubt, between the calving events, the card in Spanish and the empty chocolate box, it was destined to be one of the most memorable ones.

Julie says Happy Valentines Day to all those ranch wives working the calving pen. She can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com.

I Stand Corrected...Sort Of

On Thursday I had a post concerning Rep. Maloney's legislation to designate 23 Million acres of wilderness in the Rocky Mountain West.

Part of the article I excerpted stated:

It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests. Old logging roads would be removed, and habitat restored in most of those areas, creating about 2,300 jobs...said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies...

I took Mr. Garrity to task, saying if there was 6,000 miles of road then these areas didn't qualify as wilderness, since wilderness areas are by law roadless.

Friday morning in the comments section, Anonymous wrote the following:

Garrity is not talking about removing roads from designated Wilderness(You are right, there are no roads there). He is talking about roads on other forest service lands.

Today, instead of relying on press accounts I went to Maloney's website and read the bill. Mr. Anonymous was right and I had misread the article. Those roads were on FS lands not proposed for wilderness. It is more accurate to state not currently proposed for wilderness, as you shall see.

Upon reading the bill, I found it to be worse than I expected. It does much more than designate 23 million acres as wilderness.

Title II of the bill creates 7.7 milion acres of "Biological Connecting Corridors." The management prescriptions for these corridors bans timber harvesting, oil and gas development and construction or reconstruction of roads. It even goes so far as to state that road densities should be "as nearly as possible, zero miles of road per square mile of land area" and in no instance should the road density be more than "0.25 miles per square mile."

Title III designates more than 56 Wild & Scenic rivers.

Title IV creates a "National Wildland Restoration and Recovery System" of 1,023,000 acres. Recovery is defined as restoring these lands "to a natural untrammeled condition and the restoration of the undeveloped roadless character of such land." This title also establishes the "National Wildland and Recovery Corps." And what is this corps to do? In addition to planting trees they are to commit "road obliteration." That's right, "road obliteration." What happens after the areas are restored and made roadless? The bill states "the Forest Service shall evaluate the suitability of such component for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System."

So there it is. Designate a million acres for recovery, hire 2,300 people to "obliterate" 6,000 miles of road and once you're done include these now roadless areas in the wilderness system. In my original post I accused them of manufacturing wilderness and that still stands. I can't think of a better example than this bill.

Putting that aside, I am as concerned about unemployment as Rep. Maloney. I know she represents New York City and those folks are as deserving of jobs as anybody. Therefore, I would propose an amendment to her bill which would do the following:

---Create an "Urban Restoration and Recovery System"

---Create an "Urban Recovery Corps"

---Prescribe the "obliteration" of buildings and roads in New York City, and

---Designate the recovered land as "Obama Obliteration Areas"

This would be a much more efficient and cost-effective way of "creating" jobs. After all, you wouldn't have to haul the workers to hell and back to rip out the roads. If this didn't create enough jobs we could throw in Washington, D.C. Come to think of it, I might want to designate the area from NYC to DC as a "Biological Connecting Corridor" and Rep. Maloney could walk or ride horseback to work.

In reality, neither of our programs would work. Lasting jobs are the result of producing something, not of obliterating things.

Green Enough?

Newsweek reports:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wasn't an instant hit with environmentalists, who said the former Colorado attorney general was soft on the Endangered Species Act, climate change and other important issues. Could some of his first moves soften the opposition? Last week Salazar halted Bush administration leases of federal lands to energy developers and promised a critical review of outstanding leases. And he denounced ethics scandals that broke last fall, including the revelation that some department employees had exchanged drugs and sexual favors with employees of several energy companies that lease public lands. In an interview with NEWSWEEK's Daniel Stone and Daren Briscoe, Salazar suggested critics get to know his record better, and he promised to put science first. Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: A broad collection of wildlife advocacy groups opposed your nomination, saying your record doesn't show a strong-enough stance on species protection. Salazar: I'm not here to please the environmental groups or the oil and gas industries. I'm here to do the right thing. The fact that there's criticism from the left and the right is something I'm very used to. Those environmental groups should educate themselves on the work I have done. In Colorado, I created the most significant state land conservation program in the history of the United States that restored and protected river corridors, which is basically protecting species. I've been involved in crafting programs to recover endangered fish in the Colorado River system. I was one of the architects in crafting an agreement to recover the whooping crane in Nebraska. I have a history of having stood up to recover species in a way that's real. You say you will value science more than your predecessors. What does that mean? There are a number of pods within the department where there are scientists who do their work without a political agenda. Their work has to be honored. It starts with the Fish and Wildlife Service on the endangered-species consultation process. They're the ones that ought to be making the call in terms of what kind of impact will be created as a result of whatever action will be taken. Secondly, we have the U.S. Geological Survey, coupled with the Bureau of Reclamation. They will be hugely helpful for us as we figure out in a real way how we'll address the reality of climate change. We have, in this department, a very strong group of scientists that have been working on these issues and collecting data for a very long time...

Ethanol, Just Recently a Savior, Is Struggling

Barely a year after Congress enacted an energy law meant to foster a huge national enterprise capable of converting plants and agricultural wastes into automotive fuel, the goals lawmakers set for the ethanol industry are in serious jeopardy. As recently as last summer, plants that make ethanol from corn were sprouting across the Midwest. But now, with motorists driving less in the economic downturn, the industry is burdened with excess capacity, and plants are shutting down virtually every week. In the meantime, plans are lagging for a new generation of factories that were supposed to produce ethanol from substances like wood chips and crop waste, overcoming the drawbacks of corn ethanol. That nascent branch of the industry concedes it has virtually no chance of meeting Congressional production mandates that kick in next year. The decline in fortunes has been extreme for both kinds of ethanol since last summer, when $145-a-barrel oil appeared to shift fuel economics in their favor. Only months ago, refiners in some regions were buying up as much corn ethanol as they could to blend with expensive gasoline, effectively keeping pump prices down slightly. Meanwhile, investors seemed willing to finance plants to produce next-generation biofuels. But since the summer, oil and gasoline prices have plunged, while the price of corn, from which virtually all commercial ethanol in this country is made, has remained relatively high. Refiners are limiting their ethanol purchases to a level required to meet federal blending mandates — a level far below the industry’s capacity...

Ethanol's Backers Get Gassed

From an IBD editorial:

A funny thing happened on the way to all the green profits that were supposed to be in the offing thanks to high prices at the gas pump. Corn ethanol plants "are shutting down virtually every week." An alternative energy trade group says at least 10 of the nation's 150 ethanol firms have closed some 24 plants in three months, with a dozen other companies in distress. Little more than a year after the Democratic Congress passed legislation launching a massive national effort to convert farm crops and agricultural wastes into auto fuel, it's become clear that the production deadlines aimed at greenifying your local gas station can't and won't be met. The many investors who were tripping all over themselves to finance biofuel plants last year are finding that going green can mean losing lots of green. Congress had a grand plan: It would double corn ethanol use by 2015. And by 2022, 21 billion gallons of ethanol and biofuels would be made from formerly useless stuff, ranging from corn stubble to switchgrass to municipal waste. But reality has hit like a ton of corn stalks. The inescapable facts are that corn prices remain at a market-set high, and converting the corn alternative cellulose into liquid fuel is prohibitively expensive. And there are other problems. For one, corn ethanol gets worse mileage than gasoline. For another, ethanol's corrosiveness means it can't be shipped through regular pipelines like gasoline...

Lawsuit Inc. strikes again

A Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial:

Over at the courthouse, the first environmental attorneys show up with their carry-out coffee cups, just ahead of the crows, waiting for the windows to open so they can file their latest actions, banning any further attempts at human progress in Southern Nevada. First in line today are the grim reapers of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, suing agents of the federal government for allowing plans to proceed for the development of homes and a golf course at Coyote Springs, in northeastern Clark County. The federal agencies should never have allowed owners of the property to make plans to use their own water rights by digging wells on their own lands, the lawyers will argue in court, because such "groundwater withdrawals" could destroy habitat crucial to the Mojave Desert tortoise and the Moapa dace, a finger-length minnow found only in the headwaters of the Muddy River, 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. And the aggressors can't lose -- that's the beauty of it. Oh, this lawsuit may be tossed, eventually. But by then there will be scores of others. And the smug and spike-haired plaintiffs will still be reimbursed for their time and trouble, paid off with tax dollars by the very agencies they're suing. No federal judge has ever ruled, "You're wrong; the minnows won't be harmed; furthermore, I find no evidence that you really care one whit about these minnows -- you never visit or feed them -- that instead you've brought this action for no purpose other than causing expense and inconvenience to others, and therefore I'm charging you with all court costs and defendants' attorney fees -- personally."...

Rancher Wants to Know If Oil, Gas Drilling is Polluting Drinking Water

A Pavillion-area rancher told a House committee Wednesday that he is frustrated with an inability to find out what chemicals from oil and gas drilling are being used around his home. He said he fears those chemicals may be penetrating his and his neighbors' water wells. "There has to be some regulation. There has to be some accountability," John Fenton said. He urged the committee to kill Senate Joint Resolution 5. It asks Congress and the president to preserve the exemption for the process of hydraulic fracturing in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will likely act Friday on SJ 5, said chairman Rep. Tom Lockhart, R- Casper. The committee took testimony Wednesday on the bill, which has passed the Senate. Supporters say it is about maintaining a safe, reliable practice that has been used in 80 percent of Wyoming's oil and gas wells to produce hydrocarbons that would otherwise be unreachable, adding immense amounts of money to state coffers...Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

Bill would block killing of wild horses, burros

The Press Enterprise reports:

Legislation was introduced Thursday in Congress that would prevent the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from killing otherwise healthy wild horses and burros that roam Western states. "It is unacceptable for wild horses to be slaughtered without any regard for the general health, well-being, and conservation of these iconic animals that embody the spirit of our American West," Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., said in a statement. Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has long been an advocate for wild horses on public lands. "Our wild horses are being harmed by antiquated policies," said the measure's co-sponsor Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee. "These policies must be updated to reflect Americans' desire to see these horses protected." Besides prohibiting the killing of healthy horses and burros that are removed from the range, the bill would allow BLM to revamp and expand public land areas for horses and assist in creating sanctuaries. It also calls for strengthening the agency's adoption program and increasing public involvement in management decisions, the sponsors said...

The Clean Water Act and Nonpoint Source Pollution: Implications for Agriculture

Over the past few decades there has been a significant increase in litigation surrounding western water resources, including Nevada's watersheds. Agriculture has been named as a defendant in several cases. Those involved in agriculture need to acknowledge that water, a primary input in the production process, has become a highly valued and increasingly scarce resource. And, federal legislation prioritizes the improvement and protection of water quality involving water resources nationwide. Farmers and ranchers must understand water issues surrounding agricultural activities and social concerns involving water bodies located near their operations. The first step in accomplishing this level of awareness is to understand federal and state laws regulating water quality, implementation of laws and pollutants identified as harmful to water bodies. This fact sheet explains the provisions outlined in the Clean Water Act that specifically address nonpoint source pollution and implications for agriculture...Reno Gazette-Journal

ND Senate begins debate on big-game baiting ban

Spreading corn, sugar beet waste and other bait to attract big game also could help spread livestock disease that would be devastating to North Dakota's ranching industry, advocates of banning the hunting practice say. "Baiting and feeding has become widespread in this state, and has become part of the culture in many areas," said Sen. Curtis Olafson, R-Edinburg. "It will not be easy for those who have become immersed in that culture to change. But that change must be made, for the greater good of all of our citizens." Studies by state wildlife agencies show baiting carries increased risks for the spread of bovine tuberculosis and other diseases, Olafson said during a state Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing Thursday. Opponents of a baiting ban said it would infringe on their property rights and do little, if anything, to prevent disease. During this year's harsh winter, deer are flocking to the farms for feed in any case, they said...Grand Forks Herald

New Sustainable and Humane Food-Animal Certification Underway

A long-time fixture within the animal-handling issue, Temple Grandin, is launching a new certification program to evaluate both sustainable and humane practices of a food-animal production system. The Colorado State University researcher and animal-handling expert worked with Niman Ranch to develop the program. Starting in August, producers or companies that wish to be certified will be audited on 21 core principles. In the case of a multiple-producer company, all farmers and ranchers must receive certification. There will be a certification seal associated with the audits. The 21 core principles include: * Animals must be given the opportunity to care for, interact with, and nurture their young. In the case of swine, farrowing crates are not allowed. * Practices must be implemented that prevent soil loss or degradation in production areas; minimize unacceptable or unintended poor air quality for family, workers and neighbors; and prevent water quality degradation of surface and groundwater resources. * Animals must be fed a 100 percent vegetarian diet. There must be a feeding plan that will guarantee a sufficient, well-balanced diet to appropriately meet the animals' nutritional needs at their stage in life and maintain required body condition scores. Animals shall have access to feed as long as is necessary for them to satisfy their nutrient requirements...Pork Magazine