Thursday 5/19/11

Thursday was a very interesting day. We went to a public hearing given by the USDA, Veterinary Services (VS), APHIS, and MDARD to address rule changes for the Tuberculosis and Brucellosis plans for cattle. Producers were there, Dr. Steve Halstead, many federal employees, but the industry division wasn’t represented all that well. Regardless, when Dr. LeeAnn Thomas from the USDA presented information on possible changes that could take place, producers were not shy to share their views.

This was an opportunity to offer suggestions to the federal government about critical changes that need to be implemented to transition these programs to become more of a success. We met in small group discussions regarding indemnity, program guidelines, and how to deal with affected herds. Indemnity was a heated topic with producers. Currently, the USDA only offers a “fair market value” to a farmer that they are taking the cattle from. However, many producers, especially beef herds are irate about it. They strongly believe that an animal’s weight, age, and pregnancy status should not be the only factors when figuring an appraisal value, but also genetics. Sitting in on the discussion, I completely agree with producers. If their time and effort has been spent on creating a genetically superior herd, they should receive the appropriate value for their head. Another, indefinite problem persists however, and that is budget. Currently the federal government has 1 million out of the 15 million for the TB program allotted to indemnity. The rate at which they are testing and removing herds and depopulating them surpasses this amount, especially when considering a calculator including genetic aspects.

Saturday, May/21/11

I just started my phone calls for the Wildlife Risk Mitigation Project this morning. I wanted my first call to be at home in a relaxed environment so I didn’t feel any pressure from the surrounding people in the office (not that they would)! I reached my first interviewee and she was very pleasant and very informative. My goal with this project, besides collecting the data for the state, is to learn the lingo of some farmers, relate to them in a positive manner that hopefully gives them a better impression of the state, let them share their feelings and suggestions for the program, and to be a resource for the state to gather valuable information that may improve our current system.