Message from the President

Serving as ICA leader is an honor, full of challenges and rewards

BY JAY SMITH ICA President

From membership to wolves to grazing fees, being on the front lines means shifting gears a lot

As my term winds down and we head toward our annual business meeting, I would like to sincerely thank the membership for electing me. Serving all of you in this capacity has been an honor and, without any doubt, a highlight of my cattle-raising career.

I have been heavily involved with the ICA for 20 years, but nothing really prepares you for this job. It’s a lot like gathering strays in big country on a colt. The task seems daunting at first, but like any job, you saddle up bright and early, climb aboard and point in the direction of the work.

That work our association does is challenging and rewarding, but often unpredictable. Like my fresh colt at daybreak, new issues pop up, and you are suddenly collecting yourself in a new direction.

I have gone in many directions this year, logged a lot of miles and been involved with a multitude of issues. I want to highlight a few in this article and look forward to discussing them all as we meet up somewhere along the trail.

Membership: The best part of this job has been getting to know more of you. Thank you for the invitations and hospitality at your county/ regional meetings. The association does not exist without your support, and communication is key to ensuring we are continuously and consistently working to improve the business climate for cattle producers in Idaho.

Wolves: This is a subject myself and the ICA have been involved with since the 1990s. It is a subject that will not be going away in our lifetimes, but I hope that some tools and changes made in the past year will assist producers dealing with this problem.

There were three particular things high on the ICA’s priority list as we drafted legislation. 1. The ability for the Wolf Depredation Control Board to extend a control action in an affected game management unit. In the past, a control action might have expired before the problem was resolved. Now with the ability to extend, problem wolves can be pursued in the winter months, when the success rate and therefore the cost effectiveness are much greater. 2. Funding increase for the F4WM reimbursement program. Now, with higher funding, Idaho sportsmen are able to afford to spend more time and resources in the backcountry assisting in the removal of problem wolves. 3. Collaring: In the transition from federal to state wolf management, funding for activities such as collaring was lost and our ability to locate problem animals was diminished. This winter, Idaho

Communication is key to ensuring we are continuously and consistently working to improve the business climate for cattle producers in Idaho.

PHOTO BY LAZY S ANGUS Remember to “strap your saddle across every battle and hold on as long as you can.”

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Fish and Game, in conjunction with Wildlife Services, intends to install 25 new collars in the state. I know that much more is needed, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Idaho Department of Lands grazing rate re-

view: This issue has not been on our plate as long as wolves, but the process is approaching a decade in its longevity. The most recent proposal from the Idaho Department of Lands was to take the National Agricultural Statistics Service public grazing rate and take some deductions to account for the non-fee costs associated with grazing on public ground. This is where it gets tricky. The Land Board wants these deductions based on science, but the number keeps changing based on whose science is deemed valid. I had a friend in college who came from a long line of successful farmers. In agronomy class when he disagreed with the professor, he would always say: “Well, that’s just my opinion. I’m no professional; it’s just how I make my living!”

This line would always make me laugh back in school, but in recent months it has come back to the front of my mind with a more factual and less humorous tone. The current rate formula gives a partial non-fee deduction for things such as salt, mineral and freight.

Now, as public lands grazers, we are professionals. So why is our data not valuable here? The government has never bought salt or provided trucking for anyone we have talked to. Does it really take a university study to illustrate this fact? Can someone just look at the checkbook ledger and see that these expenditures have never been made? The true professionals are the hardworking men and women out working on and caring for the land every day.

My colt has now developed into a nice young horse, and the strays are pretty much rounded up. Time for me to ride off into the sunset and let Mark pick a green colt from the pen and begin his own gathering. Just remember to “strap your saddle across every battle and hold on as long as you can!”