Sage Signals
Voice of the Nevada Livestock Industry
Volume XXXV, #7
INSIDE ✧
Calendar page 2 ✧
Wild Horse Sanctuary page 4 ✧
Hundreds File Court Challenges Against State Engineer Water Ruling page 5 ✧
BSE pages 7-9 ✧
NCBA President Says Federal Mandate on Livestock Production Compromises Animal Welfare page 10 ✧
Beef Council Checkoff page 11 ✧
Market Reports pages 12-13 ✧
MAY 2012
Published monthly for its membership
NCA Attends PLC/NCBA Legislative Conference in Washington DC
I keep being told, “Once summer comes, things will slow down at the office.” This month marks my fifth month working for Nevada Cattlemen’s and we’re still as busy as day 1. Working for the ranching industry, I should have known better. Summer isn’t when the work slows down…. Work is just getting started! This month brought our Public Lands Council/National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (PLC/ NCBA) Annual Legislative Conference in Washington DC. Members of NCA gathered at our nation’s capital to meet with state leadership and federal land management agencies to discuss current issues and bring awareness to concerns of the ranching industry. This Conference serves as an important part of the year for every State’s Cattlemen’s Association and affiliates to meet with state delegations and address the unique issues and circumstances that face the cattle industry around the nation. As over 90% of Nevada is public lands, many of the presentations from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service addressed concerns of NCA. Presentations included the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Division, BLM employees of the Rangeland, Riparian and Plant Conservation Division and the U.S. Forest Service Rangeland Management Division. The Conference also presented updates from Affiliates of the beef industry. Affiliate updates were presented by the Association of National Grasslands, the American Sheep Industry Association and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The Conference featured a presentation from Rep. Lucus (R-OK) in regards to the House Agriculture Committee and the Farm Bill 2012. With discussion of the Election 2012, NCBA also presented a political analyst who discussed the current races by state and nationally. Further into the week began meetings “on the Hill” with congressional representatives and agency leadership. Members of NCA met with Senator Reid, Senator Heller, Congresswoman Berkeley and Congressman Amodei and congressional staff members. Meetings with agency leadership included; Director Bob Abbey (BLM), Chief Tom Tidwell (USFS), and Chief Dave White (NRCS) as well as several Division Chairs. Our meetings proved to be productive and NCA was able to address a variety of legislative issues affecting Nevada producers. Current legislation that NCA discussed with leadership included the support of the Grazing Improvement Act, controversial U.S. Forest Service water rights, revision of the Endangered Species Act, repeal of the Estate Tax, and the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971.
The Grazing Improvement Act has been introduced by Senator Barrasso (R-WY). This Act will codify the language of the appropriations bill that assures grazing permits are renewed in a timely manner. This bill will prove to be more cost effective for land management agencies by extending the life of grazing permits and make crossing and trailing permits of livestock, exempt from NEPA review. The original intent of the Endangered Species Act was to prevent the extinction of species by recovering and removing them from the threatened or endangered species list. Despite this worthy goal, the Act has had an extremely low success rate having only declared less than two percent of listed species, recovered. Recommendations for ESA reform have been submitted to the House Natural Resource Committee by the livestock industry. The Estate Tax (also known as the Death Tax) significantly impacts multi-generation farms and ranches that are essentially asset-rich and cashpoor family businesses. In December 2010, Congress passed temporary estate tax relief effective through December 31, 2012. The Death Tax Permanency Repeal Act has been introduced in the House by Rep. Brady (R-TX) and in the Senate by Senator Thune (R-SD). The Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 significantly affects the lives of many Nevada producers. By not abiding by the Act, Bureau of Land Management has not achieved appropriate management levels to sustain a viable wild horse population and maintain healthy rangelands. Because of budgetary concerns and the continued adjustments to management of wild horses, discussion of revisions to the Act were presented by BLM leadership and discussed by NCA with congressional and BLM leadership. A continued controversial discussion, the ownership of water rights in the State of Nevada by the federal government, was once again debated. The USFS has been refusing to provide funding for maintaining or developing new water developments for private water rights on public land unless partial ownership is granted to the agency. USFS has been implementing new policy to deny renewal of grazing permits to try to enforce the agencies need to own these private water rights. NCA stressed our concern with this issue to congressional representatives and USFS leadership. Much like all of you, the work has just begun for the NCA office and officers. Although we had a great week and many productive meetings in Washington DC, it was clear to me, as always, we have our work cut out for us.