On April 26, 2024, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that they were amending animal traceability regulations, requiring electronically (and visible) readable ear tags for interstate movement of cattle and bison.  The rule will take effect 180 days after it has been published in the Federal Register.  This required electronically readable ear tag will apply to all sexually intact cattle and bison which are 18 months or older.  It will also apply to all female dairy cattle of any age and dairy male cattle born after March 11, 2023.

This “Frequently Asked Questions” might assist you with details that you would be interested in considering.

In last week’s newsletter we reported on the federal order that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released on interstate lactating dairy cattle movement.  After the newsletter made it to your email inboxes the agency’s Guidance document was distributed and further details were made known about the specifics.  

While the initial Guidance document provided for dairy cows which were headed straight to slaughter facilities (across state boundaries) there were still burdensome provisions relating to whether those animals which were going through auction markets and then on to out-of-state slaughter facilities.  On Saturday, April 27^th, this news release from the Nevada Department of Agriculture further clarified that Lactating dairy cows consigned to a sale barn in Nevada for subsequent interstate movement to a slaughter facility do not require a negative test.

On a vote of 212 to 202 the U.S. House passed HR 3397 which was sponsored by Congressman John Curtis of Utah.  Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei was one of the 20 co-sponsors who joined on the legislation.  HR 3397 seeks to require the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw the recently released “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule.”   Farm Bureau supported passage of the legislation and sent letters to each member of the U.S. House supporting passage.  Congressman Amodei was the only member of Nevada’s House delegation to vote in support of the bill.

There is a strong likelihood that a Senate Bill will also be introduced, but passage is rather unlikely and whatever might take place, the legislation will require a two-thirds vote to over-ride the extremely likely veto of President Biden.

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Congressman G.T. Thompson, Chair of the House Agriculture Committee have released partial information on what they are planning to be their respective committee’s version of the next Farm Bill.  This preliminary information prompted American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall to comment  that his organization appreciates the signals of some progress happening. 

On the other hand, the two sets of Farm Bill ideas didn’t come out with very extensive details.  The Senate version was an outline of the various sections that will likely become the Senate bill and the House version was also more of Title-by-Title outline.  In a video conference discussion with State Farm Bureau Presidents, part of the monthly meeting that President Duvall host, Chairman Thompson was the featured speaker, and he offered a few more details as well as answered various questions from State Farm Bureau Presidents.  The Congressman noted that he plans to have a committee markup of the bill on May 23^rd.  He also promised that the House version will include “robust” provisions aimed at “putting the ‘farm’ back in the Farm Bill.” 

Senator Stabenow has not indicated what her timetable might be for committee actions.

One of the major priorities for the Farm Bill involves the program of Crop Insurance.  American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Economist Daniel Munch offers this Market Intel Report with basic information relating to crop insurance.

The last session of the Nevada Legislature was a heavy-duty water session with a significantly increase in the number of legislative proposals.  Whether the 2025 session will include that many proposals remain to be seen, but based on the ideas being circulated from various organizations and groups with interests in water it could be a busy one.  Nevada Farm Bureau has been engaged in conversations with other water advocates and has been sorting through other concepts that have been offered by different groups.

The Nevada Legislature’s Interim Joint Natural Resources Committee will be meeting on Friday, May 10^th. There’s no agenda for the meeting at this writing but based on the conversations that we’ve been in as well as the concept papers that are being circulated, we are expecting a number of different possible ideas to be presented at the interim meeting.

This brings us to where Nevada Farm Bureau’s policy might need to be revised, prior to the start of the 2025 Nevada Legislative Session.  We’ll be better equipped to get those discussions started after the May 10^th interim committee meeting, but from what we understand at this point, Farm Bureau policy will need a complete review.

An interesting news blurb in the April issue of the newsletter from the Nevada Department of Agriculture caught our eye this week, noting that if your family has a Centennial Farm/Ranch, you need to make this milestone mark known.  You are able to reach out to make the contact through the Department’s Website Page for the Centennial Farm Program.  To qualify as a Centennial ranch or farm, an applicant’s ranch or farm must have belonged to his or her families for at least 100 years and must be a working ranch or farm with a minimum of 160 acres or if it is less than 160 acres, it must have gross yearly sales of at least $1,000.