The Cattlemen’s Capitol Concerns (CCC) is a weekly report from Washington, D.C., giving an up-to-date summary of top policy initiatives concerning the cattle industry; direct from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

Wild Horse & Burro Program:  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Public Lands Council (PLC) announced February 21 a national campaign aimed at promoting the purchase of wild horses and burros.  Letters from PLC President and California rancher Mike Byrne, and BLM Director Kathleen Clarke are going to more than 15,000 grazing permitees across the West urging public lands ranchers to consider buying the animals. But this effort is not just focused at ranchers. Anyone concerned about public and western rangelands or the welfare of wild horses should consider purchasing the horses or burros.  

The BLM spends more than half its wild horse program budget on maintaining and holding horses. If the animals are purchased by and cared for by individuals, the BLM can reduce its holding costs and commit greater resources to rangeland health and wild horse herd management goals.  The appeal comes as the BLM implements a law enacted by Congress in December 2004 that mandates the sale of certain wild horses and burros. 

Some 7,000 horses – primarily mares and geldings 11 years and older – are available for sale.  For more information call the BLM at 1-800-710-7597, send an e-mail to wildhorse@blm.gov, or talk to a local BLM manager. 

Japan Trade Update: The Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) investigations into the ineligible veal shipment that violated Japan-U.S. trade protocol on January 20 have been completed, the USDA announced late last week.  As indicated in the USDA report, the product never represented a food safety concern, but rather a technical violation resulting from human error.  USDA is mandating that all FSIS inspectors who work in plants that are certified to export beef undergo additional training to ensure they fully understand U.S. export agreements.

NCBA says they remain hopeful a decision by the Japanese government to lift the ban on U.S. beef will be forthcoming. “The world’s leading scientists, medical professionals and government officials agree that BSE presents no danger to public health in the United States,” says NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Truitt. “There simply is no science-based reason for a continued ban on U.S. beef products.”

As part of the process to lift this suspension of trade, the United States and Japan are expected to continue discussions, and will likely make a firm decision once Japan is satisfied that specific requirements for a U.S. government verification program can be met.  NCBA CEO Terry Stokes and Vice President Jay Truitt met with Secretary Mike Johanns and senior USDA staff on February 21 where they were assured that appropriate steps are being taken in government-level discussions with Japan.

Colombian Free Trade Agreement: Efforts are continuing in Washington this week on negotiations for a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).  As usual, beef is front and center in these discussions.  NCBA remains concerned that Colombia still refuses to commit to accepting a system-wide approval of beef from all USDA approved facilities.  This week NCBA met with a delegation of Colombian cattle industry leaders including the president of the Colombian Cattlemen’s Association, and reports that a healthy dialogue is taking place.  NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud says real market access, resolution of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues, including lifting the ban (due to BSE) on U.S. beef remain priorities in this comprehensive agreement.

Negotiations of the Andean FTA were launched May 18, 2004, with the intention of completing agreements with the three Andean countries (Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru) together.  The United States and Peru concluded negotiations in December 2005, with negotiations for Columbia underway now.  A timeline for movement on Ecuador is still undetermined.

Prairie Dog Control Completed:  A major step in the process to manage the expansion of black-tailed prairie dogs from the national grasslands in South Dakota and Nebraska to neighboring private lands has been completed, the U.S. Forest Service announced late last week.  Control efforts were focused on 8953 acres in South Dakota and 965 acres in Nebraska along “boundary management zones” or buffer zones next to private lands where adjacent landowners had filed requests for prairie dog control.  The Forest Service says long-term actions could include grazing management to create taller vegetation within the buffer zones to inhibit prairie dog movement.  In October 2005, NCBA and PLC participated in meetings in South Dakota with national and regional officials to seek assistance for ranchers and landowners in dealing with prairie dog populations on rangelands. 

Grazing Comments:  NCBA and the PLC are submitting comments this week on proposed revisions to the BLM’s proposed Implementing Policies of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that may allow for certain categorical exclusions for grazing permittees.  A notice in the January 25, 2006, Federal Register proposes several routine activities of public land grazing administration should be categorically excluded from NEPA analysis.  At issue for ranchers has long been the interruption of grazing permits, requiring ranchers to remove their livestock from the land while federal agencies struggle to meet environmental documentation obligations.

FSIS Announces Initiative to Reduce Salmonella:  USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced February 23 a comprehensive initiative to reduce the presence of Salmonella in raw meat and poultry products. FSIS says they want to pattern the effort after the highly successful initiative to reduce the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), led to a 40 percent reduction in human illnesses associated with E. coli.

The most recent FSIS data on Salmonella released last month showed positive sample sets decreased for all three beef categories in 2004 from previous years, and have declined dramatically since implementing the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) rule in 1996. HACCP established Salmonella performance standards in seven categories: broilers; market hogs; cows/bulls; steers/heifers; ground beef; ground chicken; and ground turkey.  FSIS collects and analyzes Salmonella samples as one part of an extensive science-based food safety verification system and publishes the data annually in aggregate form. 

FSIS will now provide the results of its Salmonella performance standard testing to establishments as soon as they become available on a sample-by-sample basis. The Salmonella initiative will be described in detail in a Federal Register notice on February 27.  Comments on the notice are due May 30, 2006.

NCBA Hosts Affiliates for DC Meetings:  NCBA affiliate executives are in Washington this week for meetings and visits with policymakers on farm bill issues.  In preparation for development of Farm Bill 2007, a number of dialogues are taking place among policymakers and stakeholder groups.  As a member-driven organization, NCBA is relying on the directives of its membership of over 25,000 producer-members and 64 affiliate organizations to establish how to proceed in setting farm bill policy. NCBA is convening affiliate summits to discuss farm bill program areas in detail.

Trade Meeting:  NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud and Kansas cattleman Dana Hauck attended meetings of the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) in Washington February 21.  The ATAC advises the Ag Secretary and the U.S. Trade Representative on a wide variety of market access and technical sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues related to existing and future trade agreements.  At this week’s meeting, topics of discussion focused on the reopening of export markets, World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, bilateral (FTA) negotiations and a long list of SPS issues.

Ames Farm Bill Forum:  NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud will be traveling to Ames, Iowa to participate in the “Focus on Farm Policy” Conference February 24-25.  Gregg will speak Friday afternoon as part of the Livestock Policy panel along with Kirk Ferrell, National Pork Producers Council and Steve Olson, Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.  For more information on this event, visit www.midwestagjournal.com/farmbill.

Congressional Schedule:  Congress is out of session this week for President’s Day recess.  They are scheduled to reconvene on Monday, February 27.

BSE Surveillance:  USDA’s Enhanced BSE Surveillance Program continues having already tested over half million high-risk animals for BSE since June 1, 2004.  As of today, the program has tested 627,769 targeted animals at highest risk for BSE and has found only one confirmed case, evidence that our safeguards are working and the prevalence of this disease in the U.S. is extremely low.  Testing 268,500 animals can detect BSE at a rate of 1 in 10 million adult cattle at a 99 percent confidence level.

Media Contact:
Tanya Augustson or Karen Batra at 202-347-0228; taugustson@beef.org or kbatra@beef.org