Posted 10/08/2020

North Dakota Stockmen’s Association Member Update: Oct. 8, 2020

The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) is proud to be the voice of the state’s beef cattle producers. Here are a few things you should know:

NDSA 91st Annual Convention & Trade Show begins today, runs through Saturday

The NDSA’s 91st Annual Convention & Trade Show begins today, Oct. 8, and runs through Oct. 10 at the Ramkota in Bismarck. The NDSA has taken extra precautions to ensure attendees’ safety and is excited for an action-packed weekend of education, business and fun.

Here are just a few of the highlights: Today, at 3 p.m., the Cattlemen’s Education Series will focus on “Improving Price Discovery and Transparency in the Beef Industry.” An expert panel of industry thought-leaders will talk about Livestock Market Reporting (LMR), cash trade mandate and other market reporting legislation, industry efforts and enhancement to LMR. A nearly 50-vendor Trade Show will also open tonight. On Friday, members will meet officer and director candidates, hear about direct beef marketing opportunities in North Dakota and set the direction of the organization through the afternoon policy meetings. The Ringling 5 will be the featured entertainment at the “Roaring into the ‘20s” Fun Night, which includes ‘20s-themed activities. On Saturday, a star-studded speaker lineup will grace the stage at 8 a.m. Under Secretary of Ag Greg Ibach will talk about the USDA cattle market investigation and report, Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer will highlight cattle-related legislation and activity in the Beltway, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Marty Smith will bring greetings from his industry organization and Ladd Erickson, McLean County state’s attorney, will offer tips about protecting yourself against scammers. Registration information can be found here. Registration for the full convention or one day is available on site at the Ramkota.

Department of Trust Lands fall surface lease auctions to begin Monday

The North Dakota Department of Trust Lands’ (DTL) fall surface lease auctions, which will be held in an online format following an executive order in April, will begin Monday. Last week, the department amended its contract with EnergyNet and removed the requirement for bid allowances for surface lease sale bidders. For more information, call EnergyNet at (806) 463-3621 or (877) 351-4488 or visit www.energynet.com/page/How_to_Bid. For questions about specific tracts, contact the DTL at (701) 328-2800 or dtlsurface@nd.gov.

NDSA shares members’ perspective on proposed rule to require RFID tags

The NDSA weighed in on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s proposed rule regarding the use of radio frequency identification tags as official identification for cattle and bison this week. Following is an excerpt from those comments:

The NDSA recognizes the importance of protecting the health and well-being of the domestic herd now and in the future and the role that accurate, efficient animal disease traceability efforts play in protecting the health and viability of the cattle industry.

Our members have been engaged in the discussion about Animal Disease Traceability and electronic tags for decades. In a resolution passed at our convention last year, they identified questions and concerns that remain about the transition to an electronic identification tag mandate, including the cost to grassroots cattle producers and auction markets, what technology will be required, the confidentiality of producer information and the ability of electronic tagging technology to perform at the speed of commerce and in the extreme environmental conditions of places like North Dakota.

We appreciate USDA including provisions in the proposed rule that allow state animal health officials in states sending and receiving cattle to agree to accept alternative forms of identification, such as registered brands, tattoos and other methods acceptable to breed associations in lieu of an official ear tag. We also appreciate the fact that animals with official identification already in place would not have to be retagged and the existing official ID would continue to be recognized throughout an animal’s life.

We also appreciate that USDA is not pursuing an expansion of the Animal Disease Traceability program to include other classes of cattle, such as feeder cattle, that do not already fall within ADT rules. We believe that a phase-in of other classes would certainly require a separate rulemaking and we do not support their inclusion at this time, especially since other segments of the industry have not yet adjusted to the technology and established the infrastructure needed to support it.

Those things said, many questions and concerns remain. There will be an increased cost to producers if RFID ear tags (and the associated infrastructure needed to support them) are mandated, and this cost is unlikely to be shared equally across industry segments. The market disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic, the Holcomb, Kan., plant fire, and weather disasters across the country have severely impacted cattle producers and their bottomlines over the past year. An early estimate by leading agricultural economists of the cost of the COVID pandemic on the beef industry alone pointed to a $13.6 billion loss. The federal government has invested billions of dollars in COVID-related relief for agricultural producers to help them offset these unprecedented challenges. As such, it does not seem appropriate for the federal government to, at the same time, add a new mandated cost on cattle producers that they have not been subject to before. UDSA needs to consider this timing and how it will cover the costs associated with such a mandate.

The technology-neutral approach spelled out in the rule may provide flexibility to some in the industry, but it also will force others within the industry, such as our auction markets, to invest in multiple technologies in order to accommodate the variety of RFID systems that present themselves. This will add cost and labor and needs to be addressed.

The protection of producers’ confidential information is paramount to the NDSA. We believe it is critical that data does not get into the wrong hands. The goals should be to protect producers’ proprietary information and to guard against any information inappropriately being disclosed to anti-agriculture interests who intend to use it to target those in food production. It is important that USDA provides more assurances that this data is protected for the reasons described.