Wildfires: ICA opens wildfire donation fund; OR requests grazing flexibility for ranchers affected by wildfires; Devastating wildfires in WY burn protected species habitat.
Idaho Cattle Association to offer relief to beef producers impacted by wildfire | Idaho Mountain Express – Cattle producers affected by wildfires this summer have until Oct. 24 to apply to the Idaho Cattle Association’s Wildfire Relief Fund. Qualifying groups or individuals include Idaho cattle producers, rangeland fire protection associations, volunteer fire departments or organizations, and individuals or others that provided assistance or resources to fight wildfires this summer that caused losses or threatened cattle producer’s livestock, property or resources, according to a press release from the cattle association. Examples of an incurred expense might include emergency feed, transport or pasturing or fencing loss. The beef industry is responsible for injecting about $2 billion annually into Idaho’s economy, and it is a vital part of Idaho’s history and culture, Idaho Cattle Association president Jerry Wroten said in the press release. “The impact of these fires on cattle producers will be felt for many years and some producers may not ever financially recover if they don’t have access to relief funding assistance,” Wroten said. “The Idaho Cattle Association is here to support producers in a variety of ways and this is just one of the most relevant during this fire season.” In addition to accepting applications, the Idaho Cattle Association is accepting donations to the fund. The fund receives annual contributions from AgWest Farm Credit and Idaho Cattle Association funds, according to a press release from the association. All funding is privately-sourced. To donate to the fund or receive an application, contact the Idaho Cattle Association’s office at 208-343-1615 or visit its website. According to the website, the Idaho Cattle Association works on behalf of the more than 8,000 cattle-producing families in the state of Idaho and has a membership of over 1,000 members. It is the only organization in the state that deals exclusively with the needs and interests of Idaho’s cattle industry.
Oregon leaders call on U.S. government for help, flexibility to help ranchers | Oregon Capital Chronicle – This summer’s historic wildfires in Oregon have taken a toll on ranchers and their more than a million cows and other livestock, prompting a unified plea by the state’s top leaders for federal help. Gov. Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency and invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act nine times to deploy state resources to help ranchers and local communities. And then at the end of July and again in early August she called on the U.S. government for help. She asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate 23 counties in central, southern and eastern Oregon disaster areas and open up federal resources to help devastated communities, a plea that was backed by all eight members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans. “As climate chaos continues to worsen – turning fire seasons into fire years that see millions of acres scorched and countless lives forever changed – we must make sure communities can access the federal resources they need to equitably recover from these increasingly devastating fires,” the lawmakers wrote. The delegation and Kotek asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to work with the U.S. Forest Service, which falls under the USDA, to modify grazing permits. She and Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden made the same request to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM manages more than 245 million acres nationwide, including 16 million in Oregon and Washington. Oregon ranchers, who own more than 1.2 million heads of cattle and sheep, depend on that land to feed their livestock in the summer. But they submit their grazing plans in the winter, months before they know where the fires will burn. And this year the blazes were historic: A total of 1,650 fires scorched over 1.5 million acres in Oregon, setting a new record. Much of the land blackened was grazing allotments, said Matt McElligott, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.
Wildfires blacken key sage grouse, pronghorn habitat in northern Wyoming | WyoFile – Even some pronghorn, the fastest land mammals in North America, could not outrun the blazes burning across northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana. Wildlife biologists don’t have a final tally, but right now they’ve documented as many as 50 antelope died recently while trying to navigate fences to escape one of northern Wyoming’s four raging wildfires. “This was a really fast-moving fire that covered a lot of ground in one day,” Tim Thomas, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Sheridan regional wildlife coordinator, said about the House Draw Fire east of Buffalo that has burned more than 170,000 acres. The carnage raised enough alarms that the Game and Fish Department issued a press release on Aug. 22, the day after the fire began, telling people to report injured animals that may need to be euthanized. It was an unusual step taken in response to unusually destructive fires. The Flat Rock, Remington, Constitution and House Draw fires have burned almost half a million acres in slightly more than a week, taking with them untold acres of native sagebrush, grasses, fences and other infrastructure. Wildlife in the West have historically benefitted from fires burning across the landscape, with blazes creating opportunities for new growth. But in an era of climate change, on a rangeland fundamentally changed by invasive species, coal-bed methane development and other fragmentation, biologists worry the aftermath of these fires could be grim. With the four fires still burning, wildlife managers and researchers weigh the benefits and drawbacks of these kinds of blazes, highlighting that when the final embers die out, some species may win, and without human intervention, species like sage grouse and pronghorn may lose.
Industry: NCBA shares insights on beef industry policy insights with SDCA; USDA cattle inventory low, prices high; Ag Secretary Vilsack examines decline in farm income after years of success.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association discusses policy concerns for cattle producers at Dakotafest | Agweek – The new EID ruling and the Charles and Heather Maude indictment case were just some of the topics of discussion at a meeting hosted with members from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association on Aug. 21 at Dakotafest. The South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association welcomed members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association policy team to host a discussion panel during the second day of Dakotafest which ran Aug. 20-22 in Mitchell, South Dakota. Ethan Lane, the vice-president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the discussion comes at an important time with the upcoming election and deadline approaching for the 2024 farm bill. “Producers have a lot of questions,” Lane said. “We want to make sure we’re getting the latest information from them as well, so that we’re making those connections between these conversations out here in the country and what’s going on in Washington, D.C.” Lane said the farm bill is filled with important tools and programs for farmers and ranchers to take advantage of whether that be through resources such as voluntary conservation or risk management programs. “This is the opportunity every five years for Congress to look at those programs, to talk with USDA, producers and stakeholders, and make sure that those programs are doing what producers need them to do,” Lane said. “What we learn year over year, is there’s always some tweaks. That five-year cycle of refreshing the farm bill is an opportunity to look under the hood, make sure we tighten all the bolts and make sure that the car is running properly.” A large part of what the NCBA policy team is working to do is to make sure the bill stays current and effective for cattle producers across the country.
US cattle inventory hits lowest since 1951 | The Beef Site – In its January Cattle Inventory report, USDA estimated that total cattle and calves in the United States were 87.2 million, the lowest since 1951, according to a recent market report from Bernt Nelson at the American Farm Bureau Federation. The country’s cattle producers, he said, facing stress from multiple years of drought and high supply costs, have been marketing a lot of cows and heifers since 2020, so fewer of these female cattle are available to produce calves. USDA’s July Cattle Inventory previously provided a breakdown of the US cattle inventory including the calf crop for the first half of the year. Without this report in 2024, it is much more difficult to estimate what cattle supplies look like for the remainder of the year. Farmers and stakeholders will have to wait until January to receive this data. In the meantime, analysts will be using what they do have available to piece together the overall market outlook. Feedlot inventories are slowly reflecting the lower cattle inventory. In its July Cattle on Feed report, USDA estimated all cattle and calves on feed in the United States was 11.3 million on July 1, up 1% from a year ago. Heifers and heifer calves accounted for 4.48 million head. While this is up only slightly, this is near the record-high number of heifers and heifer calves for the July 1 report and makes up about 40% of the overall cattle on feed. Historically, heifers make up around 32% of the overall cattle on feed. This is a strong indicator that farmers are still not withholding heifers to rebuild the US cattle herd. One particularly important metric the July Cattle Inventory would have provided is the size of the calf crop for the first half of the year. This is the time when most of the US calf crop is born. It takes about a year for a heifer calf to reach maturity for breeding. These calves that could be replacements will not reach breeding age until 2025. The first opportunity for herd expansion will be possible if farmers begin to withhold heifers from this year’s calves for breeding in 2025. This means the arrival of the 2026 calf crop will be the first opportunity on the horizon to increase the cattle inventory.
Vilsack addresses the current state of farm incomes | Agweek – Farm income from 2021-2023 was the best when compared to other three-year cycles in the past 50 years, said USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at Farm Progress in Boone, Iowa, on Aug. 28. However, 2024 is different. “This year, obviously, we are seeing much lower commodity prices and therefore, understandably, we are seeing a reduction in farm income,” Vilsack said. “In fact, it is about a 25% reduction.” It is difficult to determine between a good year and a great year in agriculture, he said. “Here’s why: because there has been a heavy concentration of the income that is generated within American agriculture,” Vilsack said. During the 2021 through 2023 period, Vilsack said roughly 85% of the income was received, generated and obtained by 7.5% of the 1.9 million farms in the country. That means around 150,000 farms received 85% of the income. “That is why it is so difficult. When we see farm income numbers, we have to understand that it doesn’t necessarily translate to every farmer receiving that level of support,” Vilsack said. This year, the USDA is projecting $116 billion in net cash farm income this year. That compares to $155 billion last year. “If you take that $116 billion and you basically multiply it by 85%, the 85% that those 150,000 farms will receive, and you essentially averaged it out over every farm in that 150,000, they would receive about $650,000 of income,” Vilsack explained. “They are big operations, certainly understandable that they would receive a significant amount but that would be $650,000. If you took the remaining 15% of that farm income, and you spread it out over the 1.7 million farms, each one of those farms would receive about $10,000, he said. “That is fundamentally the difference. Large, large farms receiving a significant amount. Smaller and midsize farms having a harder time,” Vilsack said. “I think it is important for us, policy makers for the department, to understand and appreciate that distinction because we need production agriculture.”
Gray Wolves: Cooper Creek wolf pack to be relocated after rancher’s voice concern.
Copper Creek wolf pack relocation: Ranchers applaud decision, wildlife advocates question ‘risky operation’ | KOAA News 5 – Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced in a Tuesday night press release that it would capture and relocate the pack following a series of depredations in Grand County. Most recently, eight sheep were killed in a July 28 incident. The Copper Creek pack recently made headlines after producing the first wolf pups since the reintroduction in Colorado. The pups were recently captured in this video, which was released to the public. CPW said it would release more information after the relocation operation was complete. It’s a move that the Defenders of Wildlife questioned in an interview Wednesday.
“How does [CPW] intend to safely capture the entire pack when, as best we know, only the mother has a working collar,” asked Michael Saul, whose organization advocated for the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. “It’s hard to catch wolves in the best of circumstances and it’s especially risky to attempt to capture pups under six months old.”
CPW had previously denied a request from a local rancher to take lethal action against the wolves in July. The rancher has been requesting help from CPW since April following multiple cases of depredation. In a letter, CPW said in part that the rancher had “delayed using or refused to use other nonlethal techniques that could have prevented or minimized depredations.” Additionally, the letter said the use of a “dead pit,” where the dead bodies of cattle were placed, was attracting the wolves to the property.
“Some tools were used, but the recommended correct tools, and tools offered at public expense were either not used or were not accepted,” said Saul. “It’s tragic to see that pack removed to an uncertain fate, in a risky operation, as a short-term solution to one ranch’s problems.”
However, Middle Park Stockgrowers president Tim Ritschard disputed Saul’s claim that ranchers aren’t using nonlethal deterrents. “We’ve used every single one of them,” he said. “Nonlethal has a shelf life.”
Water: ID water rights forfeiture laws stand as U.S. loses bid to block.
U.S. loses bid to block Idaho water rights forfeiture laws | Reuters – A U.S. judge has rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s bid to block Idaho from enforcing laws that provides ranchers a path to take control of water rights the federal government holds for public land it makes available for livestock grazing. But Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye in Boise in Wednesday’s ruling, opens new tab said several other laws the state enacted in recent years that restricted the federal government’s water rights violated the U.S. Constitution. A spokesperson for Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a Republican, in a statement welcomed the ruling, saying the state had prevailed in its defense of the forfeiture process, the “most important issue in the case, by far.” “The court thus upheld the constitutionality of Idaho’s forfeiture statutes as they apply to stockwater rights the United States acquires under Idaho law,” Dan Estes, the spokesperson, said. “Our office is reviewing the balance of the court decision to determine the best course of action forward.” “The Justice Department declined to comment. The complex ruling came in a 2022 lawsuit by the Justice Department challenging laws Idaho enacted from 2017 to 2022, that limited federal agencies’ ability to acquire and retain water rights on millions of acres of land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The case stems from a decades-long legal process Idaho initiated that culminated in 2014 to sort out water rights within one of the largest watersheds in North America, the Snake River Basin.
Sage Grouse: WY game authority approves pen-raised sage grouse to be released in the state for the first time.
Game and Fish approve of plan to release pen-raised greater sage grouse into the wild | Powell Tribune – A plan to release pen-raised greater sage grouse into the wild by Upland Hills, LLC (formerly a division of Diamond Wings Upland Game Birds) has been approved by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; the first time the species raised and bred in captivity have been approved for release in the state. “The slated release plan is part of a collaborative research project with Utah State, the International Order of T. Roosevelt (IOTR) and Upland Hills (formerly known as Diamond Wings) to study the successes and failures of captive-raised birds that are released,” said department Public Information Officer Breanna Ball in an email exchange. Upland Hills, solely owned and operated by Park County resident Karl Bear, is the only state-certified sage grouse farm in Wyoming and the only private entity currently raising the species of concern in the U.S. Bear purchased the grouse breeding facility last year from oil entrepreneur Dennis Brabec, who bought the facility that also raises game birds for hunting from former state Sen. Diemer True. Bear has managed the business for years and is the only person certified by the state in the application process. Bear has extensive experience breeding and raising game birds, which the company will continue to do at a separate location under the Diamond Wings monicker. The company raises and sells tens of thousands of upland game birds across the West. Bear was previously an administrator at Northwest College before quitting to run the game bird farm full-time. He has been working on the sage grouse project since 2004, long attempting to convince state wildlife managers and legislators the bird could be raised in captivity and possibly be “a tool in the tool belt” in efforts to conserve the species, Bear said.