Happy Spring, Cattlemen and Cattlewomen! What a winter we saw throughout Nevada this year. The weather experts have been saying we are in the middle of a shift from La Nina to El Nino. The neutral pattern we are in now in has been dubbed “La Nada” by some, but winter was anything but nada this year. I hope the early calvers got by without too much difficulty, but one thing I know is that consistent freezing temperatures with blizzards added in is not kind to newborn calves or those old trusty mother cows. Here’s to happy calving and a mild spring instead of more of that white stuff or flooding.
This month is going to be busy per usual. On the docket for April, National Cattlemen’s Association (NCA) will be sending a contingent to Washington D.C. for the NCBA/PLC Annual Legislative Conference. This is a good opportunity for NCA to meet face to face with our Congressional representatives to discuss priority issues. The Farm Bill will be a major discussion point this year. There is a lot of uncertainty with the Farm Bill as inflation continues to hang around like the plague, especially for those of us in agriculture. This is all while spending coming out of our nation’s capital continues at a warp speed pace. It’s going to take some out of the box thinking to come up with a plan that supports livestock producers while being mindful of national deficit. While things are nowhere near fleshed out, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a baseline of $709 billion dollars over five years and approximately $1.5 trillion over ten years. These estimates are based on required spending on mandatory farm bill programs if current law continues. Obviously, those are some big numbers, but NCA will be working hard to make sure key livestock programs remain in place. We also intend to discuss animal disease traceability, wild horses, federal land designations and much more during the trip.
On the state side of the equation, the Nevada Legislature also continues their work at warp speed pace. By my count there are 676 resolutions and bills up for consideration with more able to be added until March 20th deadline for legislation to be introduced. The pace at which legislation is heard and considered makes it tough to provide an accurate assessment of where things stand as they seem to change by the minute, but recently NCA’s Legislative Affairs Committee Chair, Davy Stix, expressed NCA’s support for Senate Bill 113, which would create some sideboards for water basins that are designated as critical management areas. Most importantly, SB 113 would protect prior appropriation – also known as “first in time, first in right” by ensuring that any restrictions to groundwater withdrawals in basins designated as critical management areas conform to priority rights. Senior water right holders would also have the opportunity to participate in a groundwater management plan but would not be required to do so.
NCA also testified in support of Assembly Bill 109 which would establish a Soil Health Advisory Board and also create a Healthy Soils Initiative which would allow conservation districts to leverage funding for on the ground soil health projects.
We are also keeping a close eye on several bills that will have had hearings by the time you read this or will soon have hearings scheduled including the following: Senate Bill 90 which would designate wild horses as the “State Horse” of Nevada while also seemingly classifying the estray horses in the Virginia Range currently managed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture as wild horses as well. Assembly Bill 102 proposes to ban coyote hunting competitions in Nevada. Assembly Bill 70 aims to remove the current requirement that 80% of the $3 fee collected for a game tag be used to manage predators and would instead direct the collected fees to be used to prioritize programs, activities, and research that will provide the greatest benefit to big game mammals.
Most recently, the NCA testified in opposition of Assembly Joint Resolution 3 which would add a new section to the Nevada Constitution with the opening section declaring that “Each person has an inherent, inalienable, indefeasible and self-executing right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, and a stable climate, and to the preservation of the natural, cultural, scenic and healthful qualities of the environment.” If passed the bill would have to be passed again in the 2025 Nevada State Legislative Session and then be put on the ballot for all Nevada voters to approve/disapprove. As written, the resolution would give special interests and activists groups undefined and potentially unlimited legal standing to sue based on perceived environmental wrongs.
All things considered, NCA remains in a great position to influence the policy impacting livestock producers on both the state and federal levels, but there’s still a ton of work to be done. Stay tuned as bills continue to be debated and work their way through the process. I’ll continue to do my best to try to make sense of the often times non-sensical.
by Martin Paris, NCA Executive Director