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Nebraska considers softening brand inspection

SIDEBAR: Nebraska bill to look at EID tag manufacturers     Senator Tanya Storer introduced LB 665, a bill that prevents the state of Nebraska from utilizing EID tags in cattle that are manufactured by a foreign adversary. Storer said it is “vitally important” to get to the bottom of this issue and learn what it means “in terms of risk, surveillance capabilities, and more.” “Our intent is not to disrupt commerce for people who use them in personal business or to put any livestock producer I the state out of compliance with the USDA, however if indeed these tags are manufactured by a foreign adversary, I’d like to be sure we are addressing it here and at the federal level and asking the right questions to get the right answers. Storer said her bill has bipartisan support and that an Senator who served in the military and currently maintains military clearance has helped her with her research and agrees there is “reason to be concerned.” LB 665 will be heard on the same day as LB 646, Feb. 11, in the Nebraska Agriculture Committee. Additionally, a bill to modernize the state’s ag zoning laws is in the pipeline.

A bill introduced in the Nebraska Legislature to exempt feedlots from the brand inspection requirement has garnered attention from the livestock industry.

Senator Teresa Ibach, a cattle owner from Dawson County in central Nebraska, introduced LB 646 which she says would unify the brand process across the state. “What it really does is provides an exemption for feedlots from the branding act so that we can create uniformity across the state for the entire feedlot industry,” she said.

Currently, feedlots that exist in counties outside of the brand inspection area not subject to brand inspection. Some feedlots within the brand inspection are designated as Registered Feedlots by the state (RFLs). Cattle going to an RFL must be inspected into the feedlot, but not inspected out of the feedlot. This leeway was given to RFLs to allow them flexibility in shipping cattle, to hopefully reduce stress on the cattle and those working and shipping them. RFLs are subject to compliance checks by the state Brand Committee.



RFLs pay at a slightly different rate than other feedlots. They pay based on their capacity, not actual number of head that are fed. If they turn cattle over quickly, they would pay less than the $1 per head fee.

Other feedlots (those not designated RFLs) that exist within the brand inspection area are under the same brand inspection laws as any other cattle operation – cattle must be inspected if they change ownership or leave the brand inspection area or go to slaughter.



Ibach said feedlots in her district have increased in recent years, and that they have asked for this change.

“My approach is to find solutions so that everyone in the cattle industry in our state feels confident and comfortable that we are working in a responsible, safe and progressive environment,” she said.

Senator Tanya Storer of Cherry County, Nebraska, said she cannot support LB 646 and that the cow-calf industry wasn’t involved in discussions leading up to the bill’s introduction.

Storer served on the Nebraska Brand Committee for at least two years and has been in the cattle business her entire life. “I don’t understand the basis for a complete exemption for any segment of the industry,” she said.

Because the legislature is dominated by urban representatives, she has tried to help them understand the importance of brand inspection.

“It is a very unique, specified business. It requires a lot of experience to oversee and make sure we’re protecting the integrity of our industry,” she said. “A lot of people don’t understand the expansiveness of what the brand committee does. They get involved in cases involving bankruptcy, divorce, estate settlements and more because often, one of the largest assets is the cattle.”

“The cattle industry is the largest cash commodity in this state. Brand inspection is very important in making sure we can validate ownership,” she said, comparing it to a bank inspector which is also a unique and highly specific service.
Chris Gentry of Hyannis is the Vice Chairman of the state’s Brand Committee, which is the volunteer board charged with overseeing the inspection program.

The Brand Committee plans to testify against LB 646 as written, he said.

Gentry said the program budget would be impossible to balance without income from feedlots, plus it would weaken the integrity of the program by not requiring any cattle headed to a feedlot to be inspected.

“It’s not fair to the cattle industry to not complete the inspection process up to the point of slaughter,” he said. “In keeping it fair and legal, we need to verify ownership. You have people in partnerships, maybe spousal issues or divorce. Those things need to be verified. Inspection is used to make discovery on those kinds of things all of the time. It’s a huge industry and it needs to be protected.”

Gentry said the chairman of the Brand Committee sat down to a meeting on this subject but wasn’t asked for input.

“We were not really involved in the construction of the bill,” he said.

He added that the brand law may need to be modernized in some fashion and that the Brand Committee would be more than happy to sit down and discuss amendments to make the bill more friendly.

Ibach said she fully expects to hear ideas from industry participants and that she will consider amendments if they make sense. “We need to think about how we can modernize the process to accommodate for more modern methods,” she said.

She wouldn’t be surprised if she finds support for an amendment to exempt retained ownership cattle from a brand inspection requirement if they are moving within the brand inspection area.

She also said it is possible that an electronic identification component could be added as an amendment.

“One thought is that if we actually want to modernize this would be to use the Electronic Identification (EID) system as a way to transfer ownership because it is computer generated,” she said.

Ibach said on her ranch, they use EID tags and also hot brand cattle for ownership. Transferring information using EID is easy, she said, and she believes EID tags could be used for proof of ownership and she may consider supporting an amendment to this end.

Spike Jordan, a cow/calf rancher from Sioux County, expressed skepticism about using EID tags for proof of ownership.

“I can cut out a tag,” he said. “It’s harder to cut off a brand.”

The bill will be heard in the Nebraska Agriculture Committee on Feb. 11. The public is welcome to attend and testify.

The brand inspection area of Nebraska consists of the following land area of counties and parts thereof: Arthur, Banner, Blaine, Box Butte, Boyd, Brown, Buffalo, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne, Custer, Dawes, Dawson, Deuel, Dundy, Franklin, Frontier, part of the south half of section 1, township 3 north, range 21, on railroad right-of-way in the west part of Oxford Town called Burlington addition in Furnas, Garden, Garfield, Gosper, Grant, Greeley, all of lots 1, 7, and 8 in block 48 in original town of Grand Island, and all of the southeast quarter lying south of the Union Pacific Railroad Company’s right-of-way in section 24, township 11 north, range 10, in Hall, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Hooker, Howard, Kearney, Keith, Keya Paha, Kimball, all of Knox except Eastern, Dolphin, Dowling, Columbia, Morton, Peoria, Addison, Herrick, Frankfort, and Lincoln townships, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Morrill, Perkins, Phelps, Red Willow, Rock, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, Sherman, Sioux, Thomas, Valley, the existing livestock auction markets in Blue Hill, all of lots 1 to 6, and lots 7 and 8, except twenty-two feet of the east side of lot 8, all in block 6, original town of Blue Hill, and Red Cloud, part of lot A, Roats subdivision to Red Cloud, lots 1 and 2 and the south one-half of block 32 in original town of Red Cloud, and all of annex lot 21, Red Cloud, in Webster, and all of Wheeler.