Funding added costs a sticking point among producers

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- Leaders of Washington's beef and dairy industries began grappling with how to pay for an animal disease traceability program at an Oct. 20 meeting in Ellensburg.

The program will cost about $930,000 per year for two years to enter five years of back data along with current data. After that it would cost about $413,000 per year to keep up with current data, said Leonard Eldridge, state veterinarian.

Data includes vaccinations, import documents and brand records that indicate the health of animals, where they came from and where they went.

Discussions revealed that initial costs may be less. Robert Gore, deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture, said he would provide refined numbers.

The backlog involves 88,000 documents. Ongoing work produces 17,000 documents a year.

The USDA is mandating programs from states to quickly trace the origins and destinations of livestock, mainly cattle, in the event of disease that threatens animal or human health.

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease -- also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE -- occurred near Mabton, Wash., in 2003 and cost U.S. industries $31 billion in lost domestic and foreign markets, Eldridge said.

That cow and the source of BSE were quickly traced to feed in Canada, but other exposed cattle could not be traced, he said.

In May 2008, Washington producers endured a scare resulting from tuberculosis found in two cattle from British Columbia, which was quickly traced and contained, Eldridge said.

"This last spring, foot-and-mouth disease from China to South Korea and Japan was just a plane ride away," he said.

The USDA wants quick traceability and containment or else the state will be quarantined. In the case of an event no cattle would be allowed out without testing, he said.

"People say why should we do this? What benefit is it to me? The answer is: Look at what it will cost you if we don't. So anything we might spend, think of it as an insurance premium," Eldridge said.

Craig Vejraska, an Omak rancher and incoming president of Cattle Producers of Washington, said state general funds should be redirected to pay costs.

Gore said that would be "heavy lifting: in the legislature. The recession is causing more state budget cuts. "We're taking $1 million out of food programs for people who can't afford to buy food and other social programs that have been sacred cows in the past, so that's the sort of competition you are up against," Gore said.

The group talked about lobbying USDA and Congress to pay backlog data entry costs.

Jay Gordon, executive director of the Washington State Dairy Federation in Elma, proposed dairymen pay a fee of $1 per cow for brucellosis vaccinations. He said that would raise about $125,000 annually and asked cow-calf producers and feeder cattle operators to generate the other two-thirds of $413,000 in annual data entry costs. Leaders of those groups discussed how to do that.

Wade King, a Soap Lake rancher and president of CPOW, said the system is incomplete without animal traceability data from British Columbia. Eldridge said annual data costs would increase by $125,000 to add Canada. King recommended a fee at slaughter so owners of cattle that came from north of the border would pay.

Ed Field, executive director of the Washington Cattle Feeders Association in Quincy, said that would put Washington's two USDA-approved feeder cattle slaughter houses at a competitive disadvantage to the next nearest slaughter houses in Utah. He said it could shut down Washington's feeder cattle industry.

King disagreed, saying it would cost more to truck cattle to Utah than pay some 50 cents a head more for slaughter in Washington.

Jack Field, executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association in Ellensburg, said getting British Columbia traceability data electronically is an issue that needs to be resolved with USDA.

The groups agreed to discuss fees with their memberships and reconvene in late November or early December.