Farmers: Closing elk hunting would put farms, drivers at risk; Make Comments Until May 22

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A proposal by the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries to close the elk hunting season in 31 counties west of the Blue Ridge is cause for concern among farmers.

In 2012, the game department re-established about 75 elk in Buchanan County, and elk hunting was prohibited in Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties. Closing the elk season in the Blue Ridge would add those counties to the state’s Elk Management Area.

“I’m distressed to see this proposal,” said Emily Edmondson, a Tazewell County cattle producer and member of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. She represents Farm Bureau producer members in Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Tazewell and Wise counties on the board.

“The damage elk can do to crops and fences and infrastructure on farms is concerning to me,” Edmondson said. “The diseases that they carry can affect our livestock and cattle populations too.”

Chronic wasting disease, tuberculosis and brucellosis are among diseases that can accompany a re-established elk population.

Edmondson said she understands that Buchanan County wanted elk and respects their decision, but she noted that the animals could have an impact on surrounding counties that did not want them reintroduced.

“This proposal is in effect saying, ‘We don’t care what you say. We aren’t going to allow you to hunt elk.’ The elk are going to breed and grow, and essentially we won’t be able to do anything about it. I object to this.”

Edmondson said she also is concerned about the potential for damage to vehicles that hit elk on roadways. “These are 800- to 1,000-pound animals. I’m concerned that people will be hurt or killed. Elk can’t read. They don’t know they aren’t supposed to be in certain places.”

Currently hunters with a valid deer tag may hunt elk anywhere in the state except in the Elk Management Area. That hunting policy was established primarily to limit the risk of reintroduced elk—or deer—transmitting diseases to agricultural livestock and the white-tailed deer population.

The public can submit comments about the proposal to VDGIF between April 8 and May 22 at https://www3.dgif.virginia.gov/web/comment-2015/expand.asp?VAC=090-085.

Farm Bureau Members Making a Difference on WOTUS

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Stallman

The vigilant outreach efforts of Farm Bureau members across the nation are making a difference, with key votes in the Senate this week delivering a resounding message that the proposed Waters of the U.S. rule is flawed in both substance and process.

“Senators indicated they will not tolerate outlandish regulatory actions that disregard established law, and by their action put federal regulators on notice that the rule is simply unacceptable,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman in a statement. Further, said Stallman, “The Senate action amplifies the spirit our farmers and ranchers have conveyed over the past year of the need to ditch the egregious WOTUS rule. We thank senators for their understanding that America’s farm and ranch families care deeply about clean water and their recognition that the ill-advised WOTUS rule is flawed to the core.”

Earlier this month, Stallman had the following to say praising Farm Bureau members for their continued fight against the proposed WOTUS rule:

It can be difficult to keep energized about an issue when it drags on for months. That is certainly the case with Farm Bureau’s opposition to the EPA’s and Corps of Engineers’ Waters of the U.S. rule. Farm Bureau members and many others around the nation were mobilized like never before during last year’s comment period on the proposed rule, and their message was loud and clear: DITCH THE RULE!

Despite efforts by some to use every tweet, robo-email and signature on a petition as a bona fide comment, about two-thirds of the approximately 20,000 substantive comments were in opposition to the WOTUS proposed rule. That is outstanding! As proud as I am of what Farm Bureau members have accomplished—and I have never been prouder—we still have a lot of work to do.

The agencies most likely will release the final rule in just a few weeks, after which it will be reviewed by other federal agencies. While the energy and urgency of the comment period ended last November, we must use this relatively silent time between then and the coming final rule to continue letting Congress know that we need their help, because EPA is not addressing agriculture’s concerns. There is legislation in the works that would send EPA and the Corps back to the drawing board on WOTUS, and we need members of Congress to support farmers and ranchers by supporting that legislation, as well as other efforts to prevent WOTUS from going forward as originally proposed.

“Keep calm and carry on,” was the message of a famous British poster during World War II, and Americans lately have enjoyed adapting that in a seemingly endless variety of ways: “Keep calm and farm on” is my personal favorite. I am reminded of that because we need to do the exact opposite on the WOTUS issue. We can’t afford to keep calm.

USDA Implements 2014 Farm Bill Provision to Limit Payments to Non-Farmers

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Vilsack
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a proposed rule to limit farm payments to non-farmers, consistent with requirements Congress mandated in the 2014 Farm Bill. The proposed rule limits farm payments to individuals who may be designated as farm managers but are not actively engaged in farm management. In the Farm Bill, Congress gave USDA the authority to address this loophole for joint ventures and general partnerships, while exempting family farm operations from being impacted by the new rule USDA ultimately implements.

“We want to make sure that farm program payments are going to the farmers and farm families that they are intended to help. So we’ve taken the steps to do that, to the extent that the Farm Bill allows,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The Farm Bill gave USDA the authority to limit farm program payments to individuals who are not actively engaged in the management of the farming operation on non-family farms. This helps close a loophole that has been taken advantage of by some larger joint ventures and general partnerships.”

The current definition of “actively engaged” for managers, established in 1987, is broad, allowing individuals with little to no contributions to critical farm management decisions to receive safety-net payments if they are classified as farm managers, and for some operations there were an unlimited number of managers that could receive payments.

The proposed rule seeks to close this loophole to the extent possible within the guidelines required by the 2014 Farm Bill. Under the proposed rule, non-family joint ventures and general partnerships must document that their managers are making significant contributions to the farming operation, defined as 500 hours of substantial management work per year, or 25 percent of the critical management time necessary for the success of the farming operation. Many operations will be limited to only one manager who can receive a safety-net payment. Operators that can demonstrate they are large and complex could be allowed payments for up to three managers only if they can show all three are actively and substantially engaged in farm operations. The changes specified in the rule would apply to payment eligibility for 2016 and subsequent crop years for Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Programs, loan deficiency payments and marketing loan gains realized via the Marketing Assistance Loan program.

As mandated by Congress, family farms will not be impacted. There will also be no change to existing rules for contributions to land, capital, equipment, or labor. Only non-family farm general partnerships or joint ventures comprised of more than one member will be impacted by this proposed rule.

Stakeholders interested in commenting on the proposed definition and changes are encouraged to provide written comments at www.regulations.gov by May 26, 2015. The proposed rule is available at http://go.usa.gov/3C6Kk.

Farm Bureau Celebrates Virginia Agriculture Week and Ag Literacy Week

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Lindsay Reames, assistant director of Governmental Relations, reads to ABC
Preschool for Ag Literacy Week
Happy National Ag Day and happy Virginia Agriculture Week! Thank you to all our producer members:
  • for persevering despite drought and flood, freezing temperatures, parching sun, fluctuating prices and constantly changing markets;
  • for seeking better ways to do their jobs – using new techniques and advances in technology to simplify tasks, increase yields and lower prices;
  • for feeding the world – in the 1960s, one farmer supplied food for about 25 people in the U.S. and abroad; today, the number has increased to 155 people;
  • for their spirit of innovation – always looking for new products and changes that increase the quality and add value to the products they produce;
  • for valuing our land and water resources and for making their preservation and enhancement top priorities;
  • for adapting to change – expanding to meet the demands of a global marketplace while still satisfying consumers’ shifting tastes and desire for low fat, high nutrition products at home and abroad, in 2014, exports from Virginia set a record of more than $3 billion;
  • for supplying Americans with an abundant and safe food supply at a low price, enabling U.S. consumers to spend less than 7 percent of their income on food compared with more than 9 percent in Canada, 25 percent in Brazil, 28 percent in Russia and 45 percent in Kenya*;
  • for providing the basis for numerous products including medicines, cosmetics, printing supplies, fuel, lubricants, lumber, paints and sports equipment;
  • for enduring; on March 1 this year, 1,312 Virginia farms have been recognized as Virginia Century Farms, which means they have been owned by the same families for one hundred years or more.

To mark the occasion, employees at Virginia Farm Bureau’s home office collected food all week to mark National Ag Week. The food will go to the Food Bank of Wise County. The food bank’s roof collapsed in late February after a snow storm. More than $30,000 worth of food was inside, and none of it was salvageable. Employees from county Farm Bureau offices and Farm Bureau volunteers also donated to their local food banks.


We are also celebrating the Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom program’s fifth annual Agriculture Literacy Week.

Volunteers from county Farm Bureaus, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Farm Credit of the Virginias, Colonial Farm Credit, Southern States, Tyson Foods, James River Equipment and several 4-H and FFA chapters, along with AITC board members and staff and Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board members and staff, will mark the week by reading books about agriculture to children across the state. Each year more than 50,000 children learn about agriculture, food and where their basic needs come from through the Agriculture Literacy Week initiative.

Many volunteers read the 2015 Virginia AITC Book of the Year, My Virginia Plate, written by Tammy Maxey and illustrated by Greg Cravens and Kevin Pitts, and donated copies to school and classroom libraries. My Virginia Plate is a story of students learning about nutrition through preparing a Virginia-grown meal as part of a classroom assignment.

The children’s book was written to teach readers about nutrition and show how Virginia farmers produce a wide variety of foods that are a part of a healthy diet.

AFBF Says WOTUS Rule Would Disregard Exemptions

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The proposed Waters of the U.S. Rule, “unless dramatically altered,” will result in potential Clean Water Act liability and federal permit requirements for a tremendous number of commonplace and essential farming, ranching and forestry practices nationwide, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

In testimony today, AFBF General Counsel Ellen Steen told a House Agriculture subcommittee that the WOTUS rule will create enormous uncertainty and vulnerability for farmers and ranchers nationwide.

“It is impossible to know how many farmers, ranchers and forest landowners will be visited by [EPA] enforcement staff or will be sued by citizen plaintiffs’ lawyers—and it is impossible to know when those inspections and lawsuits will happen,” Steen said. “But what is certain is that a vast number of common, responsible farming, ranching and forestry practices that occur today without the need for a federal permit would be highly vulnerable to Clean Water Act enforcement under this rule.”

According to AFBF’s general counsel, several statutory exemptions demonstrate a clear determination by Congress not to impose Clean Water Act regulation on ordinary farming and ranching activities. However, agency and judicial interpretations over the past several decades have significantly limited the agricultural exemptions that have traditionally insulated farming and ranching from Clean Water Act permit requirements.

“Much of the remaining benefit of those exemptions would be eliminated by an expansive interpretation of ‘waters of the United States’ to cover ditches and drainage paths that run across and nearby farm and pasture lands,” Steen testified. “The result would be wide-scale litigation risk and potential Clean Water Act liability for innumerable routine farming and ranching activities that occur today without the need for cumbersome and costly Clean Water Act permits.”

Steen explained that because ditches and ephemeral drainages are ubiquitous on farm and ranch lands—running alongside and even within farm fields and pastures—“the proposed rule will make it impossible for many farmers to apply fertilizer or crop protection products to those fields without triggering Clean Water Act ‘pollutant’ discharge liability and permit requirements.”

“A Clean Water Act pollutant discharge to waters of the U.S. arguably would occur each time even a molecule of fertilizer or pesticide falls into a jurisdictional ditch, ephemeral drainage or low spot — even if the feature is dry at the time of the purported ‘discharge,’” Steen told the subcommittee. For this reason, farmers’ options under the rule are limited.

According to Steen, “they can either continue farming, but under a cloud of uncertainty and risk, they can take on the complexity, cost and equal uncertainty of Clean Water Act permitting or they can try to avoid doing anything near ditches, small wetlands, or stormwater drainage paths on their lands. It’s a no-win situation for farmers and ranchers.”

Virginia Observing Strict Biosecurity In Light Of Avian Influenza Outbreaks Elsewhere

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Dr. Richard Wilkes, State Veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), says the good news is that Virginia is not one of the growing number of states with cases of Avian Influenza (AI) right now. The bad news is that the highly infectious disease is spreading and has entered the Mississippi flyway.
H5N2 Avian Influenza, the strain of AI that has been diagnosed on the West Coast in the past few months, has recently been detected in the Midwest, raising concern that the disease will spread to poultry on the East Coast. The disease appears to be spread by wild waterfowl. The threat of AI is of great concern to Virginia’s poultry industry.
In light of this serious situation and to prevent potential disease spread, visitors should not enter poultry operations unless absolutely necessary. For necessary visits such as bringing in feed and other supplies or providing critical services, truckers, veterinarians and even family members should take maximum biosecurity precautions such disinfecting footware, vehicle tires, equipment and anything else that enters and exits poultry houses. Poultry owners from one farm should avoid mingling with residents of other poultry farms as much as possible.

All poultry owners, both commercial and backyard flock owners, are advised to prevent exposure of poultry to wild waterfowl from fly-overs or fecal contamination of ponds and streams. “This is the time, if ever there were one, to keep your birds under cover,” said Dr. Wilkes. “Good biosecurity is the best prevention and quick response is the key to keeping the disease from spreading, should it appear here.” Any unusual increases in poultry illnesses or deaths should be reported to one of the VDACS regional offices where poultry owners may obtain disease information and assistance.
This particular strain of H5N2 does not affect people. But as a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165˚F kills bacteria and viruses. People should avoid contact with sick/dead poultry or wildlife. If contact occurs, they should wash their hands with soap and water and change clothing before having any contact with healthy domestic poultry and birds.

For more information about biosecurity measures and plans, contact the State Veterinarian’s Office at 804.692.0601 or your local Office of Veterinary Services at the Regional Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory in your area. See the Laboratory Services section online here.