Money to help fight bovine TB (new law)

Cattle ranchers in the northwestern part of the state fighting to contain an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis will see some help from the state.

A new law signed May 5 by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and effective the next day, provides more than $6 million this biennium to help fund a buyout of cattle herds from ranchers who volunteer to depopulate their livestock. With four new cases of the disease detected since fall, the federal government downgraded the state’s bovine TB status, effectively stopping cattle shipments out of the state unless the animals are certified as being disease-free.

“This is having a huge impact to the cattle industry,” said Rep. Dave Olin (DFL-Thief River Falls), who sponsors the law with Sen. Rod Skoe (DFL-Clearbrook).

Cattle owners in the zone will have until July 15, 2008, to decide whether to participate in the buyout program. Those who do would be paid market-value plus $500 per head by the state and an annual payment of $75 for each animal slaughtered until the area receives a TB-free status and the owner is authorized by the Board of Animal Health to have cattle located in the zone. A cattle owner receiving payment must sign a contract with the board agreeing to:

• slaughter, by Jan. 31, 2009, all cattle that are at least 1-year-old;

• move from the zone or slaughter all cattle that are less than 1-year-old; and

• refrain from owning or allowing any livestock on the land in the management zone, unless authorized by the board.

Before payment is issued, the board will need verification that the cattle have been slaughtered.

Ranchers choosing to keep their herds intact will be subject to several testing and control requirements, including adequate fencing of their herd and grazing areas to limit access of deer or elk, which are also carriers of the disease. The state will provide a cost-share payment of up to $75,000 or 90 percent of the cost of an approved fence.

Under the law, the board is given authority to control tuberculosis and the movement of cattle, bison, goats and farmed cervidae in the state.

The Department of Natural Resources commissioner is given authority to remove, upon request, deceased deer and elk within the zone, and make a “good faith effort to inform the state’s residents to this requirement, and how a person may make a deer or elk removal request.”

HF4075*/SF3728/CH274