Task Force Meeting Information

June 20, 2006

302 Capitol Building

Cheyenne, Wyoming

 

Legislative Members Present

Senator Gerald E. Geis, Co-Chairman

Representative Doug Samuelson, Co-Chairman

Senator Bill Vasey

Representative Mark Semlek

 

Other Task Force Members Present

John Etchepare, Department of Agriculture

Philip Marton, Livestock Board

Robert Orchard, Livestock Board

William Taliaferro, Livestock Board

Dick Hiser, Livestock Industry

Jim Magagna, Livestock Industry

Shawn Madden, Livestock Markets

Joe Thomas, Livestock Member at Large

Jim Wilson, Livestock Member at Large

 

Task Force Members Absent

Ken Hamilton, Governor Freudenthal's designee

 

Livestock Board Staff Present

Dr. Dwayne Oldham, State Veterinarian

Lee Romsa, Brand Commissioner

Paula Bivens, Record Analyst

Kathy Sherman-Boltz, Business Manager

 

Legislative Service Office Staff Present

Maxine Weaver, Staff Attorney

 

Others Present at Meeting

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Task Force Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

 

Call To Order

Co-Chairman Samuelson called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.  The order of the meeting generally followed the prepared agenda [Appendix 2].

 

Approval of Minutes

Senator Geis moved to accepted the minutes from the May 10, 2006 meeting.  The motion was seconded and passed.

 

Discussion Of Handout Materials

Brief discussion was held concerning the Notebook [Appendix 3] and the hand out materials presented to Task Force members [Appendix 4], including travel expense vouchers for inspectors, annual summaries, identification (I.D.) grant information, year end grant summaries, statutes from additional brand states.  Jim Magagna provided a copy of the 1993 Brand Inspection Task Force final report [Appendix 5].  Additional discussion included the total budget for the Livestock Board and the break down of the budget, the use of Earmarked accounts for brand inspection and band recording and the use of general fund monies for Administration, Animal health and Law Enforcement units at the Wyoming Livestock Board.  Animal I.D grant money was discussed concerning how the funds are used to fund the animal I.D. program.  Current revenue and expenditure handouts were submitted to the Task Force members [Appendix 6].

Animal Identification Training

Lee Romsa explained the purpose of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and gave a short presentation.  Dr. Jim Summers presented the equine program he has developed for Wyoming.  He handed out information highlighting the development of the program which began April 1, 2005, the cost, present status and what will be needed to keep the program moving forward, including expenses for scanners for all inspectors and increased advertising of the program [Appendix 7].

 

Sandy Snider demonstrated several scanners and electronic tags that are currently being used in another pilot I.D. program being conducted on cattle and sheep.  It was noted that not all scanners could be used on all three species of livestock. 

 

Discussion From the Task Force

The Task Force members discussed the ID programs, what role animal ID plays in the foreign marketability of livestock, if animal ID gives Wyoming producers a leg up in the marketability of our livestock, what is the actual purpose of the animal I.D. system and what accountability is there on the pilot programs currently being used in Wyoming.

 

An overview of the comments from the June 7, 2006 listening session held in Casper at the Wyoming Stock Growers Convention was presented by the Task Force members present at the session.  An audio of the session is posted on the Wyoming Stock Growers web site.  Other topics included the cost of inspections, should producers have to pay for the additional duties done by inspectors other than the inspection program, what are producers willing to pay to keep the inspection program, what forms could be changed in order to more accommodate the producers, are county-to-county inspections necessary, are sheep inspections necessary and are horse inspection necessary.  County line inspections and the Form G in the state were discussed.

 

Shawn Madden handed out information at the meeting that included, brand inspection forms and a form used to identify source and age verification of livestock being marketed [Appendix 8].  The bulk of the discussion evolved around whether or not the Form G should be replaced by a form the producer could fill out themselves and send either electronically or via the mail to the Livestock Board office with 48 hours, showing the number of livestock being moved from pasture to pasture across county lines with no change of ownership, on an honor system among the producers and the Livestock Board.

 

John Etchepare moved to separate brand inspection from Animal I.D.  Senator Vasey seconded the motion, but the motion and the second were withdrawn.

 

Senator Geis moved to keep Form G for all movements to livestock Markets.  The motion was seconded by Senator Vasey.  The motion and the second were withdrawn.

 

Form G discussion was continued regarding if the Form G could be used for county-to-county movement as well as sale barn movements.

 

Senator Vasey moved to continue county line brand inspections.  The motion was seconded by John Etchepare.  With a vote of 5 for the motion and 7 against the motion, the motion failed.

 

In-state range movement permits and out-of-state accustomed range permits were explained to the Task Force members.  Discussion included the time frame to get permits, cost, radius of inspections compared to county line boundaries, whether the permit provides for adequate tracking records, sale barn movement, what pertinent information from these permits can be used for tracking disease and tracing stolen livestock across county lines.

 

Senator Geis moved to keep the custom range permits.  The motion died for lack of a second.

 

Jim Magagna moved that all livestock moving instate to an instate market must be accompanied with the form signed by the owner or manager prior to moving.  Senator Geis seconded the motion.  The motion passed.  Jim Magagna announced that an amendment to this might be added at a later date.

 

Senator Geis again moved to keep the custom range permits, with the Livestock Board implementing rules and regulations.  The motion was seconded by Bill Taliaferro and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Sheep and cattle inspections were discussed., including whether or not inspections were needed on sheep and whether the sheep inspection program is paying for itself.  Without the sheep inspection, the question came up on how the state would collect predator fees on sheep and if an honor system among producers would work.  Pamela Haas gave handouts to Task Force members, including Arizona sheep inspection and cost information for club lamb and seed stock sheep production in Wyoming [Appendices 9and 10].

 

Bill Taliaferro moved to table whether or not to have sheep inspections.  The motion was withdrawn by Bill Taliaferro.

 

On the issue of whether to keep horse inspections, Judy Horton will mail a handout to the Task Force members before the next meeting.  Discussions included, trace back information for diseases outbreaks, New Mexico’s policy on equine I.D., how many inspections are done each year in Wyoming, the possibility of lifetime inspections only on horses, concerns of whether inspections are needed with micro chips in horses.  Wyoming is considered a leader in equine traceability and ownership verification.  The Task Force asked for more equine input before making decision on whether or not to cut horse inspections out of program and asked if the horse inspection program is paying for itself.

 

Testimony from the General Public

Public comments concerning county line inspections were discussed along with accustomed range permit benefits to the livestock industry, including making accustomed range applicants pay regular inspection fees for one year instead of two years.  Rules for accustomed range permits already exist and could be changed by the Wyoming Livestock board members.  Discussion included if the inspections stop theft and if they benefit neighboring producers who have lost cattle, radius of inspection areas versus county line perimeters, the fee structure, bio-terrorism concerns and how to track livestock within Wyoming borders that aren’t changing ownership and are not being shipped out of state.

 

Senator Geis moved to take all fee structures out of the statutes and let the Wyoming Livestock Board set the inspection fees.  Bill Taliaferro seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Bill Taliaferro moved to keep present county-to-county inspections, seconded by Dick Hiser. With a vote of 7 in favor of and 6 against, the motion passed.

 

Discussions included, what agency should the Brand Inspection program be placed under or stay with current State Agency they are now under, what portions of the agency should be funded with general funds, how other agencies such as Game and Fish incorporate general fund monies in their program, opinion of Governor, whether or not to make inspectors full time or keep them as at-will contracted employees, raising pay scale of inspectors, extra duties of inspectors, review of current statutes and changes that can/should be made, training of inspectors, average age of inspectors, review process.

 

List of issues and requests

The Task Force asked the Livestock Board to provide the following for discussion at the next meeting:

• Description of Assistant State Veterinarians duties

• Specify other duties of inspectors with accurate breakdown of time spent doing them

• Comparison of summary breakdowns for inspection costs from 2001-2005.  Show how much money was lost from year to year

• Breakdown of workforce now in place for agency:  costs, duties and who handles what

• Define duties and responsibilities of the various divisions in the department

• Spell out responsibilities of Livestock Board

• Description of inspector duties

• Average age of inspectors currently employed

• Description of performance review for inspectors to assess performance and work load

• Training process for inspectors

• PowerPoint of inspector budget so they can adjust calculations while looking at screen

• Comparison of Salex costs compared to cell phone costs for inspectors

• Estimated costs of computer training for inspectors

• Estimated costs of getting an information technology person and updating the department

• Review of regulatory changes and any statutory changes

• Information on what it would take to make inspectors state employees

• Amount of dollars general fund needs to pay based on an estimate of 60% of duties are public and 40% are industry duties

• Copy of rules and regulations

 

Schedule of Task Force Meetings:

The next two meetings of the Task Force will be:

 

August 8, 2006 at 8:30 A.M. in Room 302 of the State Capitol, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

 

September 13, 2006 at 8:30 A.M. in Room 302 of the State Capitol, Cheyenne, Wyoming

 

Report due:

The final report is due October 31, 2006 to the Joint Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Interim Committee.

 

Adjournment

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 3:10 P.M.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Doug Samuelson, Co-Chairman