Nebraska Senator Teresa Ibach has dropped yet another amendment for the bill to lessen brand inspection requirements for feedlots within her state’s brand inspection area.
Ibach, a Dawson County cattle owner has told TSLN that she herself uses a hot brand on her own cattle, and because they are within brand inspection area with covers the western 2/3 of the state, she must obtain a brand inspection when she sells or moves her cattle out of state, or if she takes them to a registered feedlot (RFL).
Amendment would cap RFL fees at $10,000 and reduce inspection requirements
Ibach introduced legislation, LB 646, early in the session to exempt RFLs from brand inspection requirements. That bill has been amended several times and the current amendment on file would eliminate brand inspection requirements for RFLs and backgrounding lots if the cattle do not change ownership and if “evidence of ownership” accompanies the cattle. This evidence of ownership is not limited to a third party verification of ownership – it could include paperwork such as bills of sale or scale tickets.
The amendment also updates the brand inspection fees for RFLs, requiring a fee of $.25 per head of their one-time capacity, capped at $10,000.
Additionally, the amendment increases the brand inspection fee cap to $1.50 and adds a $20 daily surcharge which will help the brand committee to cover some travel expenses for brand inspectors
What are RFLs?
Although current law requires that cattle owners obtain a brand inspection when cattle are taken to the slaughter plant, RFLs are given an exemption to that rule. Because harvest-ready cattle are subject to injury and stress-related health problems, minimal human interaction at shipping time is ideal. In addition to this, market-ready cattle are sometimes shipped at night time, and brand inspections cannot legally be performed after dark.
Because of these and other challenges, special rules allow RFLs to “inspect in” to the feedlot rather than inspecting “out” of the feedlot. The Nebraska Brand Committee audits the RFLs brand paperwork in an effort to minimize strayed, stolen or missing cattle in those feedlots.
RFLs pay the Nebraska Brand Committee $1 per head of their one time capacity, and because feedlots typically do not feed cattle for a full year, they pay less than $1 per head annually for the privilege of shipping to market with no inspection requirement. A 100,000 head feedlot would pay $100,000 per year.
Amendment requires EID report
An unexpected new portion of the latest amendment, and an issue that Ibach had not addressed up until this point, is a requirement that the Nebraska Brand Committee submit a report to the legislature on “electronic inspection.”
Ibach told TSLN that her intent is that the Nebraska Brand Committee would provide details to the state legislature on what it would cost and what support is needed in order to implement a program that gives brand inspectors the tools and or software to scan electronic identification tags for proof of ownership. Under Nebraska law, EID tags can legally be considered proof of ownership on cattle, but the brand committee has lacked the funds to fully implement such a program.
Cherry County Senator Tanya Storer, a rancher and former Nebraska Brand Committee member has consistently opposed the feedlot exemption bill and told TSLN that her concerns remain.
Storer believes that the law needs to require at least one inspection into RFLs. She has also said RFLs need to pay their fair share for the right to ship with no inspection. She has said that lowering the RFLs fees to anything less than half the current fee structure is not acceptable.
The Nebraska Brand Committee has not yet said publicly whether or not it supports this amendment.
Ibach told TSLN that the amendment could come to the floor next week.