Direct Payments May End & Producers Urge ID system

If Congress approves the Administration's proposed budget plan, it would mean more dollars for nutrition programs, but cuts in payments to very large farm operations according to Ag Secretary Vilsack.

VILSACK: I think the President’s focus is directed at large income and large sale sized farms. These are farms for the most part that receive a substantial amount – a disproportionate amount of the payments and I think over a period of time that the President believes those need to be adjusted.

Citing an increasing vulnerability to foreign animal disease, the National Pork Producers Council has urged Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to lend his support to a mandatory National Animal Identification System. The animal ID system would be used to help animal health officials trace diseased or exposed animals to their farm of origin within 48 hours, making control and eradication of any disease easier. The key component of such a system is registration of premises, which requires the collection of publicly available data, including the physical location of an operation, telephone number and contact information. In a letter to Vilsack, NPPC said - even more frightening is the threat of deliberate introduction of disease by terrorists.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

(GRANGE)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.