Wolf News

MSCA Testifies at Senate Committee on Wolf De-listing and Management

On January 5, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on wolf de-listing and management. The committee heard from the MN DNR about long-term wolf management plans, including plans for instituting a wolf hunt in the fall of 2012. The Committee also heard from Mark Johnson with the MN Deer Hunters Association, and John Chute from Aitkin, who provided testimony on the behalf of the MSCA. Following is the MSCA statement that was provided to the committee.

The Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association applauds the decision by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to de-list the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List, which is set to become effective January 27, with management control returned back to the State of Minnesota.

The MSCA is hopeful this decision will stand and that the de-listing process is not suspended or delayed due to legal action by certain interest groups. If legal challenges disrupt this de-listing process, as they have in the past, the MSCA stands ready to aggressively press the Minnesota congressional delegation to immediately de-list the wolf and further protect its de-listing from frivolous lawsuits. We would encourage everyone to join us in this effort.

Despite de-listing, there still is a need for professional wolf trappers to respond to wolf complaints to mediate the conflict between wolves and landowners in the wolf range. It is deeply concerning that USDA officials have decided to defund this program and terminate the employment of professional trappers within the wolf range. In fact, landowners currently have no one they can call to remove problem wolves. It is important to remember that with management control of the wolf returned to the state, the state will incur additional fiscal responsibilities to properly manage the wolf. Accordingly, the MSCA appeals to the Minnesota legislature and Governor Dayton's administration to expeditiously enter into discussions with the USDA to develop a cooperative cost-share agreement so trappers can stay on the job to respond to landowner complaints.

Also, despite de-listing, the MSCA asks that Minnesota legislature continue to fund the Minnesota Department of Agriculture wolf depredation program to pay for livestock lost to wolves.

Wolf Trappers are Off-the-Job

USDA Administration officials have unilaterally decided to defund the wolf trapping program in Minnesota, and there are no longer any trappers on-the-job able to respond to wolf attacks.

The MSCA has been in communication with our members of Congress, the MN DNR and MN Dept of Agriculture in an attempt to find a remedy to the situation. In preliminary discussions, it appears the State of Minnesota will need to identify and allocate dollars to enter into a cooperative agreement with the USDA to continue this service. As part of those discussions, we will also need the USDA to commit dollars for a cost-shared program.

Wolf Management Set to Return to State on January 27

If the de-listing process is not disrupted by legal action, the MN DNR will be granted full authority over wolf management starting January 27. After this date, landowners in Minnesota will have additional rights to harass or kill wolves on their property.

As a reminder, in the Northern Zone A, you can only harass or kill a wolf that is presenting an "immediate threat" to your livestock or domestic animals. In the remainder of the State Zone B, an individual can kill or harass a gray wolf located on their property. All incidents must be reported to the DNR within 48 hours. You can read more about the wolf management plan at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/wolves/mgmt.html

Next MSCA Quarterly Meeting, March 3

The next MSCA Board of Directors quarterly meeting will be held Saturday, March 3 at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, located at 2100 Arrowwood Lane NW. The Executive Committee will meet from 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. with the Board of Directors meeting to follow. A buffet lunch will be served around noon. The Board of Directors meeting is open to any MSCA member and their guests.

Some issues that will be discussed during the meeting include: update from state legislative session; livestock permitting issues; expanded grazing lands efforts; 2012 Summer Tour, Beef Expo, and Annual Convention; and prospects for updating the state beef order with a corresponding increase in the state check-off.

Cattlemen at the Capitol Days Set for Feb 8 and March 21

Please join the MSCA at their Cattlemen at the Capitol Days on February 8 and March 21. The group will be meeting at 9:00 a.m. at the Best Western Kelly Inn, which is located at 161 St. Anthony Avenue, St. Paul on both days.

We will begin the days with a morning briefing starting at 9:00 a.m. sharp with our legislative consultant Bruce Kleven. The group will then hopefully have the opportunity to meet with some state agency representatives from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to discuss a variety of priority issues. The key issues we expect to focus on this session include: wolf management and funding; further reform to improve the permitting process; and state land management, especially expanded grazing.

If you plan to attend either day, please email Joe Martin at ruralstrategies@gmail.com.

MSCA 2012 Priority Issues

To View the 2012 MSCA Priority Issues Click here.

MSCA Launches Minnesota Beef Alliance

The Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association (MSCA) is excited to offer our allied industry partners a new opportunity to support and become more actively involved within the MSCA.

The MSCA has launched a new effort titled the Minnesota Beef Alliance (MBA). The MBA is an effort to formally organize and offer benefits to our Associate Members. The primary goal is to better foster dialogues and partnerships amongst cattle producers and allied industry leaders to identify issues confronting Minnesota's cattle sector and develop strategies to overcome those issues.

Highlights of MBA Program:

• Will be forming a steering committee of industry leaders to guide development of the program.
• Opportunities for annual package sponsorship and registration to events. Information enclosed
• Receive timely and relevant information via an electronic newsletter.
• Receive special invitations to participate in:

1. Legislative and policy events
2. Committee discussions
3. New programming, such as a young and beginning rancher program
4. Coupon booklet
5. Facilitated allied industry meetings to strategically address a variety of issues, such as research priorities and regulatory challenges.

Please click the following link to learn more about the program and how to become involved: Click here.

Minnesota Beef Council Board of Director Elections

Elections for five Minnesota Beef Promotion and Research Council directors will be held during late March. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture which coordinates commodity Council elections will mail ballots to all eligible producers on March 18th. The results are expected to be available about April 25th.

Mail ballots will automatically be sent to all beef and dairy producers who voted last year. Any producer who wishes to vote and did not vote previously must complete and return a mail ballot request card no later than February 1st. Producers may request a ballot request card by sending an e-mail to ron@mnbeef.org, phoning the Minnesota Beef Council at (952) 854-6980 or by writing directly to the Minnesota Beef Council, 2950 Metro Drive # 102, Bloomington, MN 55425.

Districts holding elections and the counties they include are listed below.

District 1: Becker, Clay, Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake and Roseau.

District 4: Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Lac Qui Parle, Otter Tail, Pope, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, Wilkin and Yellow Medicine.

District 5: Benton, Carver, Kandiyohi, McLeod, Meeker, Morrison, Renville, Scott, Sherburne, Sibley, Stearns, Todd, Wadena and Wright.

District 7: Cottonwood, Jackson, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood and Rock.

District 8: Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Freeborn, LeSueur, Martin, Nicollet, Rice, Steele, Waseca and Watonwan.

If you are interested in running for a board seat, click here: Download Candidate Nomination Form

MSCA Comments on Revisions to Feedlot Rules to Improve Process

Background on 2011 Legislative Changes

The 2011 Minnesota Legislature enacted a law change governing the issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Previously, the state rule and law required mandatory NPDES permits for feedlots with 1,000 animal units or more, or some smaller operations that met certain criteria. The revised state law now requires an NPDES permit only for those livestock operations that meet the federal definition or propose to discharge. Therefore arguably, there will be several livestock farms that will no longer need to obtain the federal NPDES permit.

Over the last several months, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has been sorting out what the new law would entail. Here are some statements the MPCA has made:

• Livestock operations that meet the federal definition of a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) will be held to a zero discharge standard. Livestock farms of all sizes can be potentially classified a CAFO if they have an area on their farm that does not have permanent vegetative cover and may have potential run-off of manure.
• Livestock farmers must individually assess whether or not they have a discharge. Clarification of what constitutes a discharge is pending from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and MPCA.
• Operations currently holding an NPDES permit can retain existing permits which provides some liability protections.
• Operations that no longer meet the federal definition to obtain an NPDES, but would be classified a CAFO, will be required to obtain a State Disposal System (SDS) permit.
• The MPCA plans to update the 7020 rules to clarify which sites are required to have permit coverage with the rule being finalized in fall 2012 and permits issued soon after.
• There are some looming issues that the MPCA has pointed out with moving away from NPDES/SDS to stand-alone SDS permits, namely that SDS permits will hold the farm to a zero discharge standard; not provide exemption for 25-year, 24-hour storm event; not provide liability protection from citizen lawsuits under Clean Water Act; and individuals will need to obtain separate stormwater permits.

The MSCA submitted the following comments:

The Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association (MSCA) provides the following comments and recommendations for how the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) should proceed in terms of amending Minnesota Rules 7020, in order to accurately reflect statute changes made during the 2011 Legislative Session.

Regardless of size, cattle farmers should NOT BE REQUIRED to obtain a joint NPDES/SDS or individual NPDES or SDS permit if their facility is not proven to discharge.

The MPCA should amend all sections of the current 7020 rules that specifically require cattle farmers to obtain NPDES/SDS permits if they are over 1,000 animal units or meet a certain definition of an animal feeding operation, as arbitrarily decided upon by the MPCA and/or EPA. Specifically, section 7020.0405 should be revised.

The MSCA suggests that the MPCA should only be able to require a joint or individual NPDES/SDS permit if the agency can prove the cattle farm has or will "discharge manure contaminated waters" that actually violates a numeric water quality standard.

Accordingly, the MSCA would recommend the MPCA suspend their internal process to develop a new individual SDS permit. Operations that are proven to discharge would simply obtain the current joint NPDES/SDS permit which the agency has been issuing. Cattle operations could also obtain this permit if they so choose. It would seem developing a new individual SDS permit would not be a wise use of agency resources.
Cattle farms over 300 animal units would still be subject to registration with MPCA and required to develop manure management plans.

As stated prior, the MSCA believes that no operation should be required to obtain a joint or individual permit NPDES or SDS if they are not proven to discharge and violate a numeric water quality standard. It is important to note that all of these farms would still be subject to county ordinances.

For those operations over 300 animal units, the MSCA supports 7020 rules that would:
1. Require registration with the MPCA and provide all information as currently outlined in 7020.0350;
2. Require the development of a manure management plan that is subject to review by regulatory personnel;
3. Require public notification requirements for cattle farms over 500 animal units as outlined in 7020.2000; and
4. Require abiding by current requirements in 7020.2100 related to liquid manure storage areas.

Cattle farms under 300 should also be subject to registration with the MPCA and encouraged to develop manure management plans.

As stated prior, the MSCA believes that no operation should be required to obtain a joint or individual permit NPDES or SDS if they are not proven to discharge and violate a numeric water quality standard. It is important to note that all of these farms would still be subject to county ordinances.

As stated prior, the MSCA believes that no operation should be required to obtain a joint or individual permit NPDES or SDS if they are not proven to discharge and violate a numeric water quality standard. It is important to note that all of these farms would still be subject to county ordinances.
1. Require registration with the MPCA and provide all information as currently outlined in 7020.0350; and
2. Encourage or incentivize these cattle farms to develop manure management plans;

Cattle Farms with Cow-Calf and/or Stocker-based operations
As stated prior, the MSCA believes that no operation should be required to obtain a joint or individual permit NPDES or SDS if they are not proven to discharge and violate a numeric water quality standard. It is important to note that all of these farms would still be subject to county ordinances.

As long as the site maintains permanent vegetative cover (e.g. pastures during growing season), the site should not be subject to any registration or manure management plan requirements.

On locations where cattle are winter fed, and permanent vegetation cannot be maintained, the site may be registered with the MPCA, and subject to inspection to see if a manure management is being handled appropriately.

On other outside supplemental feeding locations (e.g. stocker/backgrounding operations) the sites may be registered with the MPCA and subject to inspection to see if a manure management is being handled appropriately.

Construction and Stormwater permits
It would seem reasonable that some operations should be required to obtain individual construction and/or stormwater permits if they plan to disturb a large area of land during construction or if roofs on structures would collect large amounts of rain water may run across the feeding area and discharge to surface waters.

Rather than setting animal unit thresholds, the MSCA would recommend that the requirements for obtaining these permits be tied to the amount of land that is proposed to be disturbed during construction, or if rainwater would actually leave the site and enter surface waters.

Updating of definitions and specific changes to 7020 rules

• Striking all references to concentrated animal feeding operation

The current rule makes several references to the definition of concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) as defined in the code of federal regulations. Once a facility is defined as a small, medium or large CAFO by regulatory personnel, several additional regulatory requirements are called for on the state and federal level.

Considering the definition of a CAFO has been subject to several legal challenges and the overall confusing nature of what is and what is not a CAFO, the MSCA would seek removal of this term from the 7020 rule. The MSCA believes a more appropriate trigger for permitting would be whether or not the MPCA can prove the cattle operation has or will discharge and violate a numeric water quality standard.

• Redefining “manure contaminated run-off” in subpart 13b of 7020 rules, defining “discharge” and specifically reference what the “numeric standard” is.

The MSCA would encourage the MPCA update their definition of manure contaminated runoff in the following way: Manure contaminated runoff means water that has come into contact with animal manure and drains over land from any animal feedlot, manure storage area, or animal manure land application site, which reaches surface waters and violates a numeric water quality standard.

In reviewing the rules, the MSCA was unable to locate the actual definition of a "discharge" or any reference to how a discharge would violate a water quality standard. The MSCA would encourage the MPCA to work with the stakeholders in including an actual definition of "discharge", what are the "water quality standards", and what discharges would actually violate a standard and necessitate a NPDES/SDS permit .

• Revising 7020.2015: Livestock Access to Waters Restriction

This section of rule should be revised to allow cattle grazers to access surface waters for watering of cattle. There are several cattle farmers who both operate a feedlot and cow-calf herd which are separate entities. Regardless of permitting requirements for the feedyard, cattle farmers with pasture/stocker operations should be allowed to have access to water cattle.

2011 Convention Wrap-Up

The Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association (MSCA) held their annual convention and beef industry trade show at Jackpot Junction Convention Center on December 1-3.

Leadership
During council meetings on December 2, Chad Zehnder from Stanchfield and Krist Wollum from Porter were elected to lead the Cow-Calf and Feeder Councils. On December 3, delegates at the Annual Meeting elected Dar Geiss from Pierz as President-Elect and Tim Nolte of Sebeka as Vice President for the organization. New regional directors joining the leadership team will be Gary Sampson from Motley, Richard Pesek from Taunton, Roger Wagner from Hillman, and Jon Olson from Trimont.

"We have a great leadership team that represent diverse interests in the cattle sector, and I'm looking forward to working with them as we grow our organization and address important issues facing our business," said President Don Schiefelbein.

Awards
The Cattleman of the Year award was presented to Dale Lueck from Aitkin. "Dale has dedicated countless volunteer hours to the organization ranging from serving as Treasurer, Membership Chair and Editor of the Minnesota Cattleman. Most of all Dale has spearheaded efforts to address wolf management in the State. Anyone living in the wolf range should personally thank Dale for all of his work," said President Don Schiefelbein.

The Beef Industry Service Award was presented to Dennis Swan from Balaton. "The MSCA is proud to recognize Dennis for his years of service on the Minnesota Beef Council. Dennis is a dedicated volunteer leader for Minnesota's cattle sector and is always respected for his wise leadership and advice," said President Don Schiefelbein.

Myrna Scharpe of Arlington was awarded the Cattlewoman of the Year.

TB-Free Recognition
During the Convention, Neil Hammerschmidt from the United States Department of Agriculture presented a TB-Free recognition certificate to MSCA President Don Schiefelbein and Russell Walker a Roseau County Commissioner and cattle producer.

Next Year's Convention
The MSCA Board of Directors has chosen the Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria as the site of the 2012 MSCA Annual Convention and Trade Show on December 6-8, 2012.

Thank you to Sponsors

Thank you to Exhibitors

Thanks to Auction Donors
Thanks go out to the following auction donors. Due to everyone's generous contributions, we were able to raise over $15,000.

Individuals

Businesses/Organizations

Questions or Comments about MN State Cattlemen's?
Contact:

Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association
Joe Martin, Executive Director
1011 Minnehaha Ave West
Saint Paul, MN 55104
email
MSCA Phone: (651) 756-7351
MSCA Fax: (651) 756-7354

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