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March 23, 2018 CapitalPress.com 9 Dairy/Livestock Subscribe to our weekly dairy or livestock email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Exempting manure emissions from CERCLA gains momentum By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Animal agriculture groups are applauding the introduction of a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House that would exempt live- stock producers from reporting manure emissions under the Comprehensive Environmen- tal Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known as CERCLA. Reps. Billy Long, R-Mo., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., intro- duced HR 5275, the Agricul- tural Certainty for Reporting Emissions (ACRE) Act, on March 14. It is supported by 85 co-sponsors. If CERCLA were to be ap- plied to agricultural operations, about 200,000 livestock opera- tion would be subject to regu- lations created to address toxic waste dumps and spills, such as from chemical tanks, they said. Congress never intended the law to be applied to farms, the lawmakers said. The bill comes a month after a similar bill — S. 2421, the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act — was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. While Congress did not expressly state CERCLA — enacted in December 1980 — does not apply to farms, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency clarified that farms were exempt with a final rule in 2008. The agency successfully de- fended that exemption until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals The U.S. Capitol last year vacated the exemption in a lawsuit brought by the Wa- terkeeper Alliance environmen- tal group. New reporting requirements for livestock operations were set to go into effect on Nov. 15, but the court twice granted EPA a stay on implementation, now set for May 1. Without a legislative fix, livestock operations will have to “guesstimate” emissions from manure and report them to the Coast Guard’s National Re- sponse Center and EPA. “EPA exempted farms from CERCLA reporting because it knew responses would be un- necessary and impractical,” Jim Heimerl, National Pork Produc- ers Council president, said in a press release. “Routine emissions from hog manure do not constitute a hazardous emergency that requires the Coast Guard to activate a national clean-up re- sponse,” he said. Some farmers tried filing re- ports at the initial Nov. 15 dead- line, but the Coast Guard’s sys- tem was overwhelmed, he said. “The pork industry was prepared to comply with the re- porting mandate, but EPA, the Coast Guard and state and local emergency response authorities said they didn’t want or need the information, which could have interfered with their legitimate emergency functions,” he said. There’s not a lot of biparti- san consensus in Washington, D.C., but folks on both sides of the aisle can agree CERCLA shouldn’t apply to animal agri- culture, Kevin Kester, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president, said. “CERCLA was never in- tended to regulate cow manure, and Congress should fix this situation as soon as possible,” he said. The National Milk Produc- ers Federation agrees. “Through this legislation, Congress is stipulating that this burdensome regulatory overreach serves no legitimate health or safety purpose,” Jim Mulhern, NMPF president and CEO, said. Multi-paddock grazing enhances rangeland sustainability By DOUG WARNOCK For the Capital Press and designated as graz- ing land includes about 26 percent of all land in the U.S. It is generally ac- cepted among rangeland ecol- ogists that grassland ecosys- tems evolved from grazing by ungulates and fire. This premise suggested that grazing of rangelands dominated by native plants is a sustainable form of ag- riculture, especially in areas with limited potential for crop production. At the same time, some studies have suggested that livestock grazing has led to grassland degradation. So, in terms of rangeland health, the results of livestock use of rangeland have not al- ways been consistent. Various management systems have been developed and proposed to provide consistent positive outcomes from grazing. Sev- eral types of rotational grazing schemes have been advocated to support sustainable manage- ment of grasslands. Richard Teague, researcher with the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at Vernon, Texas, has data showing there L Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press Martin and Joy Dally of Lebanon, Ore., with the first Swiss Valais Blacknose cross lambs to be born in the U.S. Swiss Valais Blacknose cross sheep make debut By JAN JACKSON For the Capital Press LEBANON, Ore. — After four years of plowing through USDA and EU protocols, Martin and Joy Dally have welcomed the births of the first Valais Blacknose cross lambs at their farm. The first to import the ge- netics into the U.S., the Dallys say they are eager to see them flourish in he U.S. Martin Dally operates Su- per Sire Ltd., which offers genetics for the sheep indus- try, and Joy Dally operates Shepherd’s Lane, which deals in fiber, fleece and pelts from their farm. The Valais Blacknose sheep, a heritage breed native to the Swiss Alps, is small and cute enough to look at home in any toy store. As is most Swiss livestock, the people-friendly Valais graze in the mountains all summer and are brought down to the valleys and housed in winter. “It was 2014 when we first saw a photo of a Valais, and it was love at first sight,” Joy Dally said. “We knew we had to have them. Knowing that the sheep had recently been imported into the (Unit- ed Kingdom), we began our search for breeders there. “Our knowledge of im- porting genetics was put to work and after countless phone calls, international flights and filling out reams of paperwork, the semen arrived on U.S. soil,” she said. “We now are the first in the country to have lambs on the ground.” Before he retired and moved to Oregon, Martin Dally spent most of his 25- year career at University of California-Davis directing the sheep research programs at the Hopland Research and Extension Center. As one of the first people in the U.S. to use laparoscop- ic insemination as a means of improving reproduction and genetics in sheep — in 1986 — his main love is breed pres- ervation and the development of fiber sheep. “It is important to pick a foundation breed that has traits similar to the breed you are introducing,” Martin said. “A likely choice would be the Scottish Blackface as they also have the black face, coarse wool and both the rams and ewes are horned. Our Scotties weren’t ready yet so we used the Teeswater and Gotland ewes for this proj- ect.” The Teeswater has simi- lar face coloration and fiber, though the breed is a little flightier in nature than the calm Valais, he said. “The Gotlands, which have great mothering instincts and milk well, share the Valais’ calm temperament,” he said. “It is going to be interesting to see how the breed develops over the years.” He is also lending his knowledge and experience to others who have a similar de- sire to establish high-quality sheep in the U.S. “I classify myself as a steward of these new breeds and establishing sound up- grading programs is part of introducing a new breed,” Martin said. “Good guidelines are very important as every deviation leads breeders far- ther away from the breed’s de- sired characteristics. Creating a sound gene pool ensures the breed’s health and success in the coming years.” Greener Pastures Doug Warnock must be sufficient rest between grazing periods in order to avoid vegetation shifts and soil degradation on the rangeland. Many ranchers have success- fully managed their grasslands with multi-paddock grazing, some for more than 30 years, resulting in a high degree of positive ecological and eco- nomic results. Teague found the most positive results when ranchers combine adaptive management with multi-pad- dock grazing. Grassland varies from one location to another be- cause of differences in slope, elevation, rainfall, types of vegetation and other factors, making them very complex ecosystems subject to many variations. Adaptive manage- ment allows the rancher to adjust the management based on what is observed and what changes are needed. The man- agement should facilitate the proper amount of plant defo- liation from grazing and allow adequate recovery time to sustain the health of the grass- land’s plant community. Grazing research has been substantial, but there have been very few studies to iden- tify ranchers’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the alter- native grazing approaches. Teague and associates conduct- ed a survey of ranch managers to determine their perceptions of the key ecological, econom- ic and social indicators of sus- tainability of the grazing sys- tem each manager used. The use of multiple pad- docks for managing grazing resources can enhance the vigor of preferred rangeland plants, profitability and quality of life. The central hypothesis of the study was that ranch- er perceptions of each of the three elements of rangeland sustainability are positively associated with the number of paddocks in the ranch’s graz- ing system. This study showed that North Central Texas ranchers, who responded to the survey and who used eight or more paddocks perceived that the ecological status of their land was improving compared to those ranchers who grazed their livestock continuous- ly in a single paddock. The research found a direct rela- tionship between the sustain- ability scores and the number of paddocks used per ranch. Ranchers whose land was rested for longer periods of time were observing greater improvement in land health. The benefits of the multi-paddock grazing ap- proach are the result of in- creased periods of recovery after grazing and shorter periods of grazing. These perceptions are supported by published research, which indicates greater sustainabil- ity from management that embraces shorter periods of plant exposure and longer pe- riods of plant recovery. More information on Teague’s re- search can be found at Tex- as A&M’s AgriLife website: AgriLife.com. Doug Warnock, retired from Washington State Uni- versity Extension, lives on a ranch in the Touchet River Valley where he writes about and teaches grazing manage- ment. He can be contacted at dwarnockgreenerpastures@ gmail.com. NEW ITEMS! 1 1 / 2 QT. BASKETS and (3) PINT TRAYS 2561 Pringle Rd. SE Salem, OR Call for Pricing. Subject to stock on hand. www.rosepaper.com 12-3/106 503-588-8313 877-233-5548 FLAT CARS - THE BETTER BRIDGE • Lower Cost • Custom Lengths up to 90’ • Certified Engineering Services Available • Steel Construction Contractor License # 71943 Office: 541-451-1275 Email: info@rfc-nw.com www.rfc-nw.com 12-3/100 P.O Box 365 • 101 Industrial Way, Lebanon, OR 97355 ROP-12-2-1/102