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The Federal government administers policy and publishes regulations for livestock and livestock-related issues through USDA and other Federal agencies. Federal farm policy covers programs ranging from livestock insurance for eligible counties to environmental conservation programs. Federal regulations on manure storage and disposal, animal health and safety, mandatory price reporting, and country of origin labeling have implications for how livestock and meat are produced and marketed.
Policy
 Federal commodity programs for livestock are generally not comparable to those for crops. The two exceptions are Dairy and Wool.
Livestock producers who have suffered losses due to weather-related disasters or other emergency conditions may receive Natural Disaster Assistance through USDA's Farm Service Agency. Examples and description of these programs include:
- The Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops, including forage crops for livestock producers, when low yields, loss of inventory, or prevented planting occurs due to natural disasters;
- The Livestock Indemnity Program provided benefits to livestock producers for livestock deaths caused by natural disasters occurring between January 2005 and December 2007, including losses because of blizzards that started in 2006 and continued into January 2007;
- The Livestock Compensation Program provided benefits to livestock and catfish producers who suffered feed losses or incurred additional feed costs directly resulting from natural disasters occurring between January 2005 and December 2007, including losses because of blizzards that started in 2006 and continued into January 2007;
- Livestock Assistance Grants provided $50 million in State block grants to help livestock producers partially recover forage production losses due to certain drought conditions during 2006; and
- The Feed Indemnity Program provided payments to eligible livestock owners and cash lessees who suffered feed losses or increased feed costs due to 2005 Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Ophelia, Rita, and Wilma.
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Act) provides indemnity payments to eligible producers for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather.
When producers are experiencing financial stress, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) may purchase meats, poultry, fish, and egg products for domestic feeding programs to stabilize prices through its Food Purchases program.
USDA's Risk Management Agency offers Insurance for Cattle and Swine that provides protection against declining livestock prices or gross margins (livestock price minus feed costs).
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service oversees USDA's Disease Eradication, Animal Health Surveillance System, and Emergency Management Response System. It is Federal policy to pay an indemnity based on fair market value for any animals seized and destroyed for public or animal health reasons. Seizures of animals due to exotic Newcastle disease, avian influenza, pseudorabies in swine, and some other livestock diseases are included in this category.
The discovery in December 2003 of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) in a dairy cow in Washington State led USDA to announce additional safeguards to bolster U.S. protection systems against BSE and further protect public health. APHIS provides the latest USDA information on BSE.
There are also Federal programs that give participating livestock producers payments for adopting conservation and environmental measures aimed at protecting natural resources. The programs are designed primarily to enhance or conserve soil and water resources. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service administers multiple programs for livestock operations. These include the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides technical, educational, and financial assistance to eligible farmers and ranchers to address soil, water, and related natural resource concerns on their lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost-effective manner. The Conservation of Private Grazing Lands initiative provides technical, educational, and related assistance to conserve and enhance private grazing lands. Among the stated purposes of the initiative are the conservation and improvement of wildlife habitat, fish habitat, and aquatic systems.
Regulatory Issues
 Animal waste. A primary regulatory issue associated with livestock production is manure storage and disposal. During livestock production, animals are often kept in confined lots. The density of animals on these lots determines the volume of manure that will be produced per unit of area, and hence the concentration of manure nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous, both of which can be pollutants in high enough concentrations). Research is ongoing into various aspects of manure management, such as animal feeding, manure handling and storage, land-spreading techniques, and cropping systems to properly recycle manure nutrients. Manure can be used as a fertilizer, but improper use can lead to groundwater contamination. Livestock waste regulations are promulgated and enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency. Feedlot operations are specifically addressed under the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation regulations.
Poultry and hogs are generally kept in confined areas for their entire life cycle. Beef cattle and sheep are generally raised on rangeland and pastures and then finished on feedlots, where the animal densities are high. Dairy production is intermediate in nature, with the dairy cattle being fed and milked in confined units, but allowed out to pasture for a given period.
The portion of livestock production that occurs on forage (or pasture and rangeland) also affects the environment through herding and feeding activities. Livestock can contribute to erosion and water pollution. To the extent that livestock consume naturally occurring forage, they also compete with native and wild species for the same food sources. This is important when private livestock are grazing on public range land. Federal agencies administrating public lands (the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, for example) have set rules as to where, and in what density, livestock may graze on public lands, so that livestock production does not diminish the capacity of the land to produce multiple-use benefits for the American public.
Animal health and food safety. In addition to regulations concerning the impacts of livestock production upon the environment, there are regulations related to importing livestock from other countries, livestock feeding practices, and food safety for meat products. Although administered by different Federal agencies, these regulations are designed to protect the food-consuming public and livestock-producing enterprises.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is responsible for inspecting imported live animals. Careful monitoring of imported livestock is necessary so that transmissible diseases—such as foot-and-mouth disease, swine flu, and avian flu—do not spread to U.S. food-producing animals. Diseases that are specific to certain types of livestock can cause catastrophic economic losses to U.S. producers, as well as affecting the availability and prices of meats and other animal products. APHIS is the first line of defense in preventing animal diseases that can also infect humans from entering the U.S. food supply.
Regulations surrounding livestock feeding provide similar safeguards for the Nation's food supply and public health. Administered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulations are designed to keep contaminants and diseases out of the food supply at the farm and feedlot levels. (Information is available from FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.) The regulations state that mammalian proteins (feed supplements derived from mammal tissues, such as meat and bone meal) cannot be fed to ruminants (cows, sheep, goats, etc.) as these are possible sources of BSE, which preliminary evidence has linked with a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. FDA has also promulgated regulations stating that all animal feed ingredients must be properly labeled to prevent animal byproducts, such as meat and bone meal, from entering the ruminant food supply chain.
Federal regulations further govern the inspection of livestock prior to slaughter and their meat products thereafter. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspects slaughter facilities, animals, and meat products. For food safety, FSIS generally focuses on food-borne illnesses caused by microbes such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria. FSIS also provides a line of defense against diseases such as BSE by inspecting slaughtering plants, animal health prior to slaughter, post mortem examinations of animals displaying symptoms of illness or disease, and random routine examinations of slaughtered animals to ensure product quality and safety.
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Act) included provisions for enhancing animal health protection and animal welfare. To ensure domestic livestock health, APHIS may prohibit or restrict import of any animal or related material, if necessary, to prevent the spread of any livestock pest or disease. The agency may also prohibit or restrict exports if necessary to prevent the spread of livestock pests or diseases from or within the United States. APHIS has express authority to hold, seize, treat, or destroy any animal, as well as to limit interstate livestock movements. Owners are to be compensated based on fair market value of destroyed animals and related material. APHIS may also take measures to detect, control, or eradicate any livestock pest or disease.
The 2008 Farm Act directed establishment of a voluntary trichinae certification program and compensation for industry participants and cooperating State agencies for 100 percent of eligible costs in conducting livestock pest or disease detection, control, or eradication measures relating to control of low-pathogenic diseases.
Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting. The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 represented a government response to demands by livestock producers for more price information at various stages in the marketing chain. The purpose was to provide information regarding the marketing of cattle, swine, lambs, and their products that 1) can be readily understood by producers, packers, and other market participants, including information with respect to pricing, contracting for purchase, and supply and demand conditions for livestock, livestock production, and livestock products; 2) improves USDA price and supply reporting services; and 3) encourages competition in the marketplace for livestock and livestock products.
USDA's Mandatory Price Reporting (MPR) program was implemented in April 2001. Under this program, certain livestock packers and livestock product processors who annually slaughter an average of 125,000 cattle or 100,000 swine, or slaughter or process an average of 75,000 lambs, were required to report to USDA the details of all transactions involving: purchases of livestock, domestic and export sales of boxed beef cuts, and sales of boxed lamb cuts and lamb carcasses. Importers who annually import an average of 2,500 metric tons of lamb meat are required to report information concerning the sales of imported boxed lamb cuts.
The statutory authority for the program expired in September 2005; however, most packers continued to provide information on a voluntary basis, anticipating that the mandatory system would be reauthorized. All reports continue to be published except those for slaughter cows and imported boxed lamb. In October 2006, MPR was reauthorized through September 30, 2010, with some modifications to swine reporting. Because USDA’s legal authority to run this program lapsed, its authority must be reestablished through the normal rulemaking process. Work on this process is underway.
MPR has differed in several ways from the AMS voluntary reporting system. Under the voluntary reporting system, buyers and sellers voluntarily provide information to AMS, while MPR participation has been mandatory for packers. The voluntarily reported information, while accurate, is predominately negotiated cash transactions, which continue to become a smaller percentage of total livestock and meat transactions. Information collected is generally limited to the volume, weight, grade, and price.
Mandatory reporting encompasses all transaction types and, more importantly, packers are required to report all transactions and not just those that they prefer to provide under the voluntary system. Information is collected electronically from packers through the mandatory reporting system. Data accuracy is confirmed through auditing of packer records. As a result of mandatory reporting, formula and contract market information is now available. Livestock marketing has evolved from pricing live animals to a system of quality incentives based on carcass characteristics. MPR has taken into account this evolution and has required packers to report information about premiums and discounts for quality characteristics.
Country of origin labeling. The 2002 Farm Act required retailers to inform consumers of the country of origin at the final point of sale for covered commodities, which include muscle cuts of beef, pork, and lamb; ground beef, lamb, and pork; farm-raised fish and shellfish; and wild fish and shellfish.
AMS issued guidelines for voluntary country-of-origin labeling in 2002 and was originally required to promulgate mandatory regulations by September 30, 2004. However, on January 27, 2004, President Bush signed Public Law (P.L.) 108-199, which delayed implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling for all covered commodities except for wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2006. On November 10, 2005, President Bush signed P.L. 109-97, which delays the implementation for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised and shellfish until September 30, 2008. Since April 2005, country of origin labeling and the method of production have been required for fish and shellfish sold at retail.
The 2008 Farm Act amended the country of origin labeling provisions, adding goat meat and poultry to the list of covered commodities. Regulations for these commodities were published in August 2008, which requested comments on setting the requirements for retailers and their suppliers.
Related Briefing Rooms
For more information on policy and regulations on livestock-related issues, see the following ERS briefing rooms:
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