Monday, July 23, 2012

Reserves to open to grazing


Some conservation reserves are likely to be opened soon to grazing cattle.

United States Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he’s going to open some conservation reserves for drought-stricken farmers because “llvestock operators in particular are impacted because what they expected to have their livestock graze on is not there or of sufficient quantity or quality as anticipated.

“The costs to replace it with feed obviously are going to be substantially higher, so some folks are starting the process of liquidating their herds,” Vilsack explained.

“They know at this point in time there is nothing else that can be done beyond the steps we have taken to open up more haying and grazing areas.

 “The sad reality is that Congress needs to do its work to get a disaster program in place to provide assistance to these producers,” he said.

He said the programs cannot be restarted by simply extending the 2008 farm bill and that their costs must be balanced in the broader context of a new farm bill.

He said nothing about reducing the mandatory percentage of ethanol that must be included in gasoline. Virtually all of the ethanol comes from corn distilleries which buy about 40 per cent of U.S. corn crops.