Cattle ranchers say they quashed backdoor effort by feds to require registration of farm premises

Mandatory premises registration, the bugaboo of the National Animal Identification System, won't be coming in through the back door, says the leading group of independent cattle ranchers.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has canceled a September memorandum that would have required registration of premises owned by "producers involved in interstate commerce and in any of the federally regulated disease programs," according to R-CALF USA, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

"R-CALF had demanded the agency retract the memo," reports Tom Johnston of MeatingPlace. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard told Bob Meyer of Brownfield Network that the retraction wouldn't affect states that require premises registration, but "Bullard says there are a number of challenges to state laws either filed or in the works and R-CALF has submitted affidavits in support of some of those producers." (Read more)