Farm & Ranch
Cattle raisers across Texas urge Senate to stop Clean Water Restoration Act
FORT WORTH — The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently passed a bill out of committee that would give the federal government regulatory authority over stock tanks, drainage ditches and any water features found on family ranches despite large opposition from cattle raisers across the country.
S. 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act, would achieve unprecedented expansion of federal authority by removing the word “navigable” from the Clean Water Act definition of waters in the U.S. and replacing it with “waters of the United States.” The new definition would grant the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers virtually unlimited regulatory control over all wet areas within a state.
The proposed legislation would require cattle producers to manage around puddles in the middle of pastures, drainage areas, road ditches and more. If cattle producers are unable to demonstrate proper management of these areas to the federal government, they could be required to get a permit, which would be far to impractical and expensive.
Additionally, the legislation would result in a major decrease in authority from state governments and private property owners all across the United States.
“All waters are not equal in terms of their environmental function and value, and they should not be regulated in the same way,” TSCRA President Dave Scott, a rancher from Richmond, Texas, said. “If this bill passes in Congress, ranchers across the U.S. will be forced to get a permit to continue everyday operations on their own land.”
“The federal government already struggles to handle the backlog of 15,000 existing permit requests; how it plans to deal with the massive amount of new permitting requirements and litigation this bill will surely create is beyond reason,” Scott continued. “There is no doubt ranchers like me will be the ones forced to cover the costs, not to mention the huge administrative burdens of endless government red tape.”
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is asking the Senate to stop this bill should it come up for a full Senate vote.
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is a 132-year-old trade organization and is the largest livestock association in Texas. TSCRA has more than 15,000 members who manage approximately 4 million head of cattle on 51.5 million acres of range and pasture land, primarily in Texas and Oklahoma. TSCRA provides law enforcement services, livestock inspection, legislative and regulatory advocacy and educational opportunities for its members and the industry.
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Planned grazing course with Kirk Gadzia this April in Fort Worth
FORT WORTH — Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers and Holistic Management Texas team up to offer a new “Planned Grazing” course at the Will Rogers Memorial Center April 21-25.
The emphasis for this five-day course will be on grazing planning, but instructor Kirk Gadzia will cover rangeland monitoring, financial planning and land planning as well. The content will be relevant to both managerial and operational level employees, with varying levels of formal education. There will be a lands-on Learning aspect if weather permits. Class runs from 8am to 4:15pm each day. -
One more for the tourists
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Cowboy ingenuity
Cowboys are nothing if not ingenious. It takes that sort of out-of-the-box mentality to allow them to solve the myriad of problems that arise when you combine horse, cow and rope!
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Local wins at San Antonio Stock Show
SAN ANTONIO — The Junior Market AOB Steer Show was held Feb. 19, at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.
Taylor Cody won the honor of Breed Champion AOB with her 1334 pound steer. -
Olympic distraction
You know the inmates have taken over the asylum when you’re turning to PETA as the voice of reason! These are the animal rights extremists who compared eating chicken to the Holocaust, compared the murdering cannibal Jeffery Daumer to butchering hogs, and once proclaimed that it would be great if Foot and Mouth Disease infected animals in the U.S.
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Scholarships awarded to Parker County youth
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Jake working overtime
In an effort to make managing the 20 section ranch more efficient, the boss bought Jake a Ranger, a four-wheel drive muscle car ATV.
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Local student wins at Fort Worth Stock Show
FORT WORTH — Dylan Mask, a 4-H member from Weatherford, exhibited a First Place Medium Weight Hampshire Barrow in the Junior Barrow Show at the 2010 legendary Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Feb. 4. J
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Local youth wins Calf Scramble at Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo
FORT WORTH — Jacob Sheffield of Weatherford, Texas, a Perrin FFA member, was among the winners in the Calf Scramble event during the Feb. 4 evening performance of the Rodeo at the 114th edition of the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show.
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Harry and the hog
Many of us took a meats course in college or have dressed wild game and have a basic understanding of how it gets from the pasture to the plate. Harry is not one of us, in that regard.
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Planned grazing course with Kirk Gadzia this April in Fort Worth
