Ranchers oppose proposed state fee increase

Monday, May 8, 2000 | 9:13 a.m.

The Nevada Cattlemen's Association said the increase from 70 cents to $1 per animal is too much for an industry that's still rebounding from a nearly decade-long slump in cattle prices.

Under the plan, the fee would jump from $700 to $1,000 for a rancher to have 1,000 head of cattle inspected before being sold or shipped out of state.

"It's not an option we want to consider right now," Betsy Macfarlan, association executive director, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"The brand inspection fee was raised to 70 cents a head not that many years ago, and we were told the brand program would be solvent then, but it's not."

David Thain, who heads the Nevada Division of Animal Industry's livestock identification program, said Gov. Kenny Guinn has requested all departments to balance their budgets for the next eight years.

But the brand inspection program is projected to be $100,000 in the red by 2004.

The number of brand inspections hasn't grown much, but the costs to run the program, including the salaries of state brand inspectors, have, Thain said.

"So we're trying to look at long-term projections of how we can make this program stay afloat," he said.

Macfarlan said her group continues to support the brand inspection program, but questions the fee increase, especially when some members are unhappy about poor service.

The program used to have seven full-time brand inspectors. But due to financial cutbacks, the state now has only four full-time inspectors and 85 part-timers.

"A lot of brand inspectors now are part-time, and there are complaints among the producers that they're paying big bucks to get brand inspectors who don't know what they're doing," Macfarlan said.

Thain said the program is even more important to Nevada ranchers since Washington state dropped its brand inspection program in recent years due to financial cutbacks.

"And when the price of cattle goes up, like it's done in the past six months, that's when we see more thefts because there's more money to be made," he said.

With cattle prices currently about 90 cents to $1 a pound, the average cow represents about $900 on the hoof and a just-weaned calf about $400 or $500.

Cattle usually are branded with hot irons that burn the shape of the owner's brand into the animals' hides. Horses, sheep and other livestock more often are marked with paint. The state has 3,600 brands on record.