By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Farmers in 11 northern Michigan counties who have completed a wildlife risk mitigation plan (WRMP) may apply for assistance through the USDA to help prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis (TB).
“The funds will be available through the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for farmers to implement practices that will exclude deer from livestock and from forage and water utilized by livestock,” said Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) livestock specialist Ernie Birchmeier.

Producers can apply for assistance through May 31. Examples of practices eligible for financial assistance include fencing, use exclusion practices, watering facilities and forage harvest management.

Bovine TB is believed to be spread to livestock by wild deer through direct contact or from contaminated food or water. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and USDA found the disease in two beef herds in Alpena County this spring (see related article).

Targeted at livestock operations in Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Montmorency, Presque Isle, Oscoda and Otsego counties, farmers who are selected to receive financial assistance will receive program payments after the WRMP practices are implemented.
Dr. James Averill, MDARD’s Bovine TB Program coordinator, said WRMP started in 2008 in an effort to help farmers develop a plan to help manage spread of the disease.

To develop a wildlife risk mitigation plan, representatives of several agencies come together to work with farmers. They conduct a risk assessment of each farm, including how the operation is set up, management practices including feeding, watering and feed storage and consideration of wildlife and deer pressure on and around the farm.

“We determine a risk score and develop a management plan,” Averill said. “The producer implements the plan.”

Follow-up includes verifying that the farmers are following their plans and that they are working. Averill said in 2008 and 2009, the team focused on operations selling breeding cattle because they have the greatest risk of moving animals from one farm to another.

Last year, cattle herds in the state’s Modified Accredited Zone, where there is a higher prevalence of the disease in free-ranging whitetail deer, were the primary focus. This year, the team is picking up all the remaining producers in the other parts of the 11 counties.

To date, he said about 750 farmers have signed up for the program and more than 600 have been verified. There are about 1,000 cattle farms in the 11 northernmost counties of the L.P.

MFB President Wayne H. Wood credited U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) for her leadership in securing the federal funding as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to assist livestock farmers in Michigan’s highest-risk TB counties minimize and/or eradicate the disease’s spread.

“Livestock farmers in northeast Michigan have been challenged over the years to implement costly precautionary measures to separate their healthy livestock herds from TB-infected wildlife,” Wood said. “This infusion of targeted money will go a long way in giving multigenerational family farms the resources they need to combat a disease that is out of their control and threatens their faming livelihood.”

Calling support for the program widespread in the state, Stabenow acknowledged the economic contribution of the state’s livestock industry in announcing the WRMP funding.

“Cattle are Michigan’s fifth most valuable commodity, reaching nearly $290 million in cash receipts in 2009,” Stabenow said. “Michigan’s TB-free status was revoked in 2000 following a comprehensive surveillance of livestock, but we were granted split-state status in 2004 to allow eradication efforts to focus on the area affected and the surrounding buffer zone.”

Funds will be administered through the NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a voluntary effort that provides financial assistance to help plan and implement conservation practices that address natural resource concerns.
For more information, producers should visit their local NRCS field office or www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov

Producers interested in applying for funding must submit applications through their local NRCS field office; a list is available online at www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/Field Offices.html