BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois livestock producers have until March 15 to apply for one of 10 spots on an Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) study tour to Europe this summer.

The trip will focus on animal care issues, and was a choice IFB made around the 2012 holidays before the current news regarding horse meat use in Europe or the rekindled efforts to develop a wide-ranging free trade agreement between the United States and European Union (EU).

“There certainly are a lot of things going on that will justify making this particular trip at this particular time, but the real focus of it will be on animal care issues,” said Tamara Nelson, senior director of IFB Commodities.

Given the several stops for this year’s trip, the IFB is limiting the number of farmers participating to only 10. The tour is scheduled for June 23-July 2, and it will include visits to livestock operations in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark.

France, along with Italy, Spain and Ireland, are among the countries in the EU that have not yet adopted one of the more controversial animal care rules that call for a ban on individual stalls for pregnant pigs, Nelson said.

“There already has been a huge shift in Europe toward larger livestock operations, but there still is a lot of resistance and we want to take a look at how some are handling the changes,” she explained.

The European Commission originally approved a ban on individual sow housing in 2001, but didn’t begin enforcing it in full until Jan. 1, 2013. Nelson said the group will also visit poultry farmers to see how they are handling rules regarding free-range, or free-cage, raising of chickens. The rules allow chickens to be kept in fenced-in areas outside of barns of 36 inches wide by 48 inches tall, but they face a consistent problem of foxes and predator birds such as crows attacking the chickens.

Producers interested in the tour must meet some basic requirements, including being a voting member of the IFB, being able to cover about one-third the estimated cost of the trip – up to $2,000 – and giving at least five presentations to county Farm Bureaus and media interviews after the trip.

Membership in other groups such as the Illinois Livestock Development Group, Illinois Beef Assoc. or Illinois Pork Producers Assoc. is not mandatory, but could help the review of an application, Nelson said.

To apply online, go to www.ilfb.org