Farm Bill Update & Quarantine Lifted

Farm Bill Update & Quarantine Lifted. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Senate farm bill mark-up schedule is slipping - and one top Ag Lobbyist says that’s a concern. Hill staffers, spokesmen and ag lobbyists all confirm the Senate farm bill mark-up may slip into May - complicating an already tight time frame to get a bill passed this fiscal year. National Farmers Union’s Chandler Goule.

GOULE: The key thing we need to keep in mind here is if the markup is definitely going to be moved into the second week of May which is what most of us are hearing here in Washington DC, that just means that the House and the Senate are literally almost going to have to be operating simultaneously to get bills out of both bodies so we can make it all the way through conference before that September 30th deadline gets here.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture has lifted the quarantine for Juergens Brothers Dairy in Moses Lake which has been at the center of an investigation into a case of bovine tuberculosis. To date, no other cows have been found positive for bovine TB despite testing on more than 2,600 animals around the state. There was no human health concern connected to the case.

Now leaving pests behind. Susan Carter has more on the story.

(USDA Report)

Thanks Susan. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.