Bison Trouble

Bison Trouble

Bison Trouble. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

About 60 percent of the bison herd located in Yellowstone National Park is infected with brucellosis, a serious viral disease that easily spreads to cattle. Montana rancher Druska Kinkie explains why the bison issue is a big deal for ranchers as well as the general public.

KINKIE: The fact that brucellosis is a livestock disease as well as a wildlife disease has created many, many problems for livestock producers in the greater Yellowstone area. There is very little control placed on diseased bison or diseased elk. A lot of the responsibility for mitigation is put on the livestock producer so you change the way you manage and you try to create spatial separation. So it’s a worry that’s constantly there.

An Adaptive Management Area or A-M-A outside of Yellowstone National Park was recently created for the bison, allowing them access to an additional 75,000 acres in late winter and early spring. Bison are now allowed on both sides of the Yellowstone River near the park and the northern boundary where they can roam has been extended. This new area for the bison was created without significant input from farmers and ranchers.

KINKIE: With the Adaptive Management Area change that was imposed in 2011 through 2012, livestock producers did not feel that they had the public comment that they needed. There were not times created where livestock producers could actually sit with these different partners or agencies and question them and have that questioning and the answers recorded.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

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