02/13/06 R-CALF wants hearing on risk rule

American Rancher February 13, 2006 R-CALF USA filed documents in federal court in Montana last week seeking to move forward its legal challenge to USDA's minimal risk rule that allowed imports of live Canadian cattle to the U.S. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard says they filed a final brief asking the court to schedule oral arguments and to fully consider R-CALF's motion for summary judgment. Bullard: "As you know the Ninth Circuit issued a decision on a preliminary injunction and that decision was in fact preliminary. Now we are going forward with the full development of the facts in this case and we are asking the district court to schedule a final hearing." R-CALF believes recent events have made its case stronger than ever. For example. Bullard: "The most recent discovery of a Canadian cow that was only five years and nine-months old indicates that the feed ban in Canada was not effective at least through April 2000. This fact demonstrates that the assumptions USDA has made in this case are not supported by the evidence." Bullard says the judge could schedule a hearing, which is what R-CALF wants, but the court could also just rule and vacate the USDA minimal risk rule. Bullard says the U.S. continues to have difficulty in reopening export markets which he says is because the U.S. has lower import standards than our own export customers will accept. I'm Bob Hoff.