AGRICULTURE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:
The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-
posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would
boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would
provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various
forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.
Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental
Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that
current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the
next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the
proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.
A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of
the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total
U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The
average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels
eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6
million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.
Field officers John Walsh and Neil Trent of the
World Society for Animal Protection reported on May 11 after
returning from a mercy mission to Bosnia that of 750,000 cattle
kept in Bosnia before the outbreak of three years of civil war,
barely 700 have survived starvation, disease, and deliberate
shelling by Serbians, who also destroyed all 18 Bosnian govern-
ment veterinary stations. Sheep, poultry, and hogs have similar-
ly suffered. Only two government-run dairy farms are still in
operation, hindered by unexploded cluster bombs in some of
their fields, which limit grazing. WSPA has been helping to
feed the remaining dairy cattle since October 1992. WSPA has
also supplied 25,000 doses of rabies vaccine to Bosnian veteri-
narians. Rabies, always endemic in the area, is a growing threat
now because of the collapse of government vaccination programs
and a large population of homeless dogs and cats mingling with
displaced wildlife.
A shortage of sheep sent prices soaring above the
official monthly minimum wage in Abidjan on the eve of Eid
el-Adha, the “feast of the sacrifice,” held on May 21 this year,
which marks the climax of the annual Moslem pilgrimage to
Mecca. The sheep are not actually sacrificed to Allah, but are
slaughtered by the halal method for a fast-breaking feast some-
what resembling a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner.
An estimated 10,000 turkeys and 30 cows were killed
on April 26 in Barron County, Wisconsin, as a twister hit the
Prairie Farm division of Jerome Foods––but that natural disaster
was minor beside the loss of an estimated 396,000 sheep and
other livestock due to prolonged cold and a major avalanche in
the Yili region of Xinjiang province, China, which was
announced the same day.
