As we prepare for a new administration later this month, vital programs across the board will likely be reviewed, tweaked, or even dropped once President Trump takes office. However, there are programs that farmers work with that they can’t afford to lose or have changed. One of those is the program to help monitor the spread of H5N1 or HPAI that has plagued livestock producers for a few years.
Dairy producers became one of the latest victims of the virus, last year, as H5N1 jumped the species barrier a few times. Programs from USDA to help monitor and deal with the situation have been available to help producers recover. Lucas Sjostrom is on the Government Affairs team at Edge Dairy Cooperative. He says that producers aren’t feeling much impact from the guidelines in place with the USDA efforts.
Dairy producers support the goals of the USDA, but there are concerns with the methods being used.
Sjostrom says that producers shouldn’t see any changes to the H5N1 monitoring program. There is no reason to see the Trump administration change those efforts.
Producers are encouraged to help the programs succeed no matter who they sell their products to.
