Vaccine Bank for Poultry; Farm Revenue Protection
**Poultry producer leaders are testifying in strong support of vaccine banks.
Carl Wittenburg, Chairman of the National Turkey Federation, says bird flu has become a global problem and his group supports a mandatory disease program and vaccine bank for high path A-1.
Wittenberg says to indemnify and euthanize poultry globally is not a good long-term approach and the U.S. poultry industry will need the continued support of Congress because high-path A-I “is not going away overnight.”
**University specialists say livestock and poultry producers need to prepare for animal diseases that can result in big expenses and months of lost income.
University of Missouri swine veterinarian Dr. Corrine Bromfield says every outbreak is a reminder that steps need to be taken to maintain biosecurity.
And Missouri ag economist Dr. Ray Massey says not all producers recover financially from disease outbreaks, but says recovery is more likely if contingencies, like some type of financial plan, are in place.
** The nation’s largest farmer member organization is developing a new type of commercial dairy insurance that would offer revenue protections from declining market prices.
Dr. John Newton, Director of Market Intelligence for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says dairy producers saw their milk prices decline by nearly 50 percent in 2015 and there was no government sponsored safety-net.
He tells Brownfield while there are insurance programs such as the Dairy Margin Protection Program and the Livestock Gross Margin program, they don’t address price decreases.