Livestock producers learn about new rules going into effect at the end of the month, but it's not just farmers that could be affected by the changes.
On September 29, Ohio becomes the first state to enact livestock care standards. The rules cover everything from feeding animals to their housing, management, transportation, and euthanasia. The board creating the rules held an informational meeting in Lima Wednesday night to answer questions and address concerns from people like Milton Portan, a retired farmer. He's worried the rules are too restrictive.
"The man out there, that we don't have many anymore, which is swine and sow and so forth versus the outfit out there that's got 5,000 sows and so forth, I think there ought to be a little different criteria for the kind of entity that it is," he said.
Michael Bailey, who heads the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board says coming up with rules to fit each of the 45,000 livestock farms in the state was difficult, but believes they're fair for farms of all sizes.
"These standards are really a balance of what's between what's best for the livestock on these farms and also what's practical for farmers of all sizes and scales," Bailey said.
Bailey says the standards not only protect the animals, but give consumers piece of mind.
"They give all of Ohio consumers a degree of confidence that they know how livestock is being raised and cared for in Ohio," Bailey explained.
The rules will be phased in over a period of years, something that will be costly to livestock producers. Portan says once they're in place, expect to see food prices, especially eggs, go up.
"The era of cheap eggs is going to be gone as we have to have scratch areas, we're going to have to have roosting areas, and the cost per dozen of eggs is going to go up and it's going to affect everybody that eats," Portan said.
The Livestock Care Standards Board says many of the regulations are things farmers already do, but Portan worries larger farms aren't even close to being ready, and if they don't comply they could face hundreds of dollars in fines.
Ohio's Director of Agriculture James Zehringer will sign the new rules into effect on September 29 in Fort Recovery.
