California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA’s) Bureau of Livestock Identification (BLI) announced earlier in May the inspection fee will decrease by 10 cents per head of cattle beginning July 1.
“We are pleased to be able to lower fees and as a result leave our livestock producers with a little more money for their operations,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross in a statement. “We commit to regular reviews of fee structures in all of our programs and will make adjustments when necessary and/or warranted. I want to thank our Bureau of Livestock ID for an outstanding job in keeping expenses to a minimum.”
Ross said the decrease in inspection fees was due to BLI moving to mobile applications that lessened the amount of time spent on paperwork, resulting in a budget surplus.
The current fee, which was approved in 2018 and took effect in 2019, is 75 cents for a registered feedlot inspection from a California ranch to the feedlot and 50 cents from the feedlot to sales yard.
The BLI is California’s brand registration and inspection program protecting cattle owners against the loss of animals and is financed entirely through fees. The BLI has 44 inspectors and inspected 3.56 million head of cattle in 2019-2020.
You can visit the CDFA’s website, www.cdfa.ca.gov, and go to Bureau of Livestock Identification for more information. — WLJ
