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Minnesota farmers and ranchers who raise calves for the feeder market have decisions ahead.

The USDA has not yet ruled on whether it will grant Minnesota Split State Status in light of bovine tuberculosis (TB) findings earlier this year.

Should the entire state retain a Modified Accredited Zone Status, cattle owners will have to follow new guidelines to transport feeder cattle out of the state.

Federal interstate movement laws for Modified Accredited require a negative TB test within 60 days of shipment for all feeder cattle. Sexually intact animals can only move to an approved feedlot.

Animals in Minnesota can be moved through an auction market to slaughter without a TB test.

An update on bovine TB was presented at Farmfest entitled, “Understanding Minnesota's TB Regulations and Testing Requirements.”

Presenters said the state has set up an aggressive approach to eliminating the chronic, slowly progressive respiratory disease.

From the 1970s until 2005, Minnesota remained free of bovine TB. From 2005 through February 2008, 11 herds in Beltrami and Roseau County were identified with the disease.

Area testing identified four infected herds between October 2007 and February 2008. That exceeded the three herds that a Modified Accredited Ad-vanced state may find in a 12-month period.

Minnesota was downgraded to Mod-ified Accredited Status on April 9.

The Board of Animal Health has tested many cattle for the disease since 2005. As part of their investigation, the agency TB tested animals traced to and from infected herds and cattle herds located within 10 miles of any infected herd.

The Board also tested more than 1,550 cattle herds throughout Minnesota, with no additional in-fection detected.

Since February, Minnesota leaders have pursued a Split State Status. If Split State Sta-tus were ap-proved, it would allow most of the state to regain a higher status, while the portion of the state where the disease has been found would remain Modified Accredited.

If Minnesota receives Split State Status, TB testing would not be required for most feeder cattle leaving the state.

The situation remains much more regimented in northwest Minnesota.

The Board of Animal Health an-nounced regulations for the Modified Accredited Zone in northwest Minnesota beginning on June 15.

Herds in the area are required to have an annual whole-herd TB test and maintain up-to-date contact information with the Board.

For all animals leaving the farms from the zone, individual animal identification, an individual TB test within 60 days prior to movement, and movement certificates are now required.

The proposed Modified Accredited Zone includes portions of Roseau, Lake of the Woods, Beltrami and Marshall Counties. A smaller, centralized region is known as the Management Zone.

Within the Management Zone, the Board of Animal Health received 45 herd buyout contracts by mid-July.

Approximately 6,800 cattle will be removed or slaughtered by Jan. 31, 2009.

Herd owners receive $500 per animal, plus $75 per animal per year until Minnesota regains TB Free Status.

About 20 producers decided not to take the buyout, and are instead putting up fences to keep cattle and deer separated. Feed and feeders will also be fenced in throughout the Management Zone as needed to keep deer from eating there.

“It is clear that deer feeding on feed that is on the ground is the cause of transmission of the disease,” said Ed Boggess, DNR deputy director. “We are so pleased by the efforts to put up fencing, so the deer get out of a feeding situation.”

Boggess said that testing shows the same strain of TB in northwest Min-nesota deer as in the cattle.

“It appears to be closely related to a strain that's been found in southwestern United States,” he said. “We feel like we've found this infection in the wild deer early, and we think we have an opportunity to eliminate the infection in wild deer. We have been extremely aggressive.”

Hunters, landowners and federal sharpshooters in the region took 2,656 deer from the end of the fall hunting season through May 2008. The DNR recently amended rules within the bovine TB area because the harvesting of the deer was successful.

As of Aug. 1, a permit will be required to shoot deer at night, and for taking deer with the use of artificial light. The amended rules require that the antlers be turned over to the DNR Thief Lake Area Wildlife manager, so that hunters don't focus their attention just on trophy deer.

Split State Status

According to Joe Martin, Minnesota Department of Ag assistant commissioner, the USDA provides Split State Status for large states where TB can be isolated.

From all indications, you're not seeing the disease spread,” Martin said. “Split State Status means the rest of the state can return to the prior status - we're asking for TB Free Status. We may not get it, but at least we'll get upgraded to Modified Accredited Advanced, which means feeder cattle won't have to be tested.”

Martin said Minnesota hopes to gain Split State Status by Oct. 1.

“Hopefully is not always a good thing in terms of if you're a cattleman whether you choose to test or not,” Martin said.

“You have to make the economic decision based on what type of discount you may expect if you ship cattle untested, and what are the buyers going to think, because those cattle have to stay in Minnesota if they are not tested.”

Iowa and Nebraska will accept Minnesota's Split State Status, while Wisconsin will not. Wisconsin has long dealt with Michigan's TB issues and has a state law saying they will not accept Split State Status.

If Minnesota doesn't hear back on Split State Status, shipping Minnesota steers to a terminal feedlot outside the state will require a negative TB test within 60 days of shipment. Heifers will need to be spayed (surgical removal of the ovaries) for shipment outside Minnesota.

Any heifer that is not spayed will need a whole herd test and an individual TB test.

In July and August, the University of Minnesota Extension Beef Team hosted Beef Heifer Spaying trainings. The one-day training teaches licensed veterinarians how to spay heifers.

“Feeding operations will be looking for fatter, heavier cattle to put in their feedlots, so they won't have to spend too much on grain to finish them off. You will see starting weights of 700-900 pounds in the feedlot,” said Alfredo DiCostanzo, University of Minnesota Extension animal scientist and beef specialist.

“The 300-600 pound heifers are at a disadvantage. They have to go to a background lot. They used to go to the southern states. If she is not spayed, she's not going that far.”

An important bulletin called, “Spaying Heifers as a Management Tool,” is at http://www.extension.umn.edu/beef/components/pdfs/05-20-08-Schott.pdf.

This bulletin explains why spaying heifers is a management tool with several advantages that outweigh a few disadvantages. Contact your local Extension office for more information.