Kentucky Department of Agriculture

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has expressed his support for state legislation that would establish a commission to set standards for livestock and poultry care on Kentucky farms.

“These guidelines should be based not on emotion, but on scientific research and widely accepted practices,” Commissioner Farmer said. “The commission would develop standards at the state level, taking the pressure off local governments and creating consistency throughout the Commonwealth.”

Senate Bill 105, sponsored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman David Givens (R-Greensburg), and co-sponsored by 18 other state senators from both sides of the aisle, is in the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee. It passed the Senate unanimously Feb. 11.

The bill would create a 14-member Kentucky Livestock Standards Commission chaired by the state agriculture commissioner. The commission would include five representatives from livestock commodity organizations (horses, cattle, pigs, goats/sheep and poultry); the dean of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture; the chair of the Kentucky Animal Control Advisory Board; the director of either the University of Kentucky Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center or the Murray State University Breathitt Veterinary Center; one representative each from the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, Kentucky County Judge/Executive Association and Kentucky Farm Bureau, and one citizen at large with an interest in food safety. The state veterinarian would be a non-voting member.

The commission would set standards that apply only to livestock and poultry on farms of all sizes. The commission would have no investigators. Complaints would be handled by local enforcement officials. The commission would not preclude the authority of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners and would not pre-empt local planning and zoning ordinances.

Industry groups, other organizations and individuals that have endorsed SB 105 include the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, the Kentucky Pork Producers Association, the Kentucky Soybean Association, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, the Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association, the Kentucky Horse Council, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the Kentucky Sheep and Goat Development Office, the Kentucky Dairy Development Council, Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Poultry Federation, the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, the Kentucky Livestock Coalition, the Kentucky Association of Counties, the Kentucky County Judge-Executives Association, the Kentucky League of Cities, 37 state senators and Commissioner Farmer.

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