Farm groups request funding to safeguard Illinois livestock

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Leadership from four Illinois commodity groups and Illinois Farm Bureau advocated for an increase in the Illinois state budget request by $750,000 from the General Assembly’s fiscal year 2023 budget toward the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

These funds would be used to provide additional field veterinarians and proactive foreign animal disease prevention measures necessary to protect Illinois agriculture in the event of looming foreign animal disease outbreaks.

IFB, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Illinois Beef Association, Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Soybean Association worked collaboratively to urge the General Assembly to increase IDOA’s earmark.

“With the recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirming the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a small backyard flock in McLean County, the need for these funds is immediate,” said Jennifer Tirey, IPPA’s executive director.

“This recent outbreak proves that a foreign animal disease does not discriminate based on the size of a livestock farm. The devastation could impact the smallest backyard hobby farms, farmers that sell their product at a farmers market, small meat processors or our larger producers.

“We’re also concerned about the potential of an African swine fever outbreak in Illinois swine herds. The impact of any of these animal disease outbreaks to Illinois agriculture would be detrimental and being under-prepared would only worsen the impact.”

IDOA currently only has one field veterinarian on staff to serve the entire state of Illinois. Adding veterinarians could mean regionally defined service areas, even allowing field staff to support vet work on specific species-related issues.

“We hope the collaborative response from our five groups will empower our request. We are incredibly grateful to the legislators who stand for the best interests of Illinois agriculture and Illinois farmers,” Tirey said.

“Earlier this winter the IDOA expressed this issue as a concern to our organizations and we are happy to see the funding secured and look forward to working with the department to protect the ag industry from potential foreign animal disease outbreaks,” said Josh St. Peters, IBA executive vice president.

IDOA leadership, particularly Director Jerry Costello II; Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Patrick Joyce, D-Essex; Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign; and Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, are greatly appreciated by the Illinois ag community for their partnership, St. Peters said.