The Cow Tax

Cow tax proposal would threaten agriculture viability

“With the economy in bad shape and the possibility of a deep recession looming, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to levy new taxes—on cows and pigs,” American Farm Bureau Federation Director of Regulatory Relations Rick Krause told Wyoming Farm Bureau members at their annual meeting. Krause spoke in Sheridan on Nov. 7.

“This is no laughing matter,” Krause said. “The cow tax and the pig tax are parts of a larger scheme by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.”

“Under the proposal, if a state charged the “presumptive minimum rate” from the EPA, the cow tax would be $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per head for beef cattle and a little more than $20 per pig,” Krause explained. Read More

Just recently, Mike Miller from Cattle-Fax told the attendees of the Beef Quality Summit that the projections from earlier in the year that showed the cow/calf producer should profit about $25/head had disappeared. Add an $87 tax per head on top of expenses, and you don’t have to be much of a math wizard to figure out what will happen. There is still time to comment on this proposal.