Ag Commissioner Sid Miller tangles with Texas cattle raisers

[TexasTowelie]

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller — who most recently tangled with the state’s barbecue joints — has a new beef: the way ranchers fight the potentially deadly fever tick.

Miller incited a controversy Monday during a visit to a ranch near Raymondville, where he shut down 16 fever tick spray box operations, saying producers were complaining of cattle deaths from overuse of Co-Ral, a Texas Department of Agriculture-regulated pesticide manufactured by Bayer-Monsanto.

“Ranchers had complained to me about their cattle dying from these spray boxes, so I went to South Texas to check it out,” Miller said in a news release. “From my personal observation, the insecticide was being used in violation of the label, so I shut them down. I also gave state and federal authorities lawful alternatives for applying this insecticide, but they refused to implement these alternatives.”

But Robert McKnight, a Fort Davis rancher who’s president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, said there have been no reports of cattle deaths and Miller doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Read more: https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Ag-Commissioner-Sid-Miller-tangles-with-Texas-13121638.php

[tonyt53]

1. Of course, he's never heard of any cattle deaths. People don't openly confess to that.