Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Davlin: Agriculture is the main driver of Idaho's economy, but the industry needs support in the form of workers, veterinarians and a healthy water supply.

So with all of those facing different kinds of stresses, what's the state of Ag in Idaho?

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, producer Ruth Brown explores Idaho's veterinarian shortage and how it affects Idaho's ranchers.

Braden Jensen from the Idaho Farm Bureau and Rick Nareabout from the Idaho Dairy Men's Association, discuss other challenges facing Ag producers.

And Irene Ruiz of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils shares how discussions of mass deportations are affecting farm workers and their families.

But first, the Idaho Secretary of State's office audited Idaho's 2024 election results this week.

Associate producer Logan Finney has more.

Logan Finney: Since 2022, state law requires the Idaho Secretary of State's office to perform a hand-count post-election audit after each primary and general election.

The state Board of Canvassers met last week to conduct the drawing, which is weighted by county population.

The counties randomly selected for audit this fall are Bear Lake, Bingham, Clearwater, Custer, Elmore, Jerome, Latah and Minidoka.

Teams made up of Secretary of State staff and Honors accounting students from Boise State University traversed the state this week to conduct the audits in each county.

The Board of Canvassers will meet again at the state Capitol on Tuesday to officially certify Idaho's 2024 election results.

Any recount of statewide contests must be requested within 20 days of the state canvas.

Davlin: The trial seeking clarity on Idaho's abortion ban wrapped up on Thursday, but we likely won't see a ruling for a few more weeks.

Producer Ruth Brown has more.

Ruth Brown: Attorneys on both sides must still submit written findings and conclusions before Fourth Judicial District Judge Jason Scott will issue a written opinion on the case.

The plaintiffs in the case argue that Idaho's laws prevent physicians from saving women with medically complex pregnancies who need an abortion as a form of treatment.

Over the last two weeks, the judge heard testimony from four women forced to go out of state to terminate their wanted pregnancies.

And for multiple Idaho physicians who expressed their concern about the ban that has narrow exemptions for reported rape, incest or life of the mother, but not the mother's health.

In defending the law, the state presented testimony this week from anti-abortion physicians who said they believe the law is clear.

And they could provide an abortion for a woman if her life was in danger.

The plaintiffs disagree.

Attorney General Raul Labrador said in a Friday statement, quote, Idaho's law was written specifically to protect both the life of the mother and her unborn child.

With exceptions that account for a Doctor's good faith, professional judgment.

End quote.

A decision in the case likely won't come before the start of the legislative session in January.

Davlin: Idaho's economy is heavily reliant upon agriculture, but the Ag industry involves more than just the dairy producers and ranchers and farmers.

It requires supporting industries like packaging and transportation and large animal veterinarians.

But what happens if there aren't enough vets to take care of the livestock?

Producer Ruth Brown looked into how Idaho's veterinarian shortage impacts ranchers and the state's economy.

Brown: Idaho is home to more cattle than there are people.

An estimated 2.5 million cattle live in Idaho, many of which are being raised for beef and dairy production.

A multibillion dollar industry.

There's another 235,000 head of sheep and lamb in the state, according to the USDA.

Those numbers don't include the many other large animals being raised in the state.

All of those animals will need veterinary care at some point.

Idaho does not, however, have a veterinary school.

Scott Leibsle: So some of the challenges that the livestock producers in Idaho, livestock producers anywhere in the United States face, are there are certain either tests, documents that can only be issued by an accredited and licensed veterinarian.

An example of that is a health certificate.

So if you're participating in commerce, whether you're a dairy or a beef operation, you have to have a certificate of veterinary inspection, otherwise known as a health certificate signed by a veterinarian before those shipment of animals will leave the state.

So only an accredited veterinarian can sign that.

Brown: Other needs include mandatory vaccinations for cattle and emergency situations.

This summer, Idaho Reports visited Lufkin Cattle Company, a seed stock producer in the Salmon area, to talk about their veterinary needs.

Carl Lufkin’s Ranch has roughly 625 head of cattle and horses.

Carl Lufkin: We raise registered Angus cattle and we sell registered Angus bulls.

And they require a lot more veterinarian work.

Mostly fertility work.

And so we probably, we probably use a veterinarian twice as much as a normal rancher would use one.

There's two veterinarians in town that have clinics that are primarily small animal veterinarians.

And there's two others that, have vet trucks and work out of their trucks in and travel around to the ranches to do.

And all of them are capable of doing large animal work, but primarily two that are actively all their work is large animal.

Brown: That's two large animal vets for roughly 26,500 cows in Lemhi County, according to the USDA's count.

The number of active large animal veterinarians in Idaho isn't as easy to pin down as one might think.

Leisble: So, total, from the Board of Veterinary Medicine, there's roughly around 900 licensed veterinarians throughout the state.

So that may sound like a pretty decent number.

In actuality, those are all across the entire spectrum of small animal, large animal, exotic, government, research, industry, professors, you know, all those are represented there.

And there's nowhere that I had to report that I was transitioning from a large animal veterinarian to a government veteran and most veterinarians are that way.

And it's not just, it doesn't mean that all those veterinarians offer the same services and how, an individual like a livestock producer knows where to go if they, if they move here or they’re scaling up their operation.

It's a lot of times it's very hard to find a veterinarian who provides the services that you need.

Brown: Many of those vets are aging.

Of the top 50 producing vets, 10% of them are over the age of 70, and 16% of them are over the age of 60, according to Leibsle.

Additionally, large animal medicine is very labor intensive, so some vets move to small animal medicine as they age.

Large animal vets are often on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Lufkin: I've had instances when they’re gone to uh, they're out of town for some, some various thing, and you can't get somebody and I have loaded animals and hauled them to Idaho Falls, which is a three hour drive basically in the winter.

So you just do what you have to do.

But typically we have a veterinarian that can be here within, You get a phone call and he'll be here within 30 minutes.

Here.

Not all of Idaho's that way.

I think there's areas where a veterinarian is the nearest one is just three hours away.

Leibsle: I talked to an active dairyman a year or two ago.

He had, a calving, very complicated calving, and he couldn't get a veterinarian to come out.

And, you know, that's an active grade A dairy right now that's shipping milk on a daily basis.

And that that's heartbreaking to me to hear that he couldn't get a veterinarian come out, on an emergency basis because more than likely they were so fully scheduled for that day.

And, you know, if they had to pull away from the regularly scheduled appointment, you know, when are we going to cover that?

And so it is a huge problem trying to get emergency services, in addition to the regular services that a veterinarian has to cover for a large animal operation like beef or dairy.

Brown: There's also an economic advantage to having veterinary support in the state.

Lufkin: The number one economic business, in Idaho, is the dairy business.

Number two is the beef business.

Most people think we're about potatoes, but dairy and beef are two of the biggest economy drivers in the state of Idaho.

And we need to feed the world, you know, so veterinarians are a critical part of two of the biggest economic drivers in the state of Idaho.

Brown: The state did pass a resolution encouraging the state Board of Education to ask Utah State to accept more Idaho students.

The state Board of Education told Idaho Reports that Utah State University is willing to enter into an agreement like the one Idaho has with Washington State, and they plan to report back to the legislature early next year.

Legislators must determine the next steps in moving forward.

Idaho has an existing partnership with Washington State, guaranteeing 11 slots into the veterinary college for Idaho students, but usually only about 10% of veterinary students want to become large animal vets.

There are financial hurdles, too.

Leibsle: The average student debt is $200,000 or more, if you get an in-state educational opportunity.

If you're out of state, the AVMA numbers show it's north of $250,000.

So that is not an insignificant amount of student debt for a veterinarian.

Now, if you're having to practice in a rural part of the state, and if you are a large animal veterinarian, you have to go to the customer.

The customer can't bring their herd of cattle to you.

And so just from a time aspect, you have windshield time.

You're driving from one appointment to the next.

You only can see 3, 4, 5 appointments in a day.

Conversely, if you're a small animal veterinarian, people bring their pets to you and you can see 30 or 40 appointments a day.

The earning power by definition of small animal vets compared to large animal vets is significantly different.

Brown: The state is working on incentives through the USDA's Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Plan to help with some of the cost.

Leibsle: In recent years, Idaho has been very successful, so we've had several awards given each year over the past several years to Idaho vets that have demonstrated they have student debt.

And if they continue to practice a certain level of large animal medicine production, animal medicine in underserved counties designated by the state veterinarian, I say we really need vets here, so if you're willing to practice here and focus on this species that needs veterinary support for three years, they can get up to $75,000.

I would love to see a more large animal focused educational opportunity out there for Idaho residents.

And whether that's through the existing educational curriculums out there, partnering with more schools, veterinary schools out there.

I think those are all part of the formula that may solve this issue.

Another leg of the stool.

Davlin: Joining me to discuss the vet shortage and more issues facing Idaho's Ag producers is Rick Nareabout with the Idaho Dairy Men's Association and Braden Jensen with the Idaho Farm Bureau.

Rick, I wanted to start with you.

We we talked to ranchers for this project, but this is also something that affects Idaho's dairymen and other ag producers.

What are you hearing from your members?

Rick Naerebout: Yeah.

So veterinarians are a key piece of our industry.

You know, most dairies have veterinarians on their facility once, twice a week doing regular herd checks.

And other other practice needs.

So definitely a integral part of the dairy industry.

I think we're a little bit, fortunate compared to ranchers in very rural parts of Idaho in that most of our dairy facilities, we end up clustered in pockets.

And so it's a little bit easier for a veterinarian to build a book of business and large animal practice in, you know, dairy centric areas, because there's more opportunities to offer their services out.

So it's an issue for us.

It probably cuts a little bit deeper for the ranchers, just given the rural nature and the sparseness of of business opportunities in a lot of the places where ranchers are grazing and operating.

Davlin: How optimistic are you, Braden, that the state is going to figure out a solution to this, or at least pieces of a solution?

Braden Jensen: Yeah.

No, absolutely.

I mean, I think there's a variety of things that the state can do to try to help address this issue.

And it has been, you know, brought to their attention that this is a real issue.

I mean, we've seen over the past couple legislative sessions that, you know, the Ag committees have heard, working group reports on this topic, addressing what are the issues, what can the state possibly do?

Of course, we're very grateful for the programs that exist to try to help educate future, professionals in these fields to address, you know, the, the need that exists.

But what else do we need?

As Idaho's Ag industry continues to grow and we recognize that, again, we are a livestock state here and that we need to make sure that these professionals are in every location to be able to address the needs that our ranchers have and dairymen.

But I am optimistic that, you know, the message is getting, through that it's, being heard.

We'll see what we have, you know, a new group of legislators that may be just, coming to, you know, understand this issue and, the reality that it is.

So it's going to take a little bit of education again to get people back up to speed.

But for those legislators that are incumbents that have been there for a while, this isn't going to be the first time that they hear this.

And I think, you know, again, we're going to come with a whole variety of options that they can look at and consider.

Davlin: Another critical component of Idaho's Ag industry is the water supply.

Last week, groundwater and surface water users in eastern Idaho announced they had reached a new agreement to protect the health of the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer.

The negotiation came after farmers with junior groundwater rights faced a possible curtailment order from the state in May.

In other words, that threatened order could have shut off groundwater pumping to a large swath of Ag land in eastern Idaho after the Department of Water Resources calculated a potential shortage this season that would have affected senior water rights holders along the Snake River.

The new agreement requires the groundwater districts to conserve 205,000 acre feet of water annually, to improve the health of the aquifer.

Groundwater allotments will be issued in four year blocks, giving users more flexibility for year to year management and crop rotations.

All groundwater districts must report monthly water use measurements, and the groundwater districts will be evaluated for compliance with the plan individually rather than collectively.

The four year legal agreement will cease all litigation between the parties for now, and can be renewed in another four years.

Obviously so important to both of your organization's members.

Braden, what are you hearing on, on this agreement and what led up to it from from Farm Bureau members?

Jensen: Yeah, no, I think thank you very much.

And, you know, this is really is an important issue and addresses, such a large portion of our membership with that.

And we I will say we're not party to, the agreement, but we are very grateful that, the parties were able to come together and do the hard work.

And it was extremely hard work when you're talking about, you know, an aquifer the size of Lake Erie and, impacting farmers and ranches all the way from Ashland to King Hill.

Right?

I mean, it's a pretty large geographical area of the state.

And so we're grateful that this agreement has been reached and that, as part and you highlighted this, that as part of the agreement with all the terms and all the different conditions that we stop the fighting right now, we stop the litigation, we pause it so that we can see if this will actually work.

And so I think there's a, from our membership, a level of anticipation to see how this will work, how this all plays out.

I think there's an element of relief that, there is some, surety and security and going forward, particularly, as you know, obviously we live in the high desert west.

We, weather patterns are pretty cyclical here.

Sometimes we go through dry spells.

And so what would this mean, going into a dry spell and hopefully, these the terms of the agreement spell out the responsibilities in a way that it's clear.

And as long as they are upheld that we can keep as much, produc Davlin: The Idaho Dairy Business Association also was not a party to the official negotiations.

Right?

Correct.

But you had members who were very involved.

Naerebout: Yeah.

No, we have members very involved.

The reality is we have nearly a half a million dairy animals that sit on top of the Eastern Snake Land aquifer.

So, you know, no way around that, you know, that negotiation was going to affect our industry positively or negatively.

I think we we went into it with a decent amount of confidence.

You know, you get farmers around the table and their ability to problem solve is, is Barton on some of the best.

And so went into it with a decent amount of confidence that we'd find a resolve and we'd find some solutions and find some middle ground.

But yeah, we've we as an organization weren't at the table.

We definitely have some, some dairymen that are on the boards of groundwater districts and canal companies that were at the table.

And we're watching this very closely, just because it could have, you know, significantly impacted our industry if if there wasn't that resolve found.

Davlin: What would have been the worst case scenario had you not found or not you, but had they not found a solution?

Naerebout: So for us, the worst case scenario would have been, likely increase in forage costs.

The majority of the cutbacks were going to happen in eastern Idaho.

That's outside, the area where most dairy animals are located.

You know, we're we're, you know, really concentrated around the Magic Valley, but there are a lot of forages, grown in East Idaho for our industry.

So we definitely would have seen increases in feed costs and, you know, some financial pressure coming from that just because there's no way to curtail as many acres as they were talking about curtailing without that impacting our cost to feed and the cost of hay in the state.

Davlin: Much more direct impacts for your members in that part of the state.

Jensen: Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we have members that were, directly impacted by the water call that was made.

But we also had members on the side of the parties that were making the call.

And, I think it's important to remember that, you know, obviously a water, right is is a property right in this state and it should be respected.

And, and again, we're really grateful that, that the settlement agreement respects the water rights that exist, the priority that has been established, but then also utilizes the law and the flexibility that it allows for to find these types of agreements when they can be reached by both parties in a way that, again, we can respect that property.

Right, but still also continue to, you know, see our economies flourish.

Davlin: And in layman's terms, for people who aren't familiar with with water rights and water law in the state of call is basically saying you can't use as much water as you normally do.

Jensen: Yeah, essentially a call is planned.

Place when a senior water rights, individual is not receiving a full lot of water.

And so they would essentially place a call to the state ID or Department of Water Resources essentially stating that, you know, hey, I'm not getting my full water allotment.

We need to address this.

And so the Iowa will, look at all the factors that are playing into that to determine, indeed, if there's an injury occurring.

And if so, then a curtailment order would be place for, for any water holder who is junior to that.

Davlin: What might the long term implications be of, this I don't wanna call it a short term crisis, but the potential crisis that was averted.

Is is the bleeding stopped for now or are you going to be keeping an eye on what's happening over the next couple of years until 2027, when this could potentially when this agreement could be re-upped?

Jensen: Yeah.

Excellent question that certainly this is something we're going to continue to monitor.

We're going to continue to be, really dialed into, again, our members this is this is this is critical.

Again, being in the high desert west, land is extremely important.

Water is even more important when we're talking about these, real crops and everything like that.

The forage crops that, the dairymen depend on.

And, so again, we're going to watch this very closely and see how this all plays out.

And hopefully everybody can live up to the terms had been agreed to, and to their responsibility and that we can continue to find a path forward.

Naerebout: And if I can add, I think the importance of this agreement is it brings stability and the opportunity for future growth, because you take the issue of uncertainty off the table.

We know what the rules of the game are.

We know what we have to do to be able to, you know, provide that certainty and have stability in the water rights that will be, you know, honored.

So, it really creates economic opportunity for the state and the ability for us to say with certainty we are managing our water resources sustainably and we we can bring in new businesses.

We can continue to allow agriculture to flourish.

Given the certainty that the, that the settlement agreement brings.

We have so much more online with Rick about and Braden Jensen.

You can find our full conversation at Idaho reports.org.

Joining me to discuss concerns about proposed mass immigration raids is Irene Ruiz, Idaho organization of resource councils.

Irene, thank you so much for joining us today.

What concerns are you hearing from Idaho's Latino community regarding talks of mass deportation?

Irene Ruiz: Yeah, I think there's a lot of fear.

Of course.

People are just wondering what's going to happen.

What course of action?

The Trump administration's going to take if this does happen, how it will be implemented and who's going to be affected?

I mean, there are folks out there that wonder if they're safe because people some people have, you know, there's people that have visas, there's people that are citizen citizens that were able to get it through their visas.

There's people who have the doctor, which is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and they're worried about whether they're going to be stripped from that, that protects them and that allows them to work in this country.

And I think there's just a lot of fear wondering, how is this going to affect their families, how it's going to affect our communities, how people are going to react to it.

And I know for a fact that especially being from a mixed status family myself, a lot of us wonder how this is going to affect our family, right?

Because many of us have folks and our families are undocumented.

Many have them without permanent visas or some type of accent, or who are have Doca or are U.S. citizens.

So we're all worried, about about this course of action and, and what we're hearing from the ground is that a lot of people are being told right now to prepare just in case they do get deported, make sure that they have their affairs in order, their documents, their papers, ensuring that their children, go to relatives or whoever they need to go to in case that does happen.

So there is there there's things being talked about on the ground with undocumented farmworker and folks right now.

Davlin: You mentioned a couple times mixed status families.

And for those who aren't familiar, those are it's not uncommon to have multiple members of a family who have different, immigration statuses.

Ruiz: It's not.

It is.

It's pretty common.

I mean, a lot of us have, like I said earlier, some of us have folks who are undocumented that they don't have, any paperwork here.

Some of those were born here in the United States, were U.S. citizens, and some of us became citizens through their visa.

Some people have permanent says or different kinds of visas, and people have DACA.

So that's the thing with mixed families, we all some of us can have different type of, of citizenship status, immigration status.

Davlin: What are you waiting to find out about an actual proposal?

Right now we're hearing a lot of talk, but we haven't seen an actual plan.

Ruiz: I mean, what we're waiting to find out is exactly how they're going to implement this plan.

And who's going to be doing this plan and what we sure are.

They're going to use this to to create this plan.

Obviously, it's going to cost money.

And that's something that people need to understand that we're taxpayers are going to pay for, for this type of, this type of, deportation, that they want to have happen.

And just another thing, too.

It's it's also like, what what is the truth behind it?

There's so many rumors going around right now that we don't know exactly what's happening.

So people are hearing things that we don't know if they're true.

And so the goal is to understand what's going to happen so that we know what we need to do down the pipeline and how we need to support folks that feel like they're in danger from this.

Davlin: And that's such an important point that you bring up, because even if there isn't a solid plan that we know what's going to happen, the fact that there's this fear in the community, even if if you yourself are not undocumented, you know, people who are who might be affected by this because of their family members.

Can you kind of talk about that, mental and emotional impact on the community?

Ruiz: Yeah, I mean, it's scary, and I'm a U.S. citizen, but it scares me as well because I don't know what that means for the people that I love, for my family, for my friends.

I don't know what that means for myself.

I don't know what that means for our communities.

What hole is that going to put in in our hearts if we have to lose so many loved ones?

We have to lose so many people who are so important to who we are here in Idaho, who our culture and what we do here.

And I think that mental anguish is something that you have to have in the back of your mind, have to continue doing the work.

You have to continue, supporting your family, but you have that in the back of your mind.

And so it does become difficult.

And I think it becomes very stressful.

And and it's something that no one should have to deal with.

But unfortunately, that's something that many, many folks, specifically folks who are undocumented, have to have that in the back of their minds when they're working.

Like, what if I do have to leave?

What if I get deported?

Davlin: For Idahoans who don't have undocumented friends or family who might not think this would affect them, how might it affect them?

Ruiz: I don't think many Idahoans understand how this can affect the economy.

I mean, our immigrant and documented immigrant workforce is super instrumental in our act community.

And what could happen is if we see a lot of folks deported, we're going to perceive, you know, food prices rising and food costs and just other things, that we use in this country.

And so I think it's important for them to understand that they might not have a documented folks in, in their life, but it will affect their wallets eventually.

But I do want them to understand that I'm talking about folks are not just what they do for our economy, they are also human beings, and they deserve to be humanized.

And it's important for for people to see that, that they also have families, they live the life the way they live as well.

All right.

Davlin: Hey, we're going to have to leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you for watching.

We're off next week for Thanksgiving, but we'll see you here the first week of December.

Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.