Alliance, NE — The members of the Nebraska Brand Committee have set the date of June 1, 2012 to begin assessing the surcharge as established by the passage of Legislative Bill 181 in 2011.

The Nebraska Brand Committee began the process of establishing Agency Rules and Regulations for the implementation of the surcharge on August 26, 2011. The final rule was approved by Governor Dave Heineman and was filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office on December 16, 2011.

The requirements, as outlined in the rule state, “A surcharge of $10.00 per stop shall be assessed on all local country inspections except when there is no travel costs incurred by the brand inspector. The surcharge shall be collected by the brand inspector and paid by the person requesting the inspection or the person required by law to have the inspection.”

A “Local Country Inspection” is considered to be and is defined as those brand inspections that are performed in the country authorizing the movement of livestock, the slaughter of livestock, or the change of ownership of livestock at ranches, farms, and/or feedlots, including those inspections involving farm auctions and purebred/registered cattle sales.

The Nebraska Brand Committee has in the past and continues to encourage their inspectors to limit their miles traveled as the circumstances will allow, but a priority is to continue to provide the outstanding service as they have in the past. As the Committee begins the implementation of this surcharge, they encourage cattle producers to work with their local brand inspectors to assist in keeping the travel expenses as low as possible. Try to schedule inspections consistent with other inspections in their area and possibly make arrangements to bring the cattle to the inspector so as not to incur any travel costs.