Ag Commissioner Sid Miller Weighs in on the Possible Updates to the Horse Protection Act

Season 5: Episode 204

In this episode of North American Ag Spotlight podcast, host Chrissy Wozniak welcomes Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller for an in-depth discussion on the Biden Administration’s recent changes to the Horse Protection Act. Commissioner Miller explains how the new regulations, originally intended to curb the inhumane practice of soring in Tennessee Walking Horses, have been drastically expanded to cover all horse breeds and events. He warns that these overreaching rules could place an undue burden on horse owners, breeders, and event organizers, requiring costly inspections and creating impractical restrictions—such as banning common fly spray or minor abrasions from routine training.

Beyond the Horse Protection Act, Commissioner Miller addresses broader concerns about government overreach in agriculture, touching on issues such as the USDA’s response to screw worm outbreaks, the push to list the monarch butterfly as endangered, and the agency’s handling of avian flu in dairy cattle. He highlights the critical role of agriculture in America and the need for policymakers to apply common sense rather than excessive regulation.

The conversation also explores potential solutions, including a coalition of state agriculture commissioners pushing back against federal overreach. Commissioner Miller shares his optimism about the new administration’s commitment to reducing unnecessary regulations and restoring balance to the industry. He also discusses his lifelong passion for agriculture, his mission to educate the public, and his commitment to protecting the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers.

The episode wraps up with information on how listeners can stay engaged, including subscribing to Commissioner Miller’s press updates and tuning into his television show, Texas Agriculture Matters - which can be found here - https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Events/Texas-Agriculture-Matters-TV-Show. 

Learn more at - https://texasagriculture.gov 

For those passionate about preserving agricultural freedoms, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

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Transcript

00:00:08:15 - 00:00:30:05
Chrissy Wozniak
Hi, and welcome to North American Spotlight. I'm Chrissy Wozniak. Our guest today is a proud eighth generation farmer and rancher who's dedicated his life to preserving the traditions and prosperity of rural communities. From teaching agriculture in Texas classrooms to shaping policy in the state legislature. He's become a tireless advocate for the people who feed, clothe and fuel our nation.

00:00:30:07 - 00:00:48:07
Chrissy Wozniak
It's as a 26 time world champion rodeo cowboy. He embodies the grit and determination of the Lone Star State. Currently, he's serving his third term as the leader of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Please welcome Commissioner, said Miller. Thank you so much, Commissioner Miller, for being here today.

00:00:48:09 - 00:00:51:07
Sid Miller
Good to be with you. Thank you for having me.

00:00:51:09 - 00:01:14:05
Chrissy Wozniak
So we are going to talk about, the, opinion piece that you wrote recently about, about horses, horse protection. I know it's, about a certain rule coming through, but it's it's even more broad than that. So could you give me an, an overview of, the administration's recent changes to the horse protection Act?

00:01:14:07 - 00:01:44:03
Sid Miller
So the Horse Protection Act has been around a long time. It was passed in 1970 and was basically passed to address the problem in two specific breeds walking horses and wrecking horses. There was there was a process called, sorry, like making the horses feet sore so they would have a real high gate bring their feet up. They could do it through a chemical barn, putting shoes on their feet that, stress their tendons.

00:01:44:05 - 00:02:04:05
Sid Miller
It's awful process. I fully agree that, you know, that process needed to be stopped because it was very inhumane. So that rule hasn't been changed or updated and there hasn't been a need to change or update. No one does that anymore. You won't you can't go to the show and see that being done. Very strict on that.

00:02:04:05 - 00:02:39:16
Sid Miller
So what this new rule that the USDA come out with would extend that to all breeds. But no, the breed deaths that, and add a lot more cumbersome, burdensome rules. So the first thing any, any horse event is not a speed event. So PA shows, for age, cutting, riding the horse events, trail rides, play days, you know, things like that.

00:02:39:18 - 00:03:12:09
Sid Miller
Would have to have a USDA approved veterinarian on site. Or they could approve a vet tech. We already have a shortage of large animal vets. You know, we can't spur anybody to go do this. Really? It's, They would have to inspect every horse entered and reinsert and re inspect all the winners. And, that would have to be paid for by by the horse show or the horse event.

00:03:12:11 - 00:03:25:09
Sid Miller
And they would. The craziest thing is I won't go through all of it because it is very burdensome. But if you had, if they found fly spray on the horse's legs, that's a disqualification.

00:03:25:11 - 00:03:26:10
Chrissy Wozniak
No way.

00:03:26:16 - 00:03:52:24
Sid Miller
Yeah, well, if they can show sheen on the horse's legs, that's that's a disqualification. If you, you know, if a horse has a little abrasion from wearing bell boots, that's a disqualification. If there's, you know, if another horse kicks him and there's a little hair gone, that's a disqualification. You know, if you have a thin skinned horse and he has a spur mark on it, that's a disqualification.

00:03:53:01 - 00:04:18:04
Sid Miller
Anything like that, it would would disqualify that horse and you'd be written up. And so we don't. That's. It's just too much is too much. And here's what, you mentioned that I have, I've raised and trained and shown 26 world champion. So I go to horse shows, you know, 4 or 5 a year. There's a ring steward that inspects the horses to trot your horse.

00:04:18:04 - 00:04:52:04
Sid Miller
Okay. Welcome back. All right. You're that are to say, you can go in the rain on show. They, they check for soundness issues already, so it's duplication. It's just for government overreach. Arthur and I have reached out. There's there's 12 of us commissioners across the United States, including the one in in Florida. Wilton Simpson has signed a letter to the USDA lending team to, you know, just a, you know, at the very least, postpone it 60 days until we can get a secretary in place.

00:04:52:06 - 00:05:22:13
Sid Miller
Or there was an, executive order signed yesterday, giving all agencies, the right to, postpone for 60 days, or simply if they the same, it's it's too much regulation to just just scrap it and not implement it. So that's basically what our letter says, you know, at the very least postpone it 60 days, until we have a secretary and can make a decision.

00:05:22:15 - 00:05:51:14
Sid Miller
But we'd rather you just, you know, throw it in the trash can, get rid of it and not do it. Yeah. So that's that's real simple version of how it, it's it's a very long, cumbersome written rule. But, it's got the American Quarter Horse Association, the Horse Council, the paint office breeders, Appaloosa breeders, the thoroughbred breeders, they're all up in arms and are opposed to it because it's just going to be overly burdensome.

00:05:51:16 - 00:05:59:03
Chrissy Wozniak
Right. So is there any distinction in the bill at all between like level like showing level, like, does this apply even to like for each.

00:05:59:05 - 00:06:22:17
Sid Miller
Year, any horse gathering? There's not a speed of the basically tied to it. And so race horses would be exempt. Team roping rodeos would be exempt. But everything else that catches, I don't know, while that's clamped them, I mean, those, I don't know what what the reasoning was to to exempt those horses or not, you know, and pick on the others.

00:06:22:17 - 00:06:24:10
Sid Miller
But,

00:06:24:12 - 00:06:29:08
Chrissy Wozniak
Well, it it could be to try to shut it down. Well, you know, at the lower levels even. Right.

00:06:29:10 - 00:06:51:03
Sid Miller
Well, I'm sure you know, but it doesn't, doesn't past cowboy logic. If there's a horse, it's going to be crippled. It's a horse in a speed event, you know, that has all the stress and strain on its ligaments and tendons and joints. It's not a halter horse or a pleasure horse or trail horse, you know. So,

00:06:51:05 - 00:07:15:22
Chrissy Wozniak
And the, the economic, implications, I guess, are, are insane, too, because these are people whose livelihoods are based on horses. So, you know, from carriage horses to trailer rides, like you said, it's it it's that's a lot of, a lot of family businesses. I guess that could be really affected by this.

00:07:15:24 - 00:07:38:07
Sid Miller
Yes. Well, you know, these these, organizations that put on the event, they have to notify the USDA. I think it's 30 days in advance. And then within five days of the of the event wrap up, they've got to submit another full report. So there's all this paperwork and all this filing and, you know, if and, you know, these people can be fine.

00:07:38:07 - 00:07:55:07
Sid Miller
You know, most of these people that put on these events are volunteers. You know, some of them for a trainer or some, you know, church riding group are, you know, it's just they they, you know, it's just it's just unbelievable that we would be doing this in this day and age.

00:07:55:09 - 00:08:06:18
Chrissy Wozniak
Right. So do you think that the recent obvious, administration change, are we going to get more common sense here? Or do we still have a long road ahead in fighting these type of things?

00:08:06:20 - 00:08:33:01
Sid Miller
Well, the, the directive from the executive order is, you know, cut out any other unnecessary regulation or oversight, you know, just stop it. Don't implement it, you know, at least postpone it till we can make sure we need it. So, the Trump administration is all about, fired and free trade and to have actually, free trade, you've got to get the government out of the equation.

00:08:33:03 - 00:08:56:14
Sid Miller
And, so that's what we want. That's what we had last time. You know, he, he, he tell those agencies for for every new regulation you put in, you're, you're going to have to cut six. But that didn't happen. For every new regulation that went in, they cut 16. So that's that's the kind of results I'm expecting this to.

00:08:56:16 - 00:09:16:13
Chrissy Wozniak
Get that that's very encouraging. So I, I've witnessed myself just, you know, covering a lot of policy that USDA, EPA, all these agencies really obviously overreach. In your opinion, what should or what role should state governments and federal government play in regulating regulating these issues?

00:09:16:15 - 00:09:37:01
Sid Miller
Well, I'm I'm more of a, you know, free market system. Just, you know, if you keep the government out of it, the market will balance itself out. You know, this is not the only, overreach the EPA has an erroneous rule out now, and it's it's it's to, put the monarch butterfly on the threatened list, the endangered list.

00:09:37:03 - 00:09:57:16
Sid Miller
And so you have to do all this stuff. You couldn't develop or work up any, any land that is in the flyway of the monarch butterfly, which is about at least a third of the United States. It's it's a Great Plains from Canada, all the way down through the, Great Plains states, through Texas. And to Mexico. And you you know, you couldn't mow your pasture.

00:09:57:18 - 00:10:26:19
Sid Miller
There would be no new football stadiums, no developments, no housing. You know, you couldn't, any place in that flyway would be hands off. So. And the and the erroneous thing about this, it wouldn't help the monarch butterfly one bit. The reason the monarch butterflies in decline is in Mexico. There's one place where they overwinter. It's a forest just east of Mexico City, where there's a certain type of fir tree grows.

00:10:26:21 - 00:10:57:22
Sid Miller
And through deforested. There's only 2% of that forest left. That's the problem. So if you want to fix a monarch butterfly said to us, go plant some more fir trees form down in Mexico. We're not the problem. Then the problem, that one thing they could do, the hearts of monarch butterfly. We have a lot of these very well-meaning people that will grow and pupae and produce monarch butterflies and then turn them loose.

00:10:57:24 - 00:11:25:11
Sid Miller
Well, that's all beautiful and pretty and maybe educational for the kids, but it messes up the Native monarchs, migration pattern because they mix in with the others and they don't know where they're going. And it's just a lot of them just get lost. Because of these domestic monarchs that are in the flyway. So if they want to do something, you know, you could you could stop that from happening, that that would help some.

00:11:25:11 - 00:11:32:24
Sid Miller
But it really wouldn't fix the decline. The decline is, lack of habitat in Mexico, right?

00:11:32:24 - 00:11:57:22
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Yeah, that's common sense. Thank you. I great, great explanation on that one for sure. And and this is all part of this overarching theme we've seen, at least for the last 20 years of, of, you know, worshiping the land and animals above humans and eventually leading to us not owning animals at all. And to me, that's a private property issue.

00:11:57:24 - 00:11:59:11
Chrissy Wozniak
What do you think of that?

00:11:59:13 - 00:12:26:03
Sid Miller
Well, it well, it is, you know, and, and, we just, you know, a government, we just do stupid stuff. So another thing they thought they would do to help the monarch butterflies to plant milkweed up and down all of the, interstate highways and state highways, you know, in the media and now, can you imagine how many butterflies get plastered in a grill on the windshield?

00:12:26:05 - 00:12:34:13
Sid Miller
That's not smart. You know, it's just we just need to go by another another topic. And I know I'm kind of skipping around, but it's kind of a pet peeve. No.

00:12:34:16 - 00:12:35:08
Chrissy Wozniak
It's good.

00:12:35:10 - 00:13:03:14
Sid Miller
Is is the USDA reaction to the outbreak of that one case of screw worm in in southern Mexico, there was this one cow wandered across the international line from Guatemala into Mexico and had one case of screw one. So immediately the USDA dumped $160 million on this, you know, to divide it. They shut down the, Mexican imports of cattle.

00:13:03:16 - 00:13:26:19
Sid Miller
We get 5% of our feeder cattle from Mexico, and we get them in December and January, and it's shut down. And we all we already have the lowest cattle inventory we've ever had in the history of keeping records. Beef is already an all time high. So this is going to be terrible for the consumer if we can't get that, you know, 5% of our beef up here to to graze out and then go to the feedlot.

00:13:26:19 - 00:13:57:00
Sid Miller
So this cow is 1100 miles from the Texas border. It's 22 degrees at my house right now. I mean, there's no sign of farm three months. And, we, you know, we shut the border down over one case. It's 1100 miles, from the Texas border. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. And again, when we import cattle from Mexico, they go to quarantine pens.

00:13:57:00 - 00:14:22:11
Sid Miller
They have to stay there a certain amount of time. They're inspected by, USDA veterinarians. Make sure they're healthy, they don't bring any disease. And, the screw worm was basically actually, Florida had an outbreak, several years back, but it was quickly taken care of, but basically was radiated in the mid 1960s when I was 11 years old.

00:14:22:13 - 00:14:42:00
Sid Miller
And I remember docking screw worms on our ranch. And the thing I remember about it, you didn't have to guess if you had them or not. If you were within 100ft of an animal that had screw worms, you would know it because it's basically infected, rotting flesh. I mean, that's pretty.

00:14:42:01 - 00:14:43:02
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, wow.

00:14:43:04 - 00:15:12:10
Sid Miller
But it's larvae. It's well, it's maggots. It's what it is. It's just maggots and you, there's no mistaking if they've got it and you're going to smell it. So the likelihood of a veterinarian missing a screw arm case and sending that animal into the United States is zero. I mean, you'd have to be, have no sense of smell and be blind and I don't think we have any veterinarians in inspectors that that meet that qualifications.

00:15:12:12 - 00:15:34:09
Sid Miller
So anyways, just government overkill, you know, just knee jerk reaction. Let's spend $160 million to shut down the border, the imports, because there's there's one cow slipped over the the, you know, boundary line and, and, Mexico has a case, so I'll, I'll get off pretty crazy. I just think we do some pretty stupid stuff.

00:15:34:11 - 00:15:51:19
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, yeah. I agree with even with avian flu, it's, you know, I was at USDA with American agro women last year and just couldn't believe what was coming out of their mouths about how they're handling it. And, in, in one way, saying that natural selection is going to fix the birds, but natural selection can't work on chickens.

00:15:51:24 - 00:16:06:07
Chrissy Wozniak
It was just it was just mind blowing the stupidity. And then they just go to their their talking points right, right back and just say, well, this is how we do it. We don't have to think. So. I really hope so much hope that this is going to change. And we get some commonsense.

00:16:06:09 - 00:16:26:14
Sid Miller
Of those. So and we we all reacted on the, when we first figured out the bird flu was in our dairy herds that actually started here in Texas. We had cattle getting sick and couldn't figure out why. I couldn't figure out what, they tested for everything. And, you know, and one guy, you know, had a little common sense.

00:16:26:14 - 00:16:57:00
Sid Miller
He said, you know, to a lot of dead birds around this dairy, you don't think they could get bird flu? Why? No, cattle don't get bird flu. Well, let's test for it. We don't. We tested for it. So sure enough, they tested for it and it was bird to it. And again the reaction was overkill. The fact is it only affects milking cows, doesn't affect beef cattle, doesn't affect the cows, doesn't, affect the Springers.

00:16:57:02 - 00:17:25:07
Sid Miller
And it only affects the older milking cows. And they are sick for about ten days a week to ten days, and they get over it. And so there's no death loss from it. It's not, you know, it it can get in the mail, but the milk is pasteurized and that that kills the pathogen. So it just, you know, complete overreaction.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:43:18
Sid Miller
Now we're going to test all the dairies, you know, test them for for bird flu. Okay, well, what if they have it? Well, we're going to dump the milk. Well, why would you dump the milk? That just pasteurize it? I mean, it's, you know, that's why we can't just kill pathogens and let's kill bacteria on milk as bacteria.

00:17:43:18 - 00:18:12:24
Sid Miller
And, you know, milk has, you know, some salmonella, some E.coli. It's just, you know, we don't want it to, you know, that's what makes milk spoil, is eventually those microbes, multiply and milk spores. So anyway, that's what, another typical, government, you know, kneejerk over overreacting to, government has this, this way of wanting, having a solution, looking for a problem.

00:18:13:04 - 00:18:19:00
Sid Miller
You know, that's kind of the the way they get it. Like, they get everything backwards.

00:18:19:01 - 00:18:29:02
Chrissy Wozniak
Yep, I definitely agree. So what can we do? What steps can we take as animal owners, as people in the industry to push back against this?

00:18:29:04 - 00:18:50:22
Sid Miller
Well, on the Horse Protection Act, I've gotten about a dozen other commissioners from around the United States. We we've written a letter, Senate to the USDA, you know, demanding that they scrap it. And, you know, if they don't feel like they can scrap it, at least postpone it 60 days until we can get, Brooke Rollins in there, get her confirmed, and have a.

00:18:50:24 - 00:19:10:15
Sid Miller
You know, I'm still having a what they call a landing team, you know, a temporary, administration and get the, you know, full time boys and gals in there, and we'll let them deal with it. So that's one thing. The the milk thing is really, testing every dairy is not that big a deal. We test every load of milk.

00:19:10:15 - 00:19:35:19
Sid Miller
Anyway, when a, a tanker truck pulls up there to load the milk, he loads them out. He takes a sample in before it's put in with, other milk. They they test that milk for pathogens, for bacteria. So testing for bird flu is not that big a deal. The big deal is sending federal agents out on the farm, pull samples in test.

00:19:35:20 - 00:19:57:23
Sid Miller
Now, that's. That's not going to end well. I'm just telling you, there's going to be some old farmer out there just. That's just not going to want a federal agent on his property, uninvited. Unannounced. So we could have another, you know, Cliven Bundy situation. I don't know if you remember that, but, that was a guy from Arizona that they raided.

00:19:58:00 - 00:20:12:16
Sid Miller
But anyway, we can it it's not that hard. I mean, we can just add one more test to the to the milk sample. So, if they want to test them, that'd be. That would be my recommendation. Just test it. When you test for the for the other stuff.

00:20:12:18 - 00:20:34:22
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Yeah, that's a little more cohesive for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well thank you. I've got one more question for you. You why do you serve this industry, you know, after such a great life in the, in the industry, you still continue to serve in you and and it's ongoing. So, so what is at heart what is your greatest passion?

00:20:34:22 - 00:20:35:21
Chrissy Wozniak
And all of it?

00:20:35:23 - 00:20:54:03
Sid Miller
You know, I enjoy this job. There's not not many people left. You know, when our when our country was founded, 98% of the people were farmers, ranchers. There was no Wal-Marts. There was no costcos. I mean, if you didn't grow it or kill it, you didn't eat. I mean, that was just the way it was. Today.

00:20:54:09 - 00:21:21:19
Sid Miller
We're less than 2% of the population. You know, we feed, you know, one farmer feeds about 200 people on average. So, we have to keep on, keeping this industry protected. We're a small voice. Less than 2% of us, somebody has to push back against federal overreach. I'm kind of known as a disruptor. You know, I'm not a go along, get along guy.

00:21:21:21 - 00:21:48:05
Sid Miller
I think even, you know, IBM attacked my Republican colleagues when I think they're wrong and they're, you know, they're off course. So, I enjoy, protecting the agriculture industry by making sure that, people are educated about agriculture, like you mentioned, dairy. I'm a former, agriculture teacher. So, my vocation or training is in agri agriculture teaching.

00:21:48:07 - 00:22:00:02
Sid Miller
So, I just, I really enjoy every day I get up thankful that I'm, I'm the commissioner of of a, you know, big ag state, like Texas.

00:22:00:04 - 00:22:16:06
Chrissy Wozniak
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Great. Great to talk to you. And, you have a great email that comes from your office with editorials, press releases, everything you're doing, I love it. I'll make sure that I put links in the show notes so that people can subscribe to that as well.

00:22:16:08 - 00:22:37:21
Sid Miller
One more shameless plug. We have our own TV show. You can catch us on TV on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. central. It's called Texas Agriculture Matters and we just showcase the best of Texas agriculture. We go around the state and show different growers and farmers and producers and it's very wholesome. Sit down for your family and watch it.

00:22:37:21 - 00:22:40:07
Sid Miller
And not be embarrassed.

00:22:40:09 - 00:22:46:16
Chrissy Wozniak
Oh, I love it. We need more shows like that these days. That's awesome. We'll put links to that as well.

00:22:46:18 - 00:22:47:05
Sid Miller
Thank you.

00:22:47:05 - 00:23:04:01
Chrissy Wozniak
Well thank you. Yeah, thank you. And thanks to all who are watching or listening if you want to learn more. As I said, the links are provided in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to North American Tech Spotlight on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, listen notes, or if you prefer, a video, you can find us on Rumble or Telegram channels, or really wherever you listen to podcasts.

00:23:04:03 - 00:23:07:12
Chrissy Wozniak
If you like this episode, I would love it if you shared it and have a great day!