Utah Department Of Agriculture

Utah Department Of Agriculture, a state government entity operating as a child division of the State of Utah Governor's Office, serves as a prime recipient of federal grants (98% of recent awards) delivering agricultural inspection, pest surveillance, animal disease monitoring, and food safety regulatory services to USDA agencies and the FDA. The agency does not hold federal contracts as a prime contractor, nor does it sit on government-wide vehicles; its federal footprint consists entirely of grant awards issued under cooperative agreements and project grants from federal grantor agencies.

Utah Department Of Agriculture's customer base concentrates heavily on USDA agencies. The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) funds 163 cooperative agreements and project grants, followed by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (35 awards), the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (35 awards), and the USDA National Resources Conservation Service (15 awards). The FDA awards 14 grants valued at $2.9 million combined potential for human food and animal food facility inspections in Utah. These five customer agencies represent 78% of the agency's recent award count. The combined potential value across all 334 awards in the source data is $3 million, though obligated dollars total $137.5 million, indicating that most awards carry multi-year funding streams with annual or semi-annual obligations.

Utah Department Of Agriculture's capability portfolio centers on state-delegated regulatory and surveillance work. The agency operates Utah's state meat and poultry inspection program under USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service cooperative agreements (CFDA 10.475 and 10.477), delivering ante-mortem and post-mortem facility inspections and labeling compliance verification. Recent awards include a $2.182 million cooperative agreement from FSIS for FY 2025–2026 meat and poultry inspection, and three annual $1.68 million to $1.49 million cooperative agreements from FSIS for meat, poultry, and egg product inspections. The FDA awards contracts for human food facility inspections in Utah — a $804,911.88 definitive contract awarded September 30, 2026, runs through August 31, 2031, and a prior $405,410.97 contract covers the Human Food Inspection Program through March 29, 2027. For animal health, APHIS funds cooperative agreements for avian influenza surveillance, including National Poultry Improvement Plan activities; brucellosis and tuberculosis testing; and foreign animal disease preparedness and response. The agency has received emergency cooperative agreements for disease response — a $554 thousand highly pathogenic avian influenza emergency response agreement (awarded May 15, 2026, extending through May 14, 2027) and a November 2024 high-path avian influenza emergency agreement for response activities including quarantine issuance, biosecurity monitoring, and carcass disposal oversight. Plant pest surveillance forms a second significant capability area: the agency conducts cooperative agreements for honeybee health monitoring (19 apiaries statewide), spongy moth and exotic wood borer surveillance (installing traps across 29 Utah counties), red imported fire ant detection, and potato cyst nematode sampling on 600–800 acres of potato fields to support Utah's export trade. The agency also manages the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (CFDA 10.170) — three-year block grants valued at $383,754.88 to $378,953.46 — passing funds to sub-recipients for research and education projects benefiting specialty crop producers (fruits, vegetables, nuts, honey, syrup). Biological control agent programs fund sub-awards to the Utah Weed Supervisors Association for noxious weed management across 29 counties. Forest health protection work includes invasive species integrated pest management on non-federal and federal lands, funded under USDA Forest Service project grants (CFDA 10.680). EPA Region 8 awards a three-year pesticide regulatory program formula grant (CFDA 40 CFR) supporting certification and training of pesticide applicators, worker protection, and water quality protection. The agency also maintains a Manufactured Food Regulatory Program and an urban Rapid Response Team for human and animal food outbreak response, funded through FDA cooperative agreements.

Federal grant sub-awards, though small in number (7 total, 2% of awards), route funding through other state agencies. The Utah Department of Health and Human Services has awarded sub-grants to Utah Department Of Agriculture for rural food infrastructure and telehealth initiatives; the State of Utah Department of Environmental Quality has sub-awarded funding for local watershed coordinator positions implementing water quality improvement projects; and the University of California Office of the President has engaged the agency to conduct regulatory outreach and technical assistance to agribusinesses in the Southwest Regional Food Business Centers program.

Activity has remained stable at 17–21 awards per year over the past five years. Within the next twenty-four months, 26 awards carrying combined potential value of $554 thousand will reach ultimate completion, including multiple annual APHIS surveillance and animal health cooperative agreements, FDA inspection contracts, and FSIS meat and poultry inspection agreements. These recurring annual awards represent recompete cycles rather than cliff-edge risk; annual renewal is the standard model for federal cooperative agreements with state agricultural regulatory agencies. The agency holds no seats on government-wide IDIQs or GWACs; a small portion of seed lab work flows through two USDA BPA vehicles (INL09PA00458 and 140L2619A0003), generating task orders worth $223 combined potential across seven calls. Place of performance is Salt Lake City and throughout Utah for all work documented in the source data.