SALT LAKE CITY (AP)--Rancher Tim Munns joined in a standing ovation for Sen. Orrin Hatch--but later followed the Republican lawmaker into the hallway to push for help in fighting a law farmers say will cut into profits in an industry already pressed for cash.

"Senator Hatch needs more education on this one," said Munns at the conclusion of the Utah Cattlemen's Association Convention recently at the Sheraton Hotel.

Hatch had voted for the 2006 agriculture appropriations bill that contained an amendment to stop the slaughter of horses in the United States and their exportation for human consumption elsewhere.

The slaughter measure, which passed by a vote of 69 to 28, is similar to a House amendment that passed in June 269 to 158.

Hatch spoke about the Iraqi war, terrorism, drugs and the appropriations bill but said little on the slaughter amendment during his keynote speech at the end of the three-day convention recently.

But why deprive others of horse meat that is as much an important high-protein food source as beef or chicken is for Americans, asked Munns, who is past president of the state cattlemen's group.

The amendment is a big worry for the agriculture industry because it bars taxpayer dollars for food-safety inspections of horse-processing plants, which could open the way for ranchers to have to pay for other packing-plant inspections that now are borne by the federal government, said Munns.

Congress has paid for safety inspectors at meat-processing plants since 1906, when author Upton Sinclair caused a public furor after describing filthy conditions at packing plants and the health threat they posed to consumers.

The problem is that Americans see the horse-slaughter issue as eating Seabiscuit, the famous Depression-era racehorse, said Jay Truitt, lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, who sports a bumper sticker on his car that reads, "If God didn't intend for us to eat meat, why is it so tasty?"

"We lost the philosophical argument about what is a safe, wholesome product that can be consumed by human beings," he said, adding that the amendment is of great concern to ranchers, whether or not they own horses.

Rancher Ron Christensen of Sterling said many Americans have become so disconnected from the land that they cannot understand farming or ranching. "We all love our horses," he said, "and we also understand that their life cycle is one of the components of life."

Joe Hill, who ranches in Kaysville, said farmers are forced to feed their worn-out horses until they drop in the fields, when buzzards feed on them or they're buried.

"And there's so many wild horses out there that there's no grass for our cattle to graze on or any place to send our horses when they die," he said. "Why are (people) depriving us of our ability to manage our animals?"

The number of horses slaughtered in America has declined over the past 20 years, peaking at nearly 350,000 annually in the late 1980s and declining in 2002 to a record low of 42,000. And in Japan, the largest Asian consumer of imported horse meat, the decline is even more pronounced, said a 55-page report by the Thoroughbred Retirement Association, which asserts that human consumption of horse meat is not a valid argument for slaughtering horses.

In fact, the American horse slaughter business is in serious trouble, concluded the 2002 report, and the two slaughter houses in Texas are owned by foreign interests.

The horse-slaughter measure is set to expire this time next year, but on its heels is the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would permanently ban the practice.

The measures come at a time when ranchers are struggling to pay energy bills. Earlier this month, ranchers heard a Hatch aide say that high energy prices are the salvation for the nation because the added cash is an incentive for oil companies to drill more wells and develop alternative forms of energy.

Farmers, who are paying more for gasoline than they harvested in wheat, said they hope the profits pay for development rather than ending up in executives' pockets.