USDA Drops animal ID

[Happytrails]

Cattle people. Our competitors across the line have just been relieved of the regulatory burden of animal ID by the secretary of agriculture. We have to keep the pressure on up here (Alberta) to keep our costs and paperwork in line with theirs. ID tag tracking has to go!!

[grassfarmer]

Why? How about instead we use this an opportunity to get ahead of the US - build our own market presence based on being a class above? This trying to hide under the skirts of the US, trying to produce cheaper yet being vunerable to them closing down exports at a whim has not paid us very well over the last few years has it? Lets break away from following the US/USDA policies and forge a bigger and better future for Canadian beef. We have done a lot of the work so why not try and benefit from it instead of throwing it away in a race to be the lowest cost commodity producer. We cannot win with that strategy in a world market given our climate and standard of living (re the cost of labor)

[perfecho]

I would agree GF, we are much better off to be a niche market and go for the extra...but we need a system that passes on the premium. As it is now, we do not recieve anything for it, and yet the packers do.

[kato]

No tracking no traceability FMD= disaster of biblical proportions.

If our neighbours want to play with that fire, then so be it. It's their choice.

[bmwilson]

Boy oh Boy. The competitive advantage we would have if our product is traceable from farm to fork is not worth risking to save a few dollars worth of eartags. If you don't want it traced, what is it you're hiding?

[per]

Huge opportunity here. Lets not squander it by following their lead.

[Happytrails]

Hey guys. I would like to point out that in Alberta and Sask we already have excellent traceability thru ID tagging and brand inspection. Contrary to some opinion brand inspection or, more correctly, livestock inspection is of benefit in tracking cattle movement even if they are not branded. To scrap an excellent inspection system in favor of a tag reading program makes no sense to me. When the cost to sell a calf at auction goes to $50 maybe more will agree. Incedently I do not have anything to hide and in our operation we scan the ID tags when processing. I just don't think that mandatory reporting and extra scanning will offer enough benefits to justify the costs.

[Kathy]

Do NOT believe for a second that the USA DA is
dropping mandatory premise ID. They are bribing
their states to implement it, on a state by state basis.
Some states are not pushing it, but the feds are
keeping their pressure on, non-stop. They just like to
change the lingo once and a while to keep producers
confused.

[Happytrails]

Kathy. I think you are tilting at the wrong windmill by resisting premise ID. There is nothing in your ID that is not already public knowledge. Livestock ID tag tracking on the other hand will force extra cattle handling and reporting etc. that will increase our costs, injuries to cattle, and make some cattle not legally marketable. And then there is the matter of enforcement. Do we want ID tag audits which make us responsible to account for all the tags in our name? I think that program is a serous threat to our industry. To me premise ID in not.

[chalice]

Try marketing your cattle directly. It only takes a few minutes to print off a birth certificate for your calf crop. Attaching a premise ID number takes even less time. Try turning traceability into a marketing advantage instead of a burden. In my case this years calf crop was sold in 3 groups requiring 1 sheet of paper for each group. Our calves were delivered to their home pen, a province away within 36 hours of being on the cow. The feedlot requested preconditioning as well as a few other things that cost us very little money or time. We negotiated a fair price based on their orders and the savings we were each going to realize. On top of having more money left in my pocket when we were done I will also receive performance data and possibly grading information. I think it was a win win for both of us. In short traceability and preconditioning added value to our calf crop. Whereas if we had marketed our calves the traditional way we wouldn't have gotten paid for $6 dolars worth of vaccine and a half hour on the computer. I know this because I follow markets fairly closely and the same calves that week netted $45 less.

[chalice]

Try marketing your cattle directly. It only takes a few minutes to print off a birth certificate for your calf crop. Attaching a premise ID number takes even less time. Try turning traceability into a marketing advantage instead of a burden. In my case this years calf crop was sold in 3 groups requiring 1 sheet of paper for each group. Our calves were delivered to their home pen, a province away within 36 hours of being on the cow. The feedlot requested preconditioning as well as a few other things that cost us very little money or time. We negotiated a fair price based on their orders and the savings we were each going to realize. On top of having more money left in my pocket when we were done I will also receive performance data and possibly grading information. I think it was a win win for both of us. In short traceability and preconditioning added value to our calf crop. Whereas if we had marketed our calves the traditional way we wouldn't have gotten paid for $6 worth of vaccine and a half hour on the computer. I know this because I follow markets fairly closely and the same calves that week netted $45 less.

[Happytrails]

Chalice, I think you and I mostly agree. What you did is by all means commendable. I do much of the same. What I'm not in favor of is mandating what should be individual choices for marketing. Let the market decide what information it wants and how much to pay. If mandatory ID tag tracking comes about it will make the CWB look like a shining beacon of liberty.

[littledoggie]

Mandatory collection of information under the Animal Health Act for control of disease is one thing. The arbitrary release of said information for commerce is another. As primary producers, we should have the right to ownership of this information for marketing purposes.

[Kathy]

Here is the link to another article, far more detailed and with important info. regarding the USDA and their own animal traceability program, now called animal disease program.

Author Doreen Hannes, title:
"Easter Bunny Reports: NAIS is Dead" (not!)
http://farmersandfreeholders.org/


I am sorrily disappointed that so many in the ranching community do not realize that this "Premise ID" is your new "License to Operate". As such, it can be yanked if you do not comply with up and coming regulations. Do you like being told how to run your farm?

Personally, I believe the manner in which this was passed in the AB Legislature, was illegal. I will not comply. The article points out that this is an OIE mandate; thanks to our federal governments signing onto World Trade Agreements, we agriculture in Canada) are now being run by the OIE... So, if we are being told what to do by this unelected bureaucracy.... why on Earth do we need our own provincial Agriculture departments? Ah, yes, they are the enforcers for the new rules.

Vote these yahoos out, and wake up. Your freedoms are being eroded.

It is amusing that just as Brian Neillson (in an interview) predicts that in years to come, Canada will not need to sell any beef outside our borders, as we will have increased populations to consume what we produce {stating only 20% goes out our borders right now}... Thus, the new rules for global trade will likely be in place, not to help us export, but to allow other countries to IMPORT beef into Canada.