hoof and mouth

[Happytrails]

GF. Thanks for a civilized reply and I will try to do the same.
You and I disagree on how to achieve the same goals.
In regard to your hypothetical group of black heifers I respectfully suggest that there are several records that would allow a quick and accurate trace back. Firstly, the feedlot operator would have bills of sale. If you have 200 black heifers you had better have either 400 black cows or some bills of sale. Also there would be trucking manifests. And then they would have ID tags which would identify their herd of origin. To me, that is sufficient documentation for effective traceback. Cattle are managed in groups and I feel our traceback systems should reflect that reality and give up on writing a story on each individual. Regards, HT

[grgsrvc]

I visited some friends in northern England in '97. They showed me
their individual animal passport, multiple pages bureaucratic wet
dream system for their cattle. I agree with HT about cattle
documentation in the herd sense. Individual animal documentation is
not how cattle are managed.

[grassfarmer]

HT - Bills of sale won't do much good if you land 200 head of black NVB heifers in a feedlot from several auctions, several sources on one day because you can't identify the individual. What if the F M case was a single black heifer split out in the ring because it was smaller than it's 5 pen mates? You have no way on knowing which lot of cattle that made up the 200 it came from. What about it's 5 pen mates that went to another feedlot and may be infected and not showing signs? You need to know where they are right away. Tracing farm of birth through the EID tag only works if that is where it traveled from on sale day - if it had been owned for a while by a backgrounder and there was no record of its ID being transported from the farm of birth to his feedlot/pasture and then back to the auction you are up the creek without a paddle. You need individual IDs and you need movement tracking of them. Age verification is minor in my opinion compared to the tracking data.

grgsrvc, the EU tracking system is stupid I'll agree with that. The problem is it is paper based which was the wrong decision. They should have used EIDs and a computerized tracking system from the outset. They collect the data needed but in a slow, expensive and cumbersome manner. That's what I want to avoid here.

[jensend]

if we want to expand international markets there are customers out there who demand single animal traceability. that's the single best reason for setting up and adopting an eid system. the arguments for brand id are just static.