WSGA Position on Traceability

[Happytrails]

Western Stock Growers Association held a board meeting today and passed a positive resolution on traceability.

The gist of it is:

Whereas the WSGA has serious concerns with the present proposals regarding traceability and:

Whereas LIS (livestock inspection services in Alberta) already successfully performs the basic elements of traceability,

Therefore be it resolved that the western Canadian provinces adopt a single livestock inspection agency for the purposes of traceability based on the LIS model.

Awesome concept which should have legs. LIS has a proven record for providing traceability. The western provinces have about 82% of the beef cow herd in Canada. Doesn't it make sense for us to have a western solution rather than following the east? BTW 3 of the provinces already have some form of livestock (including brands) inspection. Lets get together and push this. The alternative IMO is loss of auction markets, loss of producers, and market disruption. HT

[smcgrath76]

Would the intent be that cattle must be
branded prior to leaving their herd of
origin or would it be a commerce driven
system?
Are brand characters an issue (are there
enough to go around)?
I think inter-provincial brand
coordination would be a great thing, but I
know as you move east there are fewer and
fewer cattle that are branded.

[Happytrails]

Hide brands are not the only focus of livestock inspection. In fact I picked up a LIS pamphlet at an ABP meeting some time back that on six pages didn't even mention brands.

The main point here is that livestock inspection is already tracking cattle movement in western Canada. That reality should be recognized and built upon instead of re-inventing the wheel. HT

[smcgrath76]

Thanks HT. That helps to clarify. I
meant to say coordinated livestock
inspection (rather coordination of
branding).
I always wondered why it seemed CCIA could
never sort out a workable deal with LIS.

[wd40]

It's called "job security" smc

[Ruken]

So Happytrails, how does the LIS model track my ywf steer that was sorted into a feedlot pen of 300 back at the auction market during a presort sale? By the way, mine and 125 other steers in this pen are unbranded and most of them are YWF as well? Help me understand...

[smcgrath76]

Just a guess, but I was thinking that
LIS would basically take over the job
from CFIA. In one stop they could read
brands, check manifests, and read RFID
tags. If things were cross provincially
coordinated this would work all across
western Canada.
CFIA who is short on staff and
inspection experience would benefit, and
would be called in only for animal
health related issues as is their
mandate.
I expect the brand inspection fees would
have to rise to cover this.

[Ruken]

I believe LIS is already doing the majority of what's being commented on already. Aren't they? When I have an eartag missing, it's the brand inspector that I'm reporting to...

Some day when they read the cattle at the auction marts, I believe it will be under the supervision of LIS.

[Happytrails]

First regarding Rukens steer. I'm not sure what you want to know. Is it which of the 300 head in the pen was yours? If he has your original RFID tag then that will tell you. Otherwise the records will only show that one of that lot of cattle came from your operation. I'm only surmising but it would seem that if a health issue arose in that pen all the contributors to it would be checked out.

Sean you say CFIA would get involved only when there is a health issue. I agree and further that there is no good reason to scan tags at auction markets when there isn't a health issue (99.9% of the time). Scan them into feedlots and call it good. HT

[Ruken]

So Happy Trails, what I hear you say is that the RFID tags are ok and its just that the work should be done by LIS and CCIA should cut back to the bare minimum?

[Happytrails]

Stupid question....oops I forgot there are no stupid questions.

LIS will serve a bigger area and possibly have more to do. Bigger role not smaller.

CCIA will likely continue to do what it is doing and that is maintain a data base for RFID tags. That would include tag purchaser info, reported birthdates, reported slaughter, etc. About the same role as now.

[ASRG]

Way back around 2000, when they first were discussing the bar code tags, I went to a public meeting at Innisfail. The message at that time was "we either do this or government will impose it on us"?
The late Carl Block had got roped into promoting this idea and he took a lot of abuse from the crowd! Carl was a true gentleman and talking with him after the meeting, I came away convinced that what he said about cattle producers controlling the system was much better than the heavy hand of government!
I'm not sure it turned out quite how Carl thought it would? And I'm not so sure about how affective it is?
Two years ago (?), when age verification was made mandatory, the system was sort of a joke?
I had waded through the painfully slow (at the time)process of age verifying all my calves on the website. Load up the first couple of loads of calves...try to print off the info.....and guess what....the age verification site froze up after printing 82 out of 146 calves! And it wouldn't come up again!
So I hauled them in anyway and gave the partial AV list at the sale yard (you couldn't unload without the AV list). I never heard a word about it!
Later I asked a guy who worked in the yards and he told me they just threw all the age verification lists in the garbage can anyway!