Analysis of news article in Alberta Farmer

[kato]

Interesting thread.

Just have a comment on this thought.

- and the CFIA and others don't like feeling helpless. They want control. They want GPS on all livestock trucks, they want to be able to inspect our farms, review our records, and tell us when and with what to vaccinate our animals.

There is already GPS on most trucks, at least those belonging to companies that have any size to them. My brother is a trucker, and his dispatcher can locate him any time he wants. It's not at the request of any government agency, either. It's the way these companies track their shipments.

[grassfarmer]

No Kathy, the galloway would not have been given growth hormone - it was well after the hormone ban in Europe and they wouldn't have been feeding it to a purebred potential female in any case.
I haven't read Purdey's book but will endeavor to do so. Will get it from the library - thanks for donating those.

As for birth abnormalities I have one that may interest you - it was back in the Chernobyl year ('86 was it?)The accident happened in May if I remember correctly and we had a few fall calvers that year (August) one of them had the strangest calf I ever saw. Head, shoulder and front legs were normal but it had a second pair of full size legs attached to the rib cage just behind the front legs. The back of the rib cage just tailed off into slime and cleansing. It was born dead of course and I just buried it in a hole on the hill. Was that a Chernoybl side affect or just one in a million?

[Kathy]

Kato, the question is, will the trucking companies share their information with everybody on the location of their trucks... as we are being asked to share our information on our cattle?

Tracking of cattle has worked, and continues to work well with branding and sales receipts. However, if you want to 'track' the products and meds used on/in the cattle and their effect upon the carcass/tissues then you need the ranchers/feedlots to tell ALL on a data base.

Dr. W... (a vet) stated that the quality starts here program was "a gimmic" for the organic industry. In other words, the QSH program was for tracking all the products used on cattle. I thought government and the pharmaceutical companies had already confirmed these products were safe. What's the problem? Are we seeing synergistic interactions with unfavourable results?