From Agcenter.com
THE AGE OF FINISHED CATTLE
Japanese officials have requested more information regarding tests to determine the age of a beef animal. This is bad news for American beef producers because this is not an issue that can easily or quickly be clarified. Japanese officials just returned from a field trip to Colorado where they expressed concern the U.S. plants would be unable to tell the difference between an animal 20 months old vs. one 21 months old. Before further consideration of reopening the imports of American beef, they need to know how the aging will occur and how it can be proven accurate.
This is bad news for the talks and could mire the already contentious negotiations into months of quibbling over age. Teeth and bones give clues about the ages of cattle, but they lack the precision Japan is demanding before it resumes imports of U.S. beef.
Japan and the United States have spent months searching for a formula that would assure Japanese consumers that any U.S. beef imports would come from young cattle, which carry the lowest risk of the brain-wasting disease. Japan is considering a program to let the United States export beef from cattle aged 20 months or less without having to perform time-consuming and costly mad cow tests on those animals.
In Japan, cattle arrive at slaughter accompanied by birth certificates. In the U.S., USDA has botched the ID program and it now has been pushed to the back burner. Millions of dollars are being wasted on pilot programs that only serve to divert focus from the design of an effective mandatory program that the industry requires. Small constituencies of farmers and ranchers, protecting special interest have opposed the mandatory program. Western ranchers are afraid the government could discover illegal numbers of cattle grazing on federal and state leases that restrict grazing to a limited number of cattle.
Guessing an animal’s age is a combination of guesswork and science. Current methods rely on evidence of age using the teeth and observations of bone condition. "There aren't any good ways to nail it down within a month," said M.L. Thonney, Cornell University professor of animal science. Checking the progress of erupted teeth in young cattle "just determines if it's around a year or around two years or under a year, something like that," he said.
Besides examining teeth, slaughterhouse workers also could look at cattle bone structure to see how much cartilage has been converted into bone. But veterinarians say that method is even less accurate in determining age than teeth and more time-consuming. The truth is there is no reliable method for determining age outside a mandatory ID program.
The way I see it, if we think waiting for the Americans to get this sorted out is the way to go, we are wasting our time. They will bicker amongst themselves forever at this rate. These guys just don't get it.
We have the ID system, let's attach birthdates to our cattle and get this show on the road.
Electronic ID notwithstanding, we personally are changing the way we tag the next calf crop to include the birthdate on their eartags along with their numbers. Putting it right there for all to see.
THE AGE OF FINISHED CATTLE
Japanese officials have requested more information regarding tests to determine the age of a beef animal. This is bad news for American beef producers because this is not an issue that can easily or quickly be clarified. Japanese officials just returned from a field trip to Colorado where they expressed concern the U.S. plants would be unable to tell the difference between an animal 20 months old vs. one 21 months old. Before further consideration of reopening the imports of American beef, they need to know how the aging will occur and how it can be proven accurate.
This is bad news for the talks and could mire the already contentious negotiations into months of quibbling over age. Teeth and bones give clues about the ages of cattle, but they lack the precision Japan is demanding before it resumes imports of U.S. beef.
Japan and the United States have spent months searching for a formula that would assure Japanese consumers that any U.S. beef imports would come from young cattle, which carry the lowest risk of the brain-wasting disease. Japan is considering a program to let the United States export beef from cattle aged 20 months or less without having to perform time-consuming and costly mad cow tests on those animals.
In Japan, cattle arrive at slaughter accompanied by birth certificates. In the U.S., USDA has botched the ID program and it now has been pushed to the back burner. Millions of dollars are being wasted on pilot programs that only serve to divert focus from the design of an effective mandatory program that the industry requires. Small constituencies of farmers and ranchers, protecting special interest have opposed the mandatory program. Western ranchers are afraid the government could discover illegal numbers of cattle grazing on federal and state leases that restrict grazing to a limited number of cattle.
Guessing an animal’s age is a combination of guesswork and science. Current methods rely on evidence of age using the teeth and observations of bone condition. "There aren't any good ways to nail it down within a month," said M.L. Thonney, Cornell University professor of animal science. Checking the progress of erupted teeth in young cattle "just determines if it's around a year or around two years or under a year, something like that," he said.
Besides examining teeth, slaughterhouse workers also could look at cattle bone structure to see how much cartilage has been converted into bone. But veterinarians say that method is even less accurate in determining age than teeth and more time-consuming. The truth is there is no reliable method for determining age outside a mandatory ID program.
The way I see it, if we think waiting for the Americans to get this sorted out is the way to go, we are wasting our time. They will bicker amongst themselves forever at this rate. These guys just don't get it.
We have the ID system, let's attach birthdates to our cattle and get this show on the road.
Electronic ID notwithstanding, we personally are changing the way we tag the next calf crop to include the birthdate on their eartags along with their numbers. Putting it right there for all to see.
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