Age verification?

[cowman]

This spring we just stuck a regular tag in all the calves as they were born. Every calf has a record of birth, mother,sire, birthdate etc., you know whatever the calf book has in it? In the next couple of weeks we intend to put in the RFID tags and I guess do the age verification thing? I don't know if that is going to be worth any extra money but I guess it doesn't cost anything other than time and aggravation!
It always seems there is so much work to get caught up on in the fall that time is always short and it is almost like a race to the finish line before the snow flies!

[EBusch]

I have a young acquaintance that works in a southern auction market part time while attending university in Lethbridge. She said the age verification info is inputted into the computer and a print out handed to the buyers who promptly throw it in the garbage !!! Apparently their reasoning is that if they buy a lot of 40 calves with age verification info they are placed in pens with another 400 that don't so it doesn't make any sense to them !!! The day we start getting a pay back for the added cost will be the day that a lot of cattle producers will be willing to spend the time and money.

[kpb]

emerald, your last comments were right on the mark. We buy calves every fall and I can't see any way that we would pay a premium right now for age verification. The calves get mixed in the pen with calves that are not age verified so what's the advantage? All the buyers I know couldn't care less about verification. It's just more work for the cow-calf guy.

kpb

[pmckenna]

So why don't you just buy them, put them in, and get it over with.

[cowman]

Well we do intend to do it. If the Japanese require age verification and if the RFID tag and recorded age meet that requirement then I guess that is what we must do?
Not sure if the Japanese are going to accept other methods at this time? Consider this: What happens if age verification through the RFID tag is the preferred method for Japanese buying? As the carcasses roll through the line at Cargill do they send one bunch into the Japanese export cooler and the others to Domestic or North American cooler? Now in your 400 head pen maybe those 40 head of aged verified cattle will get a premium? I would think the feeders would be demanding all cattle be age verified on the chance that this might be how it plays out?
Maybe this idea is to early, but in the long run I think it is a good idea. Hopefully people will be honest and truthful with the program! Perhaps in years to come it could include things like medications, hormones given, and pesticides applied? I think anytime you can give the customer information on the product it should be a good thing...if they want it?

[farmers_son]

Cowman: You said “I think anytime you can give the customer information on the product it should be a good thing...if they want it?” I would disagree.

We should never give the customer what they want. We should only give the customer what they will pay for. The customer will always have endless demands and desires. The only control on those demands and wants is when they have to pay for them; then all of a sudden the customer has to discriminate between what is really of value and importance to them and what is not.

I would point out that our customer is not the consumer in Japan. I wish it was but it is not so unless we are participants in our own packing plant. For most producers the customer is whoever buys their calves at the auction mart. For the rest the customer is no further down the value chain than the packing plant. As far as I know no one is paying for age verification and no generally accepted means of age verification other than dentition exists in this country.

When people muse about how we can add value by age verification or any of the other suggestions there is out there they are completely ignoring how dysfunctional the market for live cattle is in this country. Producers are not even getting paid a fair price for their fat cattle as it is, forget getting paid for value adding like age verification.

At some point, hopefully in the near future, Japan and the U.S. will announce the requirements for importing North American beef into Japan. Those requirements will be the same for Canada as for the U.S. However I do not see our packing industry paying a premium for live cattle that qualify for export to Japan. The industry (packing plants) will try to segregate the youthful product for the Japan market from the existing commodity pool of live cattle which by default means the little older cattle will be what the North American consumer will get in their supermarket coolers.

[cowman]

Okay, you might be right.
However if Cargill/IBP decide they need age verification and if their customers accept the CCA idea for that verification then I would suggest it might be prudent to get with the program? I mean in reality what does it cost you? You are already putting in the RFID tags...how hard is it to write the calfs tag number down beside it and send that in to the ID agency? This is going to break you or something?
I don't believe "premium" is really in the packers vocabulary but "discount" definitely is! And they seem to enjoy adding up all the little discounts possible...so why give them another one?

[farmers_son]

Sure. However the issue will not be decided by Cargill/IBP. It is being negotiated by the U.S. and Japan and we will know what will be used to age verify cattle once it is announced that beef trade is resuming with Japan. I think grading standards are more likely to be used to verify age rather than electronic ear tags. Dentition can be used to verify 24 months old as well as 30 months old and will provide a means of opening trade with Japan if Japan would back off from insisting 21 months is the cut off point. We need to remember the issue with Japan is not strictly food safety but also protectionism as they seek ways to support their domestic producers and as such the solution will be political rather than based on science or fact.

Whatever is used, I think we will not see the Americans negotiate a resumption of beef trade with Japan that will see Canada gain any kind of competitive advantage. We will see continual harmonization of our industry with the U.S. industry. I would not expect Cargill and Tyson to initiate any efforts on their own to sell beef to Japan. They really do not care as there is a home for all the beef they can process now. They are making good money with the status quo.

While I certainly look forward to the day when those ear tags can be used in some fashion to increase the value back to the producer, our packing industry has absolutely no intention of seeing any of the resulting profits slip through their fingers and make it to the producer level. With our present industry structure the packers are only interested in seeing the producer get sufficient level of returns to barely keep in production.

It is going to take a paradigm shift in the industry before producers actually can realize higher returns from value adding with their electronic ear tags or anything else. And while I hear support for change at the producer level I do not see the kind of changes we need to create a functioning market for live cattle in this country happening yet.

[greybeard]

I think they are using age verification now to avoid doing the dentition when calves go to the US. Saves mouthing every calf.As FS says, they don't have to pay for it. It should come as a discount on your marketing charges,as it is saving work at the market. They will be charging the buyers for the dentation service.

[kato]

At the moment the teeth rule. When it suits the USDA.

Here is something that happened just a couple of weeks ago in Manitoba. An animal was mouthed, and the teeth were good. Not the least bit questionable. However, when that steer got to the packing plant, the USDA vet decided he didn't look young enough, so pulled him out of the line, and called the CFIA to trace his tag. They did so, and found that the animal was indeed 31 months old. One month older than allowed, and yet the teeth said he wasn't even close to being too old. So much for dentition.

Result ... a vet lost his accreditation, the shipper had the animal tanked, and very likely the exporter lost his licence too. We're lucky they didn't try and shut the border again.

The bottom line is that the means of deciding which animals are too old, and which are not is a long way from being consistent. Now they don't just have to have good teeth, they have to "look" young. Very subjective way to decide something so important.

The sooner we can make the move to verified actual dates the better, as long as we have to live with the current rules. I don't see anyone down south knocking themselves out to change the rules either, so we had better get at it.

The day may come when we may see a return on our effort, but if we don't do it then we are guaranteed to see no return. This spring we wrote the birthdates right on our calves eartags too. As someone who assists a vet inspecting cattle for export, seeing a date written on the calf adds to the very narrow comfort zone we are living with. Nothing scarier than mouthing a big steer of unknown origin that has been shuffled through the auction and cattle buyer system, except maybe inspecting a heifer with the same history!

For the vets involved in this endeavour, the stakes are so much higher than most people realize. One mistake means the loss of export accreditation, with no, and I do mean NO opportunity to regain it. How many of us would do a job where there was zero tolerance for making even one error? Give this enough time, and we may run out of accredited vets.