Breed Associations

[R.N.Reed]

In a recent thread someone made a comment that the purpose of a breed assoc.was to promote their breed.In light of that statement and regardless of your stance on NAIS,how do you feel about the AAA teaming up with the US Gov.to promote NAIS? What might be the implications down the road?

 

[Frankie]

In a recent thread someone made a comment that the purpose of a breed assoc.was to promote their breed.In light of that statement and regardless of your stance on NAIS,how do you feel about the AAA teaming up with the US Gov.to promote NAIS? What might be the implications down the road?

The Angus Assn has always believed that Angus cattle produce good beef. They objected back when the USDA lowered the grading standards. They started CAB to offer consumers a choice between quality beef and commodity beef. They have now started the AngusSource program to identify cattle sired by Angus bulls. They've always stood behind the breed. I see encouraging people who raise Angus or use Angus genetics to identify those cattle as a reasonable next move on their part.

There's value in the NAIS program to a producer willing to jump through the hoops to claim it. Cattle that are age and source verified are worth more in some markets. I think the AAA simply wants to help their members and member's customers to get as many dollars for their cattle as possible and see the NAIS program as a way to do that.

 

[MikeC]

They objected back when the USDA lowered the grading standards.

Why would they object to basically only changing the term "Good" to "Select" ?

There were some maturity issues changed earlier but the basis of the last change was a "lowering"?

Breed Associations have predominately one function:

"Keep and Enforce Accurate Records".

 

[Oldtimer]

My feeling is that its just the AAA pimping itself to get a bunch of taxpayers dollars ($580,000) to hand out government propoganda that the government shouldn't be spending taxpayers dollars on in the first place....Breed associations shouldn't be taking stands on political issues- and AAA made a mistake getting behind such a highly devided political issue.....

If NAIS is such a good idea- and is needed to better market cattle- then the Packers/buyers could/should pay premiums for the NAIS IDed cattle and the system will come to be thru the free market...USDA by spending taxpayer dollars and mandating NAIS, is just doing the Packers job for them and profitting them at the expense of the producer and taxpayer....

Currently in my area- few buyers have been paying a premium for NAIS IDed cattle (not enough to pay for the expense/labor/time)- preferring hot iron branded permanent ID with signed affidavits.....

And what I'm reading today--the USDA may not have got the money it needs to implement NAIS......

USDA is going to have less money than hoped for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) this year. Congress trimmed the Bush administration's budget request for NAIS in fiscal year 2008 by more than two-thirds.

This past Wednesday, USDA unveiled a new business plan for the NAIS. Later that day, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight told Brownfield one of the reasons the new plan will work is because the Bush administration planned to fully fund the program.

"Because of the importance of animal ID, we're carrying forward full speed ahead with the optimism that we will be able to garner enough funds from Congress and from carryover to be able to implement this program in a robust and full manner," Knight said.

But Congress didn’t cooperate. In the omnibus spending measure passed by Congress last week, lawmakers approved just $9.75 million for the NAIS animal in fiscal year 2008, less than a third of the more than $33.2 million requested by USDA.

The impact of the decision by Congress to slash funding for animal identification isn’t yet clear. But it seems unlikely that sufficient carryover money will be available to make-up the difference between the Bush administration's budget request for the NAIS and the funding actually approved by Congress.

 

[R.N.Reed]

I always thought NAIS sole purpose was to enable a quick response to a disease outbreak.I am excited to now find out that through the AAA's valiant effort funded by my tax dollars we will all now receive premiums for our cattle.This is great!

P.S. Will we still have our hoops?