Mandatory EID tags for KY cattle

[Silver]

I have a few gripes about the fallout from BSE. Over 25 years since feed ban feeding animal byproducts to animals and we are still paying for SRM removal from cattle over 30 months at a cost of $150ish per head. Money that would be paid to producers if it wasn't required.
The tags are a tax. Every reportable disease outbreak in Canada has been traced with brands and now backed up with the tags.. Another $3500 annual tax for us that does SFA.
The governments of today are very adept in convincing people all this BS is for the greater good. Now (unrelated) we have come so far that we have litter boxes in school hallways for kids that are allowed to pretend they are cats.
How far do we take this?

I don't necessarily disagree with you but I'll play devils advocate.
What would our export market look like if we didn't remove SRM's and how would that affect our domestic market?
When would our export markets have reopened with no internationally accepted traceability system in effect?
There are hundreds of thousands of calves on feed in this country with no brands, and many cows as well. Brands and tattoos work well enough but they are not a part of a mandatory traceability system.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Disease outbreak. The tags won't matter. Look at the poultry industry plan for a disease outbreak that is contagious and deemed a major issue. Pinpoint the farm with the finding, draw a circle around that farm ......

Difference I see between the poultry and beef industry's is the distances the animals travel.

Poultry are typically born, raised, and slaughtered in a small radius with good records kept of where they came from. Making it possible to "pinpoint the farm" as you say.

My last group of feeder steers went from my house, 340 miles across 3 states to the sale barn, where they were bought and traveled to a feedlot another 300 miles thru 2 more states. Where they went to slaughter from there? Who knows.

So without a tag how would anyone "pinpoint the farm" if a disease outbreak were to happen?

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I wish I had so little going on in my life that required RFID tags was even a passing thought in my brain. Haha

 

[Ky hills]

I wish I had so little going on in my life that required RFID tags was even a passing thought in my brain. Haha

Apparently a lot of folks here in KY and in other states too have a lot of concern about the tags. The response from cattle producers was so strong the KCA had to change their support for the tags, other states that had not already decided not to support it had to change too.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Here's the thing. Cattle aren't some constitutionally protected item. So if the government wants to control them/producers they will just pass a law that mandates herd counts, vaccines, or what have you. There is no reason for any sort of "backdoor loophole" approach to legislation in regards to livestock.

RFID tags are not how someone would go about controlling the cattle herd.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Apparently a lot of folks here in KY and in other states too have a lot of concern about the tags. The response from cattle producers was so strong the KCA had to change their support for the tags, other states that had not already decided not to support it had to change too.

Part of that is because farmers as a whole are "sticks in the mud" and very resistant to any sort of change be it good or bad. A just majority of producers do things the way they do simply "because that's the way my dad and grandpa did it".

 

[SBMF 2015]

I do have two gripes about the tags. First is retention. The button back will eventually wear out and fall off, allowing the tag to fall out.
The second and biggest one to me is the lack of carcass data. We were promised we would be able to get carcass data from animals bearing our tags. And we did get some for the first few years. We no longer do, apparently the packers have decided that this is their information and they aren't sharing it. There is / was a huge opportunity here for us to put even more distance between ourselves and the rest of the world in terms of carcass quality and efficiency and to this point we've blown it.

The packers feel that everything is privileged info and the producers don't qualify.
It's getting better. We always sell fed cattle live. Or old buyers would complain when we were getting to many yg4 but would not tell us what the load did or if they were strs or hfs that were to fat. Because once the scale ticket was stamped the packers owned them and it wasn't any of our business.
Our new young buyers is great. He passes on all the info he gets if I ask.

 

[Ky hills]

Part of that is because farmers as a whole are "sticks in the mud" and very resistant to any sort of change be it good or bad. A just majority of producers do things the way they do simply "because that's the way my dad and grandpa did it".

Yeah, I get that, but there is also an element of independence and not wanting any added responsibility, cost or possible government involvement or intrusion.
Government

 

[Ebenezer]

Difference I see between the poultry and beef industry's is the distances the animals travel.

Poultry are typically born, raised, and slaughtered in a small radius with good records kept of where they came from. Making it possible to "pinpoint the farm" as you say.

My last group of feeder steers went from my house, 340 miles across 3 states to the sale barn, where they were bought and traveled to a feedlot another 300 miles thru 2 more states. Where they went to slaughter from there? Who knows.

So without a tag how would anyone "pinpoint the farm" if a disease outbreak were to happen?

Premise ID, street address...

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

How is someone suppose to get the premise ID or street address from the cow....?

O yeah from the RFID tag. Haha

Cattle get co-mingled the only way to ID them is a brand or RFID type tag.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I had to look up this Colorado pet tax. https://usark.org/24co/
$8.50 per year Tax on each pet including fish and insects.

← South Carolina H4874
UPDATE: We have been informed that this bill has been pulled by the Sponsor due to overwhelming opposition and hearing about the problems that would be caused! Thank you to everyone who opposed this pet tax and informed legislators about its unjust consequences!

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I don't put tags of any kind on my cows because it ruins their looks. Seriously. I keep these two for milk and also for their beauty. A Jersey cow has the beautiful face- Dished profile, large eyes and small muzzle refined like an Arabian horse. Two huge chunks of plastic with numbers on them hanging off their ears is distracting and ugly and Im not having it. No government tags tracing my address either. There are natural scars on them that I use as ID.

 

[simme]

Appears that USDA/APHIS maintains the database of EID numbers. This appears to be the way to lookup "owner" of the EID tag number. User account required. Distributor of tags is required to register the tag numbers to a user. Both links appear to be the same, but go to 2 different pages.

Animal Identification Number Management System

Animal Identification Number Management System

 

[wbvs58]

the way your rights get eroded is a little seemingly insignificant piece at a time, sold to the public as something that is "good for you" so most of the people just fall in line. It happens all the time in almost every country. Look at what your country did with shot mandates, severe travel restrictions and lock downs and how they got it done. Government restrictions are put in place at the cost of the people and the benefit to the government, all sold as something that start off with "good intentions" and grow to something else. In the US look at how many free accountants for tax collection in almost every small business exist. It didn't start like this. Look at how the laws were subtley slipped in like payroll tax deductions that have enriched the government and grown it to a massive scale that would be far different if people realized how much was being extorted from them every week to pay for needless programs after having the government take away their ultimate tool of approval, withholding tax payments

They didn't put a tag in me when I had my covid shots, or none that I know of, I've got a bit of a lump behind my ear so maybe they are tracking me. What about chips in keys for motor vehicles and keyless vehicles, I bet the government has infiltrated these too.

Ken

 

[rocfarm]

I ask the head of the appraisal district about this one time. He said no we don't do that, we can get everything we need from a satellite picture. I ask what they look for. He said cow trails, hay rings, pens, the cows themselves are visible if they are there.

They'll come check in our county if they think you are messing with the system.

But the Texas government is pretty good about minding their own business.

And @Silver, is making my point. They require your info, but don't give you any in return. Why should the packing plants get to keep your name, address, and the history of your cattle's carcass data, but you don't have access to it?

 

[rocfarm]

Difference I see between the poultry and beef industry's is the distances the animals travel.

Poultry are typically born, raised, and slaughtered in a small radius with good records kept of where they came from. Making it possible to "pinpoint the farm" as you say.

My last group of feeder steers went from my house, 340 miles across 3 states to the sale barn, where they were bought and traveled to a feedlot another 300 miles thru 2 more states. Where they went to slaughter from there? Who knows.

So without a tag how would anyone "pinpoint the farm" if a disease outbreak were to happen?

You could easily do it through the sale barns and other indirect ways.

 

[rocfarm]

They didn't put a tag in me when I had my covid shots, or none that I know of, I've got a bit of a lump behind my ear so maybe they are tracking me. What about chips in keys for motor vehicles and keyless vehicles, I bet the government has infiltrated these too.

Ken

Actually, they have. It's all run by a company called Palantir.

And I tried to turn off the tracking on my Honda. It's not possible. They can go back to the company and get all of your travel history. And, Honda has the right to sell it.

And, it seems that no one looked at that John Deere article. They have the right to sell all of the information the collect on your farm if you use their equipment.

 

[Silver]

And @Silver, is making my point. They require your info, but don't give you any in return. Why should the packing plants get to keep your name, address, and the history of your cattle's carcass data, but you don't have access to it?

"They" don't require your info, they buy it. And they are currently deciding that once they own it they don't need to share it. Kind of a free market thing. But I think they could be forced to share it at least with the original producer. Sort of like John Deere should be forced to allow others to repair JD equipment…

 

[rocfarm]

"They" don't require your info, they buy it. And they are currently deciding that once they own it they don't need to share it. Kind of a free market thing. But I think they could be forced to share it at least with the original producer. Sort of like John Deere should be forced to allow others to repair JD equipment…

How is it a free market when you are being forced to sell/give away for free information that you don't want to give? Sounds more like some of the US's foreign competitors requiring companies to hand over technology/info in order to do business. That's not 'selling'. That's selling out the next generation. Trust me, I have a bit of experience with this one…

I'm not even against the darn tags. Just think it should be the producer's choice.

And if the vaccinations were needed, I'd go with a certified tattoo that still didn't have info. My personal preference.

But I know things are different up there in Canada.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

You could easily do it through the sale barns and other indirect ways.

Easily? I'm not so sure.

Once again if the animal has no tag how are you going to look up any sort of information?

Fred buys 100 black steers from 4 different producers on the same day and are co-mingled in the truck on the ride home. Gets them home and one dies of TB. How does Fred know where that animal came from? How does he pick out which black steer came from which producer?