The Value of a National ID System

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

U.S. data on beef production vary according to farms

Tuesday, December 7



(Kyodo) _ A mission sent by the Japanese government to analyze measures to prevent mad cow disease in North America presented a report Tuesday indicating the need to substantially limit beef imports from the United States even when Japan removes a ban on them, government officials said.

Data on slaughtered cows were found to vary greatly from farm to farm in the United States, they said.

The mission visited farms and other cow-related facilities in Alberta, Canada, and the U.S. state of Kansas from Nov. 29 until Friday in order to gather data to help the government decide whether to remove an import ban on beef from the United States and Canada imposed after the discovery of mad cow disease in the two countries.

Planning to allow imports of beef only from cows slaughtered when they were 20 months old or younger, the government requires accurate data on the age of cows as a condition for lifting the ban.

The mission found that Canada has a nationwide system to trace each cow while the accuracy and storage of data on beef production in the United States vary greatly in accordance with farms in the absence of a uniform recording system.

Based on the mission report, a farm ministry official said that while resumption of full-scale beef imports from Canada is highly likely if necessary conditions are met, imports of American beef will be substantially limited even when the ban is removed unless accurate production data become available.

The mission consisted of officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission.

 

[Texan]

Based on the mission report, a farm ministry official said that while resumption of full-scale beef imports from Canada is highly likely if necessary conditions are met, imports of American beef will be substantially limited even when the ban is removed unless accurate production data become available.

Thanks for posting this, CR. Sounds like we'd better get in high gear on a National ID system or you Canucks will steal our export markets. Former export markets, I should say.

 

[terry]

To the national cattle identification system, I think this is a lot of bull, this is just more government bureacracy coming down the pike to weed out small cattle operations across the US that will not be able to afford the cost in the identification system. In turn with this happening the loss of the cattle production from the small farmer will put more need for the US to import beef from other countries. I am totally against this identification system. :

 

[mwj]

terry how much do you think the per head cost for a small producer will be? The normal swings in the market on a weekly basis would have more impact on your bottom line I would think. Have you factored in the cost of telling the asian market that we do not want to trade with them. I do not want to tell anyone not to buy my beef because I donot want to tag my cattle.
your friend
Mike

 

[dun]

If you stick the rfid tag in their ear the cost I've seen have only been a couple of bucks a tag. One more expense, but not a backbreaker.
You don;t have to have all of the fancy readers and software. But there are companys out there that want you to buy into the whole scheme and will even do your herd managment data. At a price of course.

dun

 

[Oldtimer]

terry how much do you think the per head cost for a small producer will be? The normal swings in the market on a weekly basis would have more impact on your bottom line I would think. Have you factored in the cost of telling the asian market that we do not want to trade with them. I do not want to tell anyone not to buy my beef because I donot want to tag my cattle.
your friend
Mike

The $2.50-$5.00 per head cost of the tags will be the cheapest cost--The major cost will be when the entire traceback program is up and running and you need to have an area change or ownership change inspection--What will the state or federal inspector charge? Many people complain now about paying $.50 to $1.00 a head for brand inspections-- If these inspectors have to all be equipped with RFID readers the cost will be a lot more.. Or when you ship cattle out of state and part of the health inspection is the inclusion of all the cattle tag numbers on the health certificate-- How much will the vet raise his fees for that? One of the proposals in APHIS's plan is to have computerized health certificates that record the transfer immediately.......If the vet has to go out and purchase $10,000 worth of computer and RFID reading equipment to accomplish this- I'm sure his costs will go up accordingly.....Also the amount of handling in the sale barns will increase- a specific record of each calf that goes to each buyer will have to be maintained and entered into the main data base-- Will the sale barns do all this additional work without increasing their fees and commisssions?
The only thing I see that may keep a lot of this cost off the producer will be if the federal govt. puts in a large infusion of homeland security money to fund the buying of the needed equipment and the building of this infrastructure.....

 

[Oldtimer]

Heres part of an article that was in the Billings Gazette about the implementation of the National ID--I think the estimate of an $8 per head cost is a very modest guess- especially in the many areas of the country that have no or little inspection infrastructure in place.........


U.S. Cattle Industry Hits Prime Period as Consumer Demand Takes Off

Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana, December 10, 2004


by Jim Gransbery, Billings Gazette, Mont.


Dec. 10--BILLINGS, Mont. --


Weaber said he expects the United States to open the border to Canadian live cattle sometime in 2005, with about 300,000 head of fed cattle coming into the United States next year. The border has been closed to live imports since May 2003 when a single cow in Alberta was found with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. U.S. exports to other countries have been on hold since last Christmas when a BSE infected dairy cow was identified in Washington State. That animal was later traced to a Canadian origin.

U.S. efforts to open its export market again and to enact a protocol for Canadian cattle coming into the United States continue, but are not expected to be completed soon. A tentative agreement with Japan, the largest foreign buyer of U.S. beef, is snagged on details for determining the age of the slaughter animals.

The origin of the meat supply has taken on new urgency since the BSE incidents and heightened concern for security from terrorists, noted John Paterson, the Extension beef specialist at Montana State University at Bozeman.

A push toward individual animal identification is driven by a desire to create a disease surveillance system, Paterson said.

"It is to trace, detect and eliminate disease," he said. The ID implementation is not a food safety program.

Individual identification is voluntary now but will become mandatory with an estimated cost of $500 million over five years. Paterson said the estimated cost of $8 per animal seem high to him.

The information on each animal would be stored in a national database controlled by the government.

He said cattlemen fear the information could be used by private third parties who could use it in a competitive situation and strict confidentiality of the information must be maintained.

Paterson said the national plan would require premises identification (the ranch) as well as an individual ID for each animal. The ID will have to be scanned, read and recorded at all levels of movement of the animals from ranch to feedlot to packing plant.



-----

 

[mwj]

Oldtimer you have valid points but all we can do is guess what the cost will be to read tags and when they will have to be read. When I go to buy mineral they wave the wand at a barcode without me removing them from the frieght cart and it does not force them out of buisnes. If they put in a system that is complicated it could be a mess. At this point they are leaning towards a KISS type system and I think that is the way it should be. I have been folowing the local meetings on the APHIS sight and it has been quite interesting. From what I understand you western producers in ''brand'' states will be able to use them. The big trouble will be with us producers in the more eastern regions that do not have a standard system in place.
your friend
Mike

 

[Oldtimer]

If they put in a system that is complicated it could be a mess. At this point they are leaning towards a KISS type system and I think that is the way it should be.

And therein lies my worries-- Have you ever known of the government doing anything simple?
The USDA took a very simple to operate and common sense MCOOL law and have tried every way possible to complicate it and make it cost more.........

 

[brokenmouth]

If they put in a system that is complicated it could be a mess. At this point they are leaning towards a KISS type system and I think that is the way it should be.

And therein lies my worries-- Have you ever known of the government doing anything simple?
The USDA took a very simple to operate and common sense MCOOL law and have tried every way possible to complicate it and make it cost more.........

your right oldtimer thats the fly in the ointment. Government is fair at a very things like fighting wars and bulding roads, good at nothing. opposite of a sound investment. More you put in the less you get out, less you put in the more you get out

 

[terry]

Guy's this is my fears about all this the goverment can tear up a crowbar in a sand pile all the way from the fed to the state. they are all looking for more renues this all scares the daylights out of me.

 

[mwj]

If everyone is afraid the gov. will botch the plan, what is yours? Are we willing to lose our export markets altogether? Canada put a plan in place that seems to please the asian buyers and I am sure that they will gain acess to those markets. If we want to be bull headed we will pay for our choice .The asian mkt. will decide where they want to spend there money just like we do. I don't like anyone to tell me how and where to spend my money and I doubt if they do either.
your friend
Mike