Livestock owner to be assigned specific number for premise identification

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

June 17, 2004 -- "This is something that's coming ... but, there are still a lot of unknowns," said Dr. Rick Machen, livestock specialist with the Texas Cooperative Extension in Uvalde, while speaking to an overflowing crowd at the recent Luling Foundation Field Day in Luling.

"It's going to affect everyone who owns beef cattle," Machen noted.

Dr. Rick Machen Livestock specialist

The U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP), initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been a "work in progress" for months, and will, eventually, include the tagging of sheep, goats, pigs and poultry, at least, that is the plan at this point, according to Machen.

The first phase of the USAIP is supposed to start in July 2004.

Of course, the first and foremost question always asked by producers is "why do we need a national program?" After listening to various conversations during the field day, many of the producers and other attendees are concerned about privacy, and just who will be allowed to view personal and private information, along with why others might need the information.

Machen assured the audience the beef identification program has a lot to do "with the times in which we live." Since marketing has gone global, and with the threat of terrorism all over the world, identification seems to be the best way to protect biosecurity for the contiguous 48 states.

According to the specialist, it will offer a protection for the animals involved in the program. Once the program is up and running, the goal ... and challenge ... is to be able to trace any animal in 48 hours. In case of an outbreak of disease or a breach of security, this would enable officials to track problems more efficiently.

He mentioned that if cattle in recent outbreaks of BSE had already been under the identification program, some cattle, that were destroyed, could have been saved .

While the complete set of rules and regulations are still being accessed, Machen suggested the "key" element will be what is called a "premise ID." This would be a uniform identification system and could include the livestock owner's name, plus 15 numbers that had been selected for each rancher. For those producers with ranches and property in various places, Machen said the "jury is still out," as to how that will be handled.

Basically, a uniform record system that covers the United States is the primary goal. Identification systems for pork and poultry will be addressed, too, as well as a system for non-producers who have animals that must be properly identified.

Another point of concern is the type of identification mark or mechanism that will be used. It is fairly well understood it will be in the form of an ear tag, but whether it will contain bar codes or a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is still to be decided.

As Machen understands, cattle and calves that leave the ranch will need to have tags, and the information will be stored in a "huge" data base. It is not decided if these data bases will be managed by the federal government or private companies. He said it is projected that for the program to be properly implemented, it will cost around $33 million in 2005.

According to Machen, he understands that Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are working, together, on a program, since it is believed the tag numbers and information will ... more than likely ... be issued by individual states to producers.

In closing, Machen advised the audience, "It's not going to happen very quickly, but it's coming. It's going to happen."