Give them something in return, and more cattle producers will spend the money to tag their cattle and calves with electronic ear tags.
That may mean more than just cooperating on the cost of the tags, said Chip Kemp, director of International Genetic Solutions, at a National Institute for Animal Agriculture at its Strategy Forum on Livestock Traceability in Kansas City on Tuesday.
Kemp told the group that mandating electronic ear tags for disease traceability would be met with significant push-back from many producers who would see the word “traceability” and equate it to mean “discovery” and “a way to supervise me.”
The issue for the average cow/calf producer is that they only have a herd of about 35 cows. That figures to 21,000 pounds of 600-pound calves to sell each year, not even enough for a full truckload.
Producers also point to the latest disease/export disaster to hit the US – the imported cow in Washington state with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow disease. In this case, cattle lost $15 per cwt almost immediately after the announced discovery in December of 2003.
However, the cattle market had regained all of the losses within a year. The only producers who suffered the worst of the BSE market were those who sold within a short time after the Dec. 23 announcement.
INFORMATIONAL WORTH.
The average small cow/calf producer doesn’t see any value in spending the money on electronic ear tags when there’s no return to them, Kemp said. Even helping with the cost of the tags won’t overcome the trouble to insert them.
The bigger issue, he said, was philosophy. The USDA and others who are pushing for more use of electronic tracking of livestock movements must promote the issue from a value-added standpoint.
“Producers don’t want a handout,” Kemp said. “But they do want knowledge.”
The electronic readers make data gathering so much easier and efficient that gathering accurate data on carcass merit can give producers the information necessary to make better decisions about breeding for success. They then can market their calves with the data to prove their calves are worth more to a buyer.
He said producers have shown that they desire credible genetic tools they can use. In fact, they want this more than financial help with the cost of tags and equipment.
Kemp urged the audience to find ways to get performance data back to the producers who step up and use the electronic tags.
“Traceability with information works,” he said. “Don’t punt” this issue, as it gives producers price differentiation.
Retail grocers and restaurants also can be brought in to give feedback on the salability of beef products, he said. The information flow doesn’t have to begin with the packing plant.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No fed cattle sold Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange Video Auction, compared with 280 that traded five weeks previous at $109.50 per cwt.
Cash trading was reported this week at $110 to $111, per cwt on a live basis, mostly $110.50, and at $173 to $174 dressed, compared with last week’s range of $110.50 to $111 live and $170 to $175 dressed.
The USDA choice cutout Thursday was down $0.14 per cwt at $204.71, while select was off $0.39 at $192.56. The choice/select spread widened to $12.15 from $11.90 with 99 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Wednesday, was $158.13 per cwt, up $0.09. This compares with Thursday’s Sep settlement of $157.30, up $0.25, and the Oct settlement of $157.85, down $0.45.