USDA and others pushed this week for continued expansion of electronic ear tags in US cattle.
Speakers at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s Strategy Forum on Livestock Traceability in Kansas City, Tuesday and Wednesday said there was momentum within the cattle industry for more electronic tagging, but more was needed.
COST, LIABILITY CONCERN PRODUCERS
It’s no big secret that many cattle producers, feeders and others associated with the cattle industry have grown cynical over the years. Many deal with cattle buyers of one kind or another only because they have to sell their product at some point.
They feel they have been lied to, cheated and gipped out of a fair price so many times they are hesitant to spend the $2.50 to $5.00 a head it might cost them to put in electronic ear tags, and to keep the records that come with such a commitment, when they can’t see that they get anything in return.
Many have said they go the expense and trouble to tag their cattle so the meat can be sold into more export markets, but they feel the buck stops at the packing plant – literally. The packer gets the good out of the wider beef market, but the producer doesn’t get any premiums from providing cattle that widen the packer’s markets.
They can see that the ability to trace diseased animals is beneficial to the US cattle industry as a whole, but they worry that some disease would be traced to their operations and they would suffer financial liability for it. And to add insult to injury, they would have been the ones who paid for and put the tags in the ears to begin with.
Besides, they know that with paper trails, USDA agents can track down most cattle and their origins anyway.
USDA GOALS
Greg Ibach, USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs told the gathering that the USDA had four tracing goals:
- Advance electronic sharing of data for animal health. However, the USDA does not want to store the data. There’s just too much, and the USDA isn’t interested in production data.
- Establish the use of electronic tags. To get things rolling, the Department is willing to help with the cost.
- Enhance the ability to trace animals to their birth place and the various waypoints along the way. It may not be enough to trace an animal back to its point of origin. It may have contracted, or been exposed to, a disease along the way.
- Elevate the data system to move health certificates electronically. They want to make this system workable for veterinarians and others who might need the certificates.
However, the USDA refuses to define the technologies, Ibach said. The USDA knows various locations have different needs and wants the market to develop their own systems.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No fed cattle sold last Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange Video Auction, compared with 280 that traded four weeks previous at $109.50 per cwt.
Light cash trading was reported Tuesday at $110.50 per cwt live and at $174 dressed, compared with last week’s full range of $110.50 live and $170 to $175 dressed.
The USDA choice cutout Wednesday was down $0.88 per cwt at $204.85, while select was off $1.92 at $192.95. The choice/select spread widened to $11.90 from $10.86 with 129 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Tuesday, was $158.04 per cwt, up $0.21. This compares with Wednesday’s Sep settlement of $157.05, up $0.42, and the Oct settlement of $158.30, up $1.82.