No Mandatory Animal ID

Walter over at NoNAIS asked me "Can you tell me more about how many big producers do you think are against NAIS?"

I don't know what I can tell you for sure. I only know of one producer, very large (10,000 head of mother cows), in the area that is for NAIS. Everybody else opposes it. A good organization that has producers of all shapes and sizes that has many questions about NAIS is R-CALF USA. Another organization in the State of Montana that opposes it is the Montana Cattleman's Association. How the producers in these organizations break out big and small I can't say for sure but knowing some of the bigger members, there are quite a few of the bigger operators that are opposed to NAIS. Their opposition usually breaks out the same as mine, where do I benefit? Prove it. Whether all this opposition in our state is going to get anything accomplished I don't know but I wanted to be a voice out there talking about it.

I personally don't see the pay-off to having an NAIS system in place. A large operation, like a small one, has to put pencil to paper and figure out if an expense is going to pay for itself. I might sell multiple semi loads of cattle a year but nobody out there is giving me a premium for ID animals over the money they are paying now so where is the advantage? How the expense of the NAIS is going to pay for itself is beyond me. The only people that truly want this system is the big meat packers.

The big meat packers are why NAIS is going to be a mandatory system and not a voluntary system. The USDA is in bed with the big meat packers and the packers don't want to have to only slaughter animals with ID's for foreign markets at one time and then have to slaughter animals with no ID for the domestic market. This would mess up the way they just throw it all together and call it quality beef. This has been the meat packers opposition to Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) also. Having to segregate what they slaughter would cost them money. Easier and cheaper for them to buy off the government and have the cost of a system on the little producers so they can avoid it entirely. So really this fight is the meat packers/USDA against everybody else who owns animals. Getting them to see and understand that is the problem.

The question I would have for producers of common cattle, sheep, goats, chickens or any other critter affected by this is what price premium are you getting for critters with id's in them? Not promises of premiums, actual premiums. I've seen very little of this and I don't expect to. That's why the smart operators are opposing this, there is no benefit.

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease or guaranteed a premium for your animals.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Personal at 17:02 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

What next: animal mug shots?

"I tell people about this, and they think I've gone nuts."

She's talking about an extraordinary plan under way to register, and track, every livestock animal in the U.S. That's all the cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, even llamas.

It's called the National Animal Identification System. It seeks to assign each animal a 15-digit ID number and physical tag such as a radio-frequency device. So far it's voluntary, but it's slated to be mandatory in 2009 for any animal that moves from one property to another (i.e. if they're sold, borrowed, displayed at a fair, or just wander around a lot.)

It's well-meaning. If we know where all the animals are at all times, then we can quickly quell outbreaks of disease, such as mad-cow or avian flu.

But there are more than 10 billion such animals in the U.S. We kill 9 billion chickens a year. Keeping track of them all, even if some are registered in groups, will require massive government record keeping.

Another problem: It's insane. Especially for people who own just a handful of animals.

"it's insane." I hardily agree. Most of the opposition I see to this comes from small producers but there are a lot of big producers out there, like me, who disagree with NAIS too. It's insane to number and count all the animals in the US. What's next RFID tag all the people to keep track of them?

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease. Proper health and nutrition by caring people, not factory farms, provide disease prevention.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Opinion Piece at 05:09 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)