A pilot project to test the feasibility of cattle traceability systems in Alberta auction markets has found that electronic identification technology is viable but could cost millions to implement.
“One of the objectives was to look at the costs related to implementing a workable system in the market,” said Rick Frederickson of Alberta Agriculture’s traceability division.
National and provincial projects are determining whether electronic identification systems can work properly under Canadian conditions and what would be the benefits and costs to implement.
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The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency has investigated a variety of systems, but Alberta used only one of them in six auction markets from October 2009 and July 2010. Nearly 250,000 cattle were involved.
The Alberta project report estimated that outfitting 28 markets in the province with readers, computers, software and staff to do the scanning would cost $5.87 to $6.83 million. It also said the systems take up space in alleys and pens. As well, expansion may not work well for some facilities because of their locations.
The study set a target read rate of 95 percent, which was achieved using hand-held wands, long wands and panel readers. It also assessed electronic tags to make sure they worked properly.
“The reader performance was pretty good,” Frederickson said. “Where we had issues in a lower read percentage was really related to whether or not the tags were in the ear.”
Some tags were missing, not in the correct position or faulty. Mature animals continued to show up with barcode tags, but most cows appeared with the proper radio frequency tags after the December 2009 deadline to end their use.
About four percent of animals had to be retagged. The study suggested producer education programs to teach proper tagging techniques.
It also said external interference was a common problem for the reading systems. Read rates sometimes fluctuated dramatically during sales in the early stages.
Technical support staff from Australia spent time at each yard fine-tuning the equipment and searching for and removing sources of interference.
Potential benefits for the auction markets included enhanced inventory management and animal movement tracking, improved claim settlement and more automated sale document preparation.
The study also said work could be streamlined by co-operating with Alberta Livestock Inspection Service brand inspectors and field staff from the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency. They could integrate reporting and auditing services to reduce traceability costs because brand inspectors are performing many of these services already.
Technology is evolving and the government plans to continue testing and working with the Alberta Livestock Marketing Association to assess data gaps and run more tests to look for improvements and find ways to add value added benefits.
These might include age verification or collecting information accompanying the cattle such as vaccination records and hormone free status that can be used as sales features.
The study said the industry needs to investigate new technology such as ultra high frequency tags that can be read at greater distances.
“We have had a number of pilot projects with a few of these ultra high frequency technologies,” Frederickson said. “It is important we continue to do that because it might be the next technology that works well for the industry.”
The full reports can be read at www.agriculture.alberta.ca/traceability.
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