Saskatchewan may implement mandatory cattle age verification to help it gain access to international markets.
Agriculture minister Mark Wartman is encouraging producers to voluntarily register age information through the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency.
“We think this really gives us an advantage over the dentition program,” Wartman told reporters during Canadian Western Agribition held in Regina Nov. 21-26. “Even people who don’t have computers can get a third party with a computer to run the data into the CCIA and that way you’ve got third-party verification of age, and for markets like Japan, Taiwan, Korea this is going to make a huge difference.”
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But he also said that, like Alberta, Saskatchewan may make the process mandatory.
“I think we’re headed in this direction as well,” he said. “Certainly in terms of growing the industry age verification is vital and we want to see some consistency so we’re going to talk with producers about the best way to move ahead.”
Jamie Blacklock, general manager of the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association, said a mandatory system hasn’t been fully discussed. She said producers like to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to directing their industry.
“Hopefully producers have learned through this process that they see the direct benefit of birth date verification and hopefully they do it on their own,” she said. “But I guess if (it) came down to it and it was a crunch, I can’t say that we would be opposed to it.”
Megan Gauley, communications co-ordinator with the CCIA, said producers do see benefits and will lead the charge.
“There’s a huge uptake on it and I think that’s what we’re happy about, that producers are taking the initiative before a mandatory announcement ever comes,” she said.
Gauley said about 15,000 producers have registered on the website, which has been up and running since March.
Wartman couldn’t say when the process might become mandatory.
