The Alberta government has backed away from mandatory age verification of cattle.
Compulsory birth date registration in Alberta was to take effect April 1, 2007, but the province decided to suspend the target date until it learns more about the federal announcement of a national traceability program.
Also, there have been lots of registrations with the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency by producers willing to take advantage of overseas markets where beef must come from cattle younger than 21 months.
“Industry has made significant progress in submitting birth dates of the cattle, which allows us the flexibility to suspend our original target date,” said Doug Horner, Alberta’s agriculture minister.
Read Also
Canada must address potential veterinary drug shortages
If critical products are unavailable when needed, it could result in unnecessary human and animal deaths in the worst-case scenario.
About 2.5 million beef cattle birth dates have been submitted, about 55 percent of those from Alberta.
Horner said provincial agriculture ministers agreed to a national traceability initiative that would include age verification. Details are limited on how such a program might work but Alberta prefers a national rather than regional program. International customers prefer national programs, Horner said.
“We know there are opportunities to expand our markets and age verification is just one of the many initiatives assuring our international customers that Canada’s traceability system is second to none,” he said.
Darcy Davis, chair of Alberta Beef Producers, said his members prefer a voluntary program. The organization is offering 30 workshops across the province this fall to show producers how to register birth dates and answer questions.
In addition, people may visit the Alberta Agriculture website for instructions on how to register cattle.
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency and Alberta Agriculture have hired seven field staff to work with producers on age verification programs, as well as provide information on radio frequency ear tags and necessary computer software to read the tag information. The field representatives will be stationed throughout Alberta from north to south.
To crack the Japanese market, cattle ages must be verified and the supply of eligible animals is slowly increasing. About 100,000 head per week have been registered this fall.
“We are seeing a lot of this year’s calf crop come on. A lot of auction markets are having age-verified sales and we are seeing feedlots asking for it as part of the cattle they are putting into their inventory, so we are getting a critical mass built up to have the system work,” Davis said.
