KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency is revamping its technical side and expanding services.
“The organization and the needs of the industry started changing several years ago, but we didn’t grow or change to do it,” said executive director Kerry St. Cyr, who took over the agency last year.
The changes include making the agency’s computer systems easier for rural people using dial-up internet services and investigating new tags that do not fall out as easily as ones now available.
“I am constantly reminded by our board members it is not a dial-up friendly system,” St. Cyr told the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association’s recent annual meeting in Kamloops.
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The agency is expected to run independently and has charged 20 cents per tag for administration, which was to increase to 40 cents June 1.
“The cost of running the business has gone up considerably. Tags from all sectors was 39 percent of the revenue,” St. Cyr said. “Governments have been explicit; they will not pay costs for operating systems.”
Age verification is another major project. The Alberta and B.C. governments paid producers to register their cattle, and while verification numbers increased, there have been no promises of future subsidies.
Registered birth dates by province as of March 31 were: B.C. at 522,862, Alberta at 3.3 million, Saskatchewan at one million and Manitoba at 372,690. In total, 5,594,333 cattle have been registered in Canada.
About 80 percent of B.C.’s herd is age verified, prompted by a $12 per head payout in 2008 with a later top up of $6. Nearly $2 million was paid out.
More than 80 percent of Alberta’s 2008 calves were age verified. Producers who completed premise identification and age registrations were eligible for a share of a two-part payment from a $300 million Alberta farm recovery plan program.
