Most of this year’s calf crop will be seen later this year sporting the latest in radio frequency tags, in six designs, with some breed-defining designer colours.
New regulations about radio frequency tagging and voluntary birth date registrations, while not popular, are being accepted by producers.
They can continue to use their remaining bar code tags, but the new RF readable tags must be in the ears of all cattle leaving their herds of origin by January 2006.
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency bar code tags will be recognized until the end of December 2007, an extension of the previous date.
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With a beef calf crop of well over four million head expected in 2005, the CCIA hopes producers will see the need for the new tagging and identification systems and adopt them as soon as practical.
“We’d like to see all of Canada’s 2005 calves bearing the RF tags. We expect producers will use up what they have on hand, though,” said Megan Gauley of the CCIA.
Michael Burgess ranches in the Big Muddy Badlands near Coronach, Sask., and said the latest fashion in animal ID is the “unfortunate reality of our industry.
“But we can make the best of it by using the system to improve our herd health and breeding through better record keeping,” said the cow-calf producer.
“They’re three bucks each. It isn’t the end of the world if you have to change some over because you kept some heifers you were thinking of selling. And these new ones really are better quality tags than the dangling bar code jobs CCIA had before,” he said about tagging calves from his 400 cows.
Burgess said the RF tags would make it easier for ranchers like him who have access to limited pools of labour and are taking part in the national Quality Starts Here beef program.
“I’m thinking, seeing as we only handle most of our cattle twice a year, that a simple reader mounted on a chute and connected to a computer will mean one fewer person needed to write down each animal … even with double tagging with a dangle it might just save us money in the end.”
Burgess said the need to meet market demand for traceability may have caused the shift to the electronic tags, but beyond improving foreign markets for Canadian beef, he hopes to save some production costs.
Brad Wildeman operates Poundmaker Ag Ventures near Lanigan, Sask., a feedlot and integrated ethanol plant, and is the chair of the CCIA.
“Some cattlemen are saying, ‘what’s in it for me?’ But it’s clear that we need access to old markets and have opportunities in new ones, and an advanced system of traceability, including birth dates, is necessary,” he said.
“Besides, if it means we don’t have to wipe the (soil) off those bar codes to ID an animal in the feedlot, it will let us improve our efficiency … and handling systems,” he said.
Larry Schweitzer, who operates a feedlot in Hamiota, Man., said in the short term he may need to operate two computer systems or at least buy a reader that will handle RF and bar codes simultaneously.
“That is added cost and hassle, but we have to do it for our customers,” he said.
“At some point customers, like Natural Valley Farms in Saskatchewan or some foreign markets, are demanding complete traceability. We have to give it to them and we might find there’s even a little more money in it if we just get at and do it.”
Schweitzer said the RF system and date of birth accounting would cost him short-term money for labour, hardware and retagging feeder cattle.
But he expected to see savings in cattle sorting when he is feeding pens for different markets.
“Combine that with QSH program and I think eventually we’ll see some pretty big paybacks on this investment. For now, I’ll tear my hair out though.”
Schweitzer said he will soon be factoring into the price of calves he buys for his feeding customers whether they have the RF tags and are well sorted and documented for age and origin.
