ID retention issues | The CCIA also wants reports of readout problems
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency wants to hear from producers when ear tags fall out or fail to work properly.
A national tag retention study is ongoing, and problems can be taken up with the manufacturers, said CCIA manager Brian Caney.
Reported failures include tags that don’t read, die or fall out.
The agency also wants to know how long the current tags last, Caney told a traceability conference that Alberta Beef Producers organized in Calgary June 14.
The study will continue until 2018 and involves 5,000 young and mature cattle in different environments. Bulls were included because retention is poor.
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Agency audits have found significant numbers of sequencing errors in its database.
Tags are sold at farm stores, and retailers are responsible for reporting the number sequences to the agency within 24 hours. A lack of inventory control and poor reporting have created problems in the database.
“We have a significant number of retailers who are not reporting the data properly,” Caney said.
The agency database has 400 million records, and errors are often linked to incorrectly entered data at the retail level. Missing and incorrectly entered data affects the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s ability to manage and contain an animal disease outbreak.
The CCIA is looking at selling tags to offer a better selection at a reasonable price. It is common for stores to offer only one or two varieties of the electronic buttons, even when six types are approved for use.
Caney said producers should have a choice because some brands work better for certain producers.
“We want to move to a tag distribution system which still retains retail outlets so that producers can go to a local retailer if they wish and buy tags like they are doing today, and CCIA will also have the ability to sell tags through our call centre or through a website,” he said.
