EDMONTON – The most important issue facing cattle producers wanting to reopen international markets is the need for age verification of cattle, says the head of Alberta’s beef organization.
If overseas markets opened to beef from young animals but required them to have proof of age, Canada would be hard pressed to fill the order, said Darcy Davis, chair of Alberta Beef Producers.
“The biggest issue facing us now is age verification,” Davis told the Alberta Beef Producers semi-annual meeting June 15.
Japan is hinting that it may consider buying beef from cattle younger than 21 months from Canada or other countries that have been closed due to BSE. It’s generally accepted that BSE doesn’t appear in younger cattle so BSE testing isn’t required for them.
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“For us, it would be a huge advantage if we could meet it,” said Davis, who emphasized Canada has a huge advantage over the United States because of Canada’s cattle identification program. American cattle producers are years from a similar ID or age verification system.
Canada implemented a herd tracking system in 2001 to trace cattle in case of a health concern. By Sept 1, 2006, all cattle leaving their herd of origin must be tagged with Canadian Cattle Identification Agency approved radio frequency identification tags. RFID tags will provide an internet-based livestock tracking system that can prove the age of cattle.
So far about 25,000 cattle are registered with RFID tags, said Mabel Hamilton, head of the agency.
She said farmers have not strongly supported an internet based age registry system for their cattle because they have yet to be shown any benefits. Once markets for age verified cattle exist, she expects more producers will make a greater effort to use the RFID tags and register the age of their animals.
“Then the take up will be good.”
In a show of hands of the ABP delegates, about 26 said they will use the RFID tags in 2005 and about 18 said they wouldn’t.
Good for finishers
Steve Primrose of the Cattle Feeder Council said age verification would benefit owners of finished cattle who must now rely on teeth, a less than scientific way of confirming the age of cattle.
“This will trump dentition,” said Primrose, who added it’s common for cattle to be deducted $250 at the slaughter plant if more than two permanent incisors have erupted, because the cattle are considered older than 30 months of age.
“If Japan came out and said, ‘we’ll take your cattle,’ how many cattle could actually go?” he said.
Davis said the incentive to get producers to register their cattle is if they can have access to carcass data from the packing plants.
Tony Saretsky with the Cattle Industry Council noted that John Tyson, head of Tyson Foods, said in a meeting last month that the message was clear about the need for age verification to open more markets.
“They’re obviously seeing a demand for age verification,” said Saretsky.
Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said age verification is the tool that will give Canada a much needed boost back into beef markets.
“The most significant need is to do all we can to get every animal age verified,” said Laycraft.
