Only two and a half months away from implementation, the Canadian cattle identification program continues to generate questions from cattle producers.
After Jan. 1, 2001, all cattle in Canada will be expected to have an identification tag when they leave their herd of origin.
Tags will bear a number, a bar code and logo of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency. They will allow every animal to be traced back from slaughter to herd of origin in the event of a health or safety issue.
After July 1, 2002, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will fine owners of cattle that don’t have the tag.
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Bow City, Alta., cattle producer Dave Andrews was president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association when the national herd identification proposal came up in the mid-1990s. While no longer on the board’s executive, Andrews has been tapped to speak to producers about the CCIA and the identification program.
The Western Producer asked Andrews to answer some of the more common questions producers ask about the program. These will appear in this and subsequent issues of the Producer.
Q: Western Producer: Why isn’t the existing cattle brand system sufficient for our needs?
A: Andrews:There isn’t official brand registration in any province east if Saskatchewan, and this is a national program.
Even where we do have brands, they don’t work well to identify carcasses going through a packing plant. A lot of cattle, probably more than half, come through the plants with multiple brands and in the high speed plants like High River and Brooks, they only have about 10 seconds to read the identification.
In most cases you can’t find a brand, let alone read it. They just don’t work for the traceback program that we’re developing.
The ear tag system doesn’t replace brands. If I steal your calf and all I have to do is cut the ear tag off and put my own in, then that doesn’t satisfy your requirement for proof of ownership. So, the two systems are separate and unique. At this stage we don’t have a replacement that provides us with a guarantee of proof of ownership, other than hot iron branding.
Q: Why do cow-calf producers have to pay for the program? It’s more of a benefit to consumers than cow-calf producers, isn’t it?
A: Ultimately, who does it benefit? The people who have the most at stake in terms of our enviable record for herd health in this country is the cow-calf producer.
I think that in the event of a problem that causes us to lose access to foreign markets, the cow-calf people would probably suffer the most. That’s not really the reason why they should pay for it, but it justifies it, in my mind.
The reason they’re called on to pay for it is because the cattle have to be identified at herd of origin, so we have two points to track from in the event of a traceback. That makes the most sense, and that’s why the cow-calf people are called on to buy the ear tags.
I’ve been in the cow-calf business all my life, and anything good that came from the industry side was always paid for by the cow-calf producer, either directly or indirectly, so why should this be any different?
Q: How will producers recover the extra cost created by this program?
A: The reward for the system is going to be two things: To maintain our health status, which is the best of any country in the world, and secondly to maintain access to foreign markets.
In my time with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, I spent most of my time concentrating on foreign trade issues. I can tell you that it will become in very short order a requirement for access to some of the foreign markets that we’re having a lot of success in, like Japan, other Pacific Rim countries and Mexico, that we have a system like this in place. We’re better off getting this system in place on our own terms than waiting until the government has to force it on us in order to maintain our access to markets.
Q: A lot of producers don’t feel this program has come about on their own terms. They
don’t see themselves as having had the chance to vote on it. What’s your response?
A: Let’s look at the process that led up to this. In the initial stages of the discussion, we were talking about a traceback system that would be voluntary, that would provide an opportunity for the purebred industry and probably a small number of commercial people to track cattle for performance improvement and genetic improvement.
Then we kind of got a wake-up call when mad cow disease came on the scene so suddenly in Great Britain and Europe.
Since then, we’ve seen increasing pressure from the public, both domestically and from foreign countries, on the whole issue of food safety.
The focus of this program gradually changed to one that met those kinds of requirements. The primary focus now is on herd health and human food safety issues.
The issue was raised by the CCA and was supported by resolutions from all of the producing provinces in 1996 and 1997, so this is not a new idea. The provincial cattlemens’ associations, like the Alberta Cattle Commission, the Western Stock Growers in Saskatchewan and the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, who represent producers to the CCA board of directors, all supported this initiative back in 1997.
Producers have the opportunity through whatever process is available in each of the provinces to be represented by their provincial associations. If they weren’t paying attention or didn’t take advantage of that opportunity, that’s unfortunate.
Some producers may not agree with the process that their provincial associations have in place, but the process is there and policy is not decided by producers who stay home. It’s decided by the people who come to the meetings and get involved in the debate.
The initiative, when it came to the CCA board of directors, made up of people from all the provinces across the country, was supported unanimously.
Q: What is the status of the legislation governing the cattle identification program?
A: We’ve had this kind of system in place in the past. It began in the 1920s when the government of Canada decided to eliminate tuberculosis in the Canadian cow herd. An ear tag identification system was used that was continued to eliminate brucellosis in the 1950s.
Right up until 1985 we had a system of ear tagging all the cattle in the country that led to the elimination of both those diseases. The legislation that provided for that is the same legislation we’re using to rejuvenate a national identification system. It has never been taken off the books.
All it has required is some amendments to the regulations, that have been proposed, written and have in fact been available for public comment over this past summer. The comment period is past now, and those amendments are going to government, hopefully first thing in the spring.
Q: What is this program going to cost the average cow-calf producer?
A: It depends a little bit on the kind of operation you’re running. For a lot of producers who are already using a plastic ear tag for their own herd management purposes, they can buy the same kind of plastic tag with a bar code on it for about the same price or up to 30 cents a tag more, depending on where they buy them.
They are basically the same tags from the same tag manufacturers as they were using. So, in that case, to start using the bar code tags costs from zero to a maximum of 30 cents a tag more. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable amount to spend on a program that may determine the future of our industry.
For people who aren’t using any ear tags in their cattle, there are less expensive tags available that don’t have room on them to write your own information. We’re working on developing a single piece clip-in tag, metal or plastic, that could be even priced lower.
So the cost to the producer varies from, let’s say, 30 cents a tag in addition to what people have been paying, up to 75 cents a tag. So the cost isn’t, in my view, all that onerous.
Next week’s questions:
What about the labor involved in tagging?
What if an animal is discovered to have a reportable disease? How does the original producer know he won’t be blamed?
Why is the program mandatory?
