New cattle regulation for Colorado

[cbcr]

You would think that with the "government" involved with the ADTA (Animal Disease and Traceability Act) that there would be a single rule pertaining to the kind and type of ID that would be required and accepted by all states.

But each state has the option of creating their own rules and what they will accept.

We are trying to put together a list of the states with their protocols for animals coming in or going out of the state.

 

[TPX]

what is the perceived benefit of rfid tags?

what is the government trying to track, control, manage?

what is the stated benefit to government and producers and what is the unstated benefit, i.e. punitive/regulatory benefit, might be water, runoff issues, create a haystack to make it "easier" to find criminals.

It is meant to track herd origin and where the animal has been through its life span if it passes a tag reader anytime.  In Canada it was brought into law not long after the first BSE case. 

It adds a fair amount of cost to producers and we find that tag retention is very poor, the tags are of very little use to tracking down stolen cattle as the tags can be easily cut out. 

 

[justintime]

You would think that with the "government" involved with the ADTA (Animal Disease and Traceability Act) that there would be a single rule pertaining to the kind and type of ID that would be required and accepted by all states.

But each state has the option of creating their own rules and what they will accept.

We are trying to put together a list of the states with their protocols for animals coming in or going out of the state.

We sell quite a few cattle to the US and oftentimes have cattle going to 3 or 4 states on a single load. I have to phone each state vets office and get the exact regulations for importation of cattle from Canada. In the past two years, I have had two of these state veterinarian offices tell me that they do not know what their state requires. In both cases, I was asked to phone a Vet office in Washington DC and when I did I was instructed to talk with the state Vet office again. Then to top it off, each state has different regulations and the USDA vet at the border oftentimes doesn't seem to know what these regulations are. For example, Kansas requires a Brucellosis test, along with a few other tests, and a CAN brand on the hip . Both Iowa and Texas only require the CAN tattoo in the animals ear, and no tests, however, they do require a Canadian federal health certificate. The USDA vet at the port of entry tried to make me go home because I did not have a brucellosis test done on the animals going to Iowa. I told him that animals going to Iowa don't require a brucellosis test. He then says" since when?" and I tell him it has been that way for a few years. The vet then says " are you sure about that?" and I reply " well that is what the Iowa state vet office told me". He then says " well ok then" stamps the papers and I am on my way. It makes you wonder why we have to jump through all these hoops when the people policing the rules  don't even know what they are. I have also had USDA vets ask me why I have only put the CAN brand on some of the cattle in my load? I have told him that the brand is not required in the state to which the animals are going and the buyers have asked me NOT to brand them. It is much different when you import cattle into Canada. Canada has the same set of rules from coast to coast so there is never any question what the requirements are.

 

[aj]

Our Limi neighbors got in out there without metal tags.

 

[knabe]

It makes you wonder why we have to jump through all these hoops when the people policing the rules  don't even know what they are.

Job security and legislation support because our representatives job is to make laws, not make things easier, more streamlined or getting rid of unecessary stuff.  Some stuff is necessary, but a lot it motivated by making things "level" when all it really does is make it unleve, because big corporations write the laws to get rid of competition.  All of it is done for the "good" of the public.