Kenny asked me to post this response to SH's comments about Kenny's animal id editorial.
Kenny is the Animal ID Committee Chairman, Animal Health Committee Chairman and a Regional Vice President for the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association.
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The animal ID editorial was written in response to an attack on the use of brands and brand inspection in a national animal identification system (NAIS), by the Sioux Falls Argus Leader Editorial Board several weeks ago. They claimed the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association was not able and were not tracking cattle with brands and brand inspection. The editorial board insinuated that brands and brand inspection was an old outdated way of tracking cattle and that a national animal ID was coming and there is nothing we can do to stop it. As one can clearly see I was defending the use of brands and brand inspection in an animal ID system as well as Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling of meat.
Scott, you and I agree on brand inspection, brands and a brucellosis vaccination program that includes a metal clip tag and a tattoo that could be used in a national animal ID system and we agree that animal ID should remain voluntary. Branding and vaccinating cattle for brucellosis are both voluntary in South Dakota.
I oppose mandatory animal ID for several reasons, first in meetings that I have attended on behalf of the South Dakota Stockgrowers and R-CALF in Washington D. C. and South Dakota high level officials have told me that when a national animal identification system becomes mandatory I will not be able to buy or sell without a numbered electronic tag in the ear of my cattle and a premise number. It is already that way in the United Kingdom. Over there if an animal has lost or does not have a tag it is condemned and cannot be used for human consumption. Second, I do not want to be saddled with a system that is based completely on plastic electronic ear tags that can be cut out, lost, duplicated, stolen or can’t be read at all because of computer malfunction. In Australia mandatory animal ID has created complete chaos in the market place due to computer malfunctions—identifying cattle incorrectly to the wrong owner, misreading or duplication of tag numbers as well as not being able to read the tags at all. The Australian health officials spend more time trying to decipher the tag numbers to the correct owners than paying attention to disease problems in the cattle. Third, no one has ever given a cost benefit analysis of the proposed national animal identification system, in fact USDA has said they are not going to pay for animal ID. We at the SD Stockgrowers have maintained that the use of existing programs makes a lot more sense than reinventing the wheel with a new very burdensome expensive program that has proven, in pilot projects, funded by USDA to not be any better than what we already have. USDA to date has spent 84 million dollars and proposes to spend millions more on pilot projects on animal ID when they could have hired inspectors and stationed them at our borders to prevent diseased livestock from entering our country instead of tagging animals so they can manage disease after the fact.
As for tracking cattle with a tag goes, when the first case of BSE was discovered in a cow in the state of Washington, USDA Officials knew immediately the cow was from Canada because the cow had a Canadian tag in her ear but it took nearly a month to admit the cow actually came from Canada. So what good did the tag do? The market for live cattle was devastated to the tune of about twenty dollars per hundred yet we in the United States took the blame for BSE and lost our export markets. When it comes to BSE a tag does not help much to maintain consumer confidence because the United States has a policy that downer cows are condemned and can not enter the food supply. And then there is e-coli which has absolutely nothing to do with animal ID, but instead, sloppy slaughter practices by the packers that causes contamination of the carcass - yet another reason to oppose mandatory animal ID. The packers will try every trick in the book to blame livestock owners for their mistakes.
Consumers don’t want animal ID. In a recent poll in the Farm Forum Newspaper 469 people were asked if they were in favor or against mandatory animal ID. 92% were opposed to mandatory animal identification. Mandatory COOL is necessary and is a good law. I ask where does the food service industry and the retailers purchase the meat they sell? All of the meat the United States imports is already labeled at the packing level so if the packers were required to pass this information along to the food service industry the food service industry could choose to purchase meat that was labeled, born, raised and slaughtered in the USA. Then they would be able to offer their customers the choice of buying meat that came from the USA. Isn’t it true that the food service industry buys their meat from the packers? The real reason the meat packers are opposed to COOL is that they would not be able to purchase cheap foreign meat and deceive people into believing it is US meat because it has received the USDA grade stamp. Even NCBA, in their 11 point directive, stated their opposition to the use of the USDA grade stamp on imported beef.
Scott have you noticed lately that since a good portion of the cattle coming out of Canada are now ready for slaughter that our markets have dropped 15 to 20 dollars per hundred? So much for record high cattle prices! And don’t give me that nonsense about competing meats because the price of beef at the grocery store has not come down in comparison to the price of fat cattle. It is a proven fact that when the Canadian Border was closed to live cattle our live cattle markets jumped 15 to 20 dollars per hundred practically over night.
R-CALF has put money in the pockets of grassroots cattle producers and independent cattle feeders the past 2 years by keeping the Canadian Cattle out of the United States. If Japan wants Canadian Cattle let them have them. We don’t need anymore cattle. We have not been able to raise enough cattle to meet the demand of the US market for many years. R-CALF proved a point that the big packers are using the Canadian cattle for their captive supply to keep the US cattle price low as has been evidenced the past 2 to 3 months.
Scott since when did you become an expert about who is the US cattle producer. Last time I checked you are an employee of the State of South Dakota hired to trap predators and own very few cows if any. You sound more like one who owns shares in the big packing houses. I have to make my living with what ever the price of cattle is and yet you sit here with your talk in support of policies supported by the packers that can put me and my family out of business. If we all subscribed to your theories we would be out of business and there would be no need for a man of your talents. As you recall Scott, when you came to me and asked me to take a position on the South Dakota Stockgrowers Board of Directors you said you were resigning due to a conflict of interest and that conflict was you were employed by the state of South Dakota.
I have stood back for the last several years and said nothing but this time I have to speak up and rebut your statements to clear the air. When someone like yourself, whose livelihood does not depend on the price of live cattle, tries to ruin my business with childish attacks, I will stand up and fight. No more "all hat and no cattle." If you want to invest in packing companies go right ahead, but don't try telling us what is good for the live cattle business because there is a difference between the cattle and beef industries.
Kenny Fox