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USDA - ID Voluntary

Mike

Well-known member
USDA Pledges Livestock ID Program To Remain Voluntary



WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The debate on whether or not the national livestock identification and tracking program will eventually become mandatory is over now that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is pledging it will be a permanently voluntary system, Undersecretary Bruce Knight said Wednesday.



Knight said livestock sector concerns over a mandatory National Animal Identification System has only slowed down progress and the USDA is in a hurry to meet self-imposed deadlines.



The goal of the massive effort to eventually be able to track any animal to its source in a 48-hour time frame in the event of disease outbreak is on track, Knight told reporters.



The first deadline is January, 2007, when USDA is trying to get 25% of all livestock-producing premises registered in data-bases that the federal government could access in the event of a disease outbreak.



So far, 332,032 premises out of 1.4 million have been registered, according to USDA data. That is about 24% and it means USDA has a "fighting chance" of meeting its January goal.



USDA hopes to have 70% of premises and 40% of livestock registered by January 2008. By January 2009, USDA wants 100% of all premises registered, 100% of all newborn animals identified and 60% of all animals under a year old documented.



The 100% goal laid out by USDA might not be attainable, Knight said, because of the decision to keep the program voluntary, but he stressed that will not hamper the government's ultimate goal.



Even though 100% premise registration may not be possible, Knight said, "we do believe by 2009 we can have a critical mass of participation out there of premises as well as livestock in the event of a disease outbreak."



"We're going to make this successful as a voluntary program," Knight said. "The key thing here is to have a system that will achieve our objectives of traceability in 48 hours."



To make that happen, though, Knight and the USDA will have to convince producers and Congress members that have raised concerns over the program.



Knight said he has already met with Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., an outspoken critic of USDA's livestock identification program. Peterson is expected to take over as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee in January now that Democrats have taken control of Congress. Knight said he would be happy to testify if Peterson holds hearings on the issue.



But USDA also has to convince livestock producers, many of whom are worried about submitting details of their herds into databases that the federal government has access to.



The USDA, in a 65-page user guide on the National Animal Identification System released Wednesday, lays out what it considers adequate protection of the data it is collecting.



Information, the document says, can be entered into databases maintained by local states or private companies. Federal officials will only be able to access the data "to respond to an animal health emergency," according to the user guide. "Federal law protects individuals' private information and confidential business information from public disclosure."



Source: Bill Tomson; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-646-0088; [email protected]
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Like I said before it is just USDA blowing smoke to get the heat of the anti-ID folks off their back while they can slip it thru.....

The first deadline is January, 2007, when USDA is trying to get 25% of all livestock-producing premises registered in data-bases that the federal government could access in the event of a disease outbreak.

So far, 332,032 premises out of 1.4 million have been registered, according to USDA data. That is about 24% and it means USDA has a "fighting chance" of meeting its January goal.


Previously, NAIS used a total premises number count from the National Agriculture Statistics Survey (NASS) of 2.1 million livestock farms in the United States. Now they say their is only 1.4 million- so they have almost reached their first goal- :???: Bull Pucky!!!!

Have we lost 700,000 livestock owners in the US in the last year- or could we again be seeing a government agency juggle figures around so that their percentages fit and things appear better than they really are :???: The American Horse Council says there is over 2 million horse owners alone in the US...

Yep- USDA blowing smoke at us again :( :mad:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
It looks like in this new draft user guide the USDA released Wednesday, that they are going to/or at least saying they are going to not worry about the little old grandma that has a dozen chickens in her back yard or the old hermit raising a few goats- and maybe even the premise registration of the folks that just own a couple of horses...Its 66 pages long- so I haven't had much chance to study it yet...

That may account for the big change in the numbers they are putting out on number of premises---they just changed the definition of what is a livestock premise so they can now truthfully (?) say they have successfully registered 24% of all premises- rather than the 15% it was before they again changed their policy......
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
The USDA says we have about 800,000 cattle producers in the US. We discussed this here earlier regarding the checkoff.

If that is true, can we have 1.4 million premises to ID?
 

Econ101

Well-known member
The USDA can't even get the packers to identify their meat as to which country it originated from. How could we expect them to get this right?
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
Tommy: Not all livestock are cattle.


Certainly true, Tommy, but how many hog and poultry producers are there left in this country. Certainly not in the hundreds of thousands.

The only way I can see that they are looking for 1.4 million premises would be to count horses and they can't be slaughtered any more.
 

Work Hard and Study Hard

Well-known member
Cowpuncher said:
Tommy: Not all livestock are cattle.


Certainly true, Tommy, but how many hog and poultry producers are there left in this country. Certainly not in the hundreds of thousands.

The only way I can see that they are looking for 1.4 million premises would be to count horses and they can't be slaughtered any more.

I think one producer can have more than one premise id number. For example say you have numerous ranches each ranch can be assigned it's own id number but still under your name.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:59 pm Post subject:

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Cowpuncher wrote
I think one producer can have more than one premise id number. For example say you have numerous ranches each ranch can be assigned it's own id number but still under your name.
Lets Face it ,If you only register only one field or a pasture, then you can only lose whats on that one field. BUT if you register all farms and pastures under one premise ID ,then if there is a problem ,then you lose big time,the whole shabang, lock stock and barrel. Got to think about risk management,don't you.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Premise ID papers were given to contract producers so I hear even though the livestock were not their livestock. They made it a premise ID, not an owner ID.

Take North Carolina and Smithfield for example. Smithfield actually owns the livestock (the pigs) but numerous premise IDs are out there for their ID. They did not make the controllers of that livestock who actually own that livestock take out ID papers.

To me, this is a huge loophole they have made for themselves. Even though the livestock is owned and managed by them, they can put anything they want on their producers and the premise they are raised on, thus the liability can be transferred to producers, not the company's managing and owning that production.

This whole program was okayed by the packers and has their interests protected.

Everyone of these packers knows the premises they put livestock on and they control that livestock. That goes for almost all production of hogs and poultry in the U.S. grown under contract.

Premise ID was just another scam for them to get more information without the corresponding traceback to them.
 
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