Eric Sonnek, County Extension Educator

March 25, 2006

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has been presented in many meetings, conversations, and press releases since December 23, 2003 when a cow in Washington State tested positive for the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). About two years later, Minnesota lost its TB-Free status when five cattle herds tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. These events have highlighted the need for a National ID system for disease control in the state's livestock industry. In addition, the technology used in NAIS can be utilized on your operation to increase the efficiency of the labor force and to improve recordkeeping.

The following is the projected timeline from the USDA and their Strategic Plan.

There are 2,032 dairy farms that have already done so. The method of individual animal identification chosen by the National Cattle Working Group is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Tags manufactured by many different companies are on the market today, but RFID tags from any company should be able to be read by any electronic reader regardless of the manufacturer. A list of manufacturing companies is available on the Minnesota Board of Animal Health's website at www.bah.state.mn.us.

The above timeline shows that by the year 2009, animal movement will be tracked. This means that the person receiving the animal will be responsible for reporting the animal's movement. For instance, if you ship an animal to an auction market, the auction market would be responsible for reporting the animal's movement. In the same manner, if you buy an animal from another farmer or auction, you would be responsible for reporting that movement.

Disease control may be the reason that National ID moves into the mandatory stages, but there are many ways you can use RFID technology to benefit a dairy operation. As operations grow in size, the days of knowing every cow, their reproductive status, calving date, and parentage are well behind us. Synchronization shots, vaccinations, and reproductive exams are just a few of the daily chores that require records to be easily accessible and readable. These activities tend to be a very long and tedious process in the daily operation of the dairy. Plus, they are susceptible to human error. Utilizing RFID, readers, and handheld readers can greatly reduce the amount of time that one spends on these tasks. With the cows in headlocks, a worker can walk in front of the cows with a wand and a PDA computer. Each cow is scanned and if a task needs to be completed on that cow, the computer will beep and you can perform that task. Some herds have said that it cut the time for administering shots in half! This translates to less time that the cows are in lock-ups, reduced stress, improved animal health, increased production, and more accurate records.

The other benefit of this system is that nearly 100% of the animals are found. Currently, manually reading eartags typically results in finding only about 85-90% of the animals. This can translate into income loss due to extended days in milk, missed dry offs, and missed vaccinations. After the tasks are complete, one can easily print out a report of what injections were given, what animals were pregnant or open, any cows missed, or any other report that is needed.

Another possibility for the use of RFID is to identify animals entering and exiting the milking parlor. RFID could even be used to sort cattle into groups. This technology is already being used with other species for sorting into groups and it could be used to sort a cow out of the parlor that needs to be dried up or bred, or for some other reason.

RFID can help dairy producers become more efficient and it is an integral part of the National Animal Identification System. National ID as a whole is economically important as well as essential to maintain the excellent health of the nation's livestock herd.

The National ID System would also help with Minnesota's bovine TB investigation. So far, approximately 4,000 infected and 350 exposed animals have been depopulated. The state of Minnesota can apply for TB-Free Status two years after the final infected herd is depopulated. So, how does all of this affect you? If you plan on selling a breeding animal over six months of age out-of-state, they must be tested for TB. It's important that you plan ahead to provide adequate time to complete the testing. If you have any questions, you can contact your local veterinarian or call the Minnesota Board of Animal Health TB Hotline at 1-877-MN TB FREE.