Eric Sonnek, Technical Advisor - Livestock

June 11, 2005

One can hardly open a farm trade magazine and not find an article about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). There was some information before the “cow that stole Christmas” in 2003, but the lone case of “Mad Cow” that was traced back to Canada did speed up the implementation of NAIS. The ultimate goal of NAIS is to be able to trace back an animal within 48 hours of a disease outbreak. This needs to be done to ensure the safety of our export markets. As you are aware, the U.S. is still trying to get some markets opened up over a year later.

So what is the current status of the NAIS? The Minnesota Board of Animal Health is registering premises at this time. A premise is any location that houses animals for any length of time. A pasture, a barn, even a fairgrounds would be considered a premise. Before we can start identifying all livestock, a database needs to be built that stores information on where livestock are housed, thus premise identification. A good analogy for how premise registration fits into the scheme of NAIS is the following: A premise ID could be likened to your 911 address. An animal identification number would be likened to your Social Security Number.

Most livestock producers have received information in the mail about registering their livestock premise. Those sent in by producers are presently being entered into the database. Once the entries are completed, the livestock producer will receive a notice back with his/her premise ID number. If any livestock producer has not seen any literature regarding National ID and wants to register their premise, they should contact the Minnesota Board of Animal Health for more information at 651-296-2942, ext 17, or go to the web site http://www.bah.state.mn.us/index/nais/nais.htm.

Plans are starting to take shape regarding how individual animals or groups will be identified. The silver eartags producers are familiar with that have been used in the past have worked well over time. But in the new system, reading and tracking would be slower and more apt to errors than the new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID tags have a small electronic chip in them. When an electronic reader comes within range, it triggers the chip to transmit the identification number back to the reader. This all happens in a fraction of a second and is much more consistent and less prone to errors than reading the silver tags and writing them down.

The USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service has released the draft of the NAIS Strategic Plan for 2005-2009. This report discusses why NAIS is being implemented, stakeholder concerns, voluntary vs. mandatory, and a proposed timeline. The entire report can be found on the web at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml.

In Minnesota, the issue of “voluntary versus mandatory” has gone to the Legislature. There are bills in both the House and Senate that would keep the information gathered for NAIS confidential. This information will only be used if an animal health issue comes up. For now, involvement in the National Animal Identification System is voluntary. NAIS will be phased into mandatory over time. The timeline that is proposed in the plan indicates that individual animal ID will start to be available this year. Over the next couple of years, there will be on-going education with livestock producers and handlers on how to make the NAIS work for them. Currently, the plan hopes to have animal identification and premise registration required by January of 2008 with animal movement reporting and the entire program mandatory by January of 2009. If you have comments on the Strategic Plan, you can go to http://www.usda.gov/nais and make comments about it before July 6, 2005.

How is the National Animal Identification System going to benefit you as a livestock producer? On a national level, the NAIS will ensure the continued exporting of our products to other countries. Some food processors in the U.S. are also looking for identification on the products that they buy. For example, in the April 25, 2005 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman, it was reported that McDonald’s, the largest buyer of beef in the U.S., was able to trace back more than 10% of the beef it used to the farm the animals were from. It hopes to increase this number over the next few years.

Because more companies are looking for identified products, some packing plants are paying a premium for identified cattle, offering an additional $0.03 to $0.04 per hundredweight on identified cattle. Calculate out the hundredweights of cattle you sell each year. That premium can add up.

Besides ensuring the safety of our food system and keeping our international export opportunities open, NAIS can assist the livestock producer in the day-to-day operation of the farm. Computer programs are in development to utilize the RFID technology on a dairy operation. It may help to automatically sort out cows as they come out of the milking parlor or go through a chute. This technology is already being used to sort pigs into nutrition groups according to weight. Imagine having a group of cows flagged with a computer system to be sorted out for their Ovsynch shots!

The National Animal Identification System is still under construction, so to speak, but is definitely starting to take shape. Although there will be some possible added costs and some unknowns until we get into the system, the NAIS and RFID will be a benefit to the agricultural economy and livestock producers across the nation.