While the U.S. cattle industry is always tackling challenges, one that has been top of mind for the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association is the USDA’s recently enforced EID rules.
The association describes the way USDA has chosen to approach this issue as a bit baffling.
According to the association’s President, Justin Tupper, “They have come out and said that they were going to pay for the tags and that right now, and I’m talking about immediately as we speak in Montana, South Dakota, and many of these western states, tags are just not available. There’s not enough of them out there and the law went into place November 5th that we’ve got to use these electronic tags if we’re going to move them interstate-wise. The metal clip is good for the life of the animal, but for some reason it’s missing, you’ve got to put the metal clip in if you’re going to bang vaccinate your heifers this year, that would be the electronic ID. The problem with that is there is no infrastructure in place anywhere. There’s no database, there’s no readers, there’s nothing out there that the USDA can tell us as to why this electronic ID is going to be better.”
Justin went on to say that USCA has no problem with producers willingly choosing to adapt the technology themselves but says that a national mandate with no infrastructure is not practical, which is why USMCA and others are taking a stand.
“I know there’s some ideas out there of trying to get an injunction through the court systems. We have pleaded with USDA and I know several other organizations that have also to put a pause on it till there are tags available, till some of these readers are available, till there’s more out there that tells it to us that is going to be a better path to disease traceability because that’s what they claim it’s for. Until those things happen, we really believe there does need to be a pause,” he explains.
Groups for the new rule argue the requirements are not that different from the previous 2013 rule with NCBA’s Senior Director of Government Affairs claiming the rule still only applies to interstate movement of cattle and should only really impact the breeding herd.
