Skip the navigation

Industry and government have plans for nationwide cattle ID system, but funding is lacking

Producers view RFID-based system as essential to protect export markets

By Bob Brewin
December 29, 2003 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Last week's discovery of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a Washington state dairy herd illustrates the need for a national livestock identification system to trace infected cattle in the U.S., government and beef industry officials say, but plans to deploy such a system are still hobbled by a lack of funding.
A consortium of livestock producers and processors as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September developed the U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP), which called for identifying all 30 million cattle in the U.S. with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag by July 2005. But, according to Robert Fourdraine, chief operating officer at the Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium, who also served as IT director for the USAIP, funding "is the $600 million question." That sum is the estimated cost to deploy an electronic tracking system throughout the U.S. livestock industry, covering cattle as well as other animals such as pigs and sheep.
Fourdraine said the USAIP currently has no funding, although he's looking for government funds to back the plan. The importance of a nationwide livestock tracking system was heightened by last week's BSE case, which resulted in a closure of export markets around the world to U.S. beef and a commensurate drop in the value of the U.S. beef herd, Fourdraine said.
It took the USDA four days to trace the origin of the Washington state cow infected with BSE to what the agency determined was its birth herd in Canada, according to Ron DeHaven, the USDA's chief veterinary officer. DeHaven said on Saturday that the effort to find the diseased cow was "shoe-leather type work," which involved tracing paper records and holding interviews with cattle owners, livestock dealers and market operators. DeHaven said this information was then correlated with records maintained by the producers and processors.
DeHaven said the U.S. "is well on the road" to developing a nationwide electronic livestock ID system. However, Wayne Baggett, a USDA spokesman, today said the agency couldn't address funding for the USAIP yet.
Fourdraine said the USAIP has a goal of identifying animals within 48 hours. He added that if a nationwide animal identification system had been in place last week, tracing of the Washington animal could have been done in even less time.
Mick Prendergast, manager of Australia's National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS), which uses RFID tags to track cattle, said he could trace an electronically tagged cow "in 10 seconds or less." Prendergast said 35,000 out of 100,000 producers in Australia use



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Mobile and Wireless White Papers
Digital Transformation: Creating New Business Models Where Digital Meets Physical
Individuals and businesses alike are embracing the digital revolution. Social networks and digital devices are being used to engage government, businesses and civil...
Empowering Your Mobile Worker
Today's most productive employees are mobile, and your company's IT strategy must be ready to support them with 24/7 access to the business...
An Interactive Guide: Bring Your Own Device
BYOD presents significant security and management challenges to IT departments who want to take advantage of the trend, but still protect corporate assets....
Calculating ROI for Mobile Client Acceleration
As mobile devices continue to expand in business use, ensuring these devices have optimal performance is becoming an IT imperative. This EMA paper...
Tablet Computing Without Compromise
This paper provides an overview of how and why that migration-from any old tablet to Windows tablets-came to be.
All Mobile and Wireless White Papers
Mobile and Wireless Webcasts
Live Webcast
North Pole to South Seas: Overcoming the Pitfalls of remote Performance
In today's always-on world, connectivity is a business requirement. You need the tools that allow you to operate as if you were on...
Supporting Mobile Productivity With A Limited IT Budget
Join us and hear from Kaseya mobile IT management experts as we discuss core strategies for supporting the mobile revolution on a shoestring...
North Pole to South Seas: Overcoming the Pitfalls of remote Performance
In today's always-on world, connectivity is a business requirement. You need the tools that allow you to operate as if you were on...
Unified Communications 101
What's the best way to implement a unified communications solution for your organization?
QNX® and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ Tablet.
RIM's multi-processor, multi-tasking BlackBerry PlayBook runs a new Tablet OS powered by QNX, a bullet-proof microkernel operating system. This track will take a...
A Close Look at Tablets
Learn More
All Mobile and Wireless Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs