(NAFB) – Branding cattle has long been a tradition in cattle country. Those brands make it easy for ranch hands to separate their animals from the neighbors, when the herds mix. But, after experiencing “the cow that stole Christmas” back in 2003 the government wants each animal to have a tag on its ear. This means each ranch hand would have to dismount and read each animal’s tag before determining its ownership. In relationship, reading a brand is as easy as reading a billboard.
The new rule would require tagging — either with radio frequency devices or lower-cost metal “brite” tags — of cattle moved across state lines. Each tag would carry a unique numeric code. Stored in a database, the codes would allow animal health authorities to determine rapidly where an animal came from in the event of a disease outbreak.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has given qualified support to the proposal but said it would also like some parts clarified, and the inclusion of branding as an official identification method. Federal officials have long argued that a national identification system is necessary to quickly trace outbreaks of diseases like bovine brucellosis, tuberculosis and mad cow. It was mad cow, or BSE, that was identified in a Washington state dairy cow in 2003 right before Christmas.
