NAIS: Animal Tracking Reviewed

The program IS voluntary, but it is expected that 100% of premises will be registered by January 2009. 100% of all new animals will be identified, and 60% of all animal movement will be tracked. If not, the intention is to legislate participation. It is unlikely that compliance will be as high as the govt. is hoping.

Currently, you are only required to register your farm and not individual animals. Phase two assigns tracking numbers to individual animals. At that point animals will need to be signed in and out when moved.

Right now, it is primarily aimed at cattle. This was done to facilitate phase in of the system. Horses, pigs, poultry, sheep, goats, deer, and elk are slated to be included. I have heard but cannot substantiate that "domestic" animals will eventually be included.

Not shown directly on their website is that large scale producers will be exempt from individual animal tracking, but smaller farms will not. It's not clear what the size criteria are though.

It seems pretty heavy handed to me and it is not clear to me how it will solve more problems than it will create. I am still looking into it.

I don't have any affiliation with anyone or anything associated with NAIS, and as of yet, other than dogs, I have no animals at the farm. I am planning on chickens, goats, and horses so it will affect me in some way. I tend to favor less government than more....

I urge everyone to read as much as they can on both sides of the argument before making a final conclusion.

Charley

--->Paul

Here in Michigan all cattle must be tagged by March 2007.

The worst part is that here in Nova Scotia, it's been decided that a "producer organization" will collect a "levy" for "promotion and research purposes, for the betterment of the industry". This is largely being driven by a few producers pining to have a new "structure" rather than an old useless association near death and bankruptcy. So, to do this you go to government with your old organization and ask to hold a plebicite to form this new organization with it's powers and controls. Your necessary vote is not achieved, but then you go to cabinet and get approval for it anyway because it's for the betterment of the industry, and you and the government do know better! That's how things get done! To hell with what the majority of producers want.

Give it time. These are the first steps. You'll catch up to the forward thinkers up here.... Unless you're able to get it stoped. Good luck.

Rod

As far as the small part timers are concerned... they're just about gone now. They're not making anything. Prices have been in the tank since BSE hit. They can't afford to keep doing it, and now the government just wants more. These tags alone are costing 5 bucks a head now. Sheep are heading down the same road. The tags cost the same, and that's a far greater percentage of what we're getting for one of them than a cow. It's not just the small part timers that are getting disgusted. I've talked to some larger operators arond here who've got millions tied up in their operations, and they're up against it in much the same way. At one time they were big, and they made the rules. That's not the case anymore. These things are all about control, control, control, and NOBODY will gain any real benifit. That's the sad part.

Rod