Cattle-tracing program under way
Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006
RUSSELLVILLE — Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Richard Bell reaffirmed the state’s commitment to an animal identification program Friday during a meeting of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association.
Bell, director of the year-old state Agriculture Department, said the department has started the quality systems assessment program for the state’s cattle producers. Arkansas will be the second state to have the program, Bell said.
Missouri became the first state to develop a voluntary program that identifies the source and age of its cattle in October. The claims are verified by the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
International consumers are demanding beef from cattle less than 20 months of age because of concerns about mad-cow disease in older animals. Many countries banned U. S. beef after mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was discovered in a Washington state cow in 2003.
“If we don’t have this program in place, we’re looking at a discount instead of a premium for cattle in our state,” Bell said to a sea of cream-colored cowboy hats during the conference.
About 150 people attended the group’s summer conference at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. The two-day conference that ends today also included a legislative panel of speakers and a livestock trade show.
The quality systems assessment program will allow cattle producers to sell meat at higher prices overseas to such countries as Japan. Japan, the most lucrative market for U. S. beef producers, agreed June 21 to reopen its market to limited cuts of American beef, pending inspections this summer of U. S. processing plants.
“We have got to [track ] our cattle on age and source if we’re going to play in the international market,” Bell said.
The program is voluntary, but participants will be subject to audits, Bell said.
Arkansas supplies the beef industry with mostly feeder cattle that are processed in other states. The state has about 1. 9 million head of cattle with most herds concentrated on farms in Benton and Washington counties, according to the USDA.
Beef that can be verified by age and source is in demand internationally and also in supermarkets on the East and West coasts, said Claude “Tubby” Smith, executive director of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association in Little Rock. The age and source verification will be a market boon “for all producers, both large and small,” he said. The cattle program will be administered by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission.
To contact this reporter: ccody@arkansasonline. com
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