The Power of Planning

How You Can Set Yourself Up For Success

We can’t anticipate every issue we face on our farms and ranches, but we do know where some vulnerabilities exist for our industry. The threat of a foreign animal disease outbreak is one of those vulnerabilities. So, how do we address the problem? By preparing as best we can. The concept of an electronic animal disease traceability system isn’t new, but the COVID-19 pandemic and recent disease outbreaks in foreign countries is bringing the need for electronic identification (EID) as part of a traceability program back to the forefront of the industry.

As technology improves, producers are starting to realize the benefits of EID as a management tool along with a means for safeguarding the industry.

When a 2005 tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in northwestern Minnesota shut down Don Schiefelbein’s family farm — more than 200 miles away from the infected area — he learned firsthand how valuable a producer-led animal identification and disease traceability system could be to his operation and the entire beef industry.

“The government took an arbitrary response to shut down cattle movement across all of Minnesota, regardless of our distance from the outbreak, until we proved we didn’t have TB,” he said. “The ironic thing is that Canada and North Dakota are both just 25 miles from the outbreak area, but they were not required to shut down.”

The stop movement order happened a couple of months before the Schiefelbein Farms production sale. The family went from prepping cattle for sale with hopes to send bulls to buyers from up to 15 different states to proving they were TB free so they could get their market back.

“The state created this magical boundary, and even though the eastern part of North Dakota was closer to the outbreak than we were, we couldn’t send cattle to that state. We rely on a network of buyers from out of state and that market was closed to us immediately, without warning,” he added.

After the stop movement order, Schiefelbein Farms had to prove that their herd was TB free. This meant running their entire herd, around 1,000 cows, through the chute twice to test them for the disease. It took several years of negative testing before Minnesota became TB free.

“If a national, electronic animal disease traceability system had been in place in 2005, the tuberculosis outbreak could have been regionalized in a matter of hours, and our family wouldn’t have had to spend months proving that our herd was TB free,” Schiefelbein said.

Dealing with that disease outbreak was a risk assessment for the farm. They learned quickly that it’s well worth putting safeguards in place. In the wake of that incident, Schiefelbein Farms implemented the use of EID tags on their operation.

While an electronic animal disease traceability system only requires four data points for a disease trace — time, date, animal ID and animal location — use of EID tags as a management tool can provide additional benefits to a farm or ranch. Capturing data in a way that’s easily accessible and transmissible is a time saver and can add value to the way multiple sectors of the industry operate.

According to Schiefelbein, the cost of an EID tag is minimal when compared to the time saved more accurately collecting data chute-side.

“Having a plethora of genetic and carcass data available to our customers is really important. It’s the expectation of the seedstock industry to back cattle with numbers and breed associations are starting to accept electronic identification as a form of permanent identification,” he added. “With one scan, we can collect and send data to a third party, like the American Angus Association, and I don’t worry as much about making a mistake as I did with recording numbers on paper and then typing them into the computer system. As producers, it’s important that we harness the power of electronic identification and traceability systems to our advantage and to protect the industry.”

Schiefelbein said the Minnesota Board of Animal Health is also moving forward with providing health certificates electronically, which adds to the potential benefits of implementing an EID system. Working with states to implement a system where animal health certificates are transmitted electronically is important, and Schiefelbein has experienced its effectiveness first-hand.

“Bulls are sold to multiple states through our sale, and they all need health papers to leave the state. The Minnesota Board of Health sends me an electronic health paper as a PDF, and I send it on to the new owner of the bull. It’s very simple and you don’t have to worry about losing the paper,” he said.

Mark McCully, CEO of the American Angus Association (AAA), said EID is a means for traceability and a helpful management tool.

“Accurate animal identification and data collection is paramount to the seedstock business,” McCully said. “So much of the value in the purebred business is based on genetic predictions and EPDs, so getting that data assigned to the correct animal and into the association’s system is important. We then had to ask ourselves how we can make it easier for producers to collect information when buyers of Angus genetics continue to demand more and more data.”

Just recently, the AAA board chose to accept EID as a form of permanent identification. McCully noted that it’s a big step for the association and acknowledged that the technology has come a long way with many members starting to use EID.

“There’s the big picture scenario in the traceability conversation with steps we can take now to help contain a potential foreign animal disease outbreak and maintain market access. But then there’s also the management side of EID, it helps improve accuracy of data collection and is a time and labor savings,” McCully said. “Nearly every conversation I have with one of our breeders includes the inability to find labor, and as we continue to put more of the value determination in seedstock on data, which takes time, we have to provide tools that make practices more efficient.”

Electronic data collection also benefits the feedlot sector, especially larger yards that receive cattle from across the country. According to Tom Portillo, DVM, EID systems are beneficial for quickly tracking health and performance amongst groups of cattle.

“Cattle from different point sources often end up getting mixed in large feedyards to fit pen density. This means individual source data gets lost. So, if you have a pen of 200 head from four sources and a morbidity rate of 10%, a quick scan of an electronic tag makes it simple to track where that sickness came from and treat it in multiple pens more effectively. Without an electronic system, you’re left with a lot more guesswork,” Portillo said.

He added that high frequency technologies are getting better at reading from a distance, making it easier to reconcile individual lots as they’re moving through the feedyard. And, of course, the reduction in human error when collecting and entering performance data is a plus.

Mary Ann Kniebel, co-owner of Kniebel Cattle Company in Kansas, describes her operation as conception to consumption with cattle born and raised on the ranch and marketed through U.S. Premium Beef.

“The ranch is 145 years old, but we experienced a lot of growth in the 1990s. The survivability of a small operation means you have to work with something bigger than yourself and that’s why we were part of the founding of U.S. Premium Beef. The original intent was to have market access at the top. This ended up changing the course of our operation through the need to analyze genetics and have access to data,” she said.

Kniebel noted that you can’t manage what you can’t measure and thinks producers need to be open to technology and systems that allow them to advance their use of data. While ease of data collection and transmission is important to Kniebel, there are three things about the industry moving toward an electronic traceability system that make it a no-brainer for her.

“When it comes down to it, every operation has to make the decision about what’s best for them, but I don’t think any of us can ignore what devasting effects a disease outbreak would cause for us as individuals and the entire industry,” she said. “Robust trade is a huge addition to the bottom line, containment and regionalization of a disease outbreak is crucial, and having the peace of mind that you’re prepared for a potential crisis is important. There is power in planning, and I want to know that I’m as prepared as possible to address a potential problem.”