Cattle Traceability Encourages Collaboration to Improve Transparency
What does traceability mean for your operation? The U.S. CattleTrace Annual Symposium in Wichita, KS, Nov. 19. concluded with a panel to answer this specific question for attendees.
The panel was moderated by Justin Sexten, Vice President of Strategy at Performance Livestock Analytics. Panelists were Race King, TR MT Land and Cattle LLC Ranch Manager; Jerrid Hermann, Cherokee Sales Co. LLC Owner; and Bob Sato, Feedyard Operations Director for Friona Industries.
Traceability can be seen as just another task for many cow-calf operators however, the technologies provide many benefits to the operation to improve management and using the data to make a more uniform calf crop. The data has a strong impact on management decisions as well as offering the mechanisms for disease traceability. Auction markets get a lot of pressure concerning traceability from many sectors of the beef industry.
Traceability can improve accuracy and efficiency in all day-to-day sale barn operations. Commercial feedlots have experienced the many benefits of traceability technologies, using the data received in their operation to make decisions concerning operation management and when purchasing calves. Traceability is a capital investment but the advantages the data gives allows for efficiency and profitability.
“Less than 5% of calves coming into our feedyards are ID tagged straight from the source,” said Sato.
Traceability adds value at the operations level across the beef industry. Sharing data allows the industry to get better together by collaborating to make decisions that improve beef production. Traceability increases the transparency which allows the beef industry to gain trust from the consumer.
“The value is in the data capture. We can know how animals perform at certain times of the year and allows us the improve production efficiency. The data tells us what went into the animal from a nutrition and disease standpoint,” explained Sato.
A large concern of traceability is what happens to animals with lost tags? The panel unanimously agreed that lost tags are going to happen, but one form of identification is never enough. Having multiple forms of identification for each animal improves accuracy and transparency across each sector of the industry.
Traceability means the U.S. beef industry getting better together by collaborating to improve production efficiencies from the cow-calf producer and until the beef product reaches the consumer’s table. Most importantly, traceability increases transparency and trust for the U.S. beef industry which benefits both the producer and the consumer.
