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Coalition says USDA “significantly underestimated” cost of new traceability rule
Story Date: 6/11/2012
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Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 6/8/12
If implemented, the USDA’s Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) program would cost the cattle industry $1.3 billion annually. This according to a coalition of ranchers and farmers, who sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) urging the agency to conduct a thorough cost analysis.
The 16 organizations – including R-CALF USA, Cattle Producers of Louisiana and Kansas Cattlemen’s Association – argue that an estimated 50 million cattle crossing state lines each year, not the 30 million figure estimated by the USDA.
Using research from North Dakota State University on the cost of tagging, the coalition estimated that the industry would spend about $1.35 billion annually. “Tagging cattle is an equipment and labor-intensive task,” according to the coalition. “The reason many small producers don’t tag at this time is [that] they have not spent thousands of dollars on equipment such as chutes.”
The USDA also failed to conduct an analysis of the costs to the poultry industry, the group wrote. “The (USDA) acknowledged in a sentence or two that there will be an impact on live bird markets but also admitted that it does not know what those costs will me,” according to the letter.
Rather than ask for livestock producers to register their premises, as did the failed National Animal Identification System, the ADT program focuses on identification of animals through federally approved devices, such as ear tags, during interstate movement.
“At numerous points in its analysis, the (USDA) failed to consider available data showing that the scope of the rule and its impact on the industry would be far broader, and its costs far more expensive, than the agency admitted.”
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