At the 2024 CattleCon held in Orlando, Florida, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with the Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, Michael Kelsey, about animal disease traceability.
Our coverage from the 2024 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Orlando is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.
There was wide discussion regarding support for enhanced animal disease traceability systems at the 2024 CattleCon, and Kelsey said one particular measure could be a big part of the solution.
One proposal not adopted at the end of the day aimed to have disease traceability measures in place for all cattle by 2024, breeding cattle over 18 months, and feeder and stocker cattle by 2026.
“The final result is a really good piece of policy,” Kelsey said. “In our opinion, it matched OCA policy very well. It takes out all the feeder cattle. We are not going to talk about feeder cattle, yearling cattle, any of those cattle right now under this policy.”
Kelsey said the policy passed focused on sexually intact 18-month-old and older cattle. In Oklahoma, Kelsey said many producers have already begun to utilize EID tags.
“Our policy is very clear that the data that these tags will generate must be secure,” Kelsey said. “There is just no question. It must be secure and be in private hands.”
Kelsey said putting that data in government hands is simply unacceptable. Kelsey also added that this is not a law, but a policy on EID tags.
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