Op-Ed: The Wild, Wild West of Animal Identification, EID’s and Traceability (2024)

Written by Callahan Grund, Executive Director, U.S. CattleTrace

PUBLISHED ON May 9, 2024

WAMEGO, Kan. — In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding EID’s, traceability, and identification. From cattle industry associations’ policy positions to amendments of current federal rules and federal funding discussions, there seems to be as much confusion as ever as to what the heck is going on with animal identification and traceability. I, for one, know that it is incredibly hard to keep up with all of the different topics that have occurred and it’s my full-time job! However, as a fellow cattle producer, I hope that this article will help boil all of the hoopla down into some real “cowboy talk” to help you understand where things currently stand.

To start in somewhat of a chronological order, we have to go way back to 2013 when the USDA implemented a traceability rule for cattle moving between states or as you’ve likely read it, interstate movement of cattle. The cattle covered under this traceability rule are sexually intact breeding beef cattle over the age of 18 months, dairy cattle, and any cattle used for rodeo, shows, exhibitions, or recreational events. All of these cattle must have an official form of ID and be accompanied with a certificate of veterinary inspection (CVI) or “vet papers” as some loosely use in slang cattle terms.

Since the rule went into effect in 2013, the official forms of ID have included- the orange, metal Bangs tags or the “840” EID tags. Cattle moving direct to slaughter across state lines (most of the time- cull cows or bulls) may have a USDA-approved backtag in place of an official ID. This rule has never included feeder cattle or sexually intact breeding cattle under 18 months-of-age.

The reason I have started here is that this rule has been in place for over 11 years. The headlines you may have recently read about are regarding an AMENDMENT to this already existing rule. On April 26, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) made an announcement with their final amendment to the rule, with the most significant being a transition of official IDs to be visually and electronically readable for those classes of cattle that are already covered under the traceability rule.

With all of that backstory, I’ll boil it down to our “cowboy talk.” For sexually intact, breeding beef cattle over the age of 18 months, dairy cattle, and any cattle used for rodeo, shows, exhibitions or recreational events, they will need an official form of ID that is both visually and electronically readable and accompanied with a CVI to cross state lines. Today, the most prominent form of ID that fits this need are “840” EID tags. I have seen some discussion occurring amongst the industry that this is a “new” mandatory tagging requirement that the government is imposing upon us. However, the only “new” requirement happening here is a transition in the FORM of ID that is used for an already existing rule.

Now that we’ve gotten a clearer understanding of the new USDA amendment to their existing traceability rule, let’s look at the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 that was passed in March. Within the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024, there is detailed funding for agriculture with $1.162 billion for USDA APHIS. As part of this funding, there was $15 million included for electronic identification and related infrastructure for cattle and bison to improve animal disease traceability. This funding is intended for producers to utilize as a part of the transition to visual and electronically readable tags in the amendment that APHIS recently announced. Plain and simple, these dollars are intended to help us producers financially as we have to transition the form of ID we use for interstate movement of cattle.

I know that there have been a lot of opinions and political beliefs over this topic in the past month. However, I wrote this article to provide facts and hopefully a clearer understanding of the situation as it relates to the new amendment to the existing animal disease traceability rule. If I were to summarize this entire article into one statement, it would be: if you have already been tagging any of the cattle covered under the rule with the orange metal clip tags, all you have to do is transition to an electronic and visual ear tag.

With all of that said, I would be remiss if I didn’t include a shameless plug for the producer-led organization, U.S. CattleTrace. Animal disease traceability has certainly been a hotly contested and debated topic over the last 20 years. This organization was formed by cattlemen to have the very conversations we are having today. Producers who want to help find real solutions to building a voluntary, speed of commerce animal disease traceability system for the U.S. cattle industry. The intent behind U.S. CattleTrace is to help build a system that works for all producers and operates in the background of the industry and can be utilized by animal health officials only in the case of a disease outbreak.

Do we have all of the answers yet? No. Do we have a perfect solution yet? No. However, it is my belief that the U.S. beef producers are the people best suited to build this system. Too many times, rather than being proactive in the beef cattle industry, we are reactive when situations arise. We need you. We need your voice to be heard in building this system. If you feel called to come to the table with solutions to this problem, please go to our website to see how you can join U.S. CattleTrace.

Let’s unite as U.S. beef cattle producers to be proactive this time and take these steps in protecting the industry that we all love.

–Callahan Grund, Executive Director
U.S. CattleTrace