Montana program to be pitched for national livestock security

Organizers of a Montana beef quality program plan to pitch the program to the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a way to trace livestock.

Ranchers in the Montana Beef Network document their vaccination and feeding procedures and hope to show that cattle in the program produce consistently better beef so that a premium can be charged for cattle in the network.

By The Associated Press

http://helenair.com/articles/2004/06/19/montana/a11061904_03.txt

Some cattle are identified with ear tags and others have computer chips inserted in their ears. Those chips can then be scanned at feedlots and slaughterhouses in other states where the majority of Montana’s calves eventually end up. That way data on individual animals can be sent to ranchers.

Now terrorist concerns and the discovery of mad cow disease in Alberta and Washington have federal officials searching for a way to trace individual livestock quickly if there is a disease outbreak.

The Montana Beef Network, Montana State University, the Montana Stockgrowers Association and state Livestock Department are teaming up with the University of Nebraska to pitch it as a pilot program for the USDA.

‘‘This combines things in place that were created for a different purpose as a way to identify individual livestock animals,” said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

But ranchers are concerned about privacy.

‘‘We support the use of the information for disease control,” said Stockgrowers board member Gene Curry, a Valier-area rancher. ‘‘This should not be a way to count cattle in the United States.”