11/16/05 Northwest Pilot Project one year later

Producers at the Idaho Cattle Association's annual meeting in Sun Valley know more about the animal identification system thanks to a report from Rick Stott. Stott and the Northwest Pilot Project have been working on animal id for a year and now nearly 25 thousand animals are enrolled in the program. Stott says they've also been able to test some theories. STOTT "The first is that we think group lot animal movement is a viable way to move animals off a ranch and maybe up a couple of steps up through the chain as those animals stay together. The other thing that we have seen is that using something other than a 15 digit unique identifier is not probably a viable option at all." Stott says they can with certainty point to a cow in a field, be able to identify her and retrieve all the vital information pertaining to that animal. STOTT "However the infrastructure to get to that point is something that will take years and years to build and to get that integrity into the system. We're talking about 30 million animals. Its one of the largest herds in the world." Stott says it's imperative that the industry develop a system that works up and down the chain rather than have to deal with a government organized program. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott