04/12/06 Animal ID projects in Idaho

Doctor Jim England and some of his associates have identified about ten thousand cattle with tags that can be read electronically and they may register up to seven thousand calves this spring. England is the director of the University of Idaho's Caine Veterinary Teaching Center near Caldwell. He says rancher cooperation and participation falls into the 80-20 category. ENGLAND "80 percent of the ranchers are ready to go. There's probably ten percent of them ready to go but are kind of waiting to see what will happen in some of the technology and then there's a small percentage of you know not only 'no' but not at all." England's project is one of eight in Idaho funded through a 1.2 million dollar grant. He is working with 16 cooperating ranchers, providing them with two dollar tags and helping them set up a record keeping system that they can apply to their operation. ENGLAND "At least for the early people in line it's going to be a value added thing. I've got one producer that got a bonus of several dollars per hundred pounds simply because he could age and source verify his calves and they had the tags in their ears." England's team has premises identification from all participants. They've also been tracking animal movement and shipments since last June. He says he has another eight ranchers that want to join the animal ID program but England doesn't know if there will be any more grant money available this year. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott