05/15/06 R-CALF leader sees Aussie ID system

American Rancher May 15, 2006 R-CALF USA President Chuck Kiker was recently in Australia where he got a first hand look at the national animal ID system they have down under. Kiker says Australia's implementation of a mandatory ID program has been anything but smooth. Kiker: "I don't think it is working very. Their database doesn't seem to be working. They have a lot of inconsistencies. They are having a lot of problems with the actual hardware. Readers are not reading properly. The good news is they are not being very strict on it evidently. So the policing part of it, if you send cattle to a sale barn and 20% of them don't read, they still go through the sale. But, they are frustrated with the whole system because they don't feel it has benefited them at all and it has cost them a whole lot of money." Kiker says his visit showed him R-CALF's position that animal ID should be voluntary and market driven, is the right one. Kiker: "If there is a value in having age verification or source verification let those producers that are set up to do that do it and make a premium. I think that is the only way we are going to successfully move forward in an animal ID program, because to go to a mandatory program and force it on everybody I just see chaos and a lot of frustration down the road." I'm Bob Hoff.