09/13/07 NAIS mess

Sometimes one little vote can stir up a hornet's next. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you about some hornets. By now, most of you have probably heard of the National Animal Identification System or NAIS. This is a program that has been designed to track cattle and other animal species back to the ranch or farm where they were raised as a way of controlling disease more quickly. The base of the system is a premise ID number given to ranches and identification of individual animals from that ranch. The federal government has always said it is a voluntary program, but the Colorado State Fair Board took it one step farther and made it a rule that animals sold at the youth livestock sale had to be accompanied by a premise ID. Two contestants listed the La Plata Country Fairgrounds as the premise ID and on the eve of the sale were told they could either register their home ranches as the premise ID or be escorted off the grounds by security. The fair said they would pay the cost of the trip home and compensate them for the loss of the animal's sale value. Wow! Within three days two state representatives and one state senator said there would be legislation introduced next year to prohibit state agencies from requiring participation in voluntary federal programs and denounced the use of kids as a way to institute a government program. As a board member at our local fair, I have to say these kinds of maneuvers have no place in an event designed for youth participation. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Report 9/5/07