By:  Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President

Officials with the United States Department of Agriculture (and others too) would like to implement a national system for tracking the movement of livestock.  They have maintained to reluctant farmers and ranchers that signing up their properties (called premises) would be no big deal since the whole program will be operated on a “voluntary basis”

Well, if that’s the case, do USDA officials remember that “voluntary” doesn’t mean “mandatory”? http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=3002&yr=2008

One of the more vocal livestock groups, at odds with the entire idea of a National Animal Identification System, R-CALF USA are taking credit for their actions to bring USDA officials back into line with their mandates of requiring premise registration.  http://www.r-calfusa.com/news_releases/2008/081229-group.htm

According to all reports, U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Veterinary Services (APHIS-VS) has complied with the demand that the agency retract Memorandum No. 575.19 issued on Sept. 22, 2008,  -- APHIS-VS officially canceled that particular memo on Dec. 22, 2008.
 
Memorandum 575.19 mandated premises registration under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for producers engaged in interstate commerce and who participate in any one of the dozen or more federally regulated disease programs.
 
 "We caught USDA in the unlawful act of trying to convert what was promised to be a completely voluntary animal identification system into a mandatory NAIS, and the agency backed down," said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group's animal health committee. "This goes to show how an organized group of cattle producers can effectively defend their rights if they stand and fight together."
 
Well, Good For Them!

Nevada Farm Bureau also agrees that the program is supposed to be a voluntary program.  We’ve said so in our organizational policy…

Animal Identification – National Animal Identification System:       120
   We are opposed to regulations which mandate livestock producer compliance in a national animal identification system.
  NAIS should utilize existing programs such as brucellosis identification for cattle and scrapie identification for sheep and goats.
   Those who enter the identification system on a voluntary basis, with an assigned premise identification, should be allowed to have their names/addresses and other information removed from the database if they wish to discontinue their voluntary involvement in the program.  There should not be any retention of data related to the premise for those who request to be deleted from the premise database.

As we look to the arrival of the new administration in Washington, D.C., we may need to continue to keep the watch on USDA to make certain that those in charge don’t forget what “voluntary” means.