Robert Pore's Ag Blog

KEARNEY – Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) Director Greg Ibach today announced two new projects during a press conference at Huss Livestock. Ibach announced the start of an educational and promotional campaign called “Locate In 48” and kicked off a new animal identification pilot project associated with the State’s role in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

The new “Locate In 48” promotional campaign focuses on educating Nebraska landowners and those who handle or manage livestock on the importance of registering locations where animals are kept. It’s an extension of the Department’s ongoing premises registration efforts. The campaign tagline refers to a system that will allow a 48-hour traceback if an animal disease outbreak were to occur.

Ibach said, “We already have had great cooperation, with roughly 9,000 premises registered to date. The goal of this new campaign is to heighten individuals’ awareness of the importance of traceback. Every premises registered will help us in the event of a disease outbreak, but a comprehensive database will be most effective.”

“Premises registration will help to protect animals, increase consumer confidence in the nation’s food supply and better connect farmers and ranchers to the global marketplace,” said Ibach. “We are very excited to introduce the ‘Locate in 48’ campaign to the state.”

A new web site, www.LocateIn48.com, is available for more information on the “Locate In 48” campaign, as well as for those interested in registering a premises.

In addition to the “Locate in 48” introduction, Director Ibach announced the rollout of a new animal identification pilot project. The movements of 200 cattle with special radio frequency animal identification tags were tracked during the sale at Huss Livestock, using hardware and software installed as part of the demonstration project.

“Nebraska is a national leader in the cattle industry, and we need to stay engaged in the development of the NAIS. This pilot project is an important step in understanding the intricacies of tracking the thousands of animals we move into and out of our auction barns on a weekly basis,” Ibach said. “While we hope the project runs smoothly, we do expect to find some kinks. This will be a learning experience.”

Four other Nebraska locations have agreed to participate in the pilot project, including Burwell Livestock Market, Creighton Livestock Market, Valentine Livestock Auction Market and Ogallala Livestock Auction Market. For the project, each market has installed equipment and software to manage movement information. The markets also each have been provided 5,000 radio frequency ear tags to distribute to cattle producers who agree to sell their livestock through one of the five cooperating markets.

NDA Animal Identification Coordinator Royce Schaneman said the project has been designed with a number of goals in mind. “We will gain real-life data on tag retention rates and the abilities of different hardware to successfully read those tags in a market setting,” Schaneman said. “Many different factors can influence the tracking equipment, from the weather, to the lighting, to the type of fencing a market uses.

“We appreciate the flexibility of the auction markets and our product vendor partners in this demonstration project,” he said.

Ibach was joined at the press conference by John Wiemers, NAIS coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and Rick Shoemaker, auctioneer for Huss Livestock.

“USDA is pleased with the progress the Nebraska Department of Agriculture is making, especially in the area of premises registration which is fundamental to the implementation of the National Animal Identification System,” said Wiemers. “We look forward to working with Nebraska and analyzing the results of the pilot project.”

Huss Livestock auctioneer Rick Shoemaker said he was pleased with the results of the first run of tagged cattle and is looking forward to continuing work on the pilot project. “As one of the major markets in Nebraska, we feel we need to provide our customers with the best tools available to market their livestock,” he said.

The pilot project will run through October. It is being funded through part of a grant NDA received from the United States Department of Agriculture last year.