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Traceability needed for cattle disease mitigation

The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City met Thursday to discuss cattle traceability.

Executive Director of U.S. Cattle Trace Callahan Grund tells Brownfield the ability to trace cattle is a needed technology in the U.S for disease mitigation. He tells Brownfield the technology would lessen the likelihood of disease spread and damage from diseases like foot and mouth disease if there was an outbreak, “The economic impact would be huge at that standpoint and we have an opportunity, I think, as U.S. cattle producers to build a voluntary system that works for us, that can be enacted beforehand to really work on that cost mitigation.”

He says while traceable tags will be an added cost for producers, it’s worth lowering the risk of market loss in the case of a disease outbreak and the technology will get cheaper as more companies support it. Grund says cattle traceability will also help build a premium cattle market, “We can offshoot some of those data points and continue to add some of those value aspects to those cattle, some of those attributes that are really well needed, and wanted, from consumers out there.”

Grund says his goal is to help the technology benefit the industry and not be a burden on producers.

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