Last week at the Manitoba Beef Producers meeting in Brandon, a lot of producer concern focused around tags and transport.
Rick Wright of the Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association says these are also two key concerns for their group.
Wright says with the way the CFIA monitors Canadian Cattle Identification Agency tags, auction markets can be on the hook if cattle come through without tags. He says they want the onus to be on the farmer to ensure animals are tagged.
"What you have to remember, if you look at a place like Virden, MB or Swift Current, SK, they will have over 3,000 cattle arrive in 12 hours, so I mean it is busy," he says. "We don't have the time to inspect every animal to make sure the farmers put the tag on it. And our industry never agreed with government and CFIA that we would be the inspectors, but by default, if we don't, then we are subject to a $1300 fine per tag maximum."
Wright says he understands cattle can lose their tags, and thinks a 10 per cent tolerance level for missing tags would be reasonable.
When it comes to transport, Wright says producers delivering livestock to auction marts need a better understanding of whether or not they can transport compromised animals.
Source : PortageOnline