Electronic ID technology discovers a home on the range

Tom Filbin needs to keep careful track of more than 3,000 head of sheep at the Rafter 7 Sheep Ranch along the East Walker River near Yerington.

Breed-research programs jointly sponsored by the University of Nevada, Reno, College of Agriculture and the ranch owner, the Edwin L. Wiegand Trust, look to develop more profitable sheep for wool producers in the Western states.

And that requires careful accounting of the genetics and history of every animal.

Filbin's staff at Rafter 7 has turned to technology radio frequency identification tags to provide efficient and accurate information about individual animals.

The tags, similar to those used by technologically savvy distribution centers to track merchandise as it moves through a warehouse, allow ranch staff to use an electronic scanner to identify individual animals.

And although the high hopes of makers of electronic tags were set back by the federal government this winter, the high-tech tags continue to find a niche.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, faced with strong resistance from ranchers and farmers nationwide, decided in February to scrap its proposed National Animal Identification System.

That system, intended to provide quick tracking of livestock in case of an outbreak of animal disease, was expected to drive widespread adoption of electronic systems.

The market cratered when the USDA pulled back from the proposed standard.

"It's a depressed market," says Jay McCown, founder of Ranger ID Technologies, a Mountain Home, Idaho, company that develops and markets electronic identification systems for livestock.

But market hasn't disappeared.

"What we're left with is niches all over the place," says McCown.

One niche, he says, is found in operations such as Rafter 7 Sheep Ranch, where accurate records are the cornerstone of breed-improvement initiatives.

Says Rafter 7's Filbin: "It's the best technology as far as accuracy. The more you can have on a computer, the better job you can do."

The cost about $2 a head, plus software and hardware isn't inexpensive, but Filbin says the operational convenience and accurate records make the system co-effective.

When Rafter 7 began using the tags, some staff wondered if the electronic devices would be lost as sheep grazed in open range and encountered fences and corrals.

"We've had very good retention," Filbin says.

David Thain, Nevada's state extension veterinarian in the department of animal biotechnology at UNR, says a number of livestock operations in the state have moved to electronic identification as a means of maintaining records and to help track the source of animals after they're sold.

The ability to track livestock through the market is important to Asian export markets, McCown says, as those markets often require the ability to trace meat products back to their source.

SIDEBAR

Animal ID proposal gets a fresh look

The federal proposal for a livestock-traceability program that spurred interest in development of electronic tagging systems is back on the drawing boards, and the new proposal calls for states to develop their own systems.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month completed a round of meetings around the nation to hear from livestock producers and the public.

From there, federal officials will develop goals for the program and suggest procedures for individual states and Indian tribes to follow. And once that is done, Nevada will conduct its own meetings of producers, industry groups and others before writing state regulations.

"We are ready to develop a traceability program as soon as federal guidance has been provided," says Ed Foster, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

An earlier plan, which would have tracked animals and meat products from birth through the retail chain, was abandoned by the USDA this year after complaints from livestock producers who said the government wanted too much information.