Sheep Industry News January 2023

PILOT PROJECT Continued from Page 24

ASI WISHES TO THANK ITS PARTNERS IN THIS PROJECT:

Colorado Department of Agriculture (Ed Kline & Dan Love, DVM) Delta Sales Yard (Dan & Holly Varner) Merck Animal Heath Intelligence (Brandon Manning & Steve Gilsdorf) Colorado Sheep Producers: Ernie Etchart – Etchart Livestock Julie Hansmire – Campbell Hansmire Sheep Ken & Oogie McGuire – Desert Weyr Colorado Wool Growers Association (Bonnie Brown-Eddy) ASI Animal Health Committee Co-Chairs Jim Logan, DVM & Cindy Wolf, DVM U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

tion can be collected as the animals arrive at the sale yard. Normal market activity of sorting animals into different lots does not require data collection from the animals, although markets could use the technology for their own purpos es to track animals within lots. In this project, because of the need for hard-wired access to the internet, the panel readers were placed in a retrofitted alleyway closer to the sale ring. Another hurdle with the software was that it would only accept data from five tags at a time, so only five sheep in a lot could be read. Furthermore, once a tag number was read, the

Sheep producers are increasingly adopting EID technology, which might press livestock markets to adapt. The producers par ticipating in this project believe EID is a valuable tool that will gain favor in the industry for several reasons, including time-savings, the ease of capturing data and the assistance such data can provide to production decisions, such as managing nutrition needs for ewes carrying twins versus singles, improving wool traits, track ing administration of medicine, and identifying cull animals based on their productivity. The technology has the potential to provide value-added benefits to producers, especially as more and more meat retailers are requiring traceability for their consumers. In any major animal health event, the goal should be to rapidly capture movement data so disease can quickly be contained, and allow commerce get back to normal. The most common response to any disease situation is an immediate “stop-movement” order for all animals and animal products, and sometimes vehicles. The longer it takes to back off a stop-movement order, the more devas tating the impact, both to the livelihoods of producers and to the animals in their care. A video on the project is available at Youtu.be/xyH653Q99po. This project was made possible, in part, by a cooperative agree ment from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It may not necessarily express APHIS’ views.

software would not permit it to be read a second time. This meant that in a situation where a buyer might want only three sheep out of a lot of five, the two remaining sheep could not be re-scanned and entered as a new lot for sale. In markets with more advanced market software, these situations are addressed by using a hand held reader to collect the tag numbers from the turned back sheep before they are reweighed and sold, a process that works very smoothly and does not hold up the sale. PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS It is expected that by early 2023, the U.S. Department of Agri culture will issue a rule requiring EID to be used as official ID in cattle. Based on the number of shortcomings the ASI pilot project revealed at mixed species markets about the capability to utilize EID technology, ASI believes it would be premature to impose this requirement on the sheep industry. USDA needs to make significant investment in the infrastructure needs of mixed species livestock markets if it wishes to have the markets adopt an effective electronic ID system, including investments in software, hardware and/or other infrastructure needs of markets. ASI also recommends a more robust evaluation of the readiness of livestock markets to adopt digital technology.

OPP

New Test — New Strategy No more bottle lambs!

To Advertise in the Sheep Industry News, Contact Kyle Partain at kyle@sheepusa.org or 303-771-3500.

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26 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org

Kyle, please use this for all months. Thanks! Judy 8/7/18