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FRANKFORT, Ky. — The most potentially profitable thing farmers can do at this year’s Kentucky State Fair won’t win them any ribbons or prizes, but it could one day make them the heroes of Kentucky’s livestock industry.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture will offer producers the opportunity to register their agricultural premises at the fair. The premises registration station will be located in the West Hall of the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville.
Premises registration is the key first step toward developing a nationwide animal identification system, and Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer urges farmers to help.
“An animal identification system will make it possible to trace an animal back to its farm of origin within 48 hours of a disease outbreak,” Commissioner Farmer explained. “That way, a disease can be contained with as little economic impact on our agriculture industry as possible.”
”Knowing who raises horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, poultry, shrimp, llamas or anything else means we could contact only the producers directly affected by a disease of concern,” said Tim Turney, director of the KDA’s Division of Producer Services.
The department’s goal is to identify every Kentucky location with farm animals. This includes not only many of Kentucky’s 88,000 farms, but also stockyards, stables, slaughter facilities, rendering plants, veterinary clinics, and any other place a farm animal might have been, Turney said.
The system requires the premises owner’s name and address, directions to the premises and the kind of animals raised there.
The premises ID numbers will be assigned completely at random by U.S. Department of Agriculture computers located in Colorado, Turney said, so that no data can be inferred from the number itself. The number allows farmers to purchase official USDA animal tags so the system can identify animals that have been at that location.
Livestock buyers will be able to verify the source of each animal and each animal’s age. This will enhance their market value, particularly in export markets, Turney said.
At the same time, consumers can remain confident that Kentucky’s and America’s food supply is the safest in the world. “Protecting Kentucky’s food supply has always been one of KDA’s top priorities,” Commissioner Farmer said.
Completing the survey of premises, and then identifying farm animals, is a complex task that will take several years. The federal government plans to have a mandatory national animal identification system in place by 2009.
KDA must coordinate its work with other developing systems, including an effort by the Kentucky Beef Network to assist with source and age verification and the Southeast Livestock Network’s pilot project to track slaughter cows from the point of sale to processing plants in other states, Turney said.
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