Progress is being made on the CattleTrace system, a producer-led effort to establish a comprehensive animal disease traceability system for the U.S. cattle industry that started in Kansas two years ago.

At the Kansas Livestock Association’s annual convention in Wichita in December, Cassie Kniebel, CattleTrace program manager, offered an update on the program, which is now being used in seven states, some with multiple markets included.

In Kansas, eight livestock markets, 13 feedyards and backgrounders, and four packing plants are participating in the program, which utilizes high frequency ear tags, high speed readers and a private database system to collect traceability information on cattle.

Kniebel said the goal is to eventually have every entity that handles cattle be part of the system, which holds all data in a private database and releases relevant data to authorities only in the event of a disease outbreak.

“In the pilot project, our focus has been on the early adopters,” Kniebel said. “So far, we have the industry divided into three groups — those early adapters, another group that is adamantly opposed to any kind of traceability and a middle group that is kind of ‘wait and see.’ That first group is usually out front on almost any initiative.”

Kniebel said one objection has been that the cost burden of the ear tag that that is at the heart of the system falls on cow-calf producers, even though the benefits come all along the chain.

Kniebel said she is enjoying her role as program manager because it gives her a chance to work directly with producers.

“I really enjoy being out there talking face-to-face with people,” she said. “In the end, the only way that it works is for producers to buy in and participate.”

Kniebel said she is concerned that the real impetus to expand the system is likely the one that producers fear the most — a disease outbreak.

“One of the things that we look back on is the BSE case and what it cost the industry,” she said. “The best way to avoid those losses is to be able to quickly trace when the outbreak originated and identify every animal exposed. The faster any outbreak can be shut down, the better for the industry. This system gives us that kind of ability.”

She said an advantage to producers is that CattleTrace is industry-driven, and that all data collected is private.