News Release

Contact: Ben Richey
270-782-9798
brichey@animalagriculture.org

NIAA Survey Suggests Concern for Private Database Among Beef Industry

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s (NIAA) recently conducted survey on the National Animal Identification System has revealed that among respondents that have a primary interest in beef cattle, 52 percent either disagree or strongly disagree with the decision to move to a private animal tracking database.  This aligns with the sentiments of all respondents, which disagree or strongly disagree at a rate of 56 percent.  Only 28 percent of beef respondents agree with a private database, while 20 percent were unsure or had no opinion.

In examining respondents that categorize his or her self as a producer or producer/farm/commodity association executive, 62 percent disagree or strongly disagree with the move to propagate a privately managed database.

When asked which approach would best allow industry stakeholders to move forward in a timely fashion in the development of a consortium for implementing the private database, 36 percent of those with beef as a primary interest chose “rely on an approach similar to the 2002 National Animal Identification Task Force [NIDTF] to coordinate a consortium that will develop an effective solution.”    Other responses include:

• Adopt the current consortium concept being proposed by NCBA…18%

• Start from scratch on an industry initiative, and rely on all stakeholders to participate in reaching an effective solution…15%

• Allow each species to pursue a private tracking system…13%

• Sit and wait, hoping USDA will resume responsibility for the database…8%

• No Opinion/Unsure…10%

Among all respondents, 39 percent selected the approach similar to the 2002 NIDTF.  All other responses were at or below 14 percent.

Among the producers and producer organizations, 32 percent opted for the NIDTF option, while 29 percent would like to see each species pursue a private database.

A total of 198 individuals provided responses on the non-scientific survey, conducted Oct. 5 to Oct. 10.  Beef respondents comprised the largest group according to species interests at 31 percent, second only to species non-specific at 36 percent.   The survey was conducted among NIAA members and participants of ID/INFO EXPO 2005.  Complete results are available on the Internet at www.animalagriculture.org/id.

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Note to Media:  For any data extrapolation figures, please contact Ben Richey at brichey@animalagriculture.org.