The pork sector may be the next to require a standardized electronic animal identification program.
Mark Wright, president of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association (NPPA), revealed the proposed national Swine Traceability Standards at the NPPA Regional Producer Meeting held Feb. 13 at the Nielsen Event Center in West Point, Nebraska. This was the second of four meetings to be held in different locations across the state in February and March.
Currently, the swine industry relies on Premises Identification (PIN), which assigns a unique code to a farm location. Under the proposed standardized system, all swine breeding stock would be required to have a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag prior to entering the slaughter channel. PIN would be replaced by RFID, said Wright.
“The pork industry is a global industry. This is what global expanding markets are wanting, this is what trading partners are wanting, this is what stores in other countries are wanting. To be more traceable in our food supply chain,” Wright said.
The U.S. pork industry relies on foreign exports to move their products. Wright reports that exports rose 8% in 2023, and 31% of U.S pork products are exported. “We have worked very hard to expand existing international markets and open new international markets,” he added.
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The threat of a disease outbreak constantly threatens to close the international trading lines. Wright said that, if a disease outbreak occurred, exports could continue through this program because they could control the outbreak quicker and set up a regionalization program with trading partners.
Cost to producers is a major consideration. PIN tags cost a little over $1, but individual RFID tags cost more than $3.
“We will work with the USDA on assistance to help cover the cost for tags as all breeding stock would be mandated to have RFID tags prior to entering the slaughter channels under the new program,” Wright said.
Cyber security is another concern surrounding the proposed program. Some producers prefer their information be kept in house during “peace time” instead of a centralized database. This new program allows for that.
“But it’s something we all need to know about because there will be a transition period if this does get implemented where your premise ID tags will transfer to RFID tags,” Wright said.
To learn more, contact NPPA at 531-500-3505 or visit www.nepork.org.
Reporter Kristen Sindelar has loved agriculture her entire life, coming from a diversified farm with three generations working side-by-side in northeastern Nebraska. Reach her at Kristen.Sindelar@midwestmessenger.com.