Cattle producers will soon have to switch to USDA-approved tags to help improve animal traceability.
There have been some misconceptions around the concept, but beef specialists with Texas A&M say not everyone will be affected.
“If these regulatory changes are going to affect them would be sexually intact, so breeding animals that are 18 months of age or older, so think of them as breeding females and breeding bulls that are also being shipped interstate. So they’re going from Texas to another state or they’re going from another state into Texas. And I use Texas as an example because that’s where we are, but applies to the other states as well. [However,] the mandatory identification only applies to those and a few other animals, so most of us from a commercial cow-calf standpoint. Ff we’re not shipping cattle across state lines, business as usual.
USDA’s final rule takes effect November 1st.
