04/10/06 Timeline for animal ID

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says USDA wants to have the animal identification system operational next year so they can begin to check animal movement data. Johanns says full producer participation will come in 2009. JOHANNS "If we can improve on this time schedule needless to say everyone would support that and I would too." Johanns' announcement came on the heels of criticism from Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley who complained last week about a lack of USDA leadership on animal i-d. One man who knows a lot about animal i-d and implementing a national system is Rick Stott of Boise-based Agri-Beef. He's a leader in the Northwest Pilot Project and we caught up with him in Louisville, Kentucky at a US Animal Identification Organization meeting. STOTT "About three months from now we should have over a million events recorded across the nation. We believe by next fall we'll have multi-million events and probably have a quarter of a million events recorded every month." Stott says it's that kind of industry support that will drive the national animal i-d system. But Stott says with Johanns' announcement there's a possibility that producers will sit back and let the government design their destiny. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott