5 September 2008

2 minute read

North America

“Tomorrow, NCBA and other representatives from throughout the livestock and meat industries will meet with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary Bruce Knight to present this affidavit", said Andy Groseta, the NCBA President.

“Our goal was to create a simple, efficient, and effective means of declaring livestock origin from conception to consumer, and we believe this affidavit does exactly that. Producers can fill in information specific to their cattle and assert the origin of any animal being sold. Livestock marketers further along the ownership chain can use individual affidavits to create a single, combined affidavit for a group of animals."

The Representatives from every point in the supply chain have unanimously agreed to use this standardized affidavit, which they believe will greatly ease the burden that mandatory COOL places on producers.

NCBA claim that they have focused on implementing COOL in a manner that provides maximum benefit and minimal disruption to US ranchers.

Mr Groseta said: “Additionally, NCBA is working with our industry partners on the issue of so-called ‘gap cattle,’ which are animals traded in the period between July 15, 2008 (the date that declared all livestock present in the U.S. as being of U.S. origin) and the September 30, 2008 implementation deadline. We are well aware that owners of these animals would be very hard pressed to recreate the paper trail documenting origin. The industry consensus is that current owners should be considered to have first-hand knowledge of those cattle. Therefore, these animals should be allowed to move through the marketing chain using the standard affidavit.

“NCBA will continue to work on behalf of our cattlemen to put in place an effective and accurate labeling system. Additionally, we will be leading the effort to educate producers on how to comply with the new rule.

TheCattleSite News Desk