Last April, the USDA released a schedule that would have transitioned to mandatory radio-frequency identification (RFID) eartags for all reproducing beef animals over 18 months old and dairy animals of any age, by 2023. (Read: Expect an RFID traceability program by 2023.)
In a statement released Oct. 25, the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said the agency would revisit the guidelines and removed a factsheet outlining the plan from its website, saying the factsheet no longer represented current ag policy. The statement cited executive orders from President Donald Trump highlighting the need for more feedback from the livestock industry before placing any new requirements on American farmers and ranchers.
According to APHIS: “While the need to advance a robust joint federal-state-industry Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) capability remains an important USDA-APHIS objective, we will take the time to reconsider the path forward and then make a new proposal, with ample opportunity for all stakeholders to comment.
"As we undertake this reconsideration of whether or when to put new requirements in place, we will encourage the use of RFID devices through financial incentives that are also consistent with suggestions we have received from cow-calf producers and others. We continue to believe that RFID devices will provide the cattle industry with the best protection against the rapid spread of animal diseases, as well as meet the growing expectations of foreign and domestic buyers.”
Earlier in October, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) filed a lawsuit seeking to block implementation of the USDA rule. 
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Carrie Veselka
- Editor
- Progressive Cattle
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