CALF_News_April_May_2020

33 CALF News • April | May 2020 • www.calfnews.net U.S. SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE SONNY PERDUE came to the Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio on Feb 5, 2020, providing a press conference for attending media. Fit and in charge, Perdue took the podium with one direct line,“I’ll take your questions.” His response to various media queries were as concise and brief. When ques- tioned about the world coronavirus situ- ation, he said that virus control simply has an “open-ended endpoint.” None of us can control the course of the disease and we need to deal with the trade reper- cussions as we can. Particularly critical is the corona virus outbreak in China and how it will affect our trade with the Asian nation. The Trump Administration wants to have a China trade deal done by the end of 2020, and Perdue warned that we must be sensitive to their situation. He also stated we must watch China carefully so they “don’t cheat.” In terms of the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), Perdue said that President Trump provided a better deal for us. Farmers have been loyal, and Trump used the leverage of the U.S. economy and consumer power to make the deal. It will be good for agriculture and the general economy. The President is prepared to protect the livelihood of farmers; although 2019 was a tough year financially, he is optimistic about 2020. When Brexit was brought up, the Secretary said European markets will be a huge consumer of beef. We want Europe to abide by the world standard of safety and health. He confided that the Europeans are emotional and want different standards, ones that are harder to comply with. Perdue is grateful that agriculture is generally respected in Washington, D.C. He said the support is bipartisan in nature, and the government recognizes the value and production of this sector Ag. Secretary Briefs CattleCon in San Antonio By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor and its contribution to our economic well-being. Several countries are leading the United States with regard to technology in animal breeding. Perdue would like to see restrictions here relaxed on new regional cattle groups to determine the best methods of preventing and keeping serious disease situations from spreading. Jim Lovell, past president of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association and part of a group involved in the Texas Cattle Traceability pilot program, was on a Cattle Industry Convention panel that discussed traceability. He said the group supports the use of one technology that provides hands-free, automatic data transfer through ear tags with ultra-high- frequency technology. “This would provide animal disease traceability, which is knowing where dis- eased and at-risk animals are, where they have been and when they were at those locations,” said Lovell, part of a panel in the NCBA Region IV meeting of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas producers and feeders. “In order to protect the produc- ers’ share of the protein markets from potential impact of a disease event, cattle identification and traceability needs to be enacted, enhanced and further devel- oped using electronic ID and electronic transfer of data.” He added that privacy must be a key part of the program.“Data will not be stored in tags, but key data points will be signaled to a cloud-based system,” Lovell said.“No producer information is intact. “Our different state projects have always had a similar goal in mind – to develop a disease traceability system that works across the country. Combining our efforts makes this initiative stronger on a national level.” The goal of the multi-state programs is to have U.S. CattleTrace finalized by Dec. 31, 2023. Ibach said consumers would also demand traceability on plant- based or lab-grown meat products. “It gets down to sharing our values,” he says. “Can consumers feel comfort- able to continue purchasing them? The Beef Checkoff will be important to educate, promote and sell the attributes of the beef taste and satisfaction to consumers.”  TIME FOR TRACEABILITY Continued from page 32 Continued on page 34  To learn more about U.S. CattleTrace, visit www.uscattletrace.org/resources . • 2 0 2 0 C A T T L E I N D U S T R Y C O N V E N T I O N A N D T R A D E S H O W