Lots of cattle producers showed up to the open forums hosted by the Saskatchewan Cattle Association (SCA) in recent weeks.
The organization wanted to gather as much feedback as possible on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's proposed changes to traceability rules. Meetings were held in Maple Creek, Rosetown, Milestone, and Prince Albert.
Chair of the SCA Chad Ross believes 150 to 250 producers attended each meeting.
"We took notes at all their meetings, and like I say, they were very engaging and had lots of opportunity for our producers to give us their thoughts in regards to the regulations." he said.
The most common piece of feedback was the proposed changes were too onerous and burdensome, especially for cow-calf producers who don't have the required technology to handle the kind of traceability the CFIA wants. Among the proposals is recording cattle movement into a farm, as well as to a vet clinic or a farm show.
Another common thought during the meetings was the lack of trust in the CFIA.
"The proposed regulations stated that producers would have to scan in. That means that every animal purchased in their operations would have to be scanned, uploaded to the CLTS, which is the Canadian Livestock Tracking System. This is housed under the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, which is run by an industry board and owned by the industry right now. But having to do that and buy more equipment and technology is something that our producers voiced very strongly that they did not want to do." he added.
Ross states current protocols already cover the bases. He described traceability as a "three-legged stool".
"The first is identifying the animal, which we do now. There is a national radio frequency tag that each animal has to have. The second is the premise ID, which in Saskatchewan we have a premise ID system. And the third is the movement of the animal for full traceability. Now in Saskatchewan we're very fortunate because we have a very trusted entity called Livestock Services of Saskatchewan, which is our brand inspection. And they trace a lot of movement right now. So we do have a lot of that covered already, it's just some of the individual stuff that we are lacking on the cow-calf level."
Following the open forums, the SCA released a statement Wednesday stating it "does not support the proposed traceability regulatory amendments" and "is asking for the process of regulatory amendments to be terminated."
Ross said the next steps of their advocacy work are already in motion, noting Provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit has been informed of the SCA's position as well as Premier Scott Moe.
"And also it's our job to make our national association, the Canadian Cattle Association, aware of our position. I will be making a trip to Ottawa here in a couple of weeks to meet and make sure that they know our producer's position is at the table, at the Canadian Cattle Association table at those meetings." Ross added.
In addition to the call to scrap the proposed changes, Ross said they continue to call for the CFIA to be under the umbrella of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
SCA is also "immediately calling for a voting seat on the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) board."
