Canada Lacks Age Verification

WINNIPEG - Apr 21/06 - SNS -- Canada's lack of age verification for most cattle sold by farmers is killing efforts to regain and expand market share in Japan.

The problem was underscored last month by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF) Livestock Development Specialist Bob Klemmer.

While dentition cane be used on cattle exports to the United States, Japan requires "other methods of verification, such as the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency's (CCIA) voluntary and free-of-charge birth-date registration system and database."

Unfortunately, Cam Daniels, the vice president of the Canadian Beef Export Federation (CBEF), says there are not enough age-verified cattle to fill Japanese orders for beef under 21 months of age.

"We need more birth-date-based, age-verified beef to be available for export," Daniels says. "So I invite all beef producers to get their beef cattle and calf birth dates registered with the CCIA database. Indications are that age-verified calves are receiving a premium in some markets".

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