Animal ID plan scorched at Nebraska listening session

As a long procession of critics pounded away at the federal government’s floundering animal identification initiative Tuesday, federal veterinarian Dave Morris sat in the back of the room, mostly expressionless and sometimes occupied with his cell phone. “I think this one was consistent with many of the others,” he said later of the 14th and final listening session held across the country. It happens that the Nebraska session comes at a time state and federal officials are testing thousands of cattle and trying to contain the first two cases of bovine tuberculosis in Nebraska in 17 years. But that chilling Rock County development did not seem to affect the attitudes of many of the cow-calf producers who stepped to the microphone on the outskirts of Omaha on Tuesday. To them, the livestock identification plan is a government invasion that’s likely to become mandatory, add to their cost of production and infringe on their ability to run their operations as they see fit...JournalStar