Cattle disease traceability project moving forward

Announced publicly in June, the Kansas-based CattleTrace pilot project is on track to begin testing a purpose-built infrastructure for cattle disease traceability by fall 2018. The project expects to help guide discussion and development of an enhanced traceability system in Kansas and on a national scale. In late August, CattleTrace Inc. was formally established as a private, not-for-profit corporation to securely maintain and manage the data collected as part of the disease traceability pilot project. A board of directors was also named to lead the corporation. The board includes chairman Brandon Depenbusch, Innovative Livestock Services; vice chairman Tom Jones, Hy-Plains Feedyard LLC; Mike Samples, Farmers & Ranchers Livestock; Ken Stielow, Bar S Ranch, and Mark Gardiner, Gardiner Angus Ranch. The board appointed an industry advisory committee comprised of representatives from the Kansas Livestock Assn., Kansas State University, Kansas Department of Agriculture and private industry to implement operations of the project. “Producer privacy and data security are critical components of a disease traceability system,” Depenbusch said. “Establishing a private entity to own the CattleTrace database will provide necessary security to ensure the cattle movement data in the CattleTrace system is safe.”...MORE