Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) tag
Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) tag

(RFID World Canada) The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) is investing another $1.6 million into an effective traceability system to monitor the movement of livestock, giving Canadian farmers the ability to have an edge in the marketplace. The announcement was made by Gerry Ritz, Agriculture Minister and Devinder Shory, Member of Parliament representing Calgary-Northeast.

Minister Ritz said that such a traceability system is only a win win situation for producers, consumers and the value chain. He believes that Canada’s reputation for high-quality foods will only be enhanced with this new investment to develop a world-class sysytem.

The CCIA has been working closely with auction marts across the country to test a variety of cost-effective RFID systems having the ability to track the movement of livestock. The majority of this investment will be used for Phase 2, which involves exploring the feasibility and benefits of linking the RFID system to the auction marts existing computer systems. The linking of these two systems through an integrated management system, will allow the auction marts to track livestock and sales data.

The remainder of the investment money will be used to test the accuracy and effectiveness of the data currently being tracked and for improvements that need to be made to the process of distributing tags, based on the evaluation results.

A business case will be created and presented based on the results of Phase 2 outlining the issues, opportunities, costs and performance of the RFID systems. These evaluations will be specifically done at the auction markets, buying stations, and assembly yards.

A total of up to $4.45 million has been invested by the Government of Canada to date, towards the CCIA’s traceability initiatives under the Canadian Integrated Food Safety Initiative.

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