I just read the article “Exports at risk,” and I would like to note some issues about NAIS and USDA that deteriorate when evaluated by normal business economics. Please consider these points from one of the 600 largest cattle operations in the United States, Dickinson Cattle Co. Inc. of Barnesville, Ohio.

Our lack of a national government animal ID system will not leave the industry in peril. If the USDA and state veterinarians do their job as they have for the last 100 years the last remaining animal diseases will continue to diminish. Their staff, salaries and budget are the largest in history and the number of diseased animals is an all time low.

Never compare New Zealand and Australia with the U.S. They are “island nations” and have complete border control. It is difficult to import to those countries. The United States is not an island. Our USDA has allowed entry of diseased BSE cattle from Canada and TB cattle from Mexico.

New Zealand and Australia are gaining world market share because they have to. Australia must export 68 percent of their beef. They can’t eat it all. The United States is totally different. The U.S. imports more meat than they export. If all U.S. exports stopped, the nation would import exactly that much less product. It is an exact trade off, and has been for many years.

Please, please realize that no matter if the U.S. exports $500 billion worth of beef the U.S. would import more than that amount for U.S. consumption. It doesn’t make any difference. The people who are profiting are the transportation companies who haul meat from country to country.

The rancher will not profit from increasing exports. The largest 2006 importer of US beef (over 59 percent) is Mexico and they don’t give a flip about source, age, or ID. The USDA is concerned about the Korean export business. Korea purchased less beef in 2006 than would go across one freezer case at one Wal-Mart. Korea in 2006 means less than a dollar profit to each US cattle producer.

The USDA is promoting export sales of livers to Egypt.  American dog food companies give more for liver than the Egyptians and it doesn’t have to be shipped around the globe. Is there something backwards about this picture? Why worry about the Egyptian liver market?

The population in the US is increasing and the cattle growing areas are being developed into highways, federal parks, open space, state parks and housing. There will be more demand for beef and less area to grow product in the future. Exports will be less important next year than today.

Don’t confuse NAIS mandatory with private ID systems. NAIS is not going to help producers evaluate their cattle, it is designed by USDA to enforce inventory movements, and their theory is for eventual 48-hour trace back for assumed known or unknown future diseases. Private herd ID has nothing to do with NAIS. Don’t commingle these issues and be confused into thinking NAIS is something it can’t ever be.

USDA sends press releases indicating there is a vital race for the world export market; that the U.S. is racing against Brazil, Canada, etc.

That is not necessary or true. The United States is buying from Canada by the trainloads.

If we were truly competing with Canada why are we their largest beef buyer? When a load of canned beef comes to the U.S. from Brazil, do the stores of the U.S. require the South American cattle to be ID’d? Everyone knows the answer. NAIS is full of unanswerable questions and puzzle pieces that do not fit.

The historic mafia offered vendors voluntary business insurance. If vendors gave them a goodly part of the business profit they would be protected from theft, violence and destruction. At this very stage in modern times the USDA is offering the livestock producers in the U.S. a special NAIS protection, and economic assurance … at a price. Now is the time to say no to the 900 pound gorilla regarding who protects who, for how much? Every professional livestock producer has a method of animal ID.

However, no producer should want the government to do ID with mandatory NAIS. In fact, with over $120 million spent by USDA to convince producers to surrender premise registration over 75 percent of the livestock owners have refused. Please join the overwhelming majority and oppose state and/or federal NAIS. For more information, visit www.naissucks.com