New NAIS Timeline Calls for Full Mandatory Implementation by 2009

During a news conference on Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns released a draft strategic plan and timeline for implementing a National Animal Identification System and called on agriculture producers, leaders, and industry partners to provide feedback.

Johanns described the paper, found at www.usda.gov/nais, as USDA's "thinking process" to get a conversation started on key aspects of implementing initially a voluntary system and a full-scale mandatory NAIS by January 2009.

A Federal Register notice acknowledges the outstanding concerns of some stakeholders and frames questions for which USDA will be seeking answers as it moves forward with the NAIS. These questions pertain to funding for the system, confidentiality of data in the system and flexibility of the system, among other things.

"The last thing we want to do is try to push a system that won't work. That would be a disaster," Johanns says. USDA will take the input gathered from this pre-rulemaking process to ideally develop a system that meets the need of different species.

Johanns also encouraged the private sector to be an integral part of a successful animal identification system, because this will help encourage innovation in future generations and help develop and grow NAIS.

A comprehensive description of system standards will be determined over time through field trials, user experience and the federal rulemaking process. These documents lay out in more detail projected timelines and potential avenues to achieve system milestones. For example, these documents propose requiring stakeholders to identify premises and animals according to NAIS standards by January 2008. Requiring full recording of defined animal movements is proposed by January 2009.

"We're proposing answers to some of the key questions about how we envision this system moving forward. Now, I'm eager to hear from farmers and ranchers so we can develop a final plan," Johanns says.