Traceability

Why Traceability is Table Stakes in the Grain Business

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:48:45 GMT

With recently announced guidance from the Department of the Treasury, to support the documentation of agricultural production required to participate for Section 45Z tax credits, Bushel and Verity have integrated their on-farm data, sustainability modeling and compliance platform. Kimberly Bowron, president of Verity, and Jake Joraanstad, CEO of Bushel, explain what’s next for traceability in the grain business.

Lessons From The Field

Bowron says the pilot project at Gevo’s ethanol facility in Richardton, North Dakota, helps to illustrate the opportunities that are unfolding and how it will effect the entire supply chain. Its “farm-to-flight” program included 500,000 acres being loaded into the program with the farm-level attributes.
When it comes to farmer engagement in programs, she says it really boils down to three things:

Eliminate Duplicate Paperwork: Streamlining the administrative burden.
Data Sovereignty: Ensuring data is protected and ownership remains with the farmer.
Economic Clarity: Providing a clear, transparent financial upside.

“We’re learning that workflow is everything. And so if it feels like there’s extra admin work and uncertain payoff, participation sort of slows down. But if we can be clear about all of those things, then growers are very engaged,” she says. “I think another takeaway is just trust. Farmers really want to know exactly who’s seeing their data, so we like to be transparent about how that’s being used. And that transparency isn’t really optional for us. We want to be clear about the economic opportunity and the adoption.”

Bowron shares the supply sheds around the biofuels producer will be driven by the evolution of these programs, the value presented to the farmers, and how market-based opportunities continue to expand including carbon intensity, scope 3 emissions and more. But the common undercurrent empowering the conversation of what’s possible is transparency.

Joraanstad says traceability was once a long time ‘scary’ word in the grain business because of the difficulty in delivering the full origination of a kernel of corn through the supply chain.

“It just wasn’t practical,” he says. “But if you’re a biofuels plant in the future, if you can’t do this then you’re going to be losing to those who can.”

It’s the intersection of the real dollars of cents potential of tax deducations such as 45Z plus the technology advancing the digitization of records putting this new mandate on how to stay competitive and profitable.

“This has been a long time coming,” Joraanstad says. “But the truth is that all of the previous discussion around what data is required, there was a lot of voluntary effort, and let’s call it the first version of all of this effort.”

For the biofuels producers, Bowron says the digitization not only provides participation for the carbon credits or tax deductions but also the specialized markets.

“Verity’s real role is to take all that farm-level data, translate that into a field CI (Carbon Intensity), and then take that CI and attach it to a gallon in an ethanol plant,” Bowron says. So that you have a CI that attaches to that gallon. We also think about this in terms of different attributes, like practice attributes. ‘This gallon can go to Canada because it’s got all those attributes; this gallon can go to California.’”

While the 45Z guidance is helping proving an outline for the potential, it’s a whole new chapter. And one that is still being written. The final rule isn’t expected to be released before June.

“We’re still wanting some better final answers as we’re going through this,” Jooranstad says. “But now all of us can act with some confidence that that’s true and this is a requirement and it’s not just a hope and a dream.”

Both industry leaders says it’s important to note how 45Z works, especially that it’s the biofuel producer receiving the tax credit.

“This isn’t like an EQIP program. There’s no direct USDA payments that are happening. And for an ethanol plant, it’s actually a lot of work,” Bowron says. “They can’t sell the value of that tax credit for the headline price.”

The ‘hidden costs’ for ethanol plants include:

Discounted Value: Credits are often sold at 90-95% of face value.
Overhead: Costs include broker fees, legal counsel, and insurance wraps for audit protection.
Delayed Realization: Benefits are filed with taxes and often not realized until a year later.

Hear more from these industry voices in the latest Scoop Podcast.

Blackshirt Feeders: Closing the Loop

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 12:41:58 GMT

Despite the smallest U.S. cowherd in 73 years and corresponding tight feeder cattle supplies, the largest cattle feedyard north of the Rio Grande is under construction in Nebraska. When complete, Blackshirt Feeders near Haigler in the far southwest corner of the state, will have a capacity of 150,000 head, all standing on a concrete pad covering a full square mile, replete with an accompanying biodigester.

None of that previous paragraph defies logic, provided you know the track record of the principals involved and understand the growing beef-on-dairy (BxD) phenomenon that has captured the attention of stakeholders throughout the chain — feedyards, dairies, backgrounders, seedstock providers, feed companies and packers. In short, the BxD segment has provided a new profit opportunity for cattle feeders and seedstock suppliers, a lifeline for some dairies, and promises to revolutionize the way the beef industry accepts, captures and uses animal ID and the data it provides.

CLOSED LOOP

The BxD production model offers a unique opportunity for innovators to utilize every available tool and management practice to foster improvement. Specifically, this new model links the semen provider to the dairy to the feedyard in what is called a closed-loop system.

“We’ve long dreamed about this type of system,” says Lee Leachman, CEO of Leachman Cattle, now part of the URUS group of companies. “We supply the semen, and Alta or Genex distributes it to a dairy, then the dairy signs a contract with GK Jim Farms to sell those calves either as day-olds or after a growing period, then they are shipped to the feedlot for finishing.”

Th e contracts stipulate that every calf is tracked from birth with sire, health and performance data. That information is used to determine future matings to improve performance and reduce undesirable characteristics.

“This is a game changer,” Leachman emphasizes. “This enables progress like what we’ve seen in poultry and swine. If you don’t have the loop with the data you can’t make the progress.”

The closed-loop system is already operational at several U.S. feedlots, including five operated by GK Jim Farms in Colorado and Texas.

Veterinarian Kee Jim, principal at GK Jim Farms, says as his company began expanding their beef-on-dairy model they sought to acquire feedlots, but none were available at the scale they desired.

“Three years ago we began investigating what we believe would be the best site to build a new feedlot,” Jim says. “We looked at availability of grain, the climate, proximity to available feeder cattle and proximity to packers.”

That led to the selection of the construction site near Haigler, Neb., in the southwest corner of the state that joins both Kansas and Colorado.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

Designed to be much more than just a large-scale feedlot, Blackshirt Feeders has several unique features that will make it the “most environmentally friendly feedlot on the planet.” That is how it’s described by veterinarian Eric Behlke who is both a founding partner of Blackshirt Feeders and project leader for its construction.

First among the new yard’s unique characteristics is the compressed rolled concrete that will cover every feeding pen. The concrete offers several advantages but is essential to capturing the manure for the biodigester that will be built adjacent to the site.

“The concrete allows for the collection of the manure without contaminating it with dirt, which is essential for a digester,” Behlke says. “But the concrete is impermeable, which provides superior protection for both the groundwater and the surface water. All of the ponds will be lined with high-density HDPE liner, a synthetic liner which is also impermeable, to prevent leaching of nutrients.”

Behlke says Blackshirt Feeders is committed to leveraging the latest technologies and feedlot construction to make the new yard as environmentally sound as possible.

“These efforts will help change the narrative about beef production and make it a much greener process,” Behlke says.

All of which sounds good, but like most agribusinesses today, finding labor is likely an issue, especially in a remote area. The company is already working to ease that problem, Jim says.

“We have plans to construct housing in Wray, Colo., about 20 miles away,” Jim says. “The first 24 units are under construction now.”

DATA AND SCALE

It can be easy for observers to focus on the massive size of Blackshirt Feeders, but it’s much more than an effort by a large player to further capitalize on efficiencies of scale, though that is important.

“What makes our system unique is that our large and ongoing investments in data collection and analysis are what have allowed us to scale our business,” says Holt Tripp, DVM, MBA, director of cattle operations for GK Jim Group of Companies.

Tripp says the company has used rigorous, large-scale, field trials to better understand the biology of the animals they are feeding.

“In turn, we have been able to make consistent incremental progress that allows us to make calculated bets on how, when and where to deploy risk capital in our system,” he says. “We are not using data to describe a system that has already come to scale — we are using data to get to scale. In our minds, anything else would be putting the cart before the horse.”

It’s ironic that an offshoot of the dairy industry might be the catalyst that could drive the beef industry toward expanded use of animal ID and data capture.

“I think eventually these (beef-on-dairy) calves may be better than the average beef-on-beef animals,” Leachman says. “AI’ing millions of dairy cows is a big advantage. We get so much selection pressure. If we don’t have a data feedback loop on beef-on-beef calves, then it will be harder to keep up. If we don’t have data feedback, we won’t be able to make progress as rapidly on the most important traits. Having ID and feedback on economically relevant traits is critical.”

The closed-loop system will eventually find its way to the native beef-on-beef segment.

“Cattle feeders will likely increasingly want to adopt that sort of model,” says Nevil Speer, industry consultant based in Bowling Green, Ky. “Knowing more about the feeder cattle they purchase and subsequently also providing feedback (and payment incentives) based on cattle performance (both in the feedyard and on the rail).”

Data, of course, is the key driver. “There’s more opportunities all the time for beef producers who are willing to embrace participating in a specified supply chain,” Speer explains. “It means giving up some independence, and it requires more accountability, but ultimately willingness to do so will likely also establish new opportunity to maximize the value of genetic and management inputs made at the ranch.”

APHIS To Require Electronic Animal ID for Certain Cattle and Bison

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:53:11 GMT

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has taken another step toward limiting the impact of an outbreak of foreign animal diseases by amending and strengthening its animal disease traceability regulations for certain cattle and bison. By requiring electronic animal identification for certain cattle and bison, APHIS put into place the technology, tools and processes to help industry stakeholders quickly pinpoint and respond to a foreign animal disease outbreak.

“Rapid traceability in a disease outbreak will not only limit how long farms are quarantined, keep more animals from getting sick, and help ranchers and farmers get back to selling their products more quickly – but will help keep our markets open,” said Dr. Michael Watson, APHIS administrator.

APHIS said one to the rule’s most significant benefits for farmers and ranchers will be the enhanced ability of the United States to limit impacts of animal disease outbreaks to certain regions, which the agency called a “key to maintaining our foreign markets. By being able to readily prove disease-free status in non-affected regions of the United States, we will be able to request foreign trading partners recognize disease-free regions or zones instead of cutting off trade for the entire country. Traceability of animals is necessary to establish these disease-free zones and facilitate reestablishment of foreign and domestic market access with minimum delay in the wake of an animal disease event.”

The April announcement enhances a rule finalized in 2013 for the official identification of livestock and documentation for certain interstate movements of livestock.

The final rule applies to all sexually intact cattle and bison 18 months of age or older, all dairy cattle, cattle and bison of any age used for rodeo or recreation events, and cattle or bison of any age used for shows or exhibitions.

The rule requires official eartags to be visually and electronically readable for official use for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison, and revises and clarifies certain record requirements related to cattle.

“USDA’s final traceability rule updates the existing requirement for animal identification that has been in place since 2013, switching from solely visual tags to tags that are both electronically and visually readable for certain classes of cattle moving interstate,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Mark Eisele, a Wyoming rancher.

“Many producers are already familiar with using these visual tags and under the new rule, they will instead use electronic tags. NCBA has worked hard to secure $15 million in funding for producers to reduce the cost of implementing this change. We also remain committed to safeguarding producers’ private data and continuing to reduce the cost of ear tags for farmers and ranchers. Our industry faces a tremendous threat from the risk of a future foreign animal disease on American soil. To avoid devastating financial losses during a potential outbreak and to help producers quickly return to commerce, we need an efficient animal disease traceability system.”

USDA said it is committed to implementing a modern animal disease traceability system that tracks animals from birth to slaughter using affordable technology that allows for quick tracing of sick and exposed animals to stop disease spread. USDA will continue to provide tags to producers free of charge to jumpstart efforts to enable the fastest possible response to a foreign animal disease.

To obtain electronic ID tags at no cost, APHIS directs producers to contact their State Veterinarian.

A copy of this rule may be viewed at the APHIS website, and the rule will be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks. This rule will be effective 180 days after publication in the Federal Register.

To learn more about animal disease traceability and how APHIS responds to animal disease outbreaks, visit www.aphis.usda.gov.

MyAnIML Expands Predictive Health Platform Using Muzzles To Detect Disease

Wed, 10 May 2023 14:22:06 GMT

To better enable early disease prediction in cattle, agtech startup MyAnIML™ announced today a hardware update designed to support the implementation of its AI-enabled predictive health platform in commercial feedlot and dairy operations.

MyAnIML’s newly released Bluetooth-enabled cattle ear tag integrates geolocation and tracking capabilities with its powerful predictive health modeling technology to help producers manage the productivity and welfare of their herds cost-effectively.

MyAnIML’s patent-pending technology employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict a broad range of total health indicators using the industry’s first cattle facial - specifically muzzle - recognition library dataset, designed and built by MyAnIML. Together, the hardware and software stack offers the global beef and dairy industries a more precise method of herd health management when profit margins continue to be razor thin and the cost of meat, dairy and other food products remain high.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of cattle lost to diseases, cost of medical treatment and low productivity impacts, MyAnIML estimates the U.S. cattle industry loses approximately $200 billion annually. For example, just one disease, Bovine Respiratory (BRD), costs the U.S. feedlot industry up to $900 million annually in treatment costs although recent reports indicate that total industry losses from BRD are actually much higher when productivity losses are factored in, according to the American Society of Animal Science .

The MyAnIML platform successfully predicts cattle infected with BRD two to three days before visual symptoms are observed, allowing producers to isolate the animal and start earlier treatment. BRD is just one of many diseases and health metrics MyAnIML identifies days before other health technologies, using subtle changes in a cow’s muzzle as a health indicator.

“We know from advances in human biometrics and deep-learning technology that the face can be a reliable predictor of disease. Using the same concept, we can now “fingerprint” an individual cow’s muzzle to monitor its health and predict a variety of issues days in advance,” said Shekhar Gupta, MyAnIML’s founder and CEO, who discovered and commercialized the first-of-its-kind technology solution in animal agriculture. “By addressing symptoms early, we can better ensure the health and well-being of the entire herd for a more reliable and efficient food supply chain.”

Predictive Analytics Reduces Antibiotics Use and Creates More Resilient Supply Chains

In addition to preventing economically significant disease outbreaks, MyAnIML helps cattle producers use antibiotics more efficiently, reducing costs and inhibiting the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a rising concern amongst human health professionals.

More than 70% of all medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used in livestock production. The cattle industry takes up the bulk of that demand, using antibiotics to treat sick animals and as a preventative measure. A typical 5000-head feedlot spends $250,000 annually on antibiotics just to preemptively treat calves for BRD, Gupta said.

“Antibiotics have been a powerful tool to keep U.S. herds healthy, but by identifying infected animals days earlier in the disease cycle, producers can use antibiotics more efficiently when they need to support a sick animal and reduce the need for preemptive antibiotics. It’s a win-win for producers and consumer health,” Gupta said.

AI and Bluetooth Ear Tags for Animal Agriculture Offer Immediate Benefits for Ranchers

MyAnIML’s bluetooth ear tag was developed specifically to help large-scale commercial feedlots and stockyards implement the MyAnIML predictive health technology into their day-to-day operations.

Unlike other ear tag technology in the marketplace, including RFID tags, the MyAnIML tag helps pen riders quickly find a specific animal in a pen simply by using their mobile device, saving hours of labor time and more rapidly removing sick animals from the herd.

“In a large-scale, or even small-scale system, being able to accurately predict a sick cow is a huge benefit. But the follow-up of finding that animal can be a huge problem,” said Nathan Leiker, a northwestern Kansas cow-calf and feedlot operator using the MyAnIML technology since early 2022. “MyAnIML’s Bluetooth ear tags connect the dots between disease prediction and animal identification. All I have to do is push a button on my phone and it takes me directly to the cow I want. It’s the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack with a magnet. “

How it works:

Cameras strategically mounted take multiple images of a cow’s muzzle daily, monitoring for changes.
These images are analyzed using AI and machine learning against a library of health indicators.
The rancher is emailed a health alert report, with ID specific to each animal flagged with a muzzle change.
Producers open the app to find a predicted sick animal’s location and once within 20 meters, use the app’s directional arrow and buzzing noise to lead them directly to the target animal.

Commercially available in the U.S. since 2022 with multiple large installations and pilot projects underway in 2023, MyAnIML has attracted interest internationally and plans rapid scale-up in the coming years. Ranchers or dairy producers interested in implementing the technology can visit myaniml.com for more information.

About MyAniML

MyAnIML, an AI startup for animal agriculture, invented and commercialized the first-of-its-kind platform for early disease prediction in cattle using facial recognition technology focused on a cow’s muzzle. The initial discovery is the product of intense curiosity and a sense of purpose by the founder, a computer scientist, and his wife, a physician. Founded in 2021, MyAnIML’s mission is to help ensure the health and well-being of cattle while ensuring an affordable and safe food supply. Partnering with veterinarians, land grant universities and ranchers, the company’s experience developing and scaling data platforms for other industries is now being applied to animal agriculture. For more information www.myaniml.com .

USDA Proposes Amendments to APHIS's Traceability Regulations

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:04:19 GMT

USDA published a proposed rule which would amend U.S. animal disease traceability regulations to require eartags in cattle and bison that are both visually and electronically readable — electronic identification (EID) tags.

Some changes have been made to a prior APHIS plan, including now the agency using the term EID tags instead of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. APHIS said that is to accommodate the potential for future technologies other than RFID relative to the tags.

Industry Responds

Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs at NCBA, broke down the timeline for the transition to EID tags in Thursday’s AgriTalk.

“We currently have the RFID tag rule that we saw at the end of the Trump administration that took a three or four year period to ramp up and transition to,” Lane says. “This EID tag will go live as soon as it is finalized, which is likely to be a year to 18 months.”

What’s at Stake

The EID system is aimed at helping the U.S. cattle industry deal with the emergency response to animal disease events, with APHIS concluding that while foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other diseases have been largely excluded from the U.S., “exclusion of every high impact disease through every pathway of introduction is likely an unachievable task.”

Kent Bacus, NCBA’s executive director of government affairs, echoes APHIS, saying FMD is one of his association’s biggest concerns.

“We haven’t had a case of FMD in the U.S. since the 1920s, and there hasn’t been FMD in North America since the 1950s,” he says. “We have a very naive herd that would be devastated by FMD, as would other hoofed livestock.”

Disease management tactics aside, Bacus says the domino affect FMD would have on the supply chain that is continuously being soddered and broken would be “catastrophic.” He points to highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and African swine fever (ASF) as examples.

The Gameplan

Under the proposed rule, APHIS would require tags to be used that are both visually and electronically readable for interstate movement of cattle and bison six months after a final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Comments on the APHIS proposed rule are due Mar. 20. There is not yet a definitive date when the plan will finally be in place.

Cattle Producers Now Have Easier Access to Animal Disease Traceability Tool

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 15:01:00 GMT

In an effort to create robust transparency in food safety and traceability for possible animal diseases, cattle producers will now have easier access to RFID tags.

U.S. CattleTrace is unveiling a new store for producers to buy RFID tags. CattleTrace says these types of tags can be difficult to find and buy in an online setting, which is why and it created the tag store.

Leaders say getting RFID tags in the ears of cattle is critical to participate in animal disease traceability. The organization has partnered with tag distributors so producers can buy the tags on the web page and have them shipped directly to their operations. Companies like AllFlex are also rolling out innovation in cattle traceability and tagging.

“An electronic I.D. tag is a uniquely numbered tag globally, so into the North American marketplace, we use an 840 in the United States, a one to four in Canada to designate the country of origin that those tags go into,” says Scott Holt, North American Marketing Manager AllFlex Identification. “And those are unique databases that those animals numbers are not replicated anywhere. All that’s held on this simple ID tag is just that number. And then you scan it into a herd management program or a scale or a record keeping system that has additional data about that animal. “

Each tag and chip have the same unique 15-digit number, one for visual identification and one to use with an electronic reader.