USVerified: Verifying Cattle for Export Markets

In the wake of the first positive BSE cow in the United States in December 2003, the USDA has worked to renew beef exports to a variety of countries. Many, like Mexico and Canada, have reopened their borders. Some, like Taiwan, initially opened its border but subsequently closed it again after the June 2005 case. And then there is Japan, who has yet to fulfill its commitment to accept U.S. beef.

Many of these countries require U.S. companies to have a USDA approved beef export verification program to certify their beef is less than 30 months of age. This verification can be done through dentition at the packing house. However, Japan has pledged only to accept U.S. beef that can be traceable to live animal production records which indicate cattle are 20 months of age or younger at slaughter – a task that can not accurately be accomplished through dentition. In order to comply with these demands, beef exporters must create a beef export verification (BEV) program that allows them to document and verify source and age claims.

At first glance, this might sound like a packer problem. However, the packer must rely on the feedyard, who must rely on the producer to verify source and age claims of the cattle.
Enter IMI Global, a technology-based company that has been offering computer software solutions to the livestock industry since 1995.

Before the first BSE case, we were assisting IMI customers in building export verification programs, mainly for packing plants, explained Leann Saunders, Vice President of Quality Services, IMI Global. “December 23, 2003, happened, and our export markets required plants to have export verification programs in place verifying cattle were less than 30 months of age. We started working with a lot of our clients in this area.”

“Japan (who has pledged to only accept cattle less than 20 months of age) required a beef export verification export program that uses age verification systems to document age. So we started helping our clients gear up to become approved for Japan when the border opened,” she explained.
To meet this need, IMI Global introduced USVerified (patent pending), a document management system that helps companies verify source and age information to meet recent international trade requirements.

USVerified helps companies set up and document verification systems. “The system could be for a packing plant in the form of a beef export verification system,” explained Saunders. Or it could be a feedyard’s quality system assessment (QSA) program (similar to quality control monitoring).

USVerified, along with IMI Global’s line of individual animal identification software, BeefPassport, received USDA Process Verified Approval in January 2005, clearing the way for IMI’s clients to provide source and age verified meat to export markets, including Japan.

Through USVerified, we are building an approved supplier list that identifies producers eligible to export to Japan when the market opens, explained Saunders.

On the feedlot side, USVerified develops each feedyard’s own program to verify they are preserving the identity of the cattle in the feedyard. If a set of cattle come in as a group, and they have the opportunity to be verified for source and age, then they have to be kept together. “We verify they do that,” she said.

In May, Crist Feedyard and K.C. Feeders, became the first feedyards to achieve USDA Quality System Assessment (QSA) approval for source and age verification. Ty Rumford, general manager of Crist Feedyard, began the process when he realized the importance of a QSA program for his customers who wanted to supply cattle for the export market.

“We realized there is a need to supply as many source and age verified cattle as possible and in a manner expected by our export markets,” Rumford said. “Our QSA program standardizes the way we conduct business and ensures our customers that we have truly verified both source and age.”
Through USVerified, IMI Global can also help feedyards evaluate their supply base in order to approve their suppliers for source and age verification,” Saunders said.

“We have developed a system to assess suppliers through an objective evaluation, and verify their ability to source and age cattle. Once we have approved them, then those suppliers have the ability to join that feedyard’s approved supplier list, which is a requirement to export beef to Japan.” ©