When I last spoke with John Dutcher, owner of an 80-acre Michigan farm, last December in connection with my BusinessWeek.com article about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), he wasn’t sure what to make about his state leading the way in enforcing the system. He knew he didn’t like the additional paperwork and bureaucratic interference it represented.
In the intervening three months, though, he’s become clearer in his views, and he’s decided that not only is he unhappy with what NAIS represents, but that he might just follow Greg Niewendorp in refusing to have his cows, goats, and sheep tested for Bovine tuberculosis.
I spoke with him earlier today, and he clearly wanted to get his opinions off his chest. One of the irritations he’s experienced is that every time he’s tried to comply with Michigan regulations about tagging his animals, he has discovered that the state’s agriculture department seems not to be able to find him in its database. “There’s a complete lack of organizational ability by these people,” he says. He also never received a premises number, which is a prerequisite for registering individual animals under NAIS regulations.
I asked him why he doesn’t just keep quiet—that if he’s not showing up in the system, maybe he can simply lie low and thereby avoid having to register his animals.
“I was going to keep quiet, but then I saw Greg doing what he’s been doing. I’m probably going to get my tit caught in a ringer…But I didn’t realize they introduce a live tuberculin bacteria to get a (test) reaction. We don’t know what that does to the animals. I’m not sure I’m going to have my animals tested” any more.
So count another farmer who’s concluded that “quiet” isn’t going to cut it any longer.
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