M-COOL Affidavit

[PORKER]

The COOL law is here and 90% of the covered livestock owners were not ready for animal records movement. Lots of adjustment going on out there.

COOL law Clarifications today

Gap cattle or animals that have changed ownership since July 15 2008 and before the start date of September 30 2008 have problems. [ LMA Quote] Visual inspection for verification of origin is particularly important to the trade during the period between July 15, 2008 (the date that technically declared all livestock present in the U.S. as U.S.-origin) and whenever the final regulation is published. Producers ,stockyards , salebarns, have sold or placed livestock, particularly cattle, without all of the origin documentation that may be necessary for the COOL law. It would be very difficult and in some cases impossible to recreate the paper trail on many of these animals. We do not want livestock to become unmarketable because of a lack of a paper trail or electronic traceback records on animals that were in the trade while the regulators and industry were working to outline what level of verification is necessary.

Answer From AMS USDA;

In the COOL law as amended by the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress provided for the use of producer affidavits to declare origin information to packers. Thus, under the interim final rule, USDA will consider a producer affidavit as acceptable evidence on which a packer may rely upon to initiate an origin claim, as long as the affidavit is made by someone having first-hand knowledge of the origin of the animal(s) and identifies the animal(s) unique to the transaction. Evidence that identifies the animal(s) unique to a transaction can include a tag ID system along with other information such as the type and sex of the hogs, cattle or other livestock, number of head involved in the transaction, the date of the transaction, and the name of the buyer.
Simply meeting the minimum requirements of the law in accordance with what USDA may find acceptable may not be sufficient to satisfy packers and retailers up the supply chain. These market forces, conditions and firm-level decisions go beyond the scope of the COOL regulation. Subsequent buyers may choose to impose their own requirements on marketing partners in the supply chain. Even though USDA may be satisfied with a given recordkeeping system, producers and suppliers should know what their customer requires and make sure product labeling and documentation meets the needs of those buyers.