By working closely with five Kansas Pilot study livestock markets as they adopted NAIS compliant reader systems, a number of things have been learned. All five livestock markets had unanticipated problems they had to overcome to develop a successful system. Initially, a wide range of ID tag read rates on individual animals was experienced among the livestock markets during their first reading cycle. If a livestock market had unsatisfactory ID tag read rates, the facility worked with the technology provider to fix the problems.
Several of the livestock market managers included in the study were concerned prior to installation that the RFID system would slow down the rate of their sale. After completing actual sales at five livestock markets using the new RFID technology system, managers at all five livestock markets indicated they have experienced little to no change in the speed of sale when using the RFID system.
Livestock market managers were also concerned about needing to hire new employees or pay for the training of employees. However, in this study, none of the livestock markets hired new personnel to work with the RFID system and there were no training fees for employees to learn to use the system. The livestock market managers are aware that the system may not work perfectly, but they generally recognize that additional efforts may be required in order to add services for their customers.
Among the livestock auction market industry and the livestock industry in general, there are many concerns with NAIS. An interview was conducted for this study with 10 Kansas livestock market operators who were asked to rank their concerns of seven items related to NAIS. The following were the concerns voiced (ranked in order of most concern to least concern):
1. Speed of sale adversely impacted
2. Reliability of electronic animal identification equipment
3. Cost of operating the system (e.g., labor)
4. Confidentiality of NAIS
5. Cost of technology (e.g., readers, computers)
6. Cost of renovations/facility modifications
7. Additional technology expertise needed
Not surprisingly, speed of sale was the biggest concern because sale speed is critical to maintaining customers and controlling the cost of selling cattle.
However, based on experience with the Kansas Pilot study auction markets, this perceived concern has not been a problem.
The 10 livestock market operators were also asked to rank their knowledge of the NAIS regarding program standards, compliance, and costs (using a scale from 1 to 9, where 1 reflects having no knowledge/understanding and 9 indicating they are extremely knowledgeable/understanding). Livestock markets on average ranked their knowledge of the NAIS program standards at 4.85, meaning they feel, at best, moderately knowledgeable about the program. The livestock markets ranked their level of understanding of what their facilities need to do to comply with the NAIS at 3.45, meaning they do not feel they have an adequate understanding of what will be required, regarding their facilities, for compliance.
They ranked their level of understanding of costs they will incur to comply with NAIS within their facilities at 4.65 indicating a moderate understanding of costs.
Source: Kansas State University