Frequently asked questions

o Our goal is to build a system that is recognized as nationally significant to all domestic and foreign markets. The U.S. CattleTrace disease traceability system strives to be equitable to all industry segments and must be industry-driven and managed by a producer board of directors to ensure data privacy and protection.

To address this industry-wide priority, a collaborative partnership among multiple state cattlemen’s organizations, public and private organizations was established. See the full partners list on the “Our Partners” page.

Join U.S. CattleTrace as a member. We offer memberships for cow-calf producers, auction market and feedyard operators with a wide range of benefits, including voting rights for board leadership, access to educational webinars and networking opportunities at events such as the U.S. CattleTrace Annual Symposium. Proactive participation in U.S. CattleTrace enables you to be at the forefront of this industry-driven initiative and influence the future of an expanded traceability system in the U.S. beef cattle industry. We thank you in advance for your consideration for participation in U.S. CattleTrace.

Proactive participation in U.S. CattleTrace enables you to be at the forefront of this industry-driven initiative and influence the future of an expanded traceability system in the U.S. beef cattle industry. The purpose-built infrastructure of this system has the potential to add value to your operation, including but not limited to: inventory management, animal health management, operational efficiencies, and enhanced domestic and international trade. For additional information regarding value-add opportunities, we can connect you with our partners.

As a registered 501(c)(5), U.S. CattleTrace is a nonprofit organization who receives membership dues from each of our members to make our yearly budget. No state or federal funds are used.

As a producer-led organization, the U.S. CattleTrace Board of Directors consists of 11 members from across the country, representing the cow/calf, auction market and feedyard segments of the industry. While other segments engage as advisors in different capacities, we believe the aforementioned industry segments should be consistently engaged in order to build a nationally recognized program.

According the 2018 World Perspectives report on beef cattle identification and traceability systems, 70%* of the U.S. cattle herd is needed to be identifiable in order for a disease traceability system to be considered significant. To begin the process of collecting and securely storing animal disease traceability (ADT) data, the CattleTrace pilot project created a cloud-based database to hold the following four datapoints deemed necessary to complete a traceback: date, time, GPS location and identification number of the scanned animal. Once in the database, the data can only be accessed by U.S. CattleTrace staff via a multistep authentication process. Any request for use of data by animal health officials must be approved by a majority of the U.S. CattleTrace Board of Directors via a formal vote, and will be provided based upon a disease risk matrix developed by the CattleTrace pilot project.

Yes, if the tag operates using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, the livestock’s information will be collected throughout the supply chain and entered in the U.S. CattleTrace database. This includes tags distributed for free by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). While we anticipate working with technologies such as Bluetooth and Facial Recognition in the future, we have no current plans to incorporate them into this program.