Released: March 22, 2005

K-State Scientists Establish Livestock ID Knowledge Lab

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Building a reliable system to track livestock from birth through development and all the way to the processing plant has become a priority for animal health regulatory agencies, commercial firms, farm organizations and industry groups. Kansas State University is now taking it to the next step.

K-State has established the KSU Animal Identification Knowledge Laboratory to evaluate existing and new technologies developed to track livestock.

"With concerns about livestock health, food safety and security prominent among consumers at home and abroad, as well as food companies and legislators, we are providing a service that will evaluate these emerging technologies so that people can make informed comparisons of the systems," said K-State Research and Extension animal scientist Dale Blasi. "We can impartially evaluate new and existing technologies so as to better compare systems with the intent of sharing the various systems’ attributes with our stakeholders."

The new lab will work with the Electronics Design Lab (EDL), based at K-State. The EDL supports research and development programs within the Kansas Regents University System and for individual customers.

“While my colleagues and I from the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine will provide the expertise from the animal interface perspective, they (EDL) will help characterize the relative radio frequency operating environments for these systems so that we can quantify their performance in the real world; in the laboratory and in the presence of potential sources of interference, Blasi said.

The KSU Animal Identification Knowledge Laboratory is based at the university’s Beef Stocker Unit, which is part of the K-State Department of Animal Sciences and Industry.

An additional benefit of establishing this lab at K-State is that students will play an important role in the evaluation of the various systems, Blasi said.

"These students may go on to become information management specialists in the livestock industry or other industries,” he said. “Additionally, this lab will provide our livestock producers with an opportunity for ‘hands on’ observation of these systems in action.

"Our mission is to provide unbiased, first-hand knowledge to our stakeholders, including cattle producers and beef processors in Kansas and around the country."

For more information about K-State Research and Extension, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu  . To learn more about the KSU Electronics Design Lab, interested persons can check http://www.k-state.edu/ksuedl/  . Information about U.S. Department of Agriculture initiatives in livestock tracking is available at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/  .

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Mary Lou Peter
mlpeter@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News