Alberta farmers say Ottawa's proposed animal traceability rules will hurt small producers

It was standing room only at the Innisfail Legion Hall last week when farmers in central Alberta called for the federal government to halt its plans to change the animal traceability system.

“We had almost 500 people in this building today and they do not want this,” farmer and organizer Dawn Buschert said after the Jan. 13 event.

For several years, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has been working toward implementation of new reporting requirements around livestock movements, such as to different farms, vets, shows and rodeos, or across a border.

The new regulations were to have been soft-launched by mid-2026 but after pushback from industry, the agency announced on Jan. 10 that it was pausing implementation to collect more feedback and to ensure producers are properly informed. 

According to the CFIA, the changes would “mitigate the impact of disease outbreaks, food safety issues and natural disasters” and “strengthen the ability for Canadian livestock businesses to access international markets." 

And while producers agree traceability is important, there are fears that the proposed measures could lead to the closure of small farms.

At the meeting in Innisfail, about 30 kilometres south of Red Deer, producers shared worries around being fined for lack of compliance.

Buschert said some farmers, especially older ones, told her they were concerned about the decreased reporting time and issues using digital technology.

Some specific changes included a requirement to obtain a premises identification (PID), and a shortened timeframe — from 30 days to seven — to report, via an online database, animals arriving to a farm, according to a Canadian Cattle Association statement. 

It would also include the PID of departure and arrival sites, as well as the dates of travel, the individual tag numbers of the cattle as well as licence plate information for the vehicle that delivered the cattle.

Lance Neilson, a beef farmer in Stettler, Alta., said he believes the existing system “has worked perfectly” and doesn’t need further improvement at the expense of farmers.

“This will disproportionately affect small producers. A bigger producer can [and has more reason to] absorb it,” he said.

“If you have a rule that is not going to have mass participation and most of the membership are either uninformed or against it, it's not going to work and it's going to fail.”

Attendees at the meeting discussed the expense and burden of tagging animals.