Development and Implementation of a Mandatory Animal Identification System: The Canadian Experience

This article provides a brief history of the animal identification (ID) system that previously existed in Canada along with details on efforts to ‘‘reidentify’’ the country’s cattle herd. The current state of ID for various species is summarized, and the state of regulations federally and for major agricultural province are outlined. A short background on the economics of animal ID is provided. Particular attention is paid to the operation of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, an industry–government initiative charged with identifying the national cattle herd. The animal ID system in Canada is found to have performed well when called on in times of animal health crises, although there have been notable deficiencies in its performance on occasion. Canada’s animal ID system will continue to evolve as new technologies for tagging and database management (among others) are developed. It is expected the system will play an important role in future attempts to exploit traceability for value-added initiatives.animal identification, traceability, Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, H41, K39, Q18,

EFFECTS OF OWNERSHIP RESTRICTIONS ON FARMLAND VALUES IN SASKATCHEWAN

Restrictions on the ownership of farmland by nonresidents of Saskatchewan were imposed by the Farmland Security Act (FSA) in 1974. The FSA has been blamed by some observers for depressed provincial land values. An adaptive expectations present value model is developed to estimate the effects of the FSA, with the province of Alberta included as a control. Results of seemingly unrelated regressions and generalized autoregressive conditional hetereoscedasticity estimates find no statistically significant effect of the FSA on the value of land in Saskatchewan. This may indicate that the effect of the regulatory change is too small to be measured accurately.adaptive expectations, Farmland Security Act, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity, present value, seemingly unrelated regressions, Land Economics/Use, C51, G21, Q18,