BTC Wires: Over the last few months, Wyoming ranches have
BTC Wires: Over the last few months, Wyoming ranches have begun to gradually warm up to the use of blockchain, to make it possible for consumers to track the beef they buy, directly from the table. A private company called Beefchain.io is one of the major companies working in this field to trace data points about the cattle and pass on the information to consumers. Ever since Wyoming has passed several blockchain-friendly legislations, the technology has become the way to go for ranches looking to efficiently track their cattle and keep the customers updated too.
In the absence of blockchain, ranchers are used to maintaining all records of the calf crop they raise on paper. While paper can be destroyed all too easily, records on the blockchain are largely immutable. Moreover, unlike paper, it can be made available to consumers to view and access rather easily and cost-effectively. Naturally, having informed consumers makes for healthier consumption and the use of blockchain can definitely guarantee that by making data available in a jiffy.
Six family-owned ranches in the Wyoming state have tied up with Beefchain.io to make sure data points are no longer lost in the supply chain. One of them, the Persson Ranch, run by Drew Persson and fiancée Bonita Carlson, has already tagged 250 steer calves using the technology. Beefchain.io CEO Steve Lupien stated that they are trying to maintain the data about the origin of certified Wyoming Beef right from the time it leaves the pasture to when it reaches the restaurant or is refrigerated in retail stores. Usually, when Wyoming cattle is processed elsewhere, the cattle is stripped of the value reserved for certified good quality beef from the state of Wyoming. This leads the ranchers to suffer losses. By tagging the cattle, it becomes possible to ensure there’s no mix up between superior quality Wyoming beef and other beef and this benefits both consumers as well as ranchers.
As senator, and rancher Ogden Driskill said, he’ll be using Beefchain soon and that by showing clear data points like whether or not the beef was administered vaccines or antibiotics, blockchain tracking can open up the Wyoming ranches to markets that look for organically processed beef. This could potentially boost the agro and husbandry sector in Wyoming and increase its value by millions of dollars. The ultimate goal is to establish a packing plant within the state to make sure processing and labelling happens within the state. Till then and even after, blockchain seems to be the best bet to track provenance beef.