Steve Schwoerer knows every dairy animal on his rural Bloomington farm. He sees nearly all them twice a day when they get milked.

As a result, the dairyman never doubts consumers who drink milk from his cows get a safe product. That's why he and his son, Ken, and his dad, Robert, who help manage the herd, decided to participate in a voluntary national animal identification program ultimately aimed at increased consumer safety.

"We decided to get ahead of the curve. We have about a half dozen livestock farms in McLean County with premise (farm) IDs. We're among the first to use ear tags for individual animal identification. We got them through the Holstein Association in September," said Schwoerer, who serves as McLean County Extension agricultural coordinator.

Mark Ernst, Illinois Department of Agriculture veterinarian, wishes more producers followed Schwoerer's lead. While U.S. Department of Agriculture officials want farm and animal identification to be mandatory by 2008, livestock producers remain concerned about confidentiality of the identification database. Some fear information about their farms could fall into hands of anti-livestock groups or invite criminal activity.