Yes, projects of this type are discussed openly in Industry Trade magazines and newsletters.
Actually the Animal ID project is a compromise offered since the cattle industry especailly is opposed to the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) many are pushing.
I know it sounds crazy to people who don't grow animals for human consumption, but I happen to subscribe to the theory that everyone deserves to know where the meat they purchase at the Supermarket comes from.
As environmental regulations become more stringent all the time, the livestock industry is moving out of the U.S. into Mexico and Brazil.
In the U.S. livestock diets are more restricted than humans. There are many growth promotants and veterinary vaccines which are commonly used outside the U.S. which the Food and Drug Administration has decided to outlaw here. In the case of outlawed antibiotics, the reasoning for banning the antibiotic is to help prevent humans building up a resistance to them. It is for our own good health that these vaccines are not available to livestock producers to use on their herds. Yet these same vaccines are commonly used in other countries.
This is why I feel it is extremely important that we all know where our food is grown. The COOL legislation would have helped us in that way. Unfortunately there were powerful infulences within the industry (maybe packers who also own livestock???) who were able to stall the COOL legislation. The Animal ID project is the compromise substitute.
Most responsible livestock producers I know are not going to complain too much about it, until they start publishing the information in the newspaper. Then all HELL will break loose.
I don't see it as odd for livestock raised for consumption...
What seems odd is that they have broadened it to animals that are essentially pets such as horses and llamas and the like.
Much of this is regulated now. In WI the pond on your property your family fishes in is a "fish farm", licensed. Maybe someone mentions it later in the thread, the article doesn't, but it's my understanding that underlying this proposal is a requirement to "chip" all animals in the state so their origin can be traced.