JOPLIN, MO. ? With the mad cow scare worrying many ranchers, attendance was up Tuesday at meeting where experts briefed cattle farmers on implications of the biggest changes to face their industry in decades.

About 250 turned out for the session at the Joplin Regional Stockyards, sponsored by regional university extension systems. The attendance more than doubled that of similar past conferences, said Eldon Cole, livestock specialist for University of Missouri Outreach and Extension.

The increased interest likely is due to the turmoil the mad cow scare has caused the industry, officials said.

“It’s an educational process,” Cole said. “Everyone is wanting to know how this is going to affect them.”

The most pertinent topic of discussion Tuesday was a national identification system for cattle — which farmers likely will have to begin using in a matter of months — in the wake of the recent mad cow scare.

After mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state, the U.S Department of Agriculture mandated such a national system so that it and the industry it serves can gather information quickly about sick cattle, to prevent the spread of disease. Officials say that electronic identification is one way to do that.

A national identification system is needed to keep consumers confident, to contain diseases quickly and to improve the economics of beef production, said Dale Blasi of Kansas State University.

But such a new process can be costly and time-consuming for farmers, and many had doubts that the new technology would function as well as expected.

“Is this going to do anything to make the product any safer for the consumer to put in their mouth? We already agree beef is a safe product,” one attendee said.

Blasi told the farmers that in coming months, paper ear tags or brands won’t be good enough for identifying cattle. Electronic ear tags that replace them will operate on radio frequency and will be read by certain types of equipment. These smart ear tags will hold information about where that cow came from.