Should Government Know How Many Cows Are In Utah Fields?

The USDA wants to put electronic tags in the ears of cattle in Utah to keep track of where they are and how they are being affected by diseases. This is from the site about cattle health: 

APHIS’ cattle health surveillance system provides protection to the U.S. cattle and bison herd from incursions of foreign, emerging, and certain endemic diseases that can cost billions of dollars in lost domestic and international market trade by quickly locating these diseases and limiting their spread. 

This makes some sense, but it also has some worried about the government with this much information about cattle herds. 

A similar program was instituted in Ireland and may end up causing farmers to have to cull much of their herd because of new environmental rules. The government is requiring farmers to provide more land for the cows and if they can’t afford to buy more land, the cattle herd must be shrunk. 

I am not saying I think the government has an agenda to get rid of cows here in the United States. However, I have seen plenty of stories in the last decade about cows that release methane and the effect on the environment. The solution this points to is not less bean dinners for the cows. It seems like the solution most often is less cows. 

Should the tracking of cattle and the idea of decreasing the number be combined, this could definitely be worrisome. Less cows would mean less meat available at the grocery stores followed by higher prices. This will affect other products and the economy as a whole. 

What do you think? Is this nothing to worry about, or if it is, what can we do about it?