eBeef: RFID from birth to plate

Part one of a Computerworld series into farming technology, looks at innovations in the livestock industry

Practical Systems business development director Hugh Beattie

Practical Systems business development director Hugh Beattie

Practical Systems has also built a Web-based system called Agrisphere, where their users can feed information into an SAP database, which can be accessed around the world.

New Zealand-based research group Agriseach are currently taking advantage of this technology by collaborating data with a performance breeding organisation in the US, run through the Colorado State University.

Farmers also use this critical data as part of their marketing strategy. According to Beattie, bull sales are unsuccessful without an estimated breeding value (EBV) available, because nobody will buy a bull without being able to make future judgments on the animal’s performance.

The software not only assists with the data collection side of farming, but also with the livestock handling.

“We have our system set up live in the yards, and it is hooked to a reader panel by Bluetooth. The Bluetooth reads the number on the animals RFID tag and sends the information across to the computer, which then displays the entire history of the animal. The computer screen displays the treatments they’ve had, how many calves they’ve had, and when she was last joined to the bull,” Beattie said.

Using this software, farmers are also able to set a unique template for the information they specifically want to record. When the animals are weighed on the scales their weight is sent via Bluetooth across into the computer program. This process is usually repeated for each animal as it comes through the yard.

“Farmers can draft the animals based on any performance information, pregnancy status or breed plan values,” Beattie said. Electronic drafting opens the farm gates automatically and determines which yard an animal is kept in.

“Electronic animal tracking is handy if occasionally you let a bull jump into something and create a calf that’s out of whack, which might be a mystery to you. You can track down exactly where that cow was nine months ago, and identify any bull that was around that cow nine months ago,” Trout said.

Being able to back-track an animal’s paddock movement proves especially invaluable if farmers encounter any disease; the technology allows them to see what animal has been exposed to the disease.

According to Beattie, as far as this type of agricultural software is concerned, Australia is a world leader.

“We’ve been building software since 1992 with constant input by the farmers into the software development side. The livestock industry programs we’ve seen come out of the US, Europe and South Africa pale in comparison to ours. In fact, a lot of Australian software companies sell their software overseas very effectively, because we are so advanced,” Beattie said.

The second part of this series looks into the use of technology to protect water and feed on a farm from feral animals.

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Tags databasesScannersSAPRFIDbluetoothmysqlmeatfarmingagriculturelivestock

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