Admiration for Australian livestock tracking

In many respects Australia in the lead in tracking livestock and state regulations underpin the progress. In June 2005, a 16-member team of U.S. government and industry representatives flew to Australia to check out that nation's National Livestock Identification System.

 

The team included federal and state officials, cattlemen and stockyard owners and they visited ranches in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland Australia. In addition, they met with representatives from the electronic tag manufacturers Allflex.

 

A Victorian government spokesman said members of the fact-finding delegation were reluctant to speak to the media, but their comments to Australian officials were reported as favorable. "They saw the system and declared it is pretty easy to use," an official in the Victorian district of Warrnambool reported. His district and state were both leaders in introducing the NLIS, which became mandatory therein 2004.

 

The NLIS became mandatory nationwide on July 1 2005, and major beef importing countries such as Japan are increasingly demanding traceability in their imports (see the case studies in the IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase of over 1500 case studies of RFID in action in 68 countries www.rfidbase.com )

 

Australian producers believe they are ahead of the US in this respect.John Wyld, Victorian NLIS committee, said the U.S. team was particularly interested in visiting a saleyard in action. "This is where the system's biggest challenge is," he said. "They were keen to talk to saleyard staff and operators who are involved in the system at the sharp end."

 

At the "Food and Livestock Traceability" Dallas Texas February 1-2 2006 www.trackingfood.com , the charismatic Professor James Rowe Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Sheep industry CRC will speak on "RFID - Tracking, tracing and managing sheep and sheep products in Australia" .

 

He reports that:

 

 

This paper describes practical details of automated RFID data collection in live animals and in an abattoir environment. A pilot project to link animal production data with meat traceability aims to provide the desired product authenticity as well as feedback for more efficient production and processing. We are making good progress in building the management systems that add value while ensuring safe food.

The 'e-$heep' story provides updates on recent technical developments and new information on the value case combining animal and meat traceability with more profitable management systems."

 

This admirable work is now progressing from livestock to meat. He already has a major project linking on-farm RFID-based data with abattoir RFID carcase ID.