On-farm benefits of EID analysed

Western Waikato farmer Alastair Reeves is trialling EID technology as part of the Waikato/Franklin Monitor Farm programme

01-05-2010 | Mike Bland

Though the "traceability" word strikes fear into the hearts of some farmers, others have already embraced the technology and are using it to add value to their farming operations.

"Capturing value from traceability" was the theme of a Beef & Lamb NZ (formerly Meat & Wool NZ) field day on Alastair and Ann Reeves' Western Waikato farm in April.

The Reeves are trialling animal EID (electronic identification) technology as part of the Beef & Lamb NZ Waikato/Franklin Monitor Farm programme.

A show of hands at the field day showed that only three to four farmers out of the 40-50 attending were using any form of EID technology. Many are suspicious about what the information will be used for outside the farm gate. Facilitator Brendan Brier said the aim of the traceability sub-project was to put aside the politics and explore what this technology "can do for the bottom line, inside the farm gate".

Alastair Reeves said that as RFID (radio-frequency identification) was going to be compulsory sooner rather than later, he wanted to be proactive and see if the technology could add value on the farm.

"Most farmers only see it as a cost, but I wanted to get it on farm and see if it can generate a return."

While the project is in its early stages and Alastair admits he still has a lot to learn, he can see real potential for the technology.

He and Ann farm 600ha of coastal hill country in the Waimai Valley, northwest of Ngaruawahia. A Meat &Wool NZ Waikato/Franklin Monitor Farm in the early to mid-2000s, the farm runs bulls, steers and a breeding flock and is traditionally a trading operation with all stock finished.

The Reeves began tagging cattle with RFID tags last year, initially targeting cattle bought in spring and late summer "so we could get used to using the gear". The farm is running 400 rising two-year steers and bulls and 120 rising one-year bulls and steers and by the end of autumn this year all cattle will be RFID tagged. A breeding cow herd will soon be included as well.

Hamilton-based company Gallagher has supplied the EID equipment, which includes a SmartTSi livestock management system - a weigh scale and data collection tool. Tagged animals are fitted with Zee tags, which contain a 16-digit identification number unique to each animal.

When animals are brought into the cattle yards and walked through a cattle crush fitted with weigh-scale loadbars, information from the tags is read by an electronic reader and conveyed to the SmartTSi unit via bluetooth. All the relevant details on that animal are displayed on the SmartTSi's outdoor-readable touch-screen.

Colin Ranby, technical support manager for Gallagher Animal Management Systems, said the information that could be displayed included liveweight of the individual animal, the weight of the animal at its last weighing and its average daily weight gain.

Other information, such as the animal's pedigree, origin, date of purchase and a history of animal health treatments, could also be entered and displayed.

This information helps the farmer to make timely and well-qualified farm-management decisions.

Alastair Reeves will use the information for grazing management decisions and to decide the sale and purchase dates of stock. In future he will also use liveweight information for determining how much drench is required.

"We can drench according to the exact weight of each individual animal rather than a mob average. That will create a real cost saving."

The switch to RFID has not proved as complex as he first thought and he and staff member Herewini Mauroa have enjoyed using the technology.

He said the manufacturers of EID products needed to keep systems simple and user-friendly. "The information also has to be transferrable because staff come and go."

Brendan Brier said more information on the Reeves' use of EID would be issued as the project continued.

Colin Ranby said prices for a basic EID system (excluding loadbars) started from about $3500 plus GST and ranged up to $10,000 for a top-of-the-line system (including panel reader, SmartTSi unit and weighscale) "with all the bells and whistles".

  Printable View