Tracing the on-farm benefits of NLIS
13 January 2012
A recent producer demonstration site (PDS) is pointing to ways that the National Livestock Identification System can be used to improve production efficiency before your livestock step off the property.
While NLIS data provides traceability and confidence in the safety and integrity of Australian red meat, many producers are using it to streamline their data collection and management.
FutureBeef Extension Officer with Queensland’s Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, Tim Emery, has been working intensely with a number of local producers over the past three years to explore the untapped potential of NLIS through the PDS.
“We looked to try and get the management benefits of this NLIS technology that we’re using – what are the management and financial benefits that can better our beef businesses,” Tim said.
“NLIS enables you to get that accurate objective data that can help reduce time and labour in the yards. You can measure the productive performance of paddocks through live weight gain so if they aren’t performing in this paddock then you can move them on or they can be supplemented.
“It can also help you identify animals that are meeting market specifications and those that aren’t performing. The list goes on.”
Participants visited properties already incorporating NLIS into their data collection, including Reg and Jackie Carlyle’s 4900 hectare breeding and fattening operation “Wonga Hills” near Chinchilla in Queensland.
“Some of the things we find very useful with using NLIS tags and with the herd recording program, is initially with our calves and our cows, and matching up our breeders and looking at their genetics and herd selectivity. It’s also then when we buy in steers, all their information goes onto the computer as well and we’re able to make good assessments about those animals as well,” Jackie said.
Reg and Jackie emphasise it’s not what you use to collect the data, it’s what you do with that data that counts, but a system that saves time and labour while reducing the potential for error has many benefits.
“The improvements from the herd recording have been identifying the poorer performing breeders in the herd and over a number of years we’ve eliminated or culled a lot of those cows and when we do our weaning now we only wean once. There’s no sort of tail to be herd,” Reg said.
Tim Emery said the technology allows for plenty of flexibility, with the amount of information recorded completely up to you.
“You can record all your health records. You can put whether or not you’ve implanted them with a HGP, you can say if you’ve vaccinate them, and this helps for auditing purposes,” he said.
“Then also some of the linking back to carcase feedback and so through that you can identify, why didn’t these particular animals meet the grade? Was it a bull influence? Was it an age? Why they fell outside the specs.”
The PDS has shown producers first-hand how NLIS is about more than recording movement of stock from property to property. There are many ways that the data collected can be used to improve your operation.
Find out more about using NLIS on your property in the latest episode of feedback TV
More detail is available in a final report from another PDS at Charters Towers
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