Design Improvements to Livestock Data Link

Summary

Livestock Data Link (LDL) aims to enhance the exchange and utilisation of information by businesses within the red meat industry through the implementation of a national standardised carcase feedback system. The development of the LDL platform (aweb based application) is a core component within the overall program, enabling linkages between the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), Meat Standard Australia (MSA) and Central Animal Health (CAH) databases.  The following projects have been undertaken as a part of the system build: 
Platform migration 


A software development company was engaged to assist with the transition of the LDL site from its original proof-of-concept environment to NLIS Ltd. 
Data integration 

A data warehouse resource was engaged to provide integration services for the MSA Index. This project also established an interface between Animal Health Australia's (AHA's) Endemic Diseases Information Service (EDIS) database and the NLIS database, to facilitate the piloting of animal health and disease feedback in LDL. 
A data warehouse resource was engaged to review and enhance system performance. Key activities included: 
Re-establish the link between Animal Heath Australia's National Sheep Health and Monitoring Project (NSHMP) health database and NLIS databases and allow for filtering by establishment number. 
Addition of LMY calculation for cattle and inclusion on carcase feedback reports. 
Include a new PIC Register dataset into the existing LDL data transformation package to make it easier to identify suppliers. 
Investigate and resolve issues where displaying target market names. 
System development 

Following the migration of LDL to the NLIS development environment, the LDL platform was extended to accommodate MSA and chiller assessment data.  A sheep interface was implemented to support the sheep project pilot and a processor reporting and benchmarking interface was developed. 
A software development resource was engaged to provide dedicated IT support for the LDL program including the implementation of enhancements and new functionality in response to feedback received from the in-field pilots.  Key development activities that have been undertaken include: 
New interface to allow users to configure their own target markets instead of the default generic industry target markets 
New interface to allow the configuration and removal of service kill information from the LDL platform 
Creation of LDL login page, user registration and user administration page 
Update all the charts within LDL to make them consistent, user friendly and interactive