The Southwest Livestock Project

The South West Livestock Pilot was launched in June 2005 and ran for 18 months. It aimed to demonstrate the uses and value of reliable, relevant and timely livestock data to farmers and focused on the capture and use of financial and physical farm management data. More specifically, it aimed to establish successful approaches for capturing data, transforming data into meaningful information and finally to look at how data can be used to improve farm profitability.

The pilot recruited one group of 11 sheep farmers in the first phase and an additional 12 sheep farmers in the second phase.

The majority of the farmers chose to use electronic ID as a the method to capture and record the on farm data during Phase 2B.

What data was used?

  • Physical livestock information, including livestock history, growth and vet/med treatments

  • Enterprise production costs and performance (gross margins)
  • Farm business costs (net margins)

  • Carcase quality and value data collected at abattoirs

  • Health and condemnation data collected at abattoirs

  • Animal health and welfare data collected by veterinary professionals

  • Customer and market requirements

The aims

  • Improve the health and welfare of livestock

  • Reduce the cost of disease to the farm business

  • Improve farmers' ability to select stock fit for slaughter

  • Allow better selection of breeding stock

  • Improve general husbandry techniques

  • Improve the financial management and performance of the farm business

Equipment & Software Used

  • FarmWorks by Shearwell Data - Farm Management Software
    The National Livestock Management Database (NLMD) - This acted as the hub through which all of the data was to be channelled. Kill data from carcases was sent by Jaspers to the NLMD where farmers could view their data shortly after the kill
  • Jim Turville's Health Plan Software for the vets - Vets were able to download carcase data from the NLMD into their health planning software

    • Financial Benchmarking - This was undertaken by Exeter University for Phase 2A. Each farm was visited at the beginning of the project and baseline assessments undertaken
  • In Phase 2b farmers from both groups were offered electronic ID equipment if they wished. Out of the 23 members, 20 members opted for this. All 20 were supplied with the following equipment:
    • Shearwell electronic sheep tags (SET tag) and applicator - over 50,000 tags supplied

    • Psion Workabout Pro and docking station - handheld stock recorder
      Handheld reader

    • FarmWorks sheep - for individual recording

    • Weighcrate with static reader - optional


Conclusions

It is Shearwell's belief that the project has been a success proving that data can be transferred and used successfully to assist farmers in management of their flocks.

  • Capturing data using EID provided an accurate method for recording individually.
  • The Bluetooth technology reduced the numbers of cables
  • Backing up data to the NLMD provided a secure backup of farm data
  • Backing up data to the NLMD allowed tags that had been read electronically at the abattoir to be matched to visual tag numbers and displayed
  • The NLMD provided a secure hub though which to pass and store data
  • Kill data could be downloaded directly into the FarmWorks program
  • The system that included software, EID and the NLMD was designed from its concept to be integrated.
  • The schema written to allow abattoirs to send data to the NLMD ensured that the data received was standardised. This schema could also be used by other abattoirs.

For a summary of the project click here
For The Official Interim and Final Reports click here