OPINION – Thomas Hall, Agtech and Logistics Hub Director

When you see cattle travelling down the highway on a livestock truck, you may wonder where they’ve come from and where they’re on the move to.

The reality is the animals are likely on a long journey, with livestock in Australia regularly transported hundreds of kilometres – sometimes more – between farms, saleyards and abattoirs.

Due to the sheer length of these journeys, a lot can happen from the moment an animal is loaded onto a truck to when it reaches its destination.

That’s why traceability, the sharing of information about the movement of a product through the supply chain, in livestock transport is crucial.

Traceability in livestock transport is vital because the supply chain is incredibly complex. There are a lot of stakeholders who need to be able to readily access traceability records – growers, producers, transport companies and saleyard operators among them.

In some cases, producers load their cattle onto a truck but don’t know anything about the journey until the animals reach their destination.

The team at the Agtech and Logistics Hub in conjunction with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), have been running an open innovation initiative called OpenGround that aims to enhance transparency and accountability to animal welfare and biosecurity in livestock transport. The program seeks to discover traceability solutions with a focus on data generating and business models that benefit all supply chain partners.

Opportunities to enhance Australia’s livestock traceability systems were identified during a robust scoping session we had with a range of industry groups, including representatives from MLA, the transport industry, cattle producers, processors, veterinarians and members of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ biosecurity team.

During this session, it became apparent that there are a range of opportunities to enhance the data being recorded and reported on during the livestock transportation process.

This includes pre-loading data, such as metrics from the inspection of yarded livestock, including how many animals presented for the journey and how many were deemed unfit.

Data and metrics could also be captured during transport to ensure livestock are travelling well and to optimise welfare outcomes. Typically, inspections happen every few hours. Data collected could include any deaths and downers (animals unable to stand up) and may also capture additional information such as how many animals were down but stood back up.

At delivery, data could capture how many animals walked off the truck compared to how many were loaded.

Recording and sharing the data on every livestock transport journey is not only important from an animal welfare perspective. It’s vital for biosecurity reasons. For example, in the event of a foot and mouth outbreak, it’s important to know where the animal has been to limit spread of the disease.

Enhanced traceability also provides data to support premium market positioning based on sustainability and ethical production claims.

Continually improving traceability solutions for livestock transport is no easy task. The solutions must be user-friendly for a wide range of stakeholders, including truck drivers and farmers, fit differing compliance models, and help ensure each animal stays well on the entire journey.

We’re confident our OpenGround program will find cost effective and workable commercial solutions, which may end up being a clever combination of different traceability technologies. We will keep you posted.

This article originally appeared in the September 2003 edition of Queensland Farmer Today.