LIVESTOCK CASE STUDY

Transcription

1 AGRIBUSINESS TODAY FORUM 2015 LIVESTOCK CASE STUDY VALUE ADDING AND INNOVATION IN CATTLE FEEDLOTS- CHALLENGES AND MEETING MARKETS

2 Australian beef industry

3 The Australian Cattle Feedlot Industry Background Commercial operations commenced in the early 1960 s Initially fed cattle for the domestic market when feed conditions deteriorated Very seasonal with no quality premiums Japanese quota beef market opened in the middle 1970 s - the first exports of Australian grain fed beef Exports now account for around 70% of the industry s production with product being exported to 100 countries Australian feedlot industry is unique amongst other grainfed beef producing countries

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7 The Australian Feedlot industry FAQ s At any one time there are around 2-3% of Australia s cattle population located in feedlots Why feedlots? Two main reasons Dry seasons Demand- consistency How long? Around days or 10-15% of their lifespan Space? Legislation is 9m2 per animal most feedlots allow more, around 13-20m2 Why grain? Highly digestible Available Natural product- used for thousands of years Emissions? Less than extensive

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10 Gundamain Feedlot

11 Gundamain and Ladysmith Feedlots business model Location proximity to major saleyards Location proximity to grain and roughage growing areas. Location proximity to small rural town- staffing and resources. Location- proximity to processors Owner managed Licenced capacity 6000 head Gundamain head Ladysmith EPA licenced, NFAS accredited, MSA accredited, WQA, Cattle owned by A & T Herbert Cattle sourced from paddock and saleyards. Benchmarking- You can t change what you don t measure. Technology intensive Risk management.

12 Feedlots in the beef supply chain What do we need from our suppliers National Vendor Declarations - NVDs National Livestock Identification Scheme -NLIS Livestock Production Assurance- LPA Commodity Vendor Declarations CVDs or FVDs By-product Vendor Declarations - BVDs

13 INNOVATION IN THE CATTLE FEEDLOT INDUSTRY R&D projects- current examples Feed efficiency Welfare ( including heat load) Industry leadership, Innovation adoption and capability Environment ( manure management and GHG) Automation

14 R&D Strategic Planning- what could be next? Mooobile Wi-Fi gives outback farmers a chance to connect - with cows World-first technology developed by CQUniversity researchers could see outback farmers access fast, wireless internet in their most remote paddocks as long as they're within cooee of a cow. The Bovine Utilising Long-range Link (BULL) technology sees new-micro Wi-Fi modems planted in special ear-tags, which can then be attached to handy heads of herd to create connective cattle. The BULL tags emit a weak Wi-Fi signal the closer you are to a cloud of cattle, the stronger the Wi-Fi signal will be. Initial trials show a smartphone within a 150m radius of ten connected cattle can produce download speeds of 7Mbps. CQUniversity Researcher Prof Dave Swain said that BULL could potentially create the world s biggest and most remote network of Wi-Fi hotspots with Australia's national cattle herd at 29.3 million head, across 76,807 properties.

15 R&D Strategic Planning- what could be next? Mooobile Wi-Fi gives outback farmers a chance to connect - with cows Mooobile Wi-Fi just bull IT SOUNDED too good to be true and it seems it was - the "world first technology" designed to turn a herd of cattle into a roaming Wi-Fi hotspot was just a cheeky CQUniversity April Fools Day prank. CQUniversity Researcher Prof Dave Swain said the bum steer was just a bit of highsteaks fun, but it was designed to raise a serious point about emerging agricultural technologies. "Honestly, mobile cattle recharging stations? Wi-Fi logo brandings on cattle? Ear flapping cooling systems? I feel udderly bad for anyone who fell for that one," Prof Swain said. "While the idea of Wi-Fi enabled cows might be laughable, it served as a good reminder of how our primary producers are innovating, right across Australia - and how important access to technology is to that," Professor Swain said.

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