A project driven by Livestock Saleyards Association of Victoria (LSAV) has proved electronic National Vendor Declarations (eNVDs) are technologically possible and there is a groundswell of support from industry to have them introduced nationally as quickly as possible, LSAV's executive officer Mark McDonald said.
There was unanimous support and excitement to replace the existing paper-based system with an electronic one that would be more efficient, accurate and traceable, according to the farmers, agents, traders, processors and other livestock service providers at an eNVD demonstration day near Melbourne last week.
Mr McDonald said that the six commercially developed eNVD systems on show had worked in the field. Of them the four developed by Sapien Technology, Livestock Exchange, Triton (partnering with Litams) and Thorsys Australia had been trialled by LSAV on farms, in saleyards and at processors since June, with more trials to come to cover most of the livestock marketing avenues for sheep, cattle and bobby calves.
"It was a proof of concept project, and we have definitely proven eNVDs work and that we can take the techonology used in other countries and adapt them to the Australian industry," Mr McDonald said.
The trial had shown digital records could be sent directly to an internet program, emailed or stored on a device if internet connectivity was not available, he said.
A panel of industry heavyweights who steered the project shared their excitement and agreed the system needed to be national.
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) general manager of value chain innovation Christine Pitt said in the last six weeks the SAFEMEAT partnership, which is between industry representative bodies and State and Federal Governments, had realised the leaps and bounds being made in eNVDs and there was now a push and urgency to establish a timeline for its progress in months if not weeks.
eNDVs would bring enormous benefits to Australia's red meat industry including strengthening export market access, Australian Livestock & Property Agents' (ALPA) southern regional manager Liz Summerville said.
"It's a way to secure Australia's reputation as a safe producer of meat; and when it is introduced it needs to be easy for producers to use and cost effective," Mr Summerville said.
"We have to encourage uptake, we can't enforce and impose it."
Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) advisory committee chairman Kevin Roberts said eNVD could overcome the issues of out-of-date and incomplete NVDs, as the system would only allow forms to be submitted once they were completed. This would save livestock agency and processors having to call farmers to get the missing information, he said.
Wodonga Abattoirs' quality assurance manager Neville Hensel said eNVDs could allow processors to stop animals at the farmgate if they did not meet market requirements.
VFF livestock manager Alina Tooley said ensuring NVDs were filled out properly, which would be easier with an electronic system, would be vital in the case of an emergency disease outbreak.
"The project is designed to not just convert the current hardcopy NVD form into an electronic database record but to look at ways to enhance the digital capability across the livestock marketing chain," LSAV chairman Stuart McLean said.
Cr McLean said the trial was the first of its kind in Australia, and following its success the discussion now was turning to when and how it could be introduced, including who would control the national database and who would pay for it.
Pura Pura lamb and crop farmer Ian Smith was among the about 60 people at the event , and was excited by what he heard and saw.
"As producers we've got to forward and the eNVDs would improve traceability over the archaic paper system," he said.
The panel committed to continue working together and with other research and representative bodies to have the system rolled out nationally as soon as possible, perhaps as soon as next year.
