Cattle tracing lessons for Canada

The detection was thanks to the National Livestock identification System (NLIS) software that shows lifetime traceability of livestock, and was the technology that attracted an international group - Beef Farmers of Ontario, Canada - to Australia.

The incident happened just three weeks ago after a local farmer, who sold the steer after it was agisted on a lead-status property in Queensland, then transferred it back to his farm.

"If this animal had found its way through to the processing plant into a box before it was detected, then all that day's kill could have been ruined," Warrnambool City Council saleyards service manager Paul White said. "It is an important part of livestock traceability."

The BFO delegation visited Australia to learn about food safety regulations and went to the saleyards in the State's south-west to hear about the traceability software that monitors cattle transactions from the producer to the abattoir.

They heard about the productivity benefits of Warrnambool saleyards livestock scanning software, which was a world first multi-panel reader implemented in 2003, that reads livestock radio frequency identification tags (RFID) in the yards and links them with their National Vendor Declaration (NVD) accompanying the stock, which is then checked for their property (ERP) status, EU eligibility, lifetime traceability as well as an extended status.

Mr White said traceability of livestock had become an expectation from major feedlot and abattoir buyers, who demand the history of the cattle, with some producers losing three quarters of their market if they did not have lifetime traceability of their cattle.

"Those early years were a work in progress, but these days cattle are processed through the saleyard without interruption and without any of the early problems we had," he said.

Canada is currently in the process of implementing mandatory traceability requirements, which BFO policy advisor Richard Horne said was motivated by food safety.

In 2003, Canada agriculture was severely impacted by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, which Mr Horne said if the country had improved livestock tracking system may have been controlled.

"If there is an animal disease outbreak - the ability to control that event will be something major," he said.

Currently the country has mandatory RFID tagging and records births and slaughter, however Australia has the "missing link" in tracing livestock transactions.

He said Victoria was chosen as the State to visit due to its high standard of traceability.

The tour visited breeders, producers, feedlots, finishers, abattoirs and concluded in Canberra to speak with government representatives.