The Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) is calling for proposals to develop and commercialise an integrated walk over weighing system for sheep, and is offering significant funding towards the manufacture and marketing of the best prototype.
CEO of the Sheep CRC, Professor James Rowe, said that a Sheep CRC research has shown that ‘Mob-based Walk Over Weighing’ (MWOW) technology works well and can greatly assist management decisions in a sheep enterprise.
“The next step is to develop a cost-effective weighing system with integrated software and data storage that will provide a simple ‘turn-key’ solution for sheep producers and we are looking to the private sector to make this step,” said Prof. Rowe.
“The Sheep CRC has developed and tested the proof of concept and has the necessary software for data management in place.
“Mob-based walk-over weighing (MWOW) captures liveweight, date and time when an animal walks over the instrument. It offers time and labour saving advantages as it can provide an easily-accessed barometer of actual in-paddock mob liveweights,” he said.
Operating as part of the Federal Department of Innovation Industry Science and Research’s CRC program, the Sheep CRC is a collaboration of industry, government and the commercial sector. It is working to increase the productivity and profitability of the industry through adoption of new technologies in both the meat and wool supply chains.
Monitoring the live weight of sheep is important for grazing management of and decisions on supplementary nutrition. Weight change as well as absolute average weight of a flock of sheep has implications for reproductive performance, accurately meeting market specifications and for animal health and welfare.
“Conventional weighing, or measuring the condition score, requires that sheep are brought into yards and requires allocation of labour as well as disturbing the sheep’s natural behaviour resulting in time off feed, low level stress and loss of production,” said Prof. Rowe.
“Walk over weighing makes use of the natural behaviour of sheep walking to watering points, between paddocks or to access feed supplements. The automated collection of weight data also saves labour and facilitates more regular monitoring of weight and weight change,” he said.
Expressions of Interest from individuals or companies should outline a proposal for developing an integrated weighing system that can continuously monitor the weight of animals walking over a platform and store the information in a form ready for transfer to a computer.
Up to five proposals will be selected, based on the selection criteria, and will receive $2,000 as a contribution towards developing and testing a prototype. The best prototype judged on cost, accuracy, robustness, energy demand, data storage and ease of use will receive a further $10,000 towards product development and marketing.
The CRC will provide technical support, access to data management software and will help promote the winning entry to the sheep industry.
Further information is available on the CRC’s website www.sheepcrc.org.au and applications.
