Victoria’s chief saleyards body has called for expressions of interest from technology firms willing to trial equipment that might prove suitable for when the scanning of electronic sheep tags becomes mandatory in saleyards early next year.
The trials would focus on the successful management of the collected data along with the placement of scanning equipment in order to maximize the flow of sheep in a saleyards environment.
ALSA executive officer Mark McDonald says that funding for the trials has been obtained from the Victorian government. He says the funds are being provided for the next 12 months to assist Victorian saleyards with a number of services relating to the roll-out of the electronic NLIS system.
Mr McDonald said that while a number of other trials were in the pipeline at several of the larger saleyards, the ALSA trials would focus mainly on the small to medium sized yards that required collaborative approach.
“We are seeking responses from companies interested in trialing a variety of applications” Mr McDonald said.
“These may be instances where a multi-scan option is required. This would seek to scan vendor “in”/buyer “out” lots and the reconciling of that data is required.”
There could also be single scan options where scanning is performed post-draft while the stock transit to their sale pen, or the scanning of stock in sale pens and also out of their sale pen.
There could also be a portable option whereby scanning is performed by portable equipment: hand-held wands for small and occasional saleyards and even on-farm clearing sales.
Such trials would assess approaches that will minimise labour and delays in the management of sheep within a saleyard due to the need to scan tags on sheep and collect movement data. Trials could also be associated with auto drafting and/or weighing where auto-drafters would need to be shown to work at high efficiency to maximise throughput in a busy saleyard environment.
Mr McDonald said information management solutions that could be trialled included appropriate NLIS compliant software and data logging tools. It is likely that agents and saleyard staff will need to be involved in such trials he said.
The trialling of such solutions could occur in a staged approach involving untagged sheep and no readers, with data logging at key locations within yards during sales.
ALSA is prepared to consider any other tag scanning and/or data management solution that service providers may propose has the potential to deliver efficiencies in a saleyard environment whilst allowing saleyards and agents to meet their NLIS obligations.
Expressions of interest are due to close on March 31; however, there is some flexibility as new technologies are developed.
