Producers now have a cutting-edge electronic platform for the transfer of national livestock declarations at their finger-tips.
Launched this week by the Integrity Systems Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), the electronic National Vendor Declaration (eNVD) will transfer Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) information, as well as animal health declarations, Meat Standards Australia (MSA) declarations and National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) delivery documentation.
Integrity Systems Company chief executive officer Dr Jane Weatherley said a fully functional eNVD platform would make life simpler for producers.
“It will reduce time spent completing livestock assurance and health declarations and managing historical NVDs for auditing, reporting and administrative purposes. It will also ensure the latest NVD is being used,” Dr Weatherley said.
The eNVD system can be used to submit and retrieve eNVDs for property to property movements, or movements to feedlots, saleyards and abattoirs.
The LPA eNVD is free and available from the LPA Service Centre website.
For individual supply chains that do not yet accept eNVDs, it can just be printed out. Its use is not compulsory and producers can continue to use paper NVDs which cost $40 (GST inclusive) per book or eDecs.
“In choosing to use it, producers will ensure they are providing information that meets the latest market requirements,” Dr Weatherley said.
“It’s not just on-farm where we’ll see the benefits. For feedlots, saleyards and processors, it reduces the likelihood of inaccuracies in information received from producers, and makes the information easier to store and retrieve.
“Most importantly, it provides greater visibility of the incoming livestock’s details before the stock arrive, enabling more efficient management.
“Overall, it will make the sharing of critical information simpler, quicker and more accurate for the entire supply chain. This supports the promise we’re making to our customers – and means that we can stand by what we sell.”
The Integrity Systems Company in partnership with a number of software companies, conducted field trials in 2016 to assess the effectiveness of the eNVD system. The trials demonstrated successful transfer of information via the central eNVD platform and have encouraged technicians to find solutions for managing the entry of eNVDs with limited or no internet connectivity.
A list of licensed software providers is available via MLA’s website.
