A group of central Victorian sheep producers is investing in satellite tracking ear tags to shut down what one farmer says is the "multi-million industry" of livestock theft.
Kilmore East prime lamb producer Kevin Butler had $50,000 worth of sheep stolen in December and is currently setting up what he calls 'satellite tracking clusters', with other farmers in the area.
"We are trying to close down at $70-100 million industry, I am trying to shut it down in its tracks," Mr Butler said.
He is hosting a demonstration of the CERES satellite tracking system and software at a field day on his property, on Monday, May 1.
Mr Butler said the field day would see the Ceres Tag co-founder of Ceres Tag David Smith explain how the system could prevent livestock theft.
Victorian police representatives would attend and Mr Butler said he was hoping the NSW Rural Crime Coordinator, Detective Chief Inspector Cameron Whiteside would be able to take part.
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The tag is the world's first satellite-enabled smart ear tag and open cloud platform for traceability and welfare data for livestock.
"There is going to be a practical demonstration of the tags going onto a number of sentinel sheep's ears," Mr Butler said.
"And there's going to be a presentation by up to six software companies, on the particular services they offer."
He likened livestock theft to bank robberies.
"The tag will do for livestock theft what pop-up screens and signs that 'no cash kept here' did for banks," he said.
"When we were kids, there were bank robberies every five seconds in Australia - today there are no bank robberies."
The CERES tags recorded an animal's normal movements, notifying the farmer when it did something out of the ordinary.
"I have one ram worth $12,000 who is going to have a tag put on him straight away, because I don't want him getting stuck by his horns in a fence and dying on me," he said.
"Once on the animal, the smart tag sends information for 21 days to a satellite on how that animal usually behaves.
"Let's say it walks for a 100 metres, sits down, walks for another 200 metres or grazes for five hours - what happens goes into the smart tag.
"If the animal behaves differently from the 21-day average, like it starts running around as if it's being chased by wild dogs, I get a push notification alert on my phone within minutes."
He said he could then call police or investigate himself.
Mr Butler said there were many other benefits from the tags, apart from notifications when an animal did something unexpected.
These included animal welfare, remote monitoring, benchmarking carbon credits and biosecurity.
Mr Butler said the software systems that were linked to the tags could also help producers verify they were sequestering carbon and actively caring for their properties and livestock.
Demonstrating that net zero farming practices were being employed could lead to improved prices, he said.
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
