Australia-Elecronic ear tags for sheep.

AUSTRALIA-ELECTRONIC SHEEP TAGS.

FOR electronic tagging and tracking of sheep to be worthwhile there has to be something in it for everyone.

This is the view of Greg Nicholls, manager of the Frewstal plant at Stawell in Victoria which processes up to 6200 lambs a day.

"For this to really work for the sheep industry everyone has to gain from it," he says.

"For the farmer who wants to find and cull the ewes that don’t perform for him, he can do that.

"For us, it could also do the same.

"In the future, we may be able to do a yield breakdown on each carcase and find the carcases that make us money and pay farmers accordingly.

"But at the end of the day, it is about traceability and meeting the needs of the market".

The system does not provide a cost or time saving for the company now. In fact, an extra man is required on the kill chain to test the plastic electronic hooks before placing them in the carcase.

But some overseas markets such as Europe are now demanding traceability from the point of inspection along the kill chain back to the last property of residence.

Tracking individual sheep carcases through the abattoir kill chain is possible and happening now.

Despite being a sheep abattoir for the domestic market, Frews at Stawell has gone well beyond the requirements and installed an electronic identification system that provides full traceability right through to the chiller room.

With the aid of a $220,000 grant from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, the system is up and running, Frews having spent about $40,000 of its own to get the system working.

Despite teething problems and computer glitches, trials have shown it works.

"We decided to take the opportunity to give the technology a go and meet it head on rather that wait for legislation to be imposed on us," floor manager Kevin Cook says.

The immediate benefit for the works is not obvious, particularly given so few farmers use electronic tagging for sheep now.

However, the bolt-on benefits are there if and when the company decides to also use automatic grading technology such as viascan or an automatic chiller loading system

Being able to draft carcases according to weigh and quality would have an immediate benefit as often there are three or four men pushing meat into chillers.

"Sure, we had problems to start with but it works and from our point of view we installed it so hopefully we are well placed to take advantage of opportunities down the track, whatever that might be," he says.

Rural Press was given an exclusive look through the works to see the possible future of meatworks.