National Livestock Identification System Alpaca and Llama ...

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NLIS ALPACA AND LLAMA DATABASE OPTIONS REVIEW 1999 which concluded that the traceability arrangements for the Australian cattle industry did not meet the EU requirements. As a result of a potential ban on exports to the EU, the cattle industry and government hastily agreed to implement the NLIS on a limited basis to supply product to the EU from a “closed” system. This required the establishment of a database to record device issue, movements and eligibility. The interim database was commenced in the middle of 1999 and was operational by November of that year. Development was carried out by external developers under management by MLA. Once the basic functionality of the system had been established, MLA decided to request expressions of interest from organizations interested in developing the full system. After a full evaluation of responses, it was decided that MLA would continue to manage the ongoing development using the initial company Catjes Pty Ltd. This arrangement continued until 2006 when the development team was employed directly by MLA and development was brought in-house. The database has evolved over the last 10 years with increasing complexity and functionality. While the system has a lot of functions that will not be required by the alpaca and llama industries at present, it is far more economical to turn off these functions rather than having to build them at some future date. An example of this is the carcass feedback section which allows for carcass data to be uploaded by the abattoir and made available to the breeder and consignor. The database operates under an industry agreed Terms of Use (ToU) which determine who can view data, who can add data, who can change data, etc. This is of critical importance since the data held is from a variety of sources including producers, saleyards, abattoirs and government. The discussion is not about who owns the data but who has access to it. The database has been operating now for 10 years. The range of functions and interactions has progressively been increased over this period. All the functionality has been fully tested, both before release and then in operation, for a considerable period of time. Funding for the development of the database has come from levies collected from the red meat industries (cattle sheep and goats) and funding from the federal government. This funding has been from federal R&D matching funding or special funding through DAFF. In early 2009, the NLIS portion of MLA was transferred to an autonomous company, still within the overall umbrella of MLA. The new body is called National Livestock Identification System Ltd. It now operates under its own board although this board is MLA nominated. This should not result in large changes to the operation of the system but will give the new organization greater autonomy, particularly with those groups outside of the cattle and sheep industries which pay levies to MLA. Page 18
NLIS ALPACA AND LLAMA DATABASE OPTIONS REVIEW LIVESTOCK TAG AND TRACE (LTAT) The Livestock Tag and Trace (LTAT) database is a relatively new database, developed and operated by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. The Victorian DPI began encouraging the use of RFID devices in sheep in 2007. The use was promoted as a flock management aid rather than as a regulatory tag to take the place of the currently approved visual NLIS tags. The sheep industry was deeply suspicious that this was the “thin end of the wedge” and would lead to mandatory electronic tagging. The industry was deeply opposed to this on the basis of the cost relative to the average value of the animals. The industry consequently put pressure on MLA to not allow the entry of sheep RFID data into the NLIS database. It is essential to have a database to underpin the use of RFID tags. At a minimum, the database must record the issue of the devices and the movements from one property to another. Given the industry block on using the existing database, the Victorian DPI had little choice but to build their own database system to support their policy initiative. Subsequently, the Victorian DPI has amended their legislation to allow sheep to move without having to record the movement on a group basis or have a transaction tag applied if they had NLIS RFID tags applied and they were correctly recorded on the database. The Victorian DPI decided to build more than the basic database required and designed almost a replica of the NLIS database in terms of the functionality. The team that designed and built this system were largely members of the same team as were involved in building the NLIS database. Consequently, there are similarities between the two systems. With a few minor differences, the two systems are designed to provide almost identical functions. The Victorian system does have the advantage of having been designed and built nearly 10 years later than the NLIS database. Although it does reflect some changes to technology over this period and does incorporate some design enhancements, it is surprisingly similar to the older system. Funding for the LTAT system has been from the Victorian government without assistance from industry funds or federal funding. Page 19
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