Ag-tech helping producers meet compliance requirements

Ease of compliance can be a challenging road for producers and value chain members – but the right equipment and data systems can mean a world of difference.

Working out how Australian producers can meet their Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) compliance requirements and productivity goals without it impacting ‘business as usual’, was the focus of a joint initiative between MLA, ISC and Pairtree Intelligence, ‘Moving Ag tech from decision support to decision making’.

The new Pairtree portal

Pairtree co-founder and beef producer, Hamish Munro, said the first step is allowing producers to ‘opt-in’ to bringing together the range of digital agriculture providers’ technology on each farm and then converging the data. The next key step involves presenting that data in a way that adds value and minimises double entry, while simultaneously improving industry integrity, compliance and reporting.

Pairtree has created a central portal which presents and stores data collected from multiple devices on-farm, into a single dashboard. The project delivered a prototype where producers can also opt-in to activate a pre-fill function to satisfy the majority of their compliance documentation.

“There is now no need to double enter data for reporting requirements – improved data fidelity is another benefit. By industry recognising this approach, producers can also more accurately record methane emissions and carbon sequestration data,” Hamish said.

Better informed decisions

By producers having access to a range of previously disparate data in an easily digestible format, new insights and better management decisions can be made in several compliance areas, including animal wellbeing and risk management.

“The capabilities not only improve productivity and management decisions but also remove a layer of work in regard to compliance requirements,” Hamish said.

Easier reporting

Taking the burden out of reporting requirements is good news for producers’ workload – with the project working to better understand how to streamline LPA compliance through optimising existing digital solutions. Better producer compliance to LPA requirements also helps to improve:

• food safety
• biosecurity
• product integrity
• animal welfare
• risk management.

This approach gives producers a snapshot of their compliance to identify areas for improvement – all in one place.

“The idea was to connect to all sources, and then pull the key elements out to formulate a touch-free evidence tool from data that is collected daily through management,” Hamish said.

Improved connectivity

In order to complete the LPA prototype, Pairtree made connections between:

• MaiaGrazing (livestock numbers, locations and movements)
• National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) and National Vendor Declaration (NVD) databases (movements and documents)
• Cibo Labs (infrastructure and biosecurity maps)
• Farmlab (persistent chemical soil test results)
• Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority Public Chemical Registration Information System (WHP/ESI chemical Inventory).

“The easier we make on-farm data to collect, comprehend and utilise, the greater the chance more producers will embrace ag-tech and its adoption,” Hamish said.

Hamish recommends producers select a bespoke suite of ag-tech that meets their individual business needs after first identifying areas in need of improvement. Setting clear production goals and then researching what range of ag-tech is going to best help them achieve these will ensure a solid return on investment. MLA is working on the development of an ROI calculator to make this process easier.

The LPA program is a critical accreditation that provides on-farm assurance for the best practice management of Australia’s livestock – and with further work in the ag-tech sector with projects like this, compliance will be easier by the day.