Alpacas to get whole-of-life traceability with NLIS

Key points:

• Alpaca owners can now record their alpaca movements on the NLIS database, providing whole-of-life traceability and enhanced biosecurity
• Alpaca-specific electronic identification (eID) tags are now available
• The NLIS lets you store your traceability records electronically

Mick Williams of Coolawarra Alpacas explains how growers of every size can benefit from making the switch to the NLIS – particularly in relation to minimising biosecurity risks and ease of record-keeping.

With around 1,400 head, Coolawarra Alpacas is one of the largest growers in Australia and the Williams family were early adopters of eIDs, having introduced eIDs to their sheep herd in 2006.

Ease of record-keeping

“Twenty years ago, the individual tags were a game changer for us in terms of delivering efficiency for the operation. We’ve got a larger operation, so we invested in a Gallagher autodrafter that automatically weighed and scanned the animals as they came through the race, saving us a huge amount of time,” Mick said.

“All that data is instantly saved to the cloud, so I can easily download it to review performance or, if I’m travelling, I can log-on and stay up to date with what is happening on the farm while I’m away.”

Mick also uses the Gallagher system to record when he’s transferred animals on or off his property – to the vet or to a show, for example.

“I can keep a date record of the movement, but the actual data sheet is not there because I can’t save the paper waybill to the Gallagher system,” he said. “That’s a big advantage of the NLIS – everything is saved to the system so all your records are there for the life of the animal and you can just look them up when you need to.”

Record keeping and the smaller growers

Smaller outfits will also enjoy the convenience of the long-term records that the NLIS provides.

“We run more than a thousand head, so it made sense for us to invest in the Gallagher system, but smaller operators don’t need all the additional electronic equipment,” Mick said.

“Even if you’re just using your waybills and punching that information into the system manually, it's going to give you that consistent long-term evidence that you can easily refer back to if needed.”

Minimising biosecurity risks

With the NLIS now expanded to include alpacas, Mick was quick to sign up and start recording his alpaca movements using the eIDs.

“Once we’re all using the eIDs to create these individual whole-of-life records on the NLIS, we'll be able to see where every animal has been,” Mick said.

“That’s going to give me comfort when I’m at a big show, jumping in and out of dozens of pens looking at different animals. That means if I take one of them back to my farm, I’ll have a footprint of where it’s been and, if something happens, I’ll be able to trace the animal’s movements back to the source of the problem.”

“That’s obviously a benefit for me, but it’s also going to be great for the wider industry because it means we’ll be able to deal with any disease outbreaks quickly and efficiently,” Mick said.

It’s this defence against biosecurity threats that Mick believes will see all growers embrace the NLIS eventually – with many already adopting the eIDs.

“I'm seeing more and more alpacas at shows have the eIDs,” he said. “I even had some animals I’d bought, sight unseen, arrive at the farm recently and they already had their new electronic tags in place.”

Why biosecurity matters for smaller growers

The Williams are one of the largest alpaca operations in Australia, where the average herd has less than 30 animals. However, Mick believes it’s the smaller growers in particular who’ll benefit most from the security whole-of-life traceability provides.

“In some respects, that traceability is actually more important for the smaller producers,” he said. “If I lose one animal to disease that’s 0.07% of my herd, but if a smaller breeder has to euthanise an animal, that’s a significant loss to their herd and that’s going to be hard to absorb.”

Securing the industry’s future

Improving the traceability system for alpacas in Australia will deliver vastly improved response times when dealing with disease control, helping ensure the future value of the industry and enabling individual growers to better protect their herds.

“We all think we’ve got a great biosecurity system, but our industry is heavily reliant on individual grower vigilance,” Mick said.

“I’m always surprised when I hear people talk about how good their biosecurity is and then they’ll come back from a show, pull up in the paddock and release those animals straight back in with the rest of their herd.”

“Getting the traceability the NLIS is going to deliver is just going to give us that added layer of protection,” he said. “It means that if something does go wrong, we’ll be able to identify it and act quickly to minimise further risk to growers right across the industry.”