Queensland Country Life :
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1 May 2008: Sheep can now be identified electronically, thanks to a major breakthrough in laneway scanning developed by Jandowae based company
Aleis.
The laneway scanning has successfully identified electronic NLIS ear tags in sheep.
Describing the trial as a resounding success, Aleis CEO John Finlayson Jnr said the Australian sheep industry
needed an effective sheep identification and tracking
system to enable serious disease outbreaks to be quickly
contained.
“Interest in the use of electronic technology is
increasing, particularly on large wool growing
properties and within sheep meat supply chains,” Mr
Finlayson said. “The Victorian Government is now
actively promoting the voluntary use of electronic NLIS
(sheep) tags as an alternative to the current sheep
tracking system, which is based on paper records and
visually readable tags."
“The sheep industry has insisted that electronic
technology must facilitate the reading of sheep running
three or four abreast along a laneway. Aleis has
developed and successfully demonstrated a reader that
will achieve this level of performance with 100pc
reading accuracy,” Mr Finlayson said. “Representatives
from the sheep industry, Meat and Livestock
Australia and Queensland DPI&F were invited to a
demonstration of the Aleis reader at Kincorra on
November 21 at which the Aleis reader read more than 800
sheep that had been identified with electronic NLIS
(sheep) tags without missing a sheep.”
Mr Finlayson said the Aleis laneway reader was designed
for use in very high throughput situations, such as in a
saleyard or feedlot. He said Aleis had unequivocally
demonstrated that the reader would efficiently and
accurately read sheep identified with NLIS (sheep) tags
at commercial speeds. Aleis also had a range of reliable
wand and panel readers suitable for use in other less
demanding situations.
“The sheep industry now can move forward with confidence
with the use of electronic NLIS (sheep) ear tags
containing internationally recognised half duplex (HDX)
technology,” Mr Finlayson said. “This is the technology
platform adopted by Australia’s NLIS (cattle) system and
now being utilised in the recently accredited electronic
NLIS (sheep) tag being supplied nationally by Allflex.”
Aleis International is developing a close working
relationship with the sheep industry, along with
government agencies, to provide electronic tag reading
equipment for on-farm, saleyard, feedlot, live export
and processing applications.
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