University of Sydney remote monitoring trial could develop predictability models

University of Sydney researchers began the trial during the drought in 2019. The study involved more than 19,000 Merinos, Border Leicesters and Poll Dorsets.

In total, the study recorded 8650 ewes, 1050 rams or ram lambs, 8200 fetuses, and 1300 head at a feedlot.

Sheep were monitored from a range of local government areas across NSW.

University of Sydney PhD candidate, Greg Sawyer, said the trial was part of a larger project funded by Meat and Livestock Australia and the Commonwealth government that was developed to better understand calf survival in northern areas and lamb survival in southern regions.

Mr Sawyer said his research involved measuring each animal's live weight 24/7, which was recorded each time it passed over a walk-over weighing machine.

The data was then downloaded, analysed, and sent back to the producer. Mr Sawyer said changes in weights had proved to highlight a range of issues on the ground.

"I rang the producer in the feedlot and said, 'either I've got a problem with my machine or you've got a problem with your sheep'," he said.

"Sure enough they were starting to record lamb deaths from pneumonia."

Worm burdens were another area the researchers found that could be highlighted through the technology, he said.

"We're starting to pick up that the mob is not flourishing as well as it should be, what's happening to the pasture, what's happening to the mob, and go back to the grower," he said.

"The grower has to have a big interaction with all this because they're our eye on the ground."

The trial had recorded data through a range of weather events, including both drought and significantly wet seasons, he said.

Research papers analysing the data were in the process of being written, but there was enough data to develop predictability models, he said.

"That's where all this technology is really heading, to aid and help the producer in the longer term," he said.

"We're just understanding more and more what these animals' liveweights are doing, especially those that are pregnant.

"Measuring that pregnancy loss in regards to what their liveweight changes are in those various seasons and being able to use the local weather data really helps as well."

He said the results highlighted barriers to on-farm deployment of technology, which included the cost of the machines.

This required hardware and technology from Europe.

"The important thing with that is we're starting to build that intelligence behind what we're calling our Next Gen walk-over weighing systems," he said.

"Currently, in Australia there's really only one company that does walk-over weighing ... if organisations wanted to be involved in building the hardware then certainly we've got the algorithms and the technology behind it to support that."

Connectivity was another barrier, he said, with the standard networks provided by Optus and Telstra insufficient for more remote areas.

"We're now looking at whether we need to go to like a Starlink, Elon Musk sort of satellite technology for those more remote," he said.

"We want to be able to have this opportunity for all producers and if we're only relying on Telstra and Optus to supply the internet database well then that's not going to work too well."

READ MORE: