'Off the charts,' meet the business processing tens of thousands of animals in lead up to Christmas

The Outcross Group, which holds its head office in Armidale, has been working day and night processing tens of thousands of head of sheep and cattle.

In the fortnight leading up to Christmas, Outcross processed 80,856 head of cattle and 258,000 head of sheep across the country.

So how does the team there do it?

Outcross operates a technology company (Outcross systems), providing software into the livestock supply chain including everything from sheep studs, cattle studs, commercial livestock producers, agents and saleyards through their primary software products called Stockbook and Stockyard.

The contracting side of Outcross, Outcross Agri-services, offers a comprehensive range of saleyard management and consulting services to saleyards.

Managing Partner Tom Newsome said the Australian saleyards sector is growing at an incredible rate, creating a rich demand for highly efficient digitised processing systems and skilled labour capable of utilising the tech.

"The reason we exist, is that in the saleyards sector, just like a lot of different sectors there is a lot of consolidation within the industry," Mr Newsome said.

"A lot of the smaller saleyards are closing down, the bigger yards are getting bigger. It's more of a regional scenario where we are seeing the emergence of these large livestock selling facilities and naturally, there is a lot more stock going through them.

"Because there is so much stock being processed through the yards it means effectively, the saleyards are more complex and there is a lot more work to be done."

The Roma Saleyards in Roma, Qld, is the largest cattle selling Centre in Australia, with 270,000 cattle sold through the yards each year.

At the December 12, 2023, the centre recorded 7955 head of cattle sold. A week earlier, on December, 5, 2023, it was 8334.

From 10am on Monday to 8am Tuesday, the cattle need to be ready for sale.

This means more than 8000 head of cattle need to be unloaded, drafted, placed in pens, and included in the sale catalogue, NLIS ear tags scanned and the relevant information uploaded to the system.

"It's a massive effort to get that number of stock ready for sale in the space of 16 or so hours," Mr Newsome said.

"Once they've sold, we then have to move them from their selling pen across the weighbridge and distributed to the buyer's pens. By the next day, those cattle need to be on a truck and on their way to their destinations."

It's a logistically complex scenario. Such extraordinary numbers require the implementation of even more extraordinary processes to ensure the sale days run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Roma is just one of 30 saleyards facilities across four states that Outcross provides sales management services to, ensuring there is as little stress as possible involved for both the animals and handlers.

Outcross provides technology, consulting, asset management and skilled personnel to saleyards, agencies, stud stock operations and the commercial livestock sector.

The company is the largest software provider to the livestock sector, servicing more than 2000 producers, agencies and saleyards.

Incredibly, more than 80pc of saleyards nationwide use Outcross systems software through Livestock Exchange and Stockyard brands.

Stockyard platform is a cutting-edge, user-friendly software system that offers saleyards and agents increased sale management and administration efficiency. Stockyard collects and provides access to all sale data in real time via mobile devices.

According to Mr Newsome, there are close to 17 different jobs that need to be performed to run a sheep or cattle sale, everything from loading/unloading stock, drafting, scanning electronic ear tags, administration and management of technology and information flow.

Outcross provides all 17 essential services either individually or collectively including the tech and skilled staff.

Outcross also provides the technology to saleyards and agencies.

In fact, along with its primary producer software, Stockbook, the company is the largest software provider to the livestock sector, servicing over 2000 producers, agencies and saleyards.

Precision-ag technologies are changing the agribusiness landscape, and changing stock processing methodologies that have existed in the industry for decades.

The Software and tech Outcross provides is being used to manage and keep track of compliance-related regulations and keeping track of mobs and treatment and also variability.

Looking to 2024, Mr Newsome said he was preparing for an even bigger year.

"In January, the year will start with an even bigger turn-off than those December figures," he said.

"There are 53 sales we are running in the first 13 days of the month, it's full steam ahead, no doubt about it."