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Northern Ireland's First EID enabled Feedlot

This week FarmWizard Ltd the online herd management service announced that it had successfully deployed Northern Ireland’s first commercial Electronic ID (EID) Beef Feedlot management solution at Capper Trading Dungannon. The new offering from the Internet herd management company, the development of which was supported by an InvestNI PPD grant, enables day to day growth monitoring of various pens of cattle tagged with electronic ear tags supplied by Countryside Services. Each EID tag contains a unique number which refers to an animal on the FarmWizard database. An EID reader can then be used to scan an animal and will display historical information such as the weight and price of the animal and performance data such as the Daily Live Weight Gain. The animals can be automatically weighed by attaching the EID reader to a weigh bridge and as animals enter the weighbridge the electronic tag is read and the weight automatically returned to the electronic reader. This information can then be transferred via a mobile connection to the main FarmWizard database. This data may then be analysed anywhere in the world by anyone with an Internet Browser and secure access details to view the herd. “We needed a method of capturing performance data on individual pens of animals under different feeding regimes thus enabling us to research and develop top performance feedstuff” explained Robert Capper. “FarmWizard enables us to do that in an easy and straightforward manner.” He added

“With the eminent arrival of mandatory EID technology into Northern Ireland the Capper Trading Feedlot facility is a great example of how this technology can be harnessed to provide real business benefit” said Terry Canning FarmWizard Company Founder. The introduction of EID for cattle is seen as a huge step towards increasing the accuracy of animal records while decreasing time spent to maintain them. There are numerous other benefits such as easier identification as printed tags can often be obscured by dirt or hair of the animal. Improved human safety has also been highlighted as tags can be scanned while keeping a safe distance from animals with bad temperament. Pictured below is FarmWizard's Terry Canning demonstrating the FarmWizard EID Reader to Ken Crozier and Alison Wray of Capper Trading