OLDS, Alta. – Ronald den Broeder can sit at his laptop and learn more about his 900 ewes than he ever imagined was possible.
He is one of 48 Alberta farmers who volunteered to test an electronic identification and trace-back system for sheep.
All Canadian sheep must be individually identified by 2012.
Alberta Agriculture is running a pilot program, while another one is conducted nationally.
Volunteers have concluded the system needs work before it can be adopted by all producers.
“Manufacturers don’t know each other’s equipment, so making them compatible on the farm is a chore,” den Broeder said at a recent demonstration day at Olds College.
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He has had compatibility problems with readers, scales and software.
The system has reduced the amount of time he spends on management work, but he found it frustrating to learn. The entire package is also costly, although government provides some of the equipment.
However, he found that the speed of the system has its advantages as it records weight gains and health treatments and compares lambing records.
It has also helped him sort through the hundreds of ewes he bought from seven farms to give him a more consistent flock. Every animal on his farm now has a history entered into the system.
His experiences are not unique, said sheep specialist Sue Hosford of Alberta Agriculture.
The on-farm tests have found that manufacturers of radio frequency identification systems promise more than can be delivered, while computer support in rural areas is often lacking.
The researchers have also discovered that most companies build components for an identification system but few build entire systems. There are also problems with computer compatibility, she said.
RFID systems are sold to producers as whole flock management systems rather than simple identification with unique numbers assigned to individuals.
The trials have tested the programs for practicality and attempted to determine whether they will work properly on a farm and provide useful information that allows producers to make production changes.
“It is not good enough for 48 people to know how to do this,” Hosford said.
The system tested in the pilot program can provide individual identification, sex, weight gains, parentage and carcass information that is stored in a central database called Sheep Central.
Sunterra Meats, a federal sheep plant at Innisfail, Alta., has added the system to its facility so it can provide carcass information to producers.
Other countries are already using electronic systems.
Peter Baber of Exeter, England, has 1,100 ewes on his farm and adopted electronic technology in 2005 to improve the flock.
He receives individual performance information that allows him to know the number of lambs born to each ewe as well as assess weight gains and health treatments.
“I hate technology,” he said. However, such a large flock of mostly pedigreed animals required an efficient record keeping system beyond his old paper records.
Baber was able to look at the spreadsheets and determine which ewes were among the top third and which animals were at or below average. He is able to see which ones need more veterinary care and make better informed culling decisions.
“Electronic identification has certainly made my life easier. The power of this thing is incredible,” Baber said.
He can weigh 300 to 400 animals per hour because they run through a chute where a scanner embedded in the side panels reads ear tags.
The system then automatically opens a series of gates to sort the lambs by weight, sex or other preferred category.
It also has a hand held reader with a keypad so Baber can record information in the field.
“Anyway you can think of to divide your sheep out, the machine will do it automatically,” he said.
“I’m breeding better quality sheep for the future with the same inputs.”
Electronic identification is mandatory in the United Kingdom for all lambs older than 12 months.
Baber approves of the Alberta trials, which allow farmers to test the equipment before it becomes mandatory.
“We never had the debate and it was never demonstrated to us as producers that it would have any benefit,” he said.
