P.PIP.0753-Analysis and extension to support beef producers in improving animal health performance
There is a major opportunity for the supply chain to work together to improve the animal health performance of the Australian beef industry.
| Project start date: | 30 July 2019 |
| Project end date: | 30 July 2021 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grain-fed Cattle, Grass-fed Cattle |
| Relevant regions: | National |
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Summary
This project builds on current and completed work that identifies that there is a major opportunity for the supply chain to work together to improve the animal health performance of the Australian beef industry. The project will include a detailed analysis of animal health data to identify the cost of animal health conditions to producers, and veterinary support to assist in interpretation of feedback and validation of inspection data.
Objectives
The objectives of the project were:
• A cost impact of various disease conditions including parasites on producers and processors
• Improved Teys Australia extension material for producers highlighting costs of disease/parasites
• Specialist veterinary support to Teys Australia and interested producers
• Ongoing validation of inspection data collection to ensure it is accurate and correct.
Key findings
• The hypothesis prior to the data analysis was that diseases and defects affect the livestock weight and average daily weight gain. A very basic analysis just assessing average paid weight proved this to be the case for all diseases except for cases of Grade 2 liver abscesses, viable liver fluke, lung granulomas, lung neoplasia and Grade 1 pleurisy. However, with a more detailed analysis using pricing grids, did not allow the hypothesis to be proven nor disproven during this project.
• The observations at on-site verification demonstrate that desktop data verification alone is not sufficient to ensure accuracy of the data. Given the combination of the complexity of the grid pricing and the supply chain mean that the accuracy of the data is paramount to this further analysis and to provide producers with the confidence to make (potentially costly) changes to their husbandry practices knowing that these will provide financial benefits to their business.
• This project has demonstrated that to allow producers to make these decisions support is required, in the form of additional extension material and networks. Extension material on the information should be provided on what it means and how it can be used along with disease and associated husbandry information. The opportunity of a network that allows for discussion and understanding of benchmarked information is also important to ensure understanding of the producers supply chain and the variations any benchmarked data.
Benefits to industry
This project is a significant step forward in demonstrating that diseases and defects which are detected at post-mortem inspection are impacting on commercial outcomes for Australian beef producers. Through the duration of the project, it became evident that interpretation of diseases and defects data is a specialised veterinary field (veterinary public health) and includes concepts that are difficult to convey to livestock buyers, plant operations staff and producers.
Future research
• The complexity of the supply chain, disease progression and pricing grids means that effort needs to be made to ensure the data is as reliable as possible, using very large data sets
• Post-mortem findings are only a part of the animal health picture. Future analysis should also consider background variables such as treatment and be conducted to assess pricing considering of different feed types
• It is recommended that further analysis is conducted to assess pricing considering all the different feed types. Additionally, the price per kilogram is based on complex combinations of animal and carcase traits (sex, dentition, carcase weight, fat depth, muscle score) which is understandably set to meet consumer and quality requirements
• Further investigations into the prevalence of disease in different weight categories, co-presentation of disease and regional disease within Australia, are also warranted to provide the cost of disease and defects on the Australian beef industry.
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More Information: Contact Project Manager: Verity Suttor Email: reports@mla.com.au |
