Enhancing farm management through eID

Sammy Mitchell on her farm in Willangie, Victoria. Image: Laura Poyner Photography

Victorian sheep producer Sammy Mitchell’s proactive approach to incorporating electronic identification (eID) technology and modern infrastructure is improving the efficiency and effectiveness of her farm management.  

By leveraging data-driven insights, Sammy is well-positioned to enhance productivity, make informed decisions and continue advancing her family's farming legacy. 

She recently took over the management of her family's 2,900ha mixed farming operation at Willangie. 

Until recently, Sammy's father assisted with seeding and harvest, but Sammy was responsible for the day-to-day operations. 

Recognising the labour-intensive nature of the work, Sammy invested in ClipEx® yards and a ClipEx® sheep handler equipped with scales, a panel reader and auto draft capabilities to streamline operations. 

She also installed a Zetifi tower for Cloud storage connectivity, enabling efficient data management. 

This set-up is designed to enhance labour efficiency, improve animal management and facilitate better decision making through data collection. 

Livestock management 

Sammy currently maintains 550 Merino ewes. All ewes are mated with White Suffolk rams. 

Her management practices are aimed at improving productivity and efficiency. 

"For example, we constructed a small feedlot using a drought grant and used this for the first time to finish our lambs after adverse weather conditions delayed pasture establishment," Sammy said. 

Implementing eID 

Sammy has been familiarising herself with the new technology and has successfully used the sheep handler for ear tagging, managing health tasks and clipping dags. 

The auto draft feature has not yet been fully utilised, but Sammy plans on using electronic identification (eID) technology to manage the drafting of ewes and lambs based on production data, aiming to reduce time and labour in the yards, and improve the accuracy and efficiency of her management decisions. 

Sammy is participating in a five-year Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project funded by MLA, Southern Farming Systems and Birchip Cropping Group. The PDS focuses on Victorian sheep producers utilising eID technology to make better-informed management decisions. 

Challenges and solutions 

Sammy faced several challenges, such as equipment malfunctions (for example, an air compressor failed) during critical times and the need to manually input data, which has been time-consuming. 

"Having enough labour resources on-farm to implement the use of eID has also been challenging," she said. 

"However, I've found solutions such as using YouTube tutorials and product guides to enhance my understanding of the equipment, manually entering data when needed, and ensuring data collection continued when the air compressor failed. 

"Now that my partner Lachy has joined me on-farm, I'm hopeful we can utilise eID further, such as for selective breeding. This will involve using eID data to identify and select ewes that repeatedly produce multiples, to increase lambing percentage."