New tech to thwart stock theft

Livestock theft is an ongoing issue for farmers in Australia, but now a group of experts in Queensland are developing livestock sensors to help stop thieves in their tracks.

Livestock theft causes not only financial but also significant mental stress for producers every year in Australia. In fact, according to the 2001-2002 National Farm Crime Survey, livestock theft was the most commonly reported rural crime – involving 186,777 animals with an estimated annual cost of $16 million.

In an attempt to put this issue to bed, researchers from Queensland's CQ University, in collaboration with ag lobbying organisation AgForce, are developing a smart sensor technology that allows producers to keep track of their stock at all times.

Project leader and CQ University Associate Professor, Dr Mark Trotter, says the technology is not unlike the National Livestock Identification System, but with real-time information on livestock whereabouts.

"One of the limitations of the National Livestock Identification System is that the location of an animal is only sporadically known when the tags are checked when livestock are bought, sold or moved along the production chain – animal data cannot be accessed remotely or in real time," he says.

"We have designed a generic animal-sensing platform with GPS location to monitor animal movement that we will test in stock theft simulations at AgForce's Belmont Research Station."

Dr Trotter will be collaborating with Professor Steve Moore from CQ University's School of Engineering and Technology in adapting sensors for use on livestock, and with Dr Stuart Charters of New Zealand's Lincoln University, who is an expert in data management and visualisation.

Researchers are now calling on farmers who have been affected by stock theft to participate in the research program, so they can gain insights into the types of behaviour, both criminal and animal, that could be recorded during stock theft, as well as feedback on how the data can be best relayed to end-users.

If you're interested in participating in the program, contact Dr Trotter at m.trotter@cqu.edu.au