As the date on the calendar for compulsory electronic identification for sheep and goats in Queensland moves closer, Elders is filling the knowledge gap on how to make it work with a new appointment.
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Celia Cummack, who's based at Roma, was introduced to the state's sheep breeding crowd at the State Sheep Show at Blackall on the weekend.
They found out that she's originally from New Zealand, where her farming career and love of Merinos and stud sheep began at 16, and where she did a diploma of agriculture, and that she moved to Australia three years ago.
She worked as a stock agent in NSW, doing her traineeship at Cooma before becoming a district wool manager at Dubbo.
Ms Cummack moved to Queensland for personal reasons, but because she'd trained herself up on the use of eIDs, she was quickly moved into a role as a sheep and wool eID specialist.
"We used to use a lot of electronic tags back in New Zealand," Ms Cummack said.
"I had a lot of interest doing that, plus as soon as I heard it was becoming mandatory, I just went to all the trainings I could to get myself in the space, because I just think it's going to be so useful for growers being able to get into the space."
She expects clients will be able to raise profit margins from collecting and managing the data that electronic identification will provide.
"They're going to find the least and most productive sheep on their property and be able to base their decisions around them," she said.
"Instead of just basing them on looks, they're going to base them on data as well.
"It's more work involved but there is going to be a profit at the end of it by doing it.
"We're going to get rid of that bottom 10 per cent of sheep that aren't performing on properties, and be able to nail breeding objectives."
Ms Cummack said it was a vast space and she'd found a number of people were keen to get into it but didn't know where to start.
"It's quite daunting for lots of people," she said. "There's no-one in that space actually helping clients manage eIDs."
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
