THE concept of a paperless saleyard edged closer today, with some software companies revealing their online apps for electronic national vendor declarations (e-NVDs) are ready to be trialled as early as next week.
The news was announced at the Livestock Saleyards Association of Victoria (LSAV) conference in Melbourne on Friday.
Agriculture minister Jaala Pulford also addressed the annual event, unveiling a $60,000 grant to assist LSAV to work with stakeholders to pilot and implement an e-NVD system for Victoria's cattle and sheep supply systems.
She told the crowd there was a growing acceptance of the "inevitable" move towards an e-NVD system.
"Everywhere I go, I ask farmers and sheep farmers what they think," she said. "Some have never had it and say they don't need it; others say it should have been done yesterday."
She also said the department had issued tender documents this week to test what price might be if electronic tagging was mandatory in an effort to drive down prices.
"We are asking for a competitive tender to check what price is at 400,000 units, and we want to check what the price is at 10 million units. That's a big difference," Ms Pulford said.
"That will put a good bit of downward pressure on the price."
John Wyld, who heads up the SAFEMEAT Initiatives Review steering group, said the process was now at the pointy end, and the response from processors and saleyards regarding e-NVDs had been largely positive.
"We are due to report to SAFEMENT on August 21, so we are very busy making sure everything is finalised," he said.
Although there were still some issues to iron out, he was optimistic they would be accepting of the report.
"We've designed the system, and it's in the hands of software providers now," Mr Wyld said.
"Some are ready to roll, some are still sorting out budgets and funding."
He expected to see the results from some of those trials as early as September.
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) will also design a 'no frills' option in the event of market failure, which he said had caused some angst from some software providers who had expressed concerns about a "freebie" on the market.
"On the other hand MLA has got no desire to become a software provider, but clearly if nobody steps up to the plate and the trial is a failure, there is an expectation there will be an e-NVD," Mr Wyld said.
He said the group had decided against charging users, because they wanted to avoid any angst.
"However, there will be charges by software providers; they've got to make a living out of it," he said.
One of the software companies who had designed an app for e-NVDs said it would be free, but access to the database would be priced "below $100".
Several companies have been working on different prototypes to use on the system.
Mr Wyld said he also wanted to address the funding of the whole system to make it more transparent.
"Rather than funding coming through a variety of sources, we believe there should be a dedicated, transparent, easily identifiable levy stream," he said.
At the moment, about $10m is being spent on the system, but over time he expected that figure to increase to $11-$12m.
The next step would be to drive the communication on the use of e-NVDs.
"People need to be well-informed about the market requirements," he said.
Some concerns were also raised on the day about internet coverage in rural areas, because a signature is required from the vendor on the forms.
However Mr Wyld said users would not be punished for poor reception, and he said there would be solutions available.
MLA's database is expected be used as a central 'store forward' facility for all e-NVDs, and users will be able to access the system for any information they required.
"I think it will be slow to start with - while we iron out any issues, then it will be an avalanche," he said.
"But the main thing is we don't want to system out there before it is ready."
