“Convenient, fast – I highly recommend it.”
That’s Toko, Taranaki sheep and beef farmer Nick Brown’s verdict on the online portal MyOSPRI.
Nick is one of more than 1000 sheep farmers who have already ditched paper-based Animal Status Declarations (ASDs) and are now using MyOSPRI to send both farm-to-farm and farm-to-meat processor electronic Animal Status Declarations (eASDs).
The eASDs provide accurate, reliable and readily accessible data about movements of sheep mobs and where farms and other places animals have been or are located – a real bonus for tracking and tracing in the wake of a biosecurity incursion.
Kevin Forward, Head of Traceability at OSPRI, says that the MyOSPRI system will vastly improve the sector’s ability to launch an effective response in the event of a disease outbreak.
“In the unlikely event of an outbreak such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), it’s extremely important to keep tracking and tracing of animals accurately recorded and up to date.
“This is particularly critical for movements of mobs of sheep, which unlike cattle and deer are not covered by the National Animal Identification Tracing programme.
“Not only will sheep farmers benefit from using MyOSPRI, but we’ll have a better picture of all locations where cattle, deer and sheep move between for a response team to use in the event of a disease outbreak.
“Movements recorded using paper-based ASDs are not kept in a centralised database and would slow our ability to trace a rapidly moving disease such as FMD.”
Paper ASDs will still need to be used for saleyards, Kevin said.
Nick Brown ditched paper ASDs just before COVID started to get a hold in New Zealand.
“I hate writing stuff down on paper and it’s just so easy to do it on the phone.
“It’s convenient; you can edit the ASD if you make a mistake and it remembers stuff – you don’t have to put your address in every time and that sort of stuff.
“When it’s done you don’t have to worry about taking the docket over to the load out ramp to give to the truckie. You’re not worried about the truckie losing it…One time one of the paper dockets mysteriously got a big hole in it somewhere between the farm and the works.”
Nick found MyOSPRI relatively easy to use “though I guess for some people who aren’t digitally minded and haven’t had much technology in their lives, they might struggle.
“But most farmers have a smartphone these days. Come a time it will all be electronic so we might as well get used to it now.”
MyOSPRI needs an internet connection “but it wouldn’t have to be real fast one, like Netflix speed-type capability,” Nick says.
“I think it’s the way of the future.”
OSPRI says the online customer portal will, in time, enable farmers to access OSPRI’s integrated animal disease and traceability system. It has replaced the eASD system and in the future will bring together NAIT and disease management information into one system, so farmers can view disease information and manage livestock movements easily online, and in one place.
- Find out more at ospri.co.nz
