Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA): Development, evaluation and adoption of objective measurement solutions for live animals - Request for Tender

Opportunity for

• Businesses and global solution providers to submit proposals to develop, evaluate and/or adopt emerging objective measurement technologies for live animal assessment (beef cattle, sheep/lamb, goats)

Industry challenge:

These themes are aligned with the red meat industry’s strategic priority of doubling the value of Australian red meat by 2030, including but not limited to:

• Objective measurement & data driven decisions
• Producer feedback & improving value-based transactions
• Digitalisation – enabling the power of data
• Automation – efficient processes
• New and innovative technologies that could advance the Australian red meat industry and deliver enhanced commercial outcomes

This expression of interest seeks collaborators to drive the development, evaluation and adoption of objective measurement solutions and enhance data driven decisions, to improve productivity, sustainability and profitability across Australian red meat supply chains.

Current opportunity:

MLA is seeking co-investment proposals from businesses seeking to develop, evaluate and/or adopt emerging objective measurement technologies for live animal assessment. Where the stage of development is appropriate, technologies with a supporting supply chain will be favourably considered. Global solution providers are invited to submit an Expression of Interest that demonstrates potential for functional and commercially feasible solutions that are scalable at the target point of application. MLA is interested in use-cases in beef, sheep meat or goat supply chains which include, but are not limited to:

• Prediction of turn-off potential
• Finished end point (weight & fatness)
• Carcase yield and eating quality (carcase value)
• Quality or value differentiation of co-products
• Animal health or welfare traits
• New or improved measurement of attributes to improve genetic selection for carcase value
• Measurement of marbling while optimising turn-off times
• Measurement of lean meat yield (LMY) for on-farm and feedlot management, turn-off and marketing decisions
• Improving on-farm and feedlot livestock management decisions.

To submit an application click ‘Visit website’ and to speak to the team ‘Enquire now’.

Opportunity background:

Proposals will be evaluated based upon:

• Integration of the selected technology into farm and/or feedlots and their supply chain business workflows and business data management systems, including feedback to producers
• How the technology will reduce cost of production, improve carcase value or deliver benefits that may be applied to production, procurement and marketing decision making
• Whole of life animal data capture and sharing to create additional supply chain value
• Proposals would need to consider animal ethics requirements
• Proposals should focus use-cases in beef, sheep meat or goat supply chains
• At which point in the supply chain will the technology be utilised? On-farm, feedlot or at entry to processing. Whichever is the target application point, timely output of data including data management systems for real-time data-to-decisions outputs and knowledge for commercial application should be considered.
• Providers able to demonstrate potential for sharing data on live animal and carcase measurements will be favourably considered
• Data captured using objective measurements from live animals can contribute to “whole of life” validation and used to create additional value through carcase compliance.
• All projects will require a comprehensive Final Report that captures the lessons learnt, including challenges encountered and solutions identified to improve opportunities for future adopter.