Boost your livestock performance with NLIS

Image caption: Kelva Camm.

Staying on top of your NLIS requirements requires commitment but it’s well worth the market access and advantage it provides your livestock, according to Wentworth Cattle Company’s Kelva Camm.  

Kelva is in charge of the record keeping and livestock administration for Wentworth’s Wagyu beef breeding and backgrounding properties in central and northern Queensland. 

For Kelva, keeping the businesses’ NLIS account in order is an essential part of her role and is crucial to maintaining market access for Wentworth’s herd.  

“As it’s a Wagyu business, our cattle have to have full lifetime traceability,” Kelva said.  

“We can’t have our cattle missing a livestock transfer and losing their lifetime traceability – especially because we are EU-accredited too.” 

Verifying herd credentials 

According to Kelva, NLIS also provides Wentworth with the ability to verify its Wagyu herd’s genetics and performance.  

“NLIS is useful to us as it means we are able to collect data and monitor the performance of individual animals throughout their lifespan in our farm management software,” Kelva said.  

“We DNA and parent verify all our cattle to monitor their performance, and NLIS helps us link that information back to each animal.” 

“NLIS also helps us to easily keep track of individual animal health treatments, from our artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) programs to simple vaccinations.” 

“As well, we import their feed data and kill data from the feedlot, who passes that back to us, and again NLIS enables us to link that data back to our herd so we can use it.” 

Image caption: Some of Wentworth Cattle Company's herd.

Tips for transfers  

Completing the necessary livestock transfers as cattle move between Wentworth’s properties for breeding and backgrounding is one of the key ways Kelva makes sure Wentworth can take advantage of the benefits NLIS provides while also meeting their NLIS requirements.  

To ensure these transfers have been completed accurately in the NLIS database, Kelva has a range of processes in place.  

“I always get the file off the tag scanner and then do a beast enquiry report just to make sure that they’re on the right PIC (property) before I actually do a livestock transfer,” Kelva said.  

“I do all the file work with Excel, which makes it easy to upload and sort the files on the database.” 

“We read the NLIS tags as they go on the trucks and off the trucks between the multiple properties, so we don’t miss transferring any animals.” 

Regular upkeep for impact 

While maintaining an NLIS account is a regular responsibility, Kelva said it can provide real value to livestock businesses who use it to their advantage.  

“Just try and keep on top of it – don’t let it build up and then become too big of a job,” Kelva said. 

“It’s also really important that people start to manage their animal data using NLIS to identify their high performers.” 

“We have to use NLIS, so we may as well make it work for our business – and allocating some time to do this could really take a business to the next level.”