Researchers, technology developers and livestock producers from across Australia and from New Zealand will participate in the 1st Australian and New Zealand Symposium on Spatially Enabled Livestock Management on Thursday 15 July.
The seminar, at the University of New England, is included in the program of the 28th Biennial Conference of the Australian Society of Animal Production being held at UNE from Monday 12 July to Thursday 15 July.
Jointly funded by Meat and Livestock Australia and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, this trans-Tasman symposium aims to open communication between technology developers, researchers, funding bodies and producers. Participants will discuss current and future work involving technologies for spatial tracking of livestock and dynamic monitoring of the grazing environment.
“A coordinated approach to research and development will help ensure we get practical outcomes for our livestock industries,” said the organiser of the symposium, Dr Mark Trotter, from the CRC for Spatial Information and the Precision Agriculture Research Group at UNE. “The interest in GPS-based monitoring of livestock and their environment has exploded in the past few years. We’re now seeing commercial monitoring technology being developed for producers. The developers need to know what the industry really needs, and the industry needs to be ready for it.”
The symposium will begin at 11am in Lecture Theatre 2 in UNE’s Education Building. “There is no registration cost, and anyone interested is encouraged to attend,” Dr Trotter said. Information on the latest tools for tracking livestock and monitoring forage resources, and new techniques for converting raw data into meaningful information and decision-support systems for producers will be presented.
For more information, contact Dr Mark Trotter, Precision Agriculture Research Group, UNE, on 0447 441 841 or e-mail mtrotter@une.edu.au.
