As the world of data transfer between beef industry sectors is becoming increasingly important, a new opportunity is emerging in animal agriculture: blockchain technology. Blockchain technology in its simplest form, at the risk of oversimplification, is an informational super highway to share data between different beef industry sectors on a ledger-type format.
The technology creates an electronic “chain” of “blocks” of validated and verified data between parties, which users can access for traceability and transparency within each sector of the beef industry. All powered by the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, blockchain is taking the world by storm in many industries across the globe.
As the beef industry has a fragmented supply chain, current methods of communication between sectors make data transfer extremely difficult but desirable. One of the most prominent examples is a cow-calf producer’s low success rate in obtaining carcass data on their calves.
Wouldn’t it be nice to receive that? Wouldn’t it be neat to see where your calves end up after you sell them at a sale barn? Or, as a feeder, wouldn’t it be great to obtain all the third-party program documents on the calves you purchased from a sale barn or the health information on a traded group of calves? The answer to our problems is the next big player in the game of technology in the beef industry.
How it operates
RFIDs are tagged in a group of cattle at the ranch of origin, then scanned, and information about the group (such as health, third-party programs, sire and dam information, etc.) is uploaded to an application program interface (API) system. From there, the cattle could be scanned at the sale barn, and data such as weight could be uploaded to the API. Once at the feedlot, the manager can use the information to improve processes or make better purchasing decisions.
At the packer level, carcass data could be uploaded to match the RFIDs. Retailers could then track the protein from plate to pasture, if desired. Customers in each segment would have the opportunity to upload as much or as little information to the ledger-based system as they wish.
Benefits to beef sectors
The first question out of many people’s mouths is how this benefits different beef industry segments. For producers, blockchain can provide valuable data to help producers make selection decisions and hopefully create ultimate transparency on how their cattle are performing further down the chain.
For breed associations or third-party programs, this is an added-value service for customers and allows better data collection. For feedlots, blockchain can benefit existing and new relationships with cow-calf producers. Retailers are always looking for ways to tell a positive story about the product they are placing in the market.
Traceability is crucial in the industry, not only for safety reasons, but also for the industry’s reputation. Blockchain use could create the ledger to trace an animal by individual ID back to the ranch of origin with a quick and straightforward search on the API. This means the industry can respond quickly and with reliable information obtained through the “blocks” of data on the “chain.” All in all, the industry could maintain or improve its high reputation as a leader in traceability.
Producers also ask essential questions about the safety of their data on the chain. First, the data is all shared over secure, encrypted electronic environments. One of the biggest benefits of blockchain is that the data belongs solely to the producer. The producer has the choice to share as little or as much information as they wish whenever they want with selected transaction partners.
You can choose to share portions or entire blocks of data one day and then change permissions for the same transaction partner a month later.
The next frontier
As we look into our crystal ball of what the beef industry hopes to look like in the future, we all know that technology will be vital to feeding the protein-hungry world. Through blockchain, a synergy unlike any other before can change the game for each beef industry sector. Data and management information sharing, transparency and traceability are all just the beginnings of the exciting capabilities at hand with blockchain. You can take into account the definition of synergy and realize it’s the next frontier! — Chessie Mitchell, Red Angus Association of America value-added coordinator
