Aglive’s eNVD smartphone app is live in Western Australia.

WELLARD Limited’s Beaufort River Meats is the first Western Australian meat processor to receive electronic National Vendor Declarations from sheep producers.

The company said its Kojonup abattoir is the first receiver of the eNVD in Western Australia, enabling farmers to fill out and submit an eNVD using an app on their smart phone. The app and eNVD software has been developed by Aglive, a Meat & Livestock Australia-licensed eNVD software provider.

Wellard general manager meat processing and trading Kel Whitehouse said the conversion from a physical paper-based system to digital consignment documents will increase the timeliness and accuracy of information received as well as alleviating the need for storage of paper NVDs.

“The development of an electronic vendor declarations enhances the food safety and biosecurity integrity of our livestock industry.

“It will enable a quicker and more accurate response to any food safety or biosecurity issues if they were to occur,” Mr Whitehouse said.

“Once farmers are used to it, the eNVD will reduce the administrative burden on-farm and will provide BRM with the ability to provide real time assessments and reports on all of the NVD inputs.

“Using technology to move away from an expensive paper-based system is the future and we’re pleased to be pioneering this new system from Aglive.”

The abattoir will continue to accept the existing paper NVD forms from suppliers of sheep.

MLA’s Integrity Systems Company chief executive officer, Dr Jane Weatherley, said the Wellard announcement was an exciting step forward for the livestock industry. It followed MLA’s granting of the first commercial license to Australian software provider, Aglive, to release its innovative eNVD App following extensive trials of the technology.

“The eNVD system is set to significantly strengthen our NVD system, streamlining the transfer of data, and offer many additional management benefits to producers and other participants in the value chain who opt in to the eNVD system,” Dr Weatherley said.