AU2020207833A1

AU2020207833A1 - System, portable unit and server for associating one or more livestock with a property, and a method of operation thereof

Info

Publication number: AU2020207833A1
Application number: AU2020207833A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Stewart Robert Mcconachy; John Paul Ryan
Original assignee: Aglive Int Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Aglive International Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2011-12-23
Filing date: 2020-07-22
Publication date: 2020-08-13
Also published as: AU2012268831A1; AU2018267599A1

Abstract

There is provided a system for associating one or more livestock with a property, the system comprising livestock identifying means; location sensing means; and computing means. The livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data representing an animal; the location sensing means is adapted for receiving location data representing a location; the computing means is adapted for determining property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and the computing means is adapted for associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data. 1/3 100 1020 110 Display Device RAM ROM Processor 1000 1010 AV interface 150 1030 140 1040 Network Transducer A/D I/O interface Interface 170 /Transmitter 1050 Audio 190 PC Network 180 160 HID Storage 130 medium reader GPS 105 120 Storage 0.REID15 media Reader 115 Figure 1

Description

1/3

100

1020 110

Display Device RAM

ROM Processor 1000 1010 AV interface

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1030 140 1040

Network Transducer A/D I/O interface Interface 170 /Transmitter

1050 Audio

190 PC Network 180 160 HID

Storage 130 medium reader GPS 105

120 Storage 0.REID15 media Reader 115

Figure 1

SYSTEM, PORTABLE UNIT AND SERVER FOR ASSOCIATING ONE OR MORE LIVESTOCK WITH A PROPERTY, AND A METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF

Cross reference to related application This application is a divisional application of Australian application no. 2012268831, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Most of the disclosure of that application is also included herein, however, reference may be made to the specification of application no. 2012268831 as filed to gain further understanding of the invention claimed herein.

Field of the Invention The present invention relates to livestock tracking and in particular to a system, portable unit and server for associating one or more livestock with a property, and a method of operation thereof. The invention has been developed primarily for use with livestock and will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use. For example, the invention may have an application in detecting and preventing the theft of farm equipment as well as livestock. Specifically, system could be adapted to other mobile assets in other industries where assets are stolen and then given new identities and sold for cash. An example is the motor vehicle industry where cars stolen are given new identities by preparing false ownership documents and presenting these to Vic Roads/RTA for re registration (these organisations do not have the resources to check the authenticity of all ownership records presented to them). If the rightful owner of a car was required (at the time of buying the car) to have an electronic cloud vehicle ownership record linking his license number/address via geo-fence to his vehicle then this electronic record could be matched with the paper ownership records being presented for ownership transfers or re registrations. Clearly a person in possession of a stolen record with fake ownership papers would not be able to falsify the electronic record. Such a system adaptation could be implemented using readily available smartphone technology enabling consumers to photograph or read via barcode/RFID personal assets (i.e. TVs) and send these to a secure server safe where insurance companies and authorities could easily use this data to detect claim fraud and the receiving of stolen goods.

Background The global economy continues to expand and animal biosecurity and supply chain transparency are major drivers of change in the livestock industry, particularly in the sheep industry. The electronic tagging of Australian livestock is expected to be radically expanded to include 35,000 producers carrying 86 million sheep and goats within the next 2 years. The National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS) is Australia's system for identifying and tracking species that are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease, including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, alpacas and llamas. In each state the state Department of Primary Industries (DPI) works with the livestock industry to ensure that the systems for all species meetAustralia's National Livestock Traceability Performance Standards. The standards are required to assist in disease control and protect Australia's valuable meat export markets. The benefits for producers are from the access to export markets and on-farm benefits including the ability to quickly identify stock and accurately record production information. The DPI is responsible for the biosecurity of livestock and uses the information to trace movements and origins of diseased animals. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) use the information for industry marketing and promotion purposes including production improvement programs. Each property owned by producers is registered with a Property Identification Code (PIC). Each animal is given a unique 'whole-of-life' tag identification number which includes the PIC and other basic animal information. It is compulsory for producers to tag cattle before they leave the property using electronic ear tags approved by NLIS. The tags are read at saleyards and abattoirs and this information is included in barcode format on all packaged meat for domestic and overseas consumption. The on-farm benefits from tagging can only be achieved if the producer tags the calf at marking time and records all production information (i.e. weight gain, feeding, drenching and breeding info etc.). This also requires the producer to purchase on-farm RFID readers and accompanying specialised computer hardware and farm animal management software for use in the producer's office. These commercially available systems are expensive to buy and maintain and complex to use. Only 30% of cattle producers use these systems. The remaining 70% of generally smaller producers either cannot afford them or do not want the complexity of these systems. Consequently there are 70% of cattle producers who simply tag the cattle at the time they leave the property for market. Stock agents at saleyards provide producers with a tagging service of $20 per animal if an animal arrives for sale without an ear tag. For sale of cattle between producers a paper based system is in place for recording the movement of all cattle between properties. This includes the movement of cattle between multiple properties owned by single producers. Currently NLIS requires sheep to have a visual tag only. The recording system is paper based and limited to recording mob based movements of animals between properties rather than tracking individual animals along the supply chain.

The Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) National Vendor Declaration and Waybill (NVD/Waybill) is the main document upholding Australia's meat and livestock food safety reputation. When an LPA NVD/Waybill is signed, the producer is declaring compliance with LPA, the industry's food safety program. The NVD enables important information regarding livestock history to be transferred through the supply chain to the end consumer so that they be confident that the red meat product is safe. This system has many problems and the paper based declarations are often incorrect, incomplete and not sufficiently reliable for the industry to comply with Government standards. It needs to be replaced with new generation electronic technology. With the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Europe where the disease was spread to cattle by infected sheep (sheep are not adversely affected by the disease) it became evident that Australia needs to move to an electronic tagging system for individual sheep. Without such a system which is already in place for cattle, Australia has a huge biosecurity risk. The cost to clean up the foot-and-mouth epidemic in Europe was around AUD $16 billion. Europe and the UK have introduced electronic tagging of sheep and other countries are following. If Australia does not move soon it will soon lose access to the lucrative lamb export markets as overseas countries apply higher standards for animal traceability on imported meat products. In 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Centre for International Economics prepared independent reports on the viability of electronic sheep tags for the DPI and Animal Health Australia respectively. Both reports concluded that a system based on electronic tags would be economically feasible. It would address the sheep traceability issues for DPI and provide economic benefit to the producers at least equal to the value of their investment. Australia has a valuable live animal export market for sheep and cattle. These exports were suspended recently due to complaints from animal welfare activists regarding the inhumane slaughter methods used on Australian animals in overseas abattoirs. The Government resumed live exports and in October 2011 announced $15m in funding to in part assist the introduction of individual live exported animal traceability through the supply chain to overseas abattoirs. This decision provides even more incentive for the sheep industry to address its electronic tagging issue. In 2008 with the financial support of the Victorian Government the DPI introduced a non-compulsory electronic tagging system for sheep. The tags were $2.50 each and supplied by DPI. The take-up from producers was very disappointing. In 2009 the Government subsidised the tags down to a cost of $1 and provided each producer with a dollar-for-dollar grant up to $2500 to assist them with purchasing RFID readers, software and technical support if they signed up for electronic tagging. The support from the sheep industry remains low with only 300,000 sheep currently tagged in Victoria from a sheep population of 25,000,000.

The sheep industry is divided on the issue of electronic tagging and there is political tension between some industry bodies and the DPI. The producers resent being told they have to invest in RFID tagging and they see no economic benefit for the significant investment they need to make in tags, equipment and computer systems. However, there is resistance to this change by some within the sheep industry due to the cost of the RFID technology and the time and complexity in collecting and analysing the data. The current system of manufacturing, distributing and recording livestock RFID ear tags is extremely inefficient, costly and provides too much opportunity for human error as it is not a fully electronic system. Currently local RFID tag suppliers (e.g. Leader Products) import the electronic component of the tag (transponder/coil). The overseas factory manufacturers the transponder and embeds into it a unique electronic tag code, plus a manufacturer code. The transponder is shipped to Australia where is it moulded into the plastic visual tag component. In some instances this moulding process is undertaken in the overseas factory. After moulding the tag is kept in stock by Leader until a producer's order is received. All livestock producers must apply to DPI/(NLIS) for a unique PIC (Property Identification Code) for each of his properties (leased or owned) which are occupied by his livestock. Using his PIC the producer places an order for tags with his local rural merchandise outlet or direct with DPI and this order is sent to Leader via fax, email or electronically. Leader receives the order and allocates a block of tags for that producer's PIC and these tags are taken from stock and processed by a laser printer which reads the tags and prints the unique tag number, year of manufacture, tag type and PIC onto the surface of the tag for visual identification purposes (i.e. if the tag becomes detached from the animal it can be readily identified without scanning). The tag numbers and PIC information is electronically downloaded by Leader to DPI/NLIS and the tags are shipped to the producer or his local rural merchandise outlet. Furthermore, as for theft of livestock, vehicles and equipment from farms is an age old problem. Cattle rustling in Australia dates back more than 100 years with farm theft increasing and livestock and equipment being stolen of increasing value. Only recently has the Australian Government initiated research into this growing problem for farmers. Specifically, in November 2003 The Australian Institute of Criminology published the following report into the growing problem of crimes (mainly theft) committed against farmers in Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 268 http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/261- 280/tandi268.aspx The 2002-03 National Farm Crime Survey took a broader view of what crime prevention strategies are currently being used by farmers; whether these strategies are effective in reducing/preventing crime, and the current level of awareness of crime prevention programs/resources available to farmers available at http://www.ag.gov.au/farmcrime/HTMU appendix1.html The recommendations from all the above Government surveys and reports for fixing the farm theft problem include: 1 Broader use of the existing NLIS EID ear tag system; 2 Better record keeping by all participants in the network; 3 Greater vigilance; and 4 Increased reporting to police of activities. However, the above does not propose or suggest a technical solution to realise the above. Furthermore, producers are hesitant to adopt the current NLIS system as such a system is time consuming. Furthermore, the police are undermanned and don't have time to spare on the task of tracking down stolen plant and stock where success rates are low. The cost of farm crime was estimated at $70m in 2002/3 and the majority of this was from theft of livestock, vehicles and equipment. Farmers still rely mainly on traditional methods of security including, neighbours, locks, dogs and only a few have alarm systems. Alarms including back to base are generally ineffective in rural areas due to lack of security companies, police and geographic isolation. Furthermore, the use of surveillance and camera equipment is too expensive for farmers and they do not always have the latest internet and wireless infrastructure available at the required speeds and capacity. The rustlers and thieves are getting smarter and better organised, they operate in low visibility weather, at night they use night vision technology and debarked dogs. Sheep rustling in Victoria increased 129% last year. Clearly the thieves currently have the upper hand and the problem needs to be fixed. The present invention seeks to provide a system, portable unit and server for associating one or more livestock with a property, and a method of operation thereof, which will overcome or substantially ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an alternative. It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the information forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Summary According to one aspect, there is disclosed a method for associating one or more livestock with a property, the method comprising receiving livestock identification data representing an animal from a livestock identifying means; receiving location data representing a location from a location sensing means; determining property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data. Advantageously, the method allows for the efficient deployment of tags in the association of each of the tags with an animal being made with reference to a property. In this manner, the requirement for each of the tags to be associated to a property before use is negated, resulting in less tags being required and reduces operational costs. Furthermore, manual association of each of the tags with an animal is eliminated, reducing time wastage in the animal tagging process. Preferably, the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means. Preferably, the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader. Preferably, the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag. Preferably, the RFID tag is attached to the animal. Advantageously, the method is adapted for deployment using existing animal tagging infrastructure. In this manner, off-the-shelf RFID tags may be employed by the system in associating animals with a property in accordance with a location. Preferably, the location sensing means comprises a GPS. Advantageously, the method employs GPS technology to automate the location determination process, allowing for the accurate and automated tagging of animals. Furthermore, the location sensing means may be employed by more than one producer, contractor or agent wherein the location sensing means determines the relevant property as belonging to the relevant producer in accordance with a location. Preferably, the livestock identifying means and the location sensing means form an integral unit. Preferably, the integral unit is a portable unit. Advantageously, the portable unit may be ported by a producer about the property of the producer in tagging one or more animals. The portable unit may be attached to a vehicle for being transported within proximity of one or more animals in tagging the animals. Alternatively, the portable unit may be left in place, such as at a strategic location such as a gate, whereby the portable unit automates the tagging of any untagged animals passing through the gate. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a transmitter adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data. Advantageously, the portable unit is adapted for sending the livestock identification data and the location data for storage in 'the cloud'. In this manner, the data is kept secure, and is accessible by authorised persons as the need may be. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data. Advantageously, the portable unit may be adapted to store the livestock identification data and the location data in locations out of data network reception. Preferably, the method further comprises transmitting a unique transmitter code from the transmitter. Preferably, the method further comprises authenticating the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code. Preferably, the transmitter is a cellular transmitter. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data. Advantageously, the method allows for authenticated use of the method, reducing potential unauthorised use, fraud and the like. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a distress means and wherein the method further comprises transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means. Advantageously, the portable unit is further adapted for providing means for a producer to call for help in emergency or distress situations. Preferably, the property identification data comprises property identification code data. Advantageously, the property identification code data is a unique code identifying a unique property. Such a property identification code may be issued by an accredited authority and the like. Preferably, determining property identification data in accordance with the location data comprises receiving property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data identifying the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property. Preferably, the method further comprises identifying that the location is within the boundary of the property. Advantageously, the method is adapted to employ 'geo-fence' technology in order to determine which animals belong to which property. Preferably, the method further comprises receiving livestock identification data; and determining property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data. Advantageously, the method is adapted for determining which property an animal belongs to. Preferably, the method further comprises receiving property identification data; and determining livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data. Advantageously, the method is adapted for determining those animals belong to a particular property.

Preferably, the method further comprises receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and associating the ancillary data with the livestock identification data. Advantageously, the method is adapted for managing other data useful in the management of an animal. Preferably, the ancillary data is received from the livestock identifying means. Preferably, the method further comprises receiving livestock identification data; and retrieving the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data. Advantageously, the method is adapted for determining the ancillary data for a particular animal. Preferably, the method further comprises receiving second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means and identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property. Preferably, the method further comprises sending an alert. Advantageously, the method is adapted for reducing stock theft or stray animals in sending an alert to a producer in the event of one of the producer's animals being in an unauthorised location. According to another aspect, there is provided a system for associating one or more livestock with a property, the system comprising: livestock identifying means; location sensing means; and computing means, wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data representing an animal; the location sensing means is adapted for receiving location data representing a location; the computing means is adapted for determining property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and the computing means is adapted for associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data. Preferably, the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means. Preferably, the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader. Preferably, the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag. Preferably, the RFID tag is attached to the animal. Preferably, the location sensing means comprises a GPS. Preferably, the livestock identifying means and the location sensing means form an integral unit. Preferably, the integral unit is a portable unit. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a transmitter adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data. Preferably, the transmitter is adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter code from the transmitter. Preferably, the computing means is adapted for authenticating the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code. Preferably, the transmitter is a cellular transmitter. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data. Preferably, the portable unit comprises a distress means and wherein the transmitter is adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means. Preferably, the property identification data comprises property identification code data Preferably, wherein, in determining property identification data in accordance with the location data, the computing means is adapted for receiving property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data representing the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property. Preferably, the computing means is adapted for identifying that the location is within the boundary of the property. Preferably, the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data; and the computing means is adapted for determining property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data Preferably, the computing means is adapted for receiving property identification data; and determining livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data. Preferably, the computing means is adapted for receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and associating the ancillary data with the livestock identification data. Preferably, the ancillary data is received from the livestock identifying means. Preferably, the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data; and the computing means is adapted for retrieving the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification means is adapted for receiving the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data. Preferably, the livestock identification means is adapted for receiving second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means and wherein the computing means is adapted for identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property. Preferably, the computing means is adapted for sending an alert. According to another aspect, there is provided a portable unit for associating one or more livestock with a property, the portable unit comprising livestock identifying means; location sensing means; and a transmitter, wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data representing an animal; the location sensing means is adapted for determining location data representing a location; and the transmitter is adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data. Preferably, the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means. Preferably, the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader. Preferably, the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag. Preferably, the RFID tag is attached to the animal. Preferably, the location sensing means comprises a GPS. Preferably, the portable unit further comprises a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data. Preferably, the portable unit is adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter code. Preferably, the transmitter is a cellular transmitter. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data. [114]Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data. Preferably, the portable unit further comprises a distress means and wherein Preferably the portable unit is further adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means. Preferably, the livestock identifying means is further adapted for receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal. According to another aspect, there is provided a server for associating one or more livestock with a property, the server comprising a processor for processing digital data; a memory device for storing digital data including computer program code and being coupled to the processor via a bus; a network interface for sending and receiving digital data and being coupled to the processor via the bus; and a database for storing digital data and being coupled to the processor via the bus, wherein the processor is controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data representing an animal; receive, via the network interface, location data representing a location; determine property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and store, in the database, the livestock identification data in relation with the property identification data. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, a unique transmitter code from a transmitter. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to authenticate the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data. Preferably, the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data.

Preferably, the property identification data comprises property identification code data. Preferably, in determining property identification data in accordance with the location data, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data representing the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to identify that the location is within the boundary of the property. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data; and determine property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, property identification data; and determine livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and store, in the database, the ancillary data in relation to the livestock identification data. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data; and retrieve, from the database, the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means; and identify that the second location is outside the boundary of the property. Preferably, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to send, via the network interface, an alert. Other aspects are also disclosed.

Brief Description of the Drawings Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, a preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a portable unit on which the various embodiments described herein may be implemented in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 shows a system for associating one or more livestock with a property in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 3 shows a method for associating one or more livestock with a property in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of Embodiments It should be noted in the following description that like or the same reference numerals in different embodiments denote the same or similar features.

System overview The system, portable unit and server for associating one or more livestock with a property, and a method of operation thereof disclosed herein is adapted for the livestock industry for tracking and collecting 'on-farm' data for individual animals. The system allows for a low cost solution which integrates an RFID animal ear tag reader with a GPS unit, such as in a farm vehicle, and a transmitter to allow data to be sent wirelessly into a 'cloud' livestock database. Furthermore, the combination of the GPS unit and transmitter allows for a 'work alone' health and safety solution which is much needed in rural and remote workplaces. Industry-wide mandatory EID tagging requires all animals leaving the farm gate to be electronically tagged to enable traceability through the industry supply chain. As will be described in further detail below, the present system will encourage producers to take advantage of the compulsory RFID tag system by installing low cost RFID scanning/GPS tracking solutions to improve farm productivity. For example, the present system is expected to cost in the region of under $3,000 at present values compared to commercial system currently available at between $ 10,000 and $20,000. Furthermore, for animals tagged at birth (marking), their production output (i.e. weight gain/wool yield etc.) to be electronically recorded throughout the 'on-farm' animal husbandry process. In other words, rather than simply tag their livestock immediately prior to sale producers are able to use the present system to tag at birth and use the data to benefit the producer. In addition to the use of GPS technology to transmit the RFID animal data GPS tracking software can also play a vital role in lowering the production and processing costs of the EID ear tags. By using 'geo-fencing' capabilities of GPS tracking software livestock can be tagged with generic tags allowing the GPS tracker to electronically match newly tagged animals to the producers PIC in the cloud, replacing the current need to locally process and print PIC details on the tags and control their use by only the owner of the PIC. This 'new generation' method of matching PIC electronically via geo-fence could save the industry $40m plus and reduce the sheep tag costs to around $0.50. Under the 'new generation' system the producer would register via the DPI/NLIS the producer's property's GPS coordinates as an electronic 'geo-fence' which is linked electronically in the 'cloud' to his unique PIC for each of his properties. In this manner, the overseas factory would manufacture the transponder and moulds it into the tag and in the same process print the unique tag number and manufacture year on the exterior of the tag. The tags are then shipped to Australian distributors/wholesalers and are sold to rural merchandise outlets where they can be purchased in packets of generic tags by any producer anywhere in Australia. At the time of lamb or calf marking the producer will attach the tag and his RFID reader connected to the GPS unit in his vehicle will transmit the tag number 'electronically stamped' with the GPS coordinates of the property to the cloud database. The database will recognise the property GPS coordinates and assign that animal to that producers PIC with the date, time and location the animal was marked. Unlike the current system the 'new generation' tag/PIC system is fully electronic, more accurate, and by eliminating the need for further local manufacturer processing of the tag (which is a significant cost at our wage and overhead levels) could be imported and sold to producers for around 50c per tag which is the price at which the most objectionable sections of the sheep industry say would be acceptable. Currently sheep EID tags sell at around $1.50 although Victorian producers can buy these at a subsidised rate of $0.90 from DPI. Producers could have potential savings of around $40m pa. This new generation system would require acceptance and approval from Government and industry bodies. The GPS unit as described herein may require a serial port for communication with an RFID reader, extra memory/capacity to store the RFID data and a transmitter to transmit the RFID data and the vehicle GPS data to a server. Currently the industry uses low frequency 134.2 MHz for EID ear tags which is the international standard. Low frequency is low cost and requires readers to be quite close (300mm) to the tag to get a quality read. However, the system can utilise higher frequency RFID tags which allow scanning up to 50meters. The system may further comprise livestock management software comprising APIs to be built to allow other users to receive data feeds from the livestock database on the server. These other users could include DPI, NLIS, MLA, stock agents, producers and various farm management software providers. As is apparent from the disclosure herein, the system offers several benefits to several benefits accrue to producers, including: • Low cost method of data collecting livestock production information; • Labour savings with wireless transmission of data. No manual data input of uploading from disk; • Software savings with all livestock management and financial programs and data available from the cloud; • Greater production due to more accurate and current data allows informed decision making about animal culling, breeding selection and wool yields; • Work alone safety concerns solved with the GPS vehicle tracker fitted to farm vehicle allowing for the ability to send SMS or alarm to contact person in event of accident, distress or rollover etc.; • Improved production and knowledge of available animals and their condition will allow producers through their stock agents to better meet buyer's requirements and yield better prices. i.e. lamb finishers; • Farm livestock data can be easily interfaced with accounting records or logins made available to financial or agricultural consultants; • Potential for farm mapping to be prepared and overlayed in cloud and on vehicle tracking software; • Farm contractors can track time and location of job for more accurate and speedy preparation of billing; • Livestock rustling minimised if all stock are tagged at birth; • Benefits of Geo-Fence electronic PIC allocation; • The elimination of the need for further local manufacture processing of the tag (which is a significant cost at our wage and overhead levels) the tag could be imported and sold to producers for around 50c per tag. Currently sheep EID tags sell at around $1.50 although Victorian producers can buy these at a subsidised rate of $0.90 from DPI. Producers could have potential savings of around $40m per annum; • Producers no longer need to order their tags in advance with their unique PIC allocated to them. They simply call into their local rural merchandise outlet and buy them off the shelf. Huge savings in time, convenience and stocking levels; • Any tag can be used on any farm. Producers can use a neighbouring producer's tags if he runs out of stock; • Tags are only entered as they are assigned to a new animal therefore no need for DPI/NLIS to administer a database containing millions of tags which are not yet used and may never be used by the producer/PIG; • Currently the tag system also comprises a tag colour scheme for each birth year allowing easy field visual identification for drafting animals into age groups. This does lead to unused coloured tags being unusable at year end. This system is useful and should be retained however the losses can be eliminated if the coloured component is limited to the visual component of the tag allowing the smaller more costly transponder component to be used any year; • DPI/NLIS labour saving wherein animal vaccinations are electronically captured rather than by using the existing manual paper based system. • Many costly human errors currently occur where producers use the wrong PIC tags leading to costly administration fixes by DPI/NLIS stock agents and processors. The new system is totally electronic and eliminates all these errors; • GPS tracker ownership will be registered in the cloud thereby adding an extra check and trace as to which producer or contractor performed the marking; • Electronic tagging via GPS provides producers with added security from theft of their livestock. If a producer steals other producer's animals he is unable to sell these unless they have a tag which matches the 'geo fence' of the farm where they were born (subject to authorised electronic transfer of animals sold producer to producer). Victorian Police have recently established a new Livestock and Farm Crime Specialists Group to track down livestock theft which has increased by 129% last year. The reporting of thefts totalling 5,900 sheep last year is considered only a fraction of the actual number as many producers either do not know sheep are missing or do not bother reporting; • Farm livestock security is further enhanced through the use of vehicle GPS trackers because the unique IMIE and MSN number of the tracker remitting the data is also sent into the cloud. Each tracker has a mobile phone SIM card which is subject to the Telecommunication Act requiring the licence number name and address of the owner of the tracker to be held on file. Any illegal use of the tracker can therefore easily be detected and traced; and • If all animal data from marking time onwards is 'in the cloud' then the producer has complied with the NLIS system and there would be no need to complete LPA NVD/Waybill forms when animals are moved. A system of farm compliance audits and livestock stocktakes could be introduced if the cloud database revealed suspicious irregularities with particular producers.

[149] Furthermore, several benefits accrue to the DPI/MLA/Government, including: • Biosecurity via traceability of individual animals allows DPI to trace origin of disease outbreak within 48 hours; • Producers using cloud computing to assess their animal data and management programs will benefit from high speed fibre internet in rural Australia will give some payback to Government for the $12b National Broadband Network investment; • Tracking of animals from birth to overseas slaughter house allows industry to comply with international animal welfare standards ensuring humane handling and slaughter methods; • ALPA (stock agents) NLIS and MLA and all industry bodies will benefit from having a comprehensive, up to date and accurate cloud database of all livestock. Many existing legacy systems use in government and industry bodies could be scrapped with huge savings to all; • Savings to Policing and Industry Insurers etc. with minimisation of livestock theft; • This 'new generation' system will put Australia at the international forefront of livestock supply chain traceability and biosecurity thereby opening new international markets and increasing the marketability of our red meat; • As the majority of cattle are not tagged until immediately before they leave the farm for sale/slaughter according to existing arrangements, meaning they have only been RFID tagged for a few days of their life. The present system of mandatory tagging of animals at birth/marking will deliver the industry a real 'a whole-of-life system' and provide full supply chain traceability and transparency; • NLIS and DPI spend considerable resources inspecting compliance at saleyards etc. and correcting many errors caused by human keying or transcription errors. A 100% electronic system will significantly reduce this cost and allow authorities to focus more on assisting the producers with compliance prior to the animals leaving the farm; and • In addition to biosecurity traceability the present solutions also provide improved electronic tracing of chemical contamination (i.e. accidental or malicious spread of pesticides and herbicides which may enter soil or water and contaminate food). Yet further the system offers several benefits to Livestock Transporters, including: • Accurate and efficient billing system if transport companies use RFID readers connected to trackers in livestock transport vehicles; • Other benefits from using vehicle GPS tracking including, personal safety, rout monitoring, time and fuel monitoring, job allocation, electronic log book, electronic and accurate payroll time sheet, job costing system, vehicle maintenance and service notification system; and • Increased business - if smaller operators or farm trucks do not fit mandatory tracking then business will be picked up by those that do comply. Yet further the system offers several benefits to Agents/Processors, including: • Agents benefit from having animals scanned and on the sale list prior to arriving at saleyards therefore reducing cost and hassle of retagging faulty tags and manually entering non tagged animals. • Processors advise there is a growing demand for meat which meets certain criteria. i.e. from sheep that have not been mulesed. The present system of electronically capturing all 'on-farm' animal processes provides processors with a reliable source of supply allowing new markets to be opened and producers selling at a premium to new niche markets; • Saleyards could also be setup as geo-fences in the system and reduce their current costs of scanning and on location computer equipment. This will require further investigation with agents; • Some states require processors to check an electronic data base of any known disease risk animals before slaughter. Under the present system the origin, disease status and chemical/hormone treatment of every animal can be determined electronically at or before purchase so no need for any further costly pre-slaughter disease status checks; • With 100% tagging compliance processors can have full electronic upload of animal ID numbers slaughtered including slaughtered weight and abattoir number. They will no longer be required to enter and upload the PIC of last property of residence as this will already be in the cloud data; and Agents currently feel they are bearing the brunt of compliance with the NLIS system and are frustrated with the input errors and non-compliance by producers etc. and the system currently generates hundreds of emails notices of errors and in some cases agents and producers just delete the emails because they are overwhelmed with the emails. A fully electronic 100% compliance system will eliminate most of the errors and frustrations and place the onus back onto the producer.

Portable unit Fig. 1 shows a portable unit 100 on which the various embodiments described herein may be implemented. As will be described in further detail below, the portable unit 100 may be used by producers for associating one or more livestock with the producer's property. Ideally, the portable unit 100 is a mobile device allowing the producer to attach the portable unit 100 to a farm vehicle for the purposes of tagging one or more farm animals on the producer's property. In this embodiment, the portable unit 100 is preferable provided in a ruggedized housing, being substantially weatherproof so as to be suited for the outdoor environment. However, it should be noted that in various embodiments, the portable unit 100 need not be portable and may take the form of a permanent or semi-permanent apparatus wherein each of the livestock is brought within proximity of the portable unit 100, such as located at a gate so as to tag animals passing therethrough. The portable unit 100 comprises memory 110 which may comprise volatile memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory (ROM). Typically, the memory 110 comprises a combination of volatile and non-volatile memory, such that the non-volatile memory stores the portable unit 100 firmware and the volatile memory stores one or more temporary results of the fetch-decode-execute cycle, as described below. The portable unit 100 comprises an 1/0 interface 140 for communicating with one or more peripheral devices, some of which are described herein. In a preferred embodiment, the portable unit 100 comprises a GPS receiver 105 coupled to the 1/0 interface 140. The GPS receiver 105 is adapted for determining the location of the portable unit 100. It should be noted that the GPS receiver 105 may be integral with the portable unit 100, or any be accessory to the portable unit 100, either coupled to the portable unit 100 via 1/0 interface 140, or used to ascertain a location whereafter the location is manually input into the portable unit 100 using human input devices (HID) 160. In a yet further preferred embodiment, the portable unit 100 comprises Radio frequency identification (RFID) reader 115 for reading data from one or more RFID tags. As will be described in further detail the RFID tags may be attached to the livestock of the producer, such as by the ear of an animal. It should be noted that the RFID reader 115 need not be an RFID reader per se, and may comprise any means for identifying an animal. For example, in other less preferred embodiments, an animal may be identified by scanning a barcode attached to the animal. Furthermore, the means for identifying an animal may automate the identification process (such as for example by reading an RFID tag, scanning a barcode and the like) or may simply receive the livestock identification by manual entry. The portable unit 100 may comprise a computer program code storage medium reader 130 for reading data from computer program code storage medium 120. The storage medium 120 may be optical media such as CD-ROM disks, magnetic media such as floppy disks and tape cassettes or flash media such as USB memory sticks. Furthermore, the 1/0 interface 140 may communicate with the storage medium reader 130 and may take the form of a SCSI, USB or similar interface. The 1/0 interface 140 may also communicate with one or more human input devices (HID) 160 such as a keyboard or pointing devices. The 1/0 interface 140 may also communicate with one or more personal computer (PC) devices 190, using a suitable interface such as an RS 232 interface. The 1/0 interface may also communicate audio signals to one or more audio devices 1050, such as a speaker or a buzzer. The portable unit 100 also comprises a network interface 170 for communicating with one or more computer networks 180. Network 180 may be a wired network, such as a wired Ethernet TM network or a wireless network, such as a Bluetooth TM network or IEEE 802.11 network. The network 180 may be a local area, such as a home or office computer network, or a wide area network, such as the Internet. In a preferred embodiment, the network interface 170 is adapted for remote farm locations and may therefore comprise a suitable transmitter, such as a cellular transmitter or satellite transmitter in more remote locations. In this manner, the portable unit 100 is adapted for communicating with a server in the manner described in further detail below. Note that in one embodiment, where transmission of data is unfeasible, the portable unit 100 may be adapted for storing such data in the memory 110 for later download. Typically computer program code is preloaded into the memory 110. However, computer program code instructions may be loaded into the memory 110 from the storage medium 120 using the storage medium reader 130 or from the network 180. The portable unit 100 comprises an arithmetic logic unit or processor 1000 for performing computer program code instructions. The processor 1000 is typically a low power microprocessor suited to low power embedded controller applications. During the bootstrap phase, an operating system and one or more software applications are loaded the memory 110. During the fetch-decode-execute cycle, the processor 1000 fetches computer program code instructions from memory 110, decodes the instructions into machine code, executes the instructions and stores the results in the memory 110. The portable unit 100 also comprises a video interface 1010 for conveying video signals to a display device 1020, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or similar display device. The display device 1020 may be embedded in the portable unit 100, or located at remotely. The portable unit 100 may further comprises an analogue to digital (A/D) converter 1030 for converting analogue signals from transducer 1040 into a digital format. The portable unit 100 also comprises a communication bus 150 for interconnecting the various devices described above. In certain embodiments, the GPS unit 105 may be integral with a sick or wand shaped RFID reader/scanner 115 or RFID panel reader 115. Alternatively, the GPS unit 105 may be implemented by a computing device, such as a mobile computing tablet or smart phone having GPS functionality. Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, the portable unit 100 may comprise a distress beacon (not shown) for emergency situations. In this manner, as will be described in further detail below, should the producer run into trouble, the producer may activate the distress beacon such that portable unit 100 transmits the location of the portable unit 100 to emergency services for action.

System for associating one or more livestock with a property Turning now to Fig. 2, there is shown a system 200 for associating one or more livestock with a property. The system 200 comprises one or more portable units 100 used by one or more producers and other operators on one or more properties. As is described herein, the portable unit 100 is adapted for identifying livestock and the location of livestock for the purposes of associating one or more livestock with a property. The portable unit 100 is adapted for receiving data from one or more RFID tags 215 attached to one or more animals. As alluded to above, the system 200 may employ means other than RFID for the purposes of identifying an animal. The one or more portable units 100 are coupled to a network 180. The network 180 may comprise any type of data network and may comprise a mixture of network types. In a preferred embodiment, the network 180 comprises a cellular network between the portable unit 100 and an exchange and an IP network such as the Internet between the exchange and the server 205. The system 200 also comprises a server 200 for managing the various computational tasks described herein and storing and retrieving data described herein such as property data, property identification data, property boundary data, owner detail data, animal ancillary data and the like. The system 200 may also comprise a client terminal 220, typically operated by a producer for viewing and manipulating data relating to the producer's livestock data. Additionally, the system 200 may comprise an administrator terminal 210. The administrator terminal 210 may be operated by a system administrator or the like for managing the system 200. Additionally, the administrator terminal 210 may be operated by a governmental authority for monitoring compliance, allocating codes (such as property identification codes) and the like. Furthermore, the administrator terminal 210 may be adapted for communication with an authority server 230 for automating the compliance monitoring process, allocation process and the like. In one embodiment, the system 200 may comprise API access allowing for data sharing between producers, properties, authorised persons and the like.

Associating one or more livestock with a property Turning now to Fig. 3, there is shown a method 300 for associating one or more livestock with a property. The method 300 may be implemented using system 200 or a variation thereof. While the method 300 will be described below with reference to a specific example, it should be noted that variations to the specific embodiment described are possible without detracting from the purpose of the method 300 of associating one or more livestock with a property. The method 300 starts at step 305 where the portable unit 100 receives livestock identification data identifying an animal from a livestock identifying means. For example, a producer uses RFID reader 115 to read an RFID tag attached to the ear of a sheep. Alternatively, the RFID tag may be loose, wherein once the RFID tag is associated with the producer's property in the manner described below, the producer attaches the RFID to the ear of the sheep. As alluded to above, means other than RFID may be used to identify the sheep, such as a barcode scan, manual data entry and the like. At step 310, the producer uses the GPS receiver 105 of the portable unit 100 to determine the location of the portable unit 100. Again, means other than GPS may be used to determine the location of the portable unit, such as cellular triangulation, manual data entry and the like. At step 315 the system 200 determines a property identification in accordance with the location data. In a preferred embodiment, the system employs 'geo-fences' to determine the identification of the property in the manner further described below. Note that such determination may be performed by various actors in the system, such as by the portable unit 100. However, in a preferred embodiment, the determination is made by the server 205. In a less preferred embodiment, the property identification may be predetermined. For example, the portable unit 100 may be configured with the property identification such that it is not necessary to determine the property identification in accordance with the location. For example, the property identification may be loaded into the memory 100 of the portable unit 100, such that upon receipt of the livestock identification data the livestock identification data and the property identification data are sent to the server 205. At step 320 of method 300, the livestock identification data is associated with the property identification data. In this manner, as further described below, each animal of the livestock of a producer may be associated with the property of the producer such that each animal may be identified as belonging to the producer at a later time using the livestock identification data. Preferably the association of the livestock identification data with the property identification data is recorded by the server 205, and preferably within a database of the server 205. As mentioned above, the portable unit 100 may comprise a transmitter 170 adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data. In this manner, each time an animal is scanned by the producer, the association of the livestock identification data and the property identification data are transmitted to the server 205 for storage for later use. In a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) module such that the producer can insert a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card into the portable unit 100for access to a cellular network. However, certain farms, especially farms in remote locations, may not be within cellular range. Furthermore, long range telecommunications such as satellite communication may be prohibitively expensive. As such, in one embodiment, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to store the livestock identification data and the location data in the memory 110. In this manner, the producer is able to download the data from memory 110 at a later stage, such as by using a USB or RS-232 interface. Alternatively, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to transmit the data in the normal manner when the portable unit 100 is backwithin range. In one embodiment, the system 200 may be secured so as to prevent fraudulent associating one or more livestock with a property. For example, a stock thief may send data to the server 205 representing that a sheep belongs to another property. As such, each producer may be recorded against a portable unit 100 such that only a particular producer may use the portable unit 100 and only verified producers may have access to the system. In one embodiment, the portable unit 100 may be adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter code from the transmitter 170 such that the server 205 is able to authenticate the transmitter 170 in accordance with the unique transmitter code. Once the transmitter is authenticated, the associating of the one or more livestock with a property may take place. The unique transmitter code may comprise Integrated Management Information Environment (IMIE) data, MSN data and the like. In one particular embodiment, the portable unit 100 comprises distress beacon functionality to alerting purposes should the producer encounter an emergency and require assistance. Here, the portable unit 100 is adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit 100 when the distress beacon functionality is activated by the producer. Once the location of the portable unit 100 is received by the server 205 (or other system), alert data may be sent to the appropriate emergency services.

Geo-fencing There is now provided an embodiment of associating one or more livestock with a property wherein 'geo-fence' technology is used for determining the property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data. As is described in further detail below, the server 205 is configured with boundary data representing the boundaries of one or more properties. The boundary data may be received from the appropriate authority, such as a surveyor's office, deeds office and the like. Furthermore, each of the properties is allocated a property identification code data uniquely identifying each property. In this manner, upon receipt of livestock identification data and location data, the server 205 is able to use the boundary data to determine in which property the location is located. Having identified the relevant property, the server 205 is able to associate the livestock identification data with the property. Specifically, the server 205 is adapted for receiving property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising property identification data identifying the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property. In this manner, the server 205 is able to identify that the location is within the boundary of the property.

Once the server 205 if configured with the abovementioned 'geo-fence data'the server 205 is able to receive livestock identification data and retrieve property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data. For example, at a sheep auction, the auctioneer is able to scan the RFID tag of the sheep to receive verification from the server 205 that the sheep does in fact belong to the purported owner of the sheep. Conversely too, the server 205 is adapted for identifying all of those sheep belonging to a specific property. Specifically, the server 205 is adapted for receiving property identification data and determining livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data.

Ancillary Data Whereas the portable unit 100 is adapted for determining certain data and communicating with the server 205, the portable unit 100 is suited for managing ancillary data about an animal, such as weight gain, wool yield, age, sex, immunisation status and the like. In this manner, a producer as able to manage ancillary data that will assist the producer and others in the management of the livestock of the producer. In a specific example, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to capture immunisation data, such as when a producer immunises a sheep against foot-and-mouth disease. The immunisation status may be recorded in the tag where the technology permits or entered manually into the portable unit 100. As such the portable unit 100 may be adapted to transmit the immunisation status data to the server, either at the time of associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data or at a later stage. In this manner, the producer is able to manage the immunisation process and so too are others, such as where an authority for disease control is able to determine the location of immunised livestock in the advent of an outbreak. In one embodiment, the server 205 associates the ancillary data with the livestock identification data such that the ancillary data may be obtained using the livestock identification data. In another embodiment the server 205 associates the ancillary data with the property identification data such that the ancillary data may be obtained using the livestock identification data.

Livestock/Equipment theft alerting In a yet further embodiment, the system 200 is adapted for detecting stolen animals at various locations, such as saleyards and the like. Specifically, the system 200 provides a security identification system for all Australian livestock (sheep, goats, pigs and cattle) by employing tagging and using RFID/GPS geo-fencing technology to allocate a tagged unit of equipment or livestock to a farmers PIC (Property Identification Code) in the server

205. As for the protection of livestock, note that in one embodiment, the system 200 is adapted to detect stolen livestock by detecting a tag of an animal that is're-tagged' by the system 200 in a property that is not recorded by the system 200 as having bred the animal or having purchased the animal. In practice, an animal is ear tagged at birth using the system 200, thereby recording the birth date, location and other animal data. Then, when a criminal steals the animal from the property of birth and replaces the existing tag 215 with another tag 215 in an attempt to sell the animal at the local saleyards, the animal tag 215 would be scanned at the saleyard. Here, the tag 215 is checked to ensure the PIC associated with the tag 215 shows that the animal for sale has an electronic record of that animal being born on his property or an authorised transfer from another property. Any non-matching tags are sent to police for follow up. As for protection of equipment, a new piece of equipment will be RFID tagged and that tag number loaded into the server 205 using the portable unit 100. A few modifications may be needed which would include developing a suitable system of affixing the tag to the equipment and visually identifying the equipment as having a security tag fitted. Furthermore, the tags would need to be tamper proof and fitted to the chassis or main component of the equipment thereby making it obvious if it has been tampered with and impossible to remove by removing and replacing component of the equipment. Preferably, a description of the equipment is entered via the portable unit 100. For example, a camera attached to the portable unit 100 could upload a photo of the equipment and the model and manufacturer details could be manually entered later and stored in the server 205 against the tag number and the photo data. In this manner, should a tagged piece of equipment is stolen then it could not be sold at a clearing sale or traded into an equipment dealer without the agent or the dealer doing an online security (via RFID scan of the equipment or search on internet) check to ensure that equipment has a purchase date and PIC which matches the PIC of the farmer offering it for resale. If a person removes the tag and attempts to sell the equipment then evidence of a tag being removed will prompt the dealer or agent to contact police with a description and photo of the equipment and the PIC of the farmer that is the current registered owner. Police will search the server 205 for reports of missing equipment of that description and will match the description and or photos. The person now becomes a 'person of interest' to the Police. Where a thief steals tagged equipment for use rather than onward sale, such a thief farmers would be taking a big risk as police or industry would now have more time to do regularfarm equipment inspections.

Tags 215 used for equipment could operate at the same frequency as the livestock tags 215 and could be read by the portable unit 100. The design of the tag 215 may need to be changed depending how it is to be affixed to the equipment. In one embodiment, the system 200 is adapted to alert and producer in the event of an animal being outside the boundary of the property of the producer. For example, where a sheep strays from a farm, and the producer hasn't notified the system 200 of the relocation of the sheep, the server 205, upon receipt of location data in relation to the sheep, is able to determine that the sheep is in an unauthorised area and send an alert to the producer accordingly. In a further example, where a sheep is sold at market, or taken to an abattoir, the sheep may be scanned using the portable unit 100. In this manner, should the sale or slaughter of the sheep be unauthorised by the producer, the server 205 is adapted for sending an alert to the producer. Specifically, the server 205 is adapted for receiving second location data representing a second location from the portable unit 100, identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property; and sending an alert.

Portable unit Referring specifically now to the portable unit 100, the portable unit 100 comprises livestock identifying means location sensing means 105 and a transmitter 170. The livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data identifying an animal; the location sensing means 105 is adapted for determining location data representing a location and the transmitter 170 is adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data to the server 205. The livestock identifying means may use various means for identifying livestock, such as a barcode scanner, manual entry and the like. However, in a preferred embodiment, the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means. Preferably, the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader such that the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag attached to the animal. The location sensing means 105 may comprise various means to determine the location of the portable unit but preferably comprises a GPS. Furthermore, the portable unit 100 may further comprise a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data so as to be able, for example, to cache the data when out of network reception. For producer verification processes, the portable unit 100 may be adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter 170 code to the server 205 such that the server is able to authenticate the portable unit 100. The transmitter 170 may be a cellular transmitter 170 such that the unique transmitter 170 code comprises IMIE data, MSN data and the like. In one embodiment, the portable unit further comprising a distress means and such that the portable unit 100 is further adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit 100 in accordance with the actuation of the distress means. In this manner, should the producer, often working in a remote location run into trouble, the producer is able to activate the distress means so as to call for help. In a yet further embodiment, the livestock identifying means is further adapted for receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal, such as weight gain, wool yield and the like. Such data may be manually input into the portable unit 100 at the time of identifying the animal, such as by manual data entry, or may be stored in the RFIDtag, externaldatabase and thelike.

Server Referring specifically now to the server 205, the server 205 is adapted for associating one or more livestock with a property. The server 205 comprises a processor 1000 for processing digital data; a memory device 110 for storing digital data including computer program code and being coupled to the processor via a bus 150; a network interface 170 for sending and receiving digital data and being coupled to the processor 1000 via the bus 150; and a database for storing digital data and being coupled to the processor via the bus 150. The processor 1000 is controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface 170, livestock identification data identifying an animal; receive, via the network interface 170, location data representing a location; determine property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and store, in the database, the livestock identification data in relation with the property identification data. For producer authentication purposes, the server 205 may be adapted to receive, via the network interface 170, a unique transmitter code from a transmitter so as to authenticate the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code. The unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data, MSN data and the like. In a preferred embodiment, the property identification data comprises property identification code data such that in determining property identification data in accordance with the location data, the server 205 is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface 170, property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data representing the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property. In this manner, the server 205 is adapted to identify that the location is within the boundary of the property. The server may also be adapted to receive, via the network interface 170, livestock identification data; and determine the property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data. Conversely, the server 205 may be further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface 170, property identification data; and determine livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data. Yet further, the server 205 may be adapted to assist the producer in managing ancillary data relating to an animal by receiving, via the network interface 170, ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and storing, in the database, the ancillary data in relation to the livestock identification data. As such, should a producer or other person wish to ascertain the ancillary data of an animal, the server 205 may be controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface 170, livestock identification data; and retrieve, from the database, the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data. In a yet further preferred embodiment, the server 205 may be adapted to frustrate stock theft by receiving, via the network interface 170, second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means; and identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property. In this manner, the server 205 may be adapted to send, via the network interface 170, an alert to the relevant producer indicating that the animal is no longer within the boundary of the property.

Recordable of vaccines, drenches and chemicals In a further embodiment, over and above the embodiments described above for associating one or more livestock with the property, animal and farm equipment theft prevention and the like, there will now be described an embodiment adapted for monitoring and identifying vaccines, drenches and chemicals adapted for allowing farmers to comply with regulatory requirements. Specifically, veterinary products including vaccines and drenches, and pesticide products including chemicals have very onerous regulatory requirements imposing severe penalties for non-compliance. Farmers often struggle to comply with these regulatory requirements primarily on account of their inability to create and maintain adequate records for products storage, usage and disposal. As will now be described, there is provided embodiments adapted to overcome these disadvantages, including providing automated compliance monitoring, data provision to government regulatory authorities and more.

Livestock vaccination and drench validation In this embodiment, the portable unit 100 is adapted for receiving PTBCPS data relating to vaccines and drenches, recording the application thereof, and reporting the application. Specifically, the portable unit 100 may be provided with a RFID reader 115, barcode scanner or the like allowing the user the ability to identify the type of vaccine or drench. For example, using the portable unit 100 the user may scan a consignment of animal vaccines using the RFID reader 115, barcode scanner or the like to identify the particular vaccine. Alternatively, the vaccine identity may be input in a manual fashion. Having received the identification data, the portable unit 100 is adapted to send the identification data via the network interface 170 across the network 180 to the server 205 to retrieve the specific information relating to the vaccine or drench. For example, the specific information may include the name of the vaccine or the drench, application instructions including dosage regime usage and the like. This information may be displayed by the display device 1020 of the portable unit 100 for view by the user. In administering a vaccine to a sheep, the user may scan the RFID tag attached to the sheep, and then administer the vaccine. In this manner, the portable unit 100 is adapted to record administration data the type of vaccine, the dosage and the affected animal. In this manner, the system may be adapted to record all vaccinations for a particular animal which may be subsequently retrieved on demand as the need arises. Having recorded the administration data, the portable unit 100 is adapted to send the administration data to the server 205 for recording. The data recorded by the server 205 may be made available to the authority terminal 230 to allow the relevant authority to review the dosage requirements of a particular farmer. For example, the relevant authority may be able to view that a particular farmer has recently administered a vaccine for a particular disease to all of the sheep belonging to the farmer. It should be noted that the application data may be applicable not only to authorities, but also others especially at the time of sale including farmers or butchers purchasing stock or the like. In this manner, the administration data may be made publicly available such that others may confirm that a particular vaccination or drenching regime has been adhered to. In embodiments, the system 200 may be adapted to send notifications to a farmer notifying the farmer of overdue applications. For example, should a particular vaccine be required to be administered at six month intervals, the server 200 may be adapted to send a notification to the farmer notifying the user that an administration is due or overdue. The notification may comprise details relating to each specific animal recorded by the system 200 which may cater for scenarios where different animals are vaccinated at different times. The portable unit 100 may be adapted to record other administration data including the location of the administration. For example, at the time of administration, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to record positional data from the GPS device 105 for recordal with the administration data for submission to the server 200. As alluded to above, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to record the date and time of the administration also. In this manner, date configurable map data may be generated displaying the dates and locations of administrations. In one embodiment, the portable unit 100 is adapted to provide instructions to the farmer as to the correct dosage. For example, should a farmer scan the RFID tag of a particular sheep, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to display that whether a vaccination is due for the particular sheep. Furthermore, if a particular vaccine is due or overdue, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to retrieve the appropriate dosage regime data from the server 205 indicating the correct dosage. For example, should a farmer scan the RFID ear tag of a particular sheep, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to display, using the display device 1020, that a vaccination is overdue by three weeks and that the vaccination dosage is mlof a particular vaccine to be administered byway of injection. In this manner, the system 200 may be adapted to monitor several vaccine or drenching regimes simultaneously substantially removing the data recording and monitoring burden from the farmer. For example, all that may be required from the farmer is to periodically scan the RFID tag of a particular animal using the portable unit 100 to view whether there are any outstanding actions applicable for the particular animal. Furthermore, the system 200 may be adapted to cater for disease outbreak wherein, for example, should a particular disease be detected in an area, or be anticipated in an area, the date of the server 205 may be updated instructing farmers to apply a particular vaccine to counter the particular disease. Furthermore, should a particular vaccine become obsolete, such as by being replaced by a superior vaccine, the data of the server 205 need only be updated with the data relating to the superior vaccine. Furthermore, the system 200 is advantageously suited for taking into account differing regulatory requirements of different areas. For example, certain disease vaccination regulatory requirements in Australia are not nationally standardised, that differ from state to state. In this manner, the system 200 is advantageously adapted for retrieving the applicable regulatory requirements according to the location of the portable unit 100. For example, should the portable unit 100 to determine that the animal is in Victoria, the portable unit 100 would receive dosage regime according to the regulatory requirements of Victoria. Furthermore, the system 200 provides cost saving benefits for the farmer. For example, all sheep vaccinated against ovine Johne's disease (ODJ) must be identified with an approved National Livestock Identification System ear tag representing the capital letter V. However, using the system 200, there is no requirement to fasten ear tags to affected sheep not only saving cost for the farmer, but also reducing inaccuracy. Furthermore, the system 200 may be adapted to dynamically account for differing factors affecting a dosage regime including the type of sheep enterprise (e.g. wool, meat, stud), how often sheep are introduced into the flock, the number of different source flocks sheep are purchased from, the sheep are sold as store sheep, whether store sheep are sold or moved interstate, whether OJD has been detected in the district, the condition of boundary fencing, local topography and drainage onto the property, the cost of the vaccine, and safety issues associated with vaccine use. It should be noted that certain of this information may be provided by the farmer, such as whether the sheep are sold as store sheep. Other information may be ascertained by the system 200 from ancillary sources such as from a GIS database to ascertain the local topography and drainage of the relevant property. Yet further, other information may be calculated by the system 200 such as where the system 200 records the locations of each individual animal to determine whether the sheep are sold interstate.

Chemical spray validation In further embodiments, there is provided means for chemical spray validation during the chemical application process. As will be described in further detail below, these embodiments advantageously provide for improved chemical storage and record keeping, dosage compliance monitoring, minimisation of overspray, identification of neglected areas and the like. Furthermore, the system 200 may guard against the illegal supply and use of unregistered agvet chemical products. Not only could using an unregistered chemical product jeopardise the user, but it could also result in crop and herd damage or loss; economic loss; occupational health and safety hazards; threats to public health; environmental damage; and international trade losses. During the chemical application process, the portable unit 100 may be employed for recording the type of chemical sprayed, the amount of chemicals sprayed and the location in which the chemicals were sprayed. The portable unit 100 may be coupled to a handheld spray applicator, or a mechanised crop sprayer which may be fastened to a tractor, aircraft or the like. The portable unit 100 records the location of the application of chemicals using the GPS receiver 105 to record the area having been sprayed. Using the HID interface 160, the farmer may input the relevant information, such as the type of chemical, flow rate, spread of the applicator and the like. Alternatively, the portable unit 100 may be adapted for scanning information relating to a chemical, such as by using a barcode reader, RFID reader or the like. Furthermore, the portable unit 100 may be adapted for retrieving additional data from the server 205 including dosage regime instructions and the like. The transducer 1040 of the portable unit 100 may be adapted to measure certain parameters during the chemical application process. For example, the transducer 1040 may be coupled to a flow meter to record the amount of chemicals being applied. In this manner, should the particular dosage regime for a chemical stipulate that a certain amount of chemical is to be sprayed per square metre, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to, using the flow rate, calculate which areas have received sufficient dosage and which areas have not. In this manner, the farmer may take remedial action as required. Yet further, by recording the chemical consumption rate, the system 200 may be adapted to interface with an automated ordering system wherein replacement quantity of chemicals quantities of chemicals are automatically dispatched to a particular farmer in accordance with the farmers anticipated needs. Furthermore, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to factor in other parameters affecting the dosage including temperature, wind direction, windspeed and the like. As such, the transducer 1040 may be adapted to measure the ambient temperature during crop spraying which may affect evaporation rates, absorption rates and the like. In this manner, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to calculate whether a chemical has been applied correctly in accordance with the ambient temperature. Furthermore, the transducer 1040 may be coupled to an anemometer to measure wind speed and direction. For example, especially when spraying crops from an aircraft, the portable unit 100 may calculate that chemicals dispersed at a first location will effect an area at a second location determined by the wind speed and direction. In this manner, chemicals may be applied regardless of wind speed and direction. Once dosage has taken place, the dosage application data (which may include the type of chemical, amount of chemical appliance and location) may be sent by the portable unit 100 to the server 205 for recordkeeping. The dosage application data may be made available to the authority terminal 230 so as to allow the relevant authority to monitor compliance. Furthermore, the dosage application days may be made available to produce suppliers such as where, for example, a grocery supply chain may access the server 205 for the purposes of determining what chemicals have been sprayed, which pests have been treated for and the like. Yet further, the portable unit 100 may be adapted to display instructional data to the farmer alerting the farmer to overdue chemical applications. The instructional data may describe the chemical required and amount required. Furthermore, the system 200 may be adapted to cater for dynamic variables such as where an outbreak of a particular pest has been detected, appropriate chemicals may be prescribed by the system 200. Furthermore, should a particular chemical be discovered as having unintended toxicology consequences, and required to be pulled from the market, the system 200 may alert the farmer to this fact and suggest a suitable alternative.

Interpretation Wireless: The invention may be embodied using devices conforming to other network standards and for other applications, including, for example other WLAN standards and other wireless standards. Applications that can be accommodated include IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs and links, and wireless Ethernet. In the context of this document, the term "wireless" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not. In the context of this document, the term "wired" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices are coupled by electrically conductive wires.

Processes: Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing", "computing", "calculating", "determining", "analysing" or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities into other data similarly represented as physical quantities.

Processor: In a similar manner, the term "processor" may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data, e.g., from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that, e.g., may be stored in registers and/or memory. A "computer" or a "computing device" or a "computing machine" or a "computing platform" may include one or more processors. The methodologies described herein are, in one embodiment, performable by one or more processors that accept computer-readable (also called machine-readable) code containing a set of instructions that when executed by one or more of the processors carry out at least one of the methods described herein. Any processor capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken are included. Thus, one example is a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM.

Computer-Readable Medium: Furthermore, a computer-readable carrier medium may form, or be included in a computer program product. A computer program product can be stored on a computer usable carrier medium, the computer program product comprising a computer readable program means for causing a processor to perform a method as described herein.

Networked or Multiple Processors: In alternative embodiments, the one or more processors operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other processor(s), in a networked deployment, the one or more processors may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to- peer or distributed network environment. The one or more processors may form a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine. Note that while some diagram(s) only show(s) a single processor and a single memory that carries the computer-readable code, those in the art will understand that many of the components described above are included, but not explicitly shown or described in order not to obscure the inventive aspect. For example, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Additional Embodiments: Thus, one embodiment of each of the methods described herein is in the form of a computer-readable carrier medium carrying a set of instructions, e.g., a computer program that are for execution on one or more processors. Thus, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a method, an apparatus such as a special purpose apparatus, an apparatus such as a data processing system, or a computer-readable carrier medium. The computer-readable carrier medium carries computer readable code including a set of instructions that when executed on one or more processors cause a processor or processors to implement a method. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a method, an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of carrier medium (e.g., a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium) carrying computer-readable program code embodied in the medium.

Carrier Medium: The software may further be transmitted or received over a network via a network interface device. While the carrier medium is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term "carrier medium" should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term "carrier medium" shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by one or more of the processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. A carrier medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.

Implementation: It will be understood that the steps of methods discussed are performed in one embodiment by an appropriate processor (or processors) of a processing (i.e., computer) system executing instructions (computer-readable code) stored in storage. Itwill also be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular implementation or programming technique and that the invention may be implemented using any appropriate techniques for implementing the functionality described herein. The invention is not limited to any particular programming language or operating system.

Means for Carrying out a Method or Function Furthermore, some of the embodiments are described herein as a method or combination of elements of a method that can be implemented by a processor of a processor device, computer system, or by other means of carrying out the function. Thus, a processor with the necessary instructions for carrying out such a method or element of a method forms a means for carrying out the method or element of a method. Furthermore, an element described herein of an apparatus embodiment is an example of a means for carrying out the function performed by the element for the purpose of carrying out the invention.

Connected Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term connected, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being !imitative to direct connections only. Thus, the scope of the expression a device A connected to a device B should not be limited to devices or systems wherein an output of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means. "Connected" may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

Embodiments: Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments. Similarly it should be appreciated that in the above description of example embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention. Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood by those in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

Different Instances of Objects As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

Specific Details In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Terminology In describing the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terms so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar technical purpose. Terms such as "forward", "rearward", "radially", "peripherally", "upwardly", "downwardly", and the like are used as words of convenience to provide reference points and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

Comprising and Including In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" are used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention. Any one of the terms: including or which includes or that includes as used herein is also an open term that also means including at least the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and means comprising.

Scope of Invention Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art will recognize that other and further modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to claim all such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention. For example, any formulas given above are merely representative of procedures that may be used. Functionality may be added or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may be interchanged among functional blocks. Steps may be added or deleted to methods described within the scope of the present invention. Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.

Industrial Applicability It is apparent from the above, that the arrangements described are applicable to the livestock management industries.

Claims

Claims 1. A method for associating one or more livestock with a property, the method comprising: receiving livestock identification data representing an animal from a livestock identifying means; receiving location data representing a location from alocation sensing means; determining property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader.
4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag.
5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the RFID tag is attached to the animal.
6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the location sensing means comprises a GPS.
7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the livestock identifying means and the location sensing means form an integral unit.
8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the integral unit is a portable unit.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the portable unit comprises a transmitter adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data.
10. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the portable unit comprises a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data.
11. A method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising transmitting a unique transmitter code from the transmitter.
12. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising authenticating the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code.
13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the transmitter is a cellular transmitter.
14. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data.
15. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data.
16. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the portable unit comprises a distress means and wherein the method further comprises transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means.
17. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the property identification data comprises property identification code data
18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein determining property identification data in accordance with the location data comprises: receiving property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data identifying the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property.
19. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising identifying that the location is within the boundary of the property.
20. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: receiving livestock identification data; and determining property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data.
21. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: receiving property identification data; and determining livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data.

[getting ancillary data about the animal, such as age, sex, immunisation etc]
22. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and associating the ancillary data with the livestock identification data.
23. A method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the ancillary data is received from the livestock identifying means.
24. A method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising: receiving livestock identification data; and retrieving the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data.
25. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising: receiving second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means; and identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property.
26. A method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising sending an alert.
27. A system for associating one or more livestock with a property, the system comprising: livestock identifying means; location sensing means; and computing means, wherein: the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data representing an animal; the location sensing means is adapted for receiving location data representing a location; the computing means is adapted for determining property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and the computing means is adapted for associating the livestock identification data with the property identification data.
28. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means.
29. A system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader.
30. A system as claimed in claim 29, wherein the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag.
31. A system as claimed in claim 30, wherein the RFID tag is attached to the animal.
32. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the location sensing means comprises a GPS.
33. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the livestock identifying means and the location sensing means form an integral unit.
34. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the integral unit is a portable unit.
35. A system as claimed in claim 34, wherein the portable unit comprises a transmitter adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data.
36. A system as claimed in claim 34, wherein the portable unit comprises a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data.
37. A system as claimed in claim 35, wherein the transmitter is adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter code from the transmitter.
38. A system as claimed in claim 37, wherein the computing means is adapted for authenticating the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code.
39. A system as claimed in claim 37, wherein the transmitter is a cellular transmitter.
40. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data.
41. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data.
42. A system as claimed in claim 35, wherein the portable unit comprises a distress means and wherein the transmitter is adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means.
43. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the property identification data comprises property identification code data
44. A system as claimed in claim 43, wherein, in determining property identification data in accordance with the location data, the computing means is adapted for: receiving property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data representing the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property.
45. A system as claimed in claim 44, wherein the computing means is adapted for identifying that the location is within the boundary of the property.
46. A system as claimed in claim 27: wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data; and wherein the computing means is adapted for determining property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data
47. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the computing means is adapted for: receiving property identification data; and determining livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data.
48. A system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the computing means is adapted for: receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and associating the ancillary data with the livestock identification data.
49. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the ancillary data is received from the livestock identifying means.
50. A system as claimed in claim 48: wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data; and wherein the computing means is adapted for retrieving the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data.
51. A system as claimed in claim 44: wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving second location data representing a second location from a location sensing means; and wherein the computing means is adapted for identifying that the second location is outside the boundary of the property.
52. A system as claimed in claim 51, wherein the computing means is adapted for sending an alert.
53. A portable unit for associating one or more livestock with a property, the portable unit comprising: livestock identifying means; location sensing means; and a transmitter, wherein the livestock identifying means is adapted for receiving livestock identification data representing an animal; the location sensing means is adapted for determining location data representing a location; and the transmitter is adapted for transmitting the livestock identification data and the location data.
54. A portable unit as claimed in claim 53, wherein the livestock identifying means comprises a tag reading means.
55. A portable unit as claimed in claim 54, wherein the tag reading means comprises an RFID reader.
56. A portable unit as claimed in claim 55, wherein the livestock identification data is received from a RFID tag.
57. A portable unit as claimed in claim 56, wherein the RFID tag is attached to the animal.
58. A portable unit as claimed in claim 53, wherein the location sensing means comprises a GPS.
59. A portable unit as claimed in claim 53, further comprising a memory adapted for storing the livestock identification data and the location data.
60. A portable unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the portable unit is adapted for transmitting a unique transmitter code.
61. A portable unit as claimed in claim 60, wherein the transmitter is a cellular transmitter.
62. A portable unit as claimed in claim 61, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data.
63. A portable unit as claimed in claim 61, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data.
64. A portable unit as claimed in claim 53, further comprising a distress means and wherein the portable unit is further adapted for transmitting a location of the portable unit in accordance with the actuation of the distress means.
65. A portable unit as claimed in claim 53, wherein the livestock identifying means is further adapted for receiving ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal.
66. A server for associating one or more livestock with a property, the server comprising: a processor for processing digital data; a memory device for storing digital data including computer program code and being coupled to the processor via a bus; a network interface for sending and receiving digital data and being coupled to the processor via the bus; and a database for storing digital data and being coupled to the processor via the bus, wherein the processor is controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data representing an animal; receive, via the network interface, location data representing alocation; determine property identification data representing a property in accordance with the location data; and store, in the database, the livestock identification data in relation with the property identification data.
67. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to receive, via the network interface, a unique transmitter code from atransmitter.
68. A server as claimed in claim 67, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to authenticate the transmitter in accordance with the unique transmitter code.
69. A server as claimed in claim 67, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises IMIE data.
70. A server as claimed in claim 67, wherein the unique transmitter code comprises MSN data.
71. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein the property identification data comprises property identification code data.
72. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein, in determining property identification data in accordance with the location data, the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, property data representing one or more properties, the property data comprising the property identification data representing the property and property boundary data representing a boundary of the property.
73. A server as claimed in claim 72, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to identify that the location is within the boundary of the property.
74. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data; and determine property identification data representing the property in accordance with the livestock identification data
75. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, property identification data; and determine livestock identification data representing the animal in accordance with the property identification data.
76. A server as claimed in claim 66, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, ancillary data representing ancillary information about the animal; and store, in the database, the ancillary data in relation to the livestock identification data. 77. A server as claimed in claim 76, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, livestock identification data; and retrieve, from the database, the ancillary data in accordance with the livestock identification data. 78. A server as claimed in claim 72, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to: receive, via the network interface, second location data representing a second location from alocation sensing means; and identify that the second location is outside the boundary of the property.
77. A server as claimed in claim 78, wherein the processor is further controlled by the computer program code to send, via the network interface, an alert.