5th July 2023

The introduction of mandated electronic identification (EID) of sheep by 2025 has the potential to be a gamechanger for farmers looking to maximise profit and simplify their on-farm operation. EID tags come with the opportunity to start collecting data on animals, making more informed decisions, and automating everyday farm tasks.   

Gallagher’s Animal Performance and Traceability range offers a line-up of premium equipment designed to manage and track information on animals, such as weight gains and goals, health and pedigree information, and even automatic drafting using EID tags. 

The Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter is a fully automated system that is smoother, quieter, and easier to set up and operate than any other sheep drafting product on the market. With inbuilt load cells to weigh animals and EID antenna panels that read sheep tags as they enter the drafter, you only need to add a Weigh Scale and — just like magic — it’s ready to go.  

Sheep drafting becomes a one-person, hands-free job. The unit is controlled by a remote control, which simplifies the drafting process and saves the farmer time and money. 

The Sheep Auto Drafter has a modular design, making it easy to put together, and it’s lightweight so it can be easily transported around the farm. The 3-way drafting gate design encourages sheep movement, with additional units to allow up to 5-way drafting. 

With a focus on safety, the Auto Drafter has no trapping points, metal bars, or sharp edges, so it’s simple for farmers to use, and gentle on the animal. 

Gallagher’s Business Development Manager for Animal Performance & Traceability, Mike Hemsley, is excited about the Sheep Auto Drafter offering, saying, “the Sheep Auto Drafter, with its unique moulded construction, is a quiet, fast, and effective tool for automatically weighing and drafting sheep. The built-in EID panels on both sides of the unit and the integrated load cells, when coupled with a TWR-5, provide intuitive, no-fuss, individual animal management.” 

If manual drafting is more suitable to the farmers’ needs, Gallagher also offers a Manual 3-Way Sheep Drafter. A portable drafting solution suitable for moving site to site, the manual sheep crate has easy sliding, inward opening doors, making it suitable to use in a race.  

When it comes to adding a Weigh Scale, Gallagher offers a range of premium Weigh Scales to make weighing and data management easier than ever before. 

The bestselling TWR-5 is an all-in-one weigh scale, data collector, and EID tag reader. It’s designed for Australian farmers, with a touchscreen and full colour LCD display that’s built to be easily read in full sunlight. It can record and analyse animal performance data with onscreen data records and performance graphs, and send this information to the cloud to be accessed through the Animal Performance Plus app.  

Animal Performance Plus is where your on-farm data lives. It’s a cloud-based app for web and mobile, and it integrates with Gallagher’s suite of products to provide powerful insights on animal data, helping farmers make more profitable decisions. 

Check out the Sheep Auto Drafter system in motion in Tim Thompson’s latest video: Revolutionizing Sheep Farming: Automated DNA Matching and Drafting - YouTube 

The information provided in this article is intended as a guide only. Information contained in this article has been provided by the manufacturer/ You should not rely on the information in this article, and it should not be considered advice. You should seek professional advice regarding relevant factors specific to your situation. This article does not take into account variable conditions that may impact performance. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Nutrien Ag Solutions Limited and its related associated entities will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by any person arising out of any reliance on any information contained in this article.