Agsmart Review
Fodder Care is a self-service Quality Assurance system that allows fodder growers to meet the objectives of target market compliance, food safety, and traceability.
Data – Paddock Identification.
Paddocks are the basic unit of land and are treated as a single entity for subsequent reporting. Properties and paddocks should be predefined to populate modules as required. This data could be collected at the time of registration and then maintained on a self-service basis. Paddocks could be defined by name, area and crop and changed (versioned) over time. Where required part paddocks may be identified as a percentage or defined area of the original paddocks.
Additionally, paddocks could be defined geospatially if available. A geospatial front end could be developed for grower and buyer (including exporters) use.
Event – Crop contamination Inspections.
Growers must certify that each cropped paddock has been inspected for posts, wire, dead animals, other foreign matter, pest, diseases and weeds. In the event that a paddock is contaminated, a record of remedial actions is maintained.
The inspection is an event with an event date and type, including details of contaminations and remedial actions performed or planned. Subsequent inspections are recorded by date and type.
Event – Product Treatments.
Paddocks may be treated by applying certain chemicals to control a range of pests and diseases. Paddocks may be treated individually or as a group as required. Product usage guidelines and regulations define correct usage.
Depending on the target market (export / domestic), treatment of paddocks may be recorded in detail, in summary, by declaration or by reporting no treatments were applied in a defined time.
The treatment product database may not include all products in use by all growers. Therefore the product database must allow user input of unlisted products. These products may be added to the database for general use or remain as personal entries for use of an individual grower. Use of these products would be accepted or rejected by the buyer as required.
Event – Harvest Records.
Paddocks are harvested in full or in part on a date. Crops are subsequently baled for sale or storage. Weather conditions may determine the properties of the bales. E.g. rain during harvest or baling. Bales are identified and their properties recorded. These properties would include harvest and baling dates, identification, size, weight, analysis results and the use of conditioners and or inoculants.
The output of harvest records would be a record of bales (individually or by batch ID) and their properties. Bales must be traceable to their source paddock and related inspection and treatment records.
Event – Analysis.
Sample bales of related batches may be core tested and analysed by an accredited laboratory. Analysis results should be stored and made available to authorised persons. Results may relate to individual bales, batch IDs and source paddock / property.
Fodder Care Vendor Delivery Declaration
This declaration is currently a paper form containing multiple boxes, each of which is a declaration or summary of each of the above activity records.
This process could be converted to electronic form and records stored for later retrieval. Where appropriate various users could access detailed or summary data for the purpose of ensuring compliance to target market guidelines. The electronic form may be converted to paper or PDF if required.