The industry has launched two game-changers for Australian farmers – a farm sustainability dashboard and a biosecurity virtual reality tool – to help egg farmers to continue to improve on-farm and business practices. These two tools are announced in the third sustainability framework report. The Australian Eggs sustainability framework report examines the relationship between the Australian community and the egg industry, using insights from annual CSIRO community research.
In direct response to key issues raised by the community and industry as part of the sustainability framework process, Australian Eggs has developed the tools. Days Eggs, a family-managed egg business located in South Australia that has been producing and delivering eggs for over 30 years, are the state’s largest egg producer. Days Eggs poultry welfare manager Jess Spencer believes the biosecurity virtual reality tool, launched through the sustainability framework report of 2021, improves efficiency in training and allows farm managers to raise the initial skill set of new members, as well as providing additional training to help raise the skill set of current team members who may learn better through this type of training delivery.
Australian Eggs world-leading agritech tools will help farmers improve sustainability and biosecurity practices. Ms Spencer explains a key benefit of delivering biosecurity training virtually is that it allows complete induction training in a controlled environment without the need to be on farm.
“This in turn increases safety and mitigates welfare risks by reducing the chance of any issues arising from new staff learning on farm, who aren’t competent in biosecurity yet,” she said.
“The content of the VR program is based on current biosecurity measures and will provide a great tool for basic induction biosecurity training of new staff, as well as refresher training for other staff.
“It encourages the user to seek out biosecurity issues and gives them feedback on their answers as well as tips.” The world-leading agritech, part of Australian Eggs sustainability framework process, supports learning by not allowing the user to progress to other areas until they have answered all questions within an area correctly. With the display screen, the program allows managers to view how the user faired with their answers, giving an idea of their understanding of biosecurity and what their training needs are.
“It makes the person using it actively think about what the risks are and what they must do to mitigate them,” Ms Spencer said.
Australian Eggs managing director Rowan McMonnies said, “Our new biosecurity VR tool allows new and existing staff to be trained in a close to real-life environment, driving efficiencies and improving training outcomes.”
“It’s great to know the initiatives we developed in response to community issues raised through our sustainability framework are making an impact, with Australians’ trust in our industry continuing to grow.”