Beyond Mere Compliance of RFID Regulations by the Farming Community: A Case Study of the Cochrane Dairy Farm

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is changing the face of livestock identification and management. Beyond satisfying the regulations of government agencies for livestock to be a part of a national identification system for tracking purposes, farmers are now considering venturing beyond mere basic compliance systems. Once installed, farmers have begun to realize that their initial capital investment into an RFID system holds great strategic potential. The initial outlay while substantial is a once only cost that with a few more application-centric uses can yield a return on investment manifold. This paper presents a case study of the Cochrane Dairy Farm situated on the New South Wales South Coast. The case study shows that the Cochrane Dairy farm utilizes advanced total farm management techniques that will before too long lead to greater dividends. The contribution of this paper is in presenting how a dairy farm has adopted RFID initially to meet government directives, and then for broader more personalized requirements. Farming processes are defined explicitly and the paper points to encourage other farmers to consider adoption of RFID beyond the need for compliance and toward the perspective of longer term productivity and strategic visibility.