Combine management of your farm biosecurity risk, safety and operations management in a single app. 

New on-farm biosecurity tools are one of the outcomes of a national partnership that links vegetable growing businesses and biosecurity expertise from state and territory biosecurity agencies, research programs and the private sector. The levy funded Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy will develop tools and systems to ensure the vegetable industry is prepared and ready to respond to new and recently established plant pests and pathogens. 

A key aspect is the evaluation of technology and data to support movement of produce and swift reinstatement of market access. 

What is on the soles of your shoes? Pests, pathogens and weeds can be unknowingly spread on contaminated footwear, vehicles and equipment. Ensuring visitors have clean footwear and vehicles are simple measures you can take to reduce the risk of introducing unwelcome pests, pathogens and weeds to your property

Visitors to your farm, such as contractors, researchers, agronomists and others, are one of the pathways by which pests, pathogens and weeds can be introduced onto your property via footwear, vehicles and equipment. 

Using a visitor register can help you keep track of who is coming and going onto your farm.  

AUSVEG has partnered with farm safety and operations software provider Onside as part of the Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy program to trial and evaluate the use of movement data collected using farm check-in technology to model, track and predict pest, disease and weed spread to inform intervention and eradication measures. 

Designed to complement current on-farm biosecurity practices, Onside is a mobile application that helps farming businesses capture the details of people, machinery, equipment and farm inputs on and off their property without additional workload burden. 

The technology can simultaneously communicate your farm biosecurity messages so that visitors know what is expected of them. It can be as simple as having a QR code on the farmgate biosecurity sign or using the app to check in at the office. 

Streamline the check in process 

Check-in technology streamlines farm processes, including biosecurity practices. Using the Onside app means you can: 

  • Get notified in real-time if someone has arrived on your farm.  
  • Share your farm map and rules with visitors easily, including information about current biosecurity concerns or hazards.  
  • Have confidence that visitors have acknowledged farm biosecurity information provided. 
  • Get a digital record of the movements on and off your property. 
  • Review visitors’ biosecurity responses and instantly find a visitor’s contact details so you can quickly follow up with people if there is a biosecurity concern. 
  • Share anonymised movement data to your industry body. 
  • Know what is happening, even when you’re not on the property. 

 

Boratto Farms 

Victorian vegetable grower Boratto Farms is an early adopter of Onside, and says traceability software has made a big difference for their on-farm biosecurity management. 

Mike Fielden, Boratto Farms, checks the app to see who has arrived

“Biosecurity has become more serious as we bring more stuff in on an import/export basis for market access and to keep the farm more secure,” said Mike Fielden, CEO of Boratto Farms.

“Our thoughts around biosecurity have increased to keep the farm safe. We have gone down the digital route with Onside as it gives us data in real-time, to keep more control and grow the business and allows us to keep quantifiable records.” 

Boratto Farms has several production sites in the Bacchus Marsh area, and the business uses QR codes at each site’s point of entry to monitor visitor movement onto and between the different farms without needing to be onsite. 

“If we need to see the visitor or if we think there is a concern, we can respond instantly,” says Mr Fielden. 

“If we have an event, we have full traceability and transparency data on what happens on our farms. 

“For visitors it means that they can check in and out from their phone without having to go into the office. It has given them better awareness of biosecurity on the farm. For regular visitors it has given better engagement. The process is a lot simpler and easily adopted. 

“My advice is to take it seriously to protect your business with real quantifiable data.” 

Your industry is stronger together 

In addition to streamlining farm biosecurity measures for growers, the Onside trial will help the Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy project evaluate the potential for using movement data to inform emergency pest responses and speed up the return to trade for impacted farms. 

By participating in the trial and connecting to the Onside app, farms will collect check-in movement data. We project will evaluate the potential for this data to identify pest and disease risks pathways and create traceability records to support the development of risk-based responses to biosecurity threats. 

Using this data, emergency pest response resources can be directed to high-risk areas. Importantly, data collected in this trial will also be evaluated for use to support a risk-based return to trade for impacted farms. 

A recent study conducted in New Zealand has shown that for every $1 spent by industry to access digital traceability tools, up to $54 can be saved on biosecurity response costs. The savings are driven by a reduction in the number of properties infected during an incursion. This is because digital traceability data helps emergency response agencies target their efforts faster to more effectively restrict the spread of the incursion, saving time, money and hardship. With more users and data, the accuracy and capability of decision-making increases. 

The New Zealand study also reported that response costs for both government and industry can be reduced as the rate of adoption increases. Where 50 percent of an industry had adopted traceability technology, a 31 percent reduction in response cost was predicted. 

This is significant when considering costs to both industry and government associated with recent pest arrivals to Australia, such as the response to the Varroa mite incursion, which is costing government and industry in excess of $100m. 

Trial Onside for free! 

All Australian commercial vegetable-growing properties are invited to trial the Onside app for free. The more farms that participate in the trial, the more connections and better decision-making capability the industry will have. The trial runs until June 2025.  

Contact the project team to get connected and try out a simple biosecurity procedure for your farm. 

 

Learn more: 

AUSVEG
Rose Daniel
Rosalie.Daniel@ausveg.com.au
(03) 9882 0277 

Onside
1800 112 334
www.getonside.com/au/ausveg

More information: 

Watch the video interview with Mike Fielden of Boratto Farms about Onside: https://tinyurl.com/3xy5r9kp 

Hear our Vegalogue podcast story: https://tinyurl.com/53w2m8h2 

 

The Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy (VG22004) is funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable industry research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not for profit research and development corporation for Australian Horticulture.  

 Project VG22004