Receive and pen a consignment of cattle

What is going on

Consignment LR-26-1047, 68 grain fed cattle from Kanimbla Feedlots, is booked to arrive at 4:30 am on Thursday. The regular stockperson is on leave and the Livestock and Lairage Manager has asked you to receive the consignment under his supervision. The buyer has flagged two horned animals. On Tuesday a consignment from another vendor was held because the National Vendor Declaration was missing an answer, and the manager wants the documentation checked before a single animal comes off the truck. The plant runs a strict animal welfare program and a customer animal welfare audit is a month away, so unloading, penning and identification reconciliation must be done exactly to the procedure.

Your brief

Receive the consignment in line with the Livestock Receival and Lairage Procedure and the Animal Welfare Policy, reconcile the documentation and identification, pen the animals correctly and complete the register so the consignment is ready for ante-mortem inspection.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Livestock Receival and Lairage Procedure and prepare a pre-arrival checklist covering pens, water, ramp inspection and the special instruction about horned animals.
• Review the National Vendor Declaration supplied by your assessor and record whether it is complete, listing any answer that would cause the consignment to be held.
• Describe how you will unload the two decks, where you will stand, what aids you will use and how you will identify animals of concern for the hospital pen.
• Reconcile a simulated electronic identification read of 66 devices against 68 head and record how you investigated and resolved the two missing reads.
• Update record LR-26-1047 in the Livestock Receivals Register from Booked to Received and then In lairage, entering pen number, head count, curfew time and notes.
• One steer is reluctant to leave the truck. Explain, with reference to the Animal Welfare Policy, what you are permitted to do and what you must not do.
• Record the four hourly welfare check you would make on this pen and describe when you would call the animal welfare officer.
• Explain how and when the National Livestock Identification System transfer must be completed and who is responsible.

What someone in this role would produce

• Pre-arrival checklist
• Documentation check with hold decision and reasons
• Identification reconciliation record
• Updated Livestock Receivals Register entry
• Written welfare handling explanation