Science has been a constant throughout Dr Rod Kater’s life, from the sheep farms of his childhood to his career as a gastroenterologist and the development of his own Angus beef farms.
His drive for science-led solutions continues to this day with his support for a UNSW-led pilot study into the revolutionary possibilities of microchip identifiers for livestock.
Watching grass grow is anything but dull for cattle farmer Rod Kater. Now in his late 80s, the former gastroenterologist happily monitors the return of native grasses and legumes to his family’s Angus beef farm in the Hunter Valley, the result of a three-year holistic grazing project overseen by his daughter, Annabel.
“The glycines (native peas) are coming back in abundance together with kangaroo grass, weeping grass (Microlaena) and scented top,” says Rod. “Being native grasses, they don’t require the usual chemical fertilisers and use plant root microorganisms to obtain nutrients. The cattle actually do very well on it and like it. It’s very palatable.”
The Katers have been tied to farms and science for generations. Both Rod’s father and grandfather worked as doctors while maintaining the family’s connection to Merino studs. Rod, now retired from medicine to farm full-time, had his gastroenterology practice at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for 40 years, all the while building up two top-quality beef farms.
These days, Rod continues to monitor both his medical journals and his agricultural journals, keeping track of looming challenges, and considering the emerging solutions. It’s a pursuit that benefits the family business but also informs his role as a trustee of the McCaughey Memorial Institute, a charitable trust dedicated to supporting agricultural research and education since 1945.
Rod’s focus currently is the farmer’s perennial issue of being able to reliably identify and track an animal across its life: important for tracing ownership and genetics, for sale and insurance purposes, and for everyday animal management.
The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) used in Australia requires all livestock to wear an eartag, comprising a small donut-shaped electronic device, similar to the anti-theft devices used in clothing stores, and a visual eartag, numbered and colour-coded. Effective in theory, the tags are all too easily removed by cattle thieves or simply lost in the scrub due to scratching and playful jostling among the cattle.
When the NLIS eartag is lost, farmers lose the identifier that matches the animal to its ownership, genetics, lifetime traceability, and sometimes other important information.
Back in the 1990s, Rod had thought about using microchips similar to those required by domestic pets. It would provide a permanent identification method, and by placing it in the animal’s ear it would be prevented from entering the food chain.
“Once they're in, you can’t actually remove them without cutting the ear off. I thought that would be a very good barrier to cattle theft.”
Now, decades later, the idea is being tested in a pilot study with Associate Professor Damia Mawad from UNSW’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Funded with generous support from the McCaughey Memorial Institute, the two-year pilot study will see microchips, similar to those used to identify domestic pets, inserted under the ears of 100 weaned heifers. Each cow will be checked every six months to confirm the chip hasn’t migrated in the body, and that it has caused no irritation, allergies or other side effects.
Damia is excited about the technique’s potential. “I think it’s going to change the livestock industry as we know it, because all of a sudden, you’ll have this technology which is providing a whole-life traceability,” she says.
She also believes the microchip can do much more than deliver a reliable ID system, eventually helping farmers to identify sick animals sooner or select better breeding stock.
“From a research point of view, I think so much can be done. We are just reading the microchip now. But new microchips are being developed as we speak that can pick up temperature, breathing or heart rate, so you can monitor the health of the cow. I think it’s really promising.”
So far the tiny microchip being used in the pilot study has stayed in place, unlike the larger microchips used in overseas studies that have moved about the body or could not be detected after a period of time.
Both Rod and Damia are hopeful the study will ultimately benefit livestock farmers across the country, although Rod acknowledges that not all share his interest in science.
“Cattle producers fit under the usual bell-shaped curve,” he says, “but the common factor is the interest in caring for their animals.”
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