Murray Scholz INTERNET-BASED PROGRAMS

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1 AUSTRALIA Murray Scholz Mr Scholz has had 25 years of commercial experience in software development, the last 17 of which have been in the livestock industries. He has extensive overseas experience and has developed and installed major systems for ABRI s clients in North America. He has played a leading role in the development of breed registry systems for various species in Australia, and has been instrumental in the development of this software for a world-wide audience (now installed and used by more than 80 Breed Associations). ABRI s breed register systems have been developed to provide a close integration of pedigree, performance recording, membership, accounting, show results and other relevant data. Most recently, ABRI s Internet Solutions has extended these functions, making livestock improvement technologies accessible to a much large world-wide audience. From 1993 to the present, he has served as Associate Director, ABRI, also responsible for the supervision and management of ABRI s 17-person software development team. INTERNET-BASED PROGRAMS 1. Background to the Internet The history of the internet, whilst exceeding short as histories go, is significant in the speed of its development and the enormous impact it has had on our everyday lives. The term world-wide-web (www) was only coined 14 years ago, but its impact has been such, that there would hardly be a person here today who has either not used it ( , web browsing) or not been affected by it recently. The beauty of the technology is that you don't need an intimate understanding of what's happening behind the scenes, in order to benefit from the experience (much like driving a car - we don't need to understand how the engine works, all we need is basic knowledge of the controls and be prepared to pay for the experience). In some circumstances a little knowledge about the engine does help, so here is an extremely brief and simplistic overview of the Internet 'engine'. This knowledge will help us to appreciate some of the inadequacies of what's available, and help us to realise the appropriate use of the technology for our own purposes. A very large number of computer systems around the world are permanently connected to each other. This makes the so-called web. These connections are expensive and usually relatively high-speed (ie. they can handle lots of traffic) and may be fibre-optic cable, microwave links, satellites and the like. Fortunately for end-users of services delivered by ABRI from Armidale, this campus has been able to install a dedicated high-speed (155Mb/sec) connection to the internet backbone in Sydney. From our home or office PC, we make a relatively slow speed (ie. inexpensive) connection to one point on the edge of this web. This effectively makes our PC a tiny part of the overall web. This link is often made over standard copper phone cables (dial-up or ADSL), personal satellite dishes or some sort of shared 'cable service' running down suburban streets. Almost invariably, this link from our desktop to the edge of the web, will be by far the slowest link in the chain of connections between our screen and the remote computer that we wish to access, and it is THIS speed that will colour our experience of using the internet (and in many ways limit our use of the technology). Once we have our link in place, we can use it for a variety of services - most commonly sending and receiving and web browsing. This same link can also be utilized by specialty applications such as Herd Management Programs, to access centrally stored databases of your information - more about this later. The cost and availability of the link between desktop PC and the nearest edge of the web, varies enormously around the world, and is influenced by such things as population density, government policies and competition policy. The cost of establishing and using this link is decreasing, but certainly

2 within Australia, it will be quite some time before we have services available to most country and regional consumers that are equivalent to those available in the city. The slowness of this link has also influenced the way that browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator etc) effectively function. These applications are very good at presenting static material (text, graphics, images, sound etc) to users. They are also good at constructing a query, (by entering a small amount of data into fields on a screen), then clicking a Go/Send/Submit button, then receiving various results back on screen. Browsers are also extremely good at providing links to other related information, by clicking on icons, or underlined links, thereby delivering a rich user experience. On the other hand, browsers are NOT very good at providing a highly interactive user interface (eg. mouse actions of dragging and dropping, multi-selecting data on screens etc.) Could you ever imagine attempting to run an application such as Microsoft Excel, in a browser environment over the internet! 2. A Breed Association Perspective Breed Associations will almost invariably already have some sort of web presence (eg. etc.). This will contain the usual content, Mission Statements, contact details, staff addresses, rules and regulations for registering cattle, newsletter archives, show and event schedules, links to other sites of interest, fee schedules, advertising promotional goods etc. etc. This information is relatively static in its nature, and relatively small in volume. But even so, it is still a significant task to keep this information up to date. In addition, most Breed Associations will also provide access to genetic information about their breed. The large volume (often many millions of animals) and dynamic nature of this data (EBV's changing frequently) precludes it being delivered to users as static pages. It must be delivered over the internet from a database. Many Associations are currently doing this in one form or another, with varying degrees of success. ABRI provides its Internet Solutions to around 50 Breed Associations. The enquiry rate has increased from 10,000 in June, 2000 to allmost 1 million enquiries in January 2004 (see Figure 1). Significantly Hereford is the largest user of this service with the following enquiries in January 2004:- American Hereford 167,472 Australian Hereford/Poll Hereford 44,481 New Zealand Hereford 6,796 Total 218,749 Figure 1. Monthly Transaction Volume of ABRI's Internet Solutions (all species). 2.1 Online Information Currently, Internet Solutions delivers the following information: a. online herdbook access to historic pedigrees and ownership details, including pictures and logos. b. member/breeder searches

3 c. powerful search engine using EBVs and $Indexes d. graphic display of EBVs and $Index information (rather than a large number of numerical values in a table) e. full-featured cataloguing service for auction sales, private treaty sales, semen listing service, with integrated search engine Figure 2. Example Sale Catalogue Listing - Australian Hereford/Poll Hereford The graphical display of a large number of EBV's and $Indexes aids in the visual interpretation of an animal's genetic profile. Figure 3. below illustrates this for two well known AI sires. Figure 3. Graphical display of EBV's

4 ABRI's experience has been, that the appropriate model for this service delivery is via a separate dedicated web server/database, with periodic synchronization of data with the main Association database. This architecture does not compromise the security and integrity of the existing Association system, and may lead to significant economies of scale where bandwidth is shared between a large number of users. For example, from our computer facility here in Armidale, we are able to transparently deliver the internet database services to a large number livestock industries in USA, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand as well as Australia-wide. The success of this architecture is dependent on the sharing of resources made possible by the networking infrastructure currently in place at UNE and between Armidale and Sydney. The important thing to remember is that EBVs and pedigrees are updated promptly and automatically, and there are no static pages for the Association to maintain. This makes the best and most up to date estimates of the genetic potential for animals within the breed, available to the global community. Many Associations initially thought that these services could be sold to users, or that advertising could be sold as a part of the service. This has not proved to be the case. There is a general expectation amongst people who use the internet, that information will largely be available at no cost. Amongst regular internet users,there is also increasing awareness of and annoyance with much of the pop-up advertising that appears on parts of the world wide web. These are not viable income streams for a Breed Association. Real income, potentially can come from delivering value-added services (delivered as a part of the Association's internet applications), that individual members are prepared to pay for. Examples of this are a. well-featured internet sales catalogues or semen lists, where the cost to the breeder (compared to printing and mailing paper-based catalogues) is extremely low b. selling subscriptions to advanced searching features that may be available via password access c. charging members for use of logos and links to their own personal web site Figure 4. Example listing from an Internet Semen Catalogue Listing

5 Figure 5. An example of contact details available using breeder search or sale vendor 2.2 Data Collection and Reporting Breed Associations using Internet Solutions are also achieving in-office economies through the introduction of additional services. These include

6 a. distribution of printed reports and data files via the internet. Rather than receiving reports via regular mail the breeder receives a small indicating that his report is now available, then uses the internet to download the file and print locally if required. b. data collection (eg. calf registrations, inventory updates, performance data) with validation against internet database, with electronic transfer of data to Breed Association for update c. on-demand printing of registration certificates by members Example data entry screens used by American Hereford Association for collection of calf registration, inventory updates and performance data Figure 6. Batch Creation Screen Figure 7. Data Summary display Figure 8. Individual record data entry screen

7 Figure 9. Breeder's 'download files' facilities for Association reports and worksheets 3. Finding the Right Genetics The introduction of these services by Breed Associations has made the job of identifying and locating the appropriate genetics for both seedstock and commercial producers much easier. Users are now able to search catalogues on-line to find the right genetics for their own enterprise. They are also able to use a wide range of search tools to permit the focusing on traits of most interest to them, but still allow access to additional supporting information on an individual animal.

8 Figure 10. Example selection criteria for across-sale search. The system will search across all currently listed sales (auctions and private treaty) and select animals meeting the nominated criteria. Sorted results may be viewed in tabular form, with links to individual animal details of pedigrees, ebv graphs, sale notes, vendor details. Column layout of search results may be customised (see Figure 11 below) or can display all available EBVs and $Indexes. In this example, from the more than 950 bulls currently listed for sale, we have selected 15 bulls, (from 9 different vendors), that have met our selection criteria Figure 11. Results of across-catalogue search (customised column layout) 4. Selling Yourself in the Global Genetics Marketplace With the introduction of various internet database services, individual breeders now have a 24 hour a day worldwide audience for their genetics. As marketers of genetics, breeders need to take advantage of this exposure (which is free or at most very low cost) by ensuring the following a. Ensure your contact details, address etc. are correct and up to date. It is no good having the genetics that someone desires and they cannot contact you.

9 b. Use the Breed Association internet database as one of your marketing tools, by taking advantage of their cataloguing services. The cost of doing this probably amounts to one or two additional bids on a single animal. c. Where you do have a personal web site, ensure that this is linked to from the Association database. This may direct more traffic to your own web site. Provide links to the Association web site for your catalogues and even individual animals or sires that you are using. This eliminates the maintenance task in keeping your web site EBVs up to date. See Figure 12 and 13 below, taken from d. Use where possible to inform your clients and potential clients of upcoming sales. Direct them to your web site (or the Association's web site) for them to view your sale catalogue (or list of private treaty animals for sale). This is much cheaper than producing and mailing printed catalogues. Figure 12. An example page from the breeder's web site, illustrating the direct link to Breed Association database. The static web page of sires, has been constructed to link directly to the appropriate individual animal record in the Breed Association database, thereby guaranteeing up-to-date EBVs and $Indexes are displayed. The Breed Association page also provides links to additional information (eg. display of EBVs in graphical form, display of other herds where this sire has progeny, display extended pedigree), which would be extremely difficult to set up yourself within your own breeder web page(s).

10 Figure 13. below shows the result after clicking on Yarram High Energy T153 This breeder's web site also contains links to his Annual Bull Sale (once again set up within the Association internet database).all of the searching/selecting features of the Association cataloguing service are therefore made available to potential purchasers. Figure 13. Animal Details page 5. Other Technologies Utilizing the Internet The increased availability of higher speed internet connections in rural and regional areas, coupled with more sophisticated software development envionments (eg. Microsoft.Net and others), has meant that suppliers of on-farm herd management software are now able to offer a range of new products. These products (eg. Saltbush HerdMaster) have moved away from the traditional model of

11 on-farm software, which historically has required local installation of software on the user's home PC, and the maintenance of a local database on this PC. Instead, the breeder accesses his own data (via password PIN) on a centrally located database, using software which largely resides at this central location. The functionality that is available to the user is the same as if he was using local software against a local database on his own PC. There are numerous advantages to such an architecture a. Data backups are done regularly and stored securely, by the service provider. Users are not reliant on establishing their own local backup regime b. Software enhancements can be made and distributed to users in a more timely fashion. No more mailing of CD's to users. No more expecting users to download updates/upgrades from web sites. Where Breed Associations introduce significant changes to their data collection procedures (eg, introduction of whole herd inventory), changes need to be made and distributed to the various users of Herd Management systems. This task will be much simpler in a centrally-controlled software environment. c. Any problems with local configurations of home PC's, and local installation of complex applications and database software are largely removed. All the complex software resides centrally. The web delivery of other decision support tools will also enable breeders to expand their horizons in advancing and achieving genetic change. Examples of this are the UNE-developed BreedObject (for the calculation of $Indexes based upon your production system) and TGRM (Total Genetic Resource Management - a mate selection tool utilizing EBVs and $Indexes). Both these products rely heavily on the underlying internet infrastructure being in place, and are therefore able to use graphical methods to describe information, rather than a large array of numerical values in paper-based tables. The internet will also allow Breed Associations that have installed BREEDPLAN International to provide services to sister organisations in other countries thus building economies of scale for both of the participants. 6. Summing Up Historically there has usually been a significant lag between the release of scientific research and the subsequent wide-spread adoption by the beef-breeding community. Through the use of internet technologies, we are now in a position to greatly reduce this lead-time. The challenge now, is to effectively take advantage of this improved infrastructure (faster computer, , the web, global access, greater badnwidth at lower cost) and deliver tools to the industry that are relevent and easy to use. I hope that by demonstrating some of these services that are available today, you will be more aware of the opportunities that are available now and possible in the future.