Twenty sheep with Ceres tags attached to their necks were part of a training exercise for NSW Police while also providing valuable research data to combat the growing incidence of stock theft.
Sheep theft and cattle duffing are practices as old as farming itself yet experts in the field such as Dr Kyle Mulrooney say farm crime is "massively underreported."
Dr Mulrooney, who is a co-director at the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England UNE), helped coordinate a recent "mock theft" which aimed to test the usefulness of real time data as emitted by Ceres ear tags as an aid in tracking stock thieves.
An expert in rural crime, Dr Mulrooney said a NSW Farm Crime Survey conducted by UNE found 90 per cent of farmers believe they are solely responsible for farm security.
"(They) don't report theft as they may feel guilty or don't want to waste the time of the police," he said.
Dr Mulrooney said surveys in Victoria and New South Wales found 70 per cent and 80pc of farmers had experienced some type of farm crime in their lifetime.
As an example, in February this year it was reported that 700 sheep with an estimated value of $140,000, including nearly 200 merino ewes, were stolen from a Victorian property.
Crime statistics show more than 2,000 offences were committed on Victorian farms alone in 2022, with theft accounting for almost two thirds of crimes.
As a response to continuing rural crime, the NSW Police have a dedicated Rural Crime Prevention Team that is placed across 27 regional areas.
Queensland has a rurally dedicated team at the Stock and Rural Crime Investigation Squad (SARCIS) while Victoria has around 50 specialist agricultural liaison officers across the state that focus specifically on farm crime.
Dr Mulrooney said he was unaware of any other state groups that primarily target rural crime.
Stock Theft
There are two key issues that work in favour of stock thieves, according to Dr Mulrooney.
The first is that farmers may check on stock only intermittently, and so may be unaware of a theft for some time.
The second is difficulty in tracking and identifying stolen stock.
Technology is always evolving to offer possible new solutions.
Facial/ muzzle recognition is a technology mooted recently where stock can be recognised by drawing on small variations in the shape and patterns of their muzzle, which are as distinct as a human fingerprint.
Farmers are able to capture photos of livestock using a smartphone or tablet, then upload this to an AI-powered cloud platform to identify animals.
Ideally, law enforcement could use this image recognition technology to identify stolen animals and return them to their owners.
"While muzzle recognition is promising, in terms of identification, it doesn't help with the immediacy of the loss," Dr Mulrooney said.
"The police are already on the back foot once the theft has taken place and no-one has realised for a length of time.".
Investigating advantages for farmers to have immediate notification of potential stock theft led Dr Mulrooney to become involved in a Ceres Tag funded trial.
The aim was to identify the role ear tags and associated technology can have in quick and effective response to stock theft and involved a real time investigation from NSW Police.
In this case, for ethical reasons, the tags were hung on collars around the sheep's neck.
Mock theft
"The prime advantage of using suitable ear tags is the immediacy of an alert when animals are moving rapidly as though being chased," Dr Mulrooney said.
"This prompt alert for farmers to unusual movement, possibly a stock theft, enables a rapid and effective response and recovery by law enforcement."
The exercise at Armidale involved monitoring continual data from 20 tagged sheep as they were moved from the UNE SMART Farms to a destination unknown to police.
Near instant notifications alerted the research team to an incident taking place.
Police had no indication of when the theft would take place, other than knowing it would be on a particular day.
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"Twelve minutes after the arrival of the thieves, a formal 'high activity alert' was received from six of the 20 tags indicating the sheep were being agitated - or moving much faster than normal - which suggests a problem," Dr Mulrooney said.
Dr Mulrooney said the ease of the farmer being able to give police a publicly accessible link to track the tagged sheep made things even simpler.
"A formal notification that the tags had then breached the established geofence - as the sheep were being 'stolen' - was received in 33 minutes," he said.
Through the constant feed of data, police from the Rural Crime Prevention Team (RCPT) within the NSW Police Force were able to track and intercept the vehicle with the sheep within 25 minutes following notification of the theft, then successfully recover the stock at their "hiding place" near the Tamworth abattoir.
Dr Mulrooney said the tracking signal left "breadcrumbs" rather than a constant line to indicate position but the satellite data was more than enough for the sheep to be located.
"Part of the issue this unique technology addresses is the ability to recognise that a stock theft has actually occurred in the first place, so it can be reported in a timely manner to police," Dr Mulrooney said.
"This has been difficult in the past, given the distance, remoteness and considerable size of rural properties.
"This time lag often leaves little evidence and a reduced capacity for police to intervene.
"Stock theft has therefore been a relatively low-risk crime to commit, so it's unsurprising that 44 per cent of NSW farmers that responded to the 2020 NSW Farm Crime Survey had experienced livestock theft, costing the state's farmers tens of millions each year,"
Dr Mulrooney said the ability to track tags in this way was "insanely beneficial" although he realises there are some drawbacks, .
"One obvious limitation is the possible removal of the tag by thieves," he said.
"However, there are some important caveats here.
"First, the tag is made of polymer coated stainless steel which makes removal much more difficult than traditional tags in terms of effort and time."
Dr Mulrooney said the difficulty and time of removing tags is an unwanted hindrance to thieves.
However, if they are successfully removed and then remain in one place, there was an immediate "morbidity alert" sent to farmers.
Another issue, according to Dr Mulrooney is that the flow of tracking data lessens with fewer tags, meaning a few stolen sheep will be harder to locate.
While Dr Mulrooney recommends continuing to collect data as it comes to light from real life situations - not just from the controlled test environment - he is confident the technology can offer better protection and peace of mind for farmers.
"We are hopeful improved technology such as Ceres Tag will increase confidence amongst farmers that these devastating crimes are able to be dealt with, resulting in a higher reporting of rural crimes and therefore a higher clearance rate," he said.
Dr Mulrooney said a new rural crime survey will be making the rounds soon, and will be distributed through farming organisations, but this time the survey will be nation-wide.
"The new survey will be launched at the end of April," Dr Mulrooney said.
"It's the first one to capture Australian wide data on rural crime for 20 years."
