From paddock to app- the evolution of Masterbeef

Early mornings at Strathdale are idyllic.

As soon as your feet hit the earth, you take a step back in time.

The Blue Mountain range provides the perfect backdrop for the cattle property, but the view is more future focused than you think.

Darren Hamblin is the creator of Masterbeef, software that collects livestock data???? from carcass performance to genetic information.

Darren is one of the Greater Whitsunday region’s Change Champions who has not only adopted technology but has integrated it in every facet of his business and he is reaping the rewards.   

The Masterbeef software is made up of two main components. The first is the app, where images are captured of carcasses in the abattoir, along with traits such as marble score, fineness, and distribution.

Darren said the other side of the technology is the database, where all the data of each carcass is brought into one place.

“One of our biggest issues in the industry is bringing data together.  Masterbeef pulls all that data together and links it up to each animal.”

Ten years ago, in a Casino abattoir, Darren had the idea about how he could capture the image of each piece of meat and market the meat based on the information the image captured.

Fast forward, five years and the app has now evolved to have a focus on genetics or genomics to be a production or selection tool. 

"Genetics explains a little over half of what the animal is.

“The other half would be the way they are managed, their nutrition, the way that they are raised.  But what we can control is the genetics, and to the best of our ability we control what goes down their throat. 

“We try to keep them all on the same rations so if we keep that stable, all we can change is the genomics, so we study heavily to get the traits we want in the carcasses, because at the end of the day, it is what we put on someone’s plate and essentially what we are paid for.”

Darren took the skills he crafted as an engineer in the mining and Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) industry and adapted them to his work in the cattle industry.

“The fact that I am engineer helps a bit, it doesn’t really matter who you talk to in this industry, everyone knows that we should be reproducing the best genetics.

“But when I say to them, what is your best genetics, that question is hard to answer for many people. So, for me it is about how do I go about finding those genetics? So, once we know the question, the technology is out there to find the answers, so I went about taking technology and making it best practice.”

Darren said it is when he is riding his horse on the property, is where he thinks about all the things he needs to fix.

“Lucky for me I have a guy who sits in an office, and he is fantastic at fixing those problems. He is a kid from the bush too and he has this uncanny ability to make technology work. So, I tell him my ideas, he has a bit of a think, he starts something and is very quick at making things happen and we thrash it out and this is where we end up. “

Darren said there were a few reasons why people aren’t embracing new technologies as much as they could.

“One, it is too daunting.  The other is a lot of technology is thrown in front of people that is looking for problems to solve. However, I have gone about it another way, I have got a problem I needed to solve, so I went out and built the technology.

“People shy away from new technology because there is a lot of work involved.  But when you show them the outcome and how I have done it, they are impressed, and they want to do it - but it is taking that first step.”

So now that Darren has taken his first steps, what does he hope Masterbeef will achieve in the next decade?

“I have achieved what I set out for myself, and along that journey other people have seen it and have wanted me to make it commercially available.  So, for the next ten years, my goal is making it work for other people.

“It is not a sliver bullet, you still have to collect the data.  But we as humans don’t have the ability to process it all immediately.  So that is why I make Masterbeef the brain behind it and it allows us to do all the thinking while we are asleep,” he said.