MDH Feedlot case study

As a large scale beef cattle producer based in Queensland, MDH Pty Ltd has been working with Black Box Co since the data software company’s inception, providing important industry feedback and helping to shape the product into what it is today.

Julie McDonald, MDH’s Chief Financial Officer, said Black Box gives them more insights into their cattle production on visually appealing dashboards.

“We've been a trial partner with Black Box Co and helped them to develop something around industry and watched it turn into a product that we use primarily at our feedlot,” Julie said.

“The real benefit we're finding with Black Box Co is that it's collating all our information based on its EID and then it's allowing me to ask questions that it answers, which I haven't been able to do before.

“I was looking at spreadsheets, or I was looking at software I didn't really find particularly attractive or user friendly, which we all want in our software.

“With Black Box Co, I can ask it a series of questions, break down data into a series of specifications, and it will show me what our cattle are doing in real time at the feedlot.”

Julie said being part of Black Box’s evolution has meant the insights she receives have changed from trends to a product she can now use to drill down into individual animals within those trends.

“The product has changed over the last few years. It gives us a lot more insights, a lot more ways to break down the data, and a lot more power to make decisions based on that data,” she said.

MDH’s Wallumba Feedlot at Condamine is licensed to feed 10,000 head, with 90 per cent of MDH’s cattle grain finished in the feedlot before processing.

Wallumba Feedlot Manager, Randal Coggan, said the teamwork with Black Box Co has been key to gathering the feedlot data.

“Isabelle's been the main driver for me behind the scenes – she’s like the right-hand man in regard to putting all our data together,” Randall said.

“She can pinpoint if there's little anomalies in the system and that sort of thing, so it’s been a big learning curve. 

“At the end of the day, it's all about teamwork and communication between Black Box and ourselves.”

For Black Box Co, it's been absolutely vital to have grassroot connections with the people they work with. Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Emma Black, said they work with customers to help them understand their information and apply those insights directly into their business.

“We work really closely with industry. Our team's always out on the ground with producers, feedlotters and processors, and that is so powerful,” Emma said.

“Not only are you using our system to generate insights, but you've got someone to speak to that can understand what you're doing in your operation and how to inform those decisions.

“The actionable insights that they can generate from receiving that feedback data can have a huge impact on their business. In the past, they've had to make assumptions around how their cattle have performed further down the supply chain, whereas now they have access to individual animal data.”

When you are running large-scale enterprises, accessibility is critical to efficiency and cost-savings, which Julie McDonald said is one of the greatest benefits of Black Box. 

“One of the really great things about Black Box Co is that it's cloud-based, meaning I can access dashboards anywhere,” she said. 

“If I'm trying to make some decisions or get some information about what's happening at the lot, or what's happening with a particular mob or breed of cattle, I can jump onto those dashboards from wherever, and that's really powerful.”

Watch the case study here: https://youtu.be/XiFgczQvK_o