Our Story

Black Box Co was developed on the realisation of a problem within the beef industry. There was an incredible amount of data in the beef supply chain, yet a lack of consolidation and analysis of production data. Meaning that producers were collecting data on their livestock with no real means to effectively organise or analyse the data, in an affordable or timely way to allow for effective decision making.

Founders Shannon Speight and Emma Black, came to this conclusion through their work in the Beef Industry. Having over 25 years collective experience between them and a true passion for beef production in common, Shannon and Emma crossed paths through the Zanda McDonald Award program in 2019.??

Since then, a lot has happened! Within the first two weeks of launching in 2020, Black Box Co exceeded a 12-month goal of having 40,000 head on the database by 160,000 animals. With such huge demand and positive feedback about the product, Shannon and Emma quickly realised they needed to develop the product rapidly to meet the needs of the industry. Over the following 18 months, Black Box Co grew from a team of two, to a team of ten! Employing a technical team, data science team and operations team all based remotely across Australia.?

Black Box Co now collectively covers the entire beef industry supply chain, and each team member brings a unique skill set from genomics and fertility to meat science and nutrition. This on ground expertise has ensured that the insights that Black Box generates are able to direct effective action on farm, feedlot and processing levels. The team is made up of people who know and understand the industry, to ensure that producers have someone to work alongside throughout their data journey. And at the same time, enables the free flow of feedback for effective developments to be made continuously, so that the product is as practical and user friendly as possible.

We are fortunate to work alongside an incredible development team who are passionate about data and the beef industry. Our technical team go above and beyond to ensure that our producers can quickly and clearly grasp insights without needing to clean or validate data or calculate complex algorithms. Through working with producers, and gaining valuable feedback on the software, Black Box Co has grown from a few simple dashboards to a full suite of easy to use dashboards that allow producers to connect data across the supply chain. Our dashboards offer versatility, and a depth of analysis not previously available to the livestock industry.?

The future of Black Box Co is very bright! And we thank everyone who has been part of the story so far and are excited as the journey is only just beginning!