A Literature review was conducted to assess the advantages& disadvantages of various cattle handling systems with the objective of developing a more efficient system that incorporates automation, electronics&Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) technology.This document describes the R&D process which included planning, literature review, consultation, design, fabrication, evaluation and discussions.In this study an automated, selective sorting(RFID) based cattle handling system was developed&assessed as an alternative to the widely adopted conventional manual management system practiced in South Africa.The RFID based system developed consisted of manual, semiand fully automated components in the form of a neck-body clamp with through access, flow control double split gates and a weigh-identification-sort system. For the ease of comparison the system was developed with a manual by-pass as a control to compare the automated and manual systems in terms of establishment cost,handling duration including identification, weighing&sorting&operator and animal stress levels which impacts on business profitability&system efficiency.The system was evaluated for both the manual by-pass&RFID automation incorporated states.Infrastructure improvement resulted in reduced handling duration, operational costs&handling stress on both operator&the animal whilst enabling selective automated sorting. After incorporating RFID, electronics & automation on the same system, it was established that, on average, cattle handling duration was reduced by 63%, incorrect sorting was reduced by 5.5%,man hours were reduced by 70%, with 23% and 14% less fatigue & stress levels, both to the handler & the animal respectively, whilst achieving efficient selective sorting. Although there is still need for further investigations, it can be concluded that the introduction of RFID, electronics & automation improves the overall system technical efficiency by 32% whilst enabling efficient selective handling