Software for Suckler cow herd.

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
How do others keep track of any barren cows or heifers in a suckler herd, if they are not physically working with the animals daily.
I have sucklers which are in a few locations in another village, looked after by a good stockman. I do paperwork for them CTS. etc. I am busy with arable, machinery etc.
As far as I can see the only way I can tell on CTS whether a cow has calved is to individually look at each cows calving record.
Is there any way of downloading a report on calving from CTS. If not what software do people use, and what is the cost per annum. Is there any software that can take the information from CTS to save inputting information twice? Apologies for so many questions.
 

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
I will have a look at those thanks. We use gatekeeper for arable, but find it quite clunky and hasn’t been updated as much as necessary over the years.
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
You only need software in disorganised herds. Have a small calving window take the bulls out and a few tags and a book is all you need. If you want software that’s fine but it’s not nessasary and probably takes time and costs
 

Extreme Optimist

Member
Livestock Farmer
You only need software in disorganised herds. Have a small calving window take the bulls out and a few tags and a book is all you need. If you want software that’s fine but it’s not nessasary and probably takes time and costs
What a load of rubbish!! You can spot trends that you otherwise wouldn't see. You have records of which cattle are where. You have records of their breeding and can easily pull out which ones have the best DLWG or the shortest calving interval. I have a very organised herd with high management and I use the software every day!!!
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
What a load of rubbish!! You can spot trends that you otherwise wouldn't see. You have records of which cattle are where. You have records of their breeding and can easily pull out which ones have the best DLWG or the shortest calving interval. I have a very organised herd with high management and I use the software every day!!!
If you like it that’s fine we are happy with what we do. I was pointing out you don’t need it to know all the things you’ve stated the best dlwg on our place are first ones fat. Scan 6 weeks after taking bull out and cull everything empty then every issue at calving put in the cull field. I can see more of an argument for it for big finishers that buy and sell a lot
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
Probably blinkered:cool: but op said he doesn’t know which ones are barren. I possibly means Ayr calving as opposed to disorganised if all your calves are born within 6 weeks management is easy
 

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
I have three groups of cows.
the first bunch are commercial type beef cows in a fairly tight calving pattern. All good.
The other two groups are from a herd which I took over as a welfare case where the elderly owner had a longstanding health issue. The latter groups are still work in progress.
 

Agrivator

Member
How do others keep track of any barren cows or heifers in a suckler herd, if they are not physically working with the animals daily.
I have sucklers which are in a few locations in another village, looked after by a good stockman. I do paperwork for them CTS. etc. I am busy with arable, machinery etc.
As far as I can see the only way I can tell on CTS whether a cow has calved is to individually look at each cows calving record.
Is there any way of downloading a report on calving from CTS. If not what software do people use, and what is the cost per annum. Is there any software that can take the information from CTS to save inputting information twice? Apologies for so many questions.

You can see what calves have been registered at CTS simply by clicking on the ''Cattle on Holding details''. It will give you all the details of births since you last looked.

And if you have excel or similar spreadsheet, you can download all cattle details, produce your own calving book, and update it each time you log on.

You can also check what deaths have occured, and all movements, including any which might be suspicious.
 

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
CTS hold all the information. I would like a report with cow no. Calf no. Days since previous calving. I suppose I need to transfer everything to excel from which I can sort the information.
 

Agrivator

Member
CTS hold all the information. I would like a report with cow no. Calf no. Days since previous calving. I suppose I need to transfer everything to excel from which I can sort the information.

You can download all the information as an excel. That's how I keep updating my herd register.
 

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