Software for Suckler cow herd.

[Bill Turtle]

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.

 

[Extreme Optimist]

Have found Farm Matters excellent and the support even better. You can download a demo from here https://www.farm-software.co.uk/
From memory, it is around £200/year. I calve AYR and my system just would not work without it.

 

[JP1]

You can try Breedr

 

[Bill Turtle]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Extreme Optimist]

Everyone is different but to say you only need it in a disorganised herd is blinkered at the very least.

 

[tr250]

Probably blinkered 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]

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]

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 the Bass]

Is Breedr free?

 

[Bill Turtle]

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]

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.

 

[Bill Turtle]

Ok thanks I will look into this.

 

[beefandsleep]

The obvious answer to me is to scan and cull anything empty. Am I missing something?

 

[Agrivator]

Ok thanks I will look into this.

And you can delete any needless columns, change font size and column width etc before you print it.

 

[Henarar]

we use the moocall herd manager on our phones, its free for those with a moocall account

 

[Breedr]

You can try Breedr

Thanks JP

Is Breedr free?

Yes the Breedr precision livestock app is completely free, you can find out more on the website - https://www.breedr.co/ or sign up now https://uk.breedr.co/getbreedr

 

[Chapelton]

Thanks JP



Yes the Breedr precision livestock app is completely free, you can find out more on the website - https://www.breedr.co/ or sign up now https://uk.breedr.co/getbreedr

Hi, do you mind me asking what your business model is if the software is available for free? Are you 'farming' the data in lieu of payment? I can't see what's in it for you unless you are.

Thanks