As beef and dairy sectors get increasingly competitive, efficiency and good organisation of farm operations becomes much more important.
Working smarter instead of harder can give you gains you wouldn’t have reaped in a month of Sundays.
One way you can achieve this is by using our free Breedmanager app Smart Lists to help manage your operation.
Each of the 4 lists work in a very similar way, so once you get the hang of one you’ll have them all sussed.
Article Chapters
IN CALF
From this list you can keep track of which of your animals are in calf. In the overview it tells you how many cows and heifers are ‘in calf’. It also tells you which dams are due to calf in the next seven days.
When you click through to the next menu it gives you a) a full list of the in-calf dams, b) all the dams that are due in the next 7 days and c) all the dams that have calved in the last 90 days, and the date they gave birth.
It also lets you filter your view between cows and heifers or both at the same time.
CYCLING
From this list you can keep track of which of your animals are cycling. In the overview it tells you how many cows and heifers are ‘cycling’. It also tells you which animals are due to cycle in the next seven days.
When you click through to the next menu it gives you a) a list all the cows who cycled in the last 90 days, b) everyone who cycled 17-24 days ago and c) everyone who cycled 38-45 days ago.
It also lets you filter your view between cows and heifers or both at the same time.
IN HEAT
From this list you can keep track of which of your animals are in heat. In the overview it tells you how many cows and heifers are ‘In heat’. It also tells you which animals were last in heat.
When you click through to the next menu it gives you a) a list all the heats in the last 90 days, and b) all the heats in the last 24 hours. It also lets you filter your view between cows and heifers or both at the same time.
INSEMINATED
From this list you can keep track of which of your animals are inseminated. In the overview it tells you how many cows and heifers are ‘inseminated’. It also tells you which animals are due to repeat in the next seven days.
When you click through to the next menu it gives you a) all inseminations in the last 90 days, b) all inseminations from 17-24 days ago and c) all inseminations from 38-45 days ago.
It also lets you filter your view between cows and heifers or both at the same time.
If you don’t record a heat, your cow is eventually marked ‘assumed in-calf’ and moved into the ‘In Calf’ list.
Breakdown
When you load all of your animals into this system you get a data breakdown on the other side.
After you’ve inputted their details, If you click into the herd overview menu at the bottom, it makes for interesting reading.
Entire Herd
This tells you how many of each animal are in your herd, eg 30 cows, 20 breeding heifers, 2 bull calves, etc.
Breeding Herd
This tells you how many animals are breeding, and tells you what stage they’re in by percentage. It is accompanied by a donut chart to illustrate that data.
Underneath this, you can see how many cattle are in the following sections
- Breeding Cattle
- Bulls
- Calves
- Beef Cattle
- Historic Animal List
Statistics
In the statistics menu, you get some more in depth information such as:
Breeding
Whether they were inseminated on the first or second cycle and who was in heat in the last 12 hours. What percentage of the herd is served.
Calving
What percentage of your calves had what amount of calving ease.
How many are due to calve in the next 7 days. How many are ‘fresh’ and recently calved.
Feeding
You are told your average beef cattle weight gain per day This is broken down from animals aged 1-2 and 2+.
You don’t need to buy any of Moocall’s products to download the app or access any of the features mentioned in this post. However, it is compatible with the Moocall calving sensor and MoocallHEAT.
You can get the Moocall Breedmanager in the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.
