Computerized dairy record keeping system.pdf

DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTERIZED DAIRY RECORD KEEPING SYSTEM
Chris Buschbeck DVM
Small Ruminant Genetics, WoolDrift Farm
Markdale, Ontario, Canada
In 1999 the Ontario Dairy Sheep Association and the EweByte sheep flock recording system
received a grant from the CanAdapt Small Projects Initiative to develop a record keeping system
for dairy sheep. The project included a survey of dairy sheep farmers to get a profile of the
management and record keeping methods currently in place and to find out what producers
would want from a computerized record keeping system.
The goal was to develop a program that is flexible enough to be useful in a wide variety of
management systems by providing reports suited to the individual producer. The existing
EweByte program already collects breeding and lambing dates, health records, vaccinations and
other maintenance procedures and performance records (ADG, EPDs, indexes). The milk module
taps into these existing records to create reports specific for milk production.
The milk module integrates fully with the existing management portion of the EweByte
program. The producer enters dates for beginning and end of milking and weaning as well as test
dates and results. The program assigns a lactation number, calculates the days in milk, yield, fat,
protein, somatic cell count and linear score. It also provides room to track two additional
parameters that can be defined by the producer (e.g. bacterial count, pH, acidity).
A variety of reports are generated from this database. Customizing screens allow the producer to
specify the time frames, animals to be included in the report and the sorting options. This gives
the program the necessary flexibility to be useful under different management styles and to
accommodate individual producers goals and preferences.
Currently the program has five main dairy report screens:
• A management list provides information on the current dairy status of the ewes (dry, nursing,
milking, milking and nursing).
• The ewe flock summary gives the current number of ewes in the various possible management
groups; it can be further customized to be divided by breed or group.
• The dairy ewe management report gives detailed information on individual animals. It lists
individual test results and gives a summary of production for each lactation. This includes
lactation number, days in milk, avg. daily milk production, avg. fat and protein percentages,
total milk production, kg of fat and protein produced, avg. somatic cell count (SCC) and linear
score (LS).
• The report on single test days lists the individual results for a specified date. It includes the
measured milk, fat, protein, SCC and LS for the test day and calculates the production to date
in this lactation. The results can be sorted by any of the measured or calculated parameters to
allow the identification of problem animals or superior producers.
• The test day summary report summarizes the results of a single test day and displays these
results for the specified time period. This is most useful for the detection of flock trends and for
the comparison of production years.

A summary report for individual animals is still under construction, but will be added in the
near future. This report will allow comparisons between lactations and years for specified groups
of animals or the entire flock.
The program is currently tested by a number of participating dairy producers and will be
released with the next version of EweByte.