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9) Take prompt steps for culling reproductively
un-economic animals.
10) As far as possible, regularly replace old animals
with young heifers (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Breeding software application monitoring reproductive
health in dairy farm
3 Advantages of Herd Management Software
(HMS) in the Indian Context
3.1 Ease of entering data
The manager needs to enter all information into one
console instead of searching for the relevant page to enter
data in 20 or more registers which have to be maintained
in an organized dairy farm (Ramkumar et al., 2007).
3.2 Error-checking
In a large herd, it is quite likely that the person who
writes the records does not see the cattle on a daily
basis. This makes the system more prone to human
error in the form of erroneous figures/dates,
illegible/confusing handwriting, entering data on the
wrong history sheet etc. Herd management software
can be programmed to warn the operator regarding
entry of erroneous data. E.g. the program can refuse to
record drying off of a cow which is not milking, or
calving in a heifer which has not been served.
3.3 Ease of initiation
The software can be installed on any desktop or
notebook PC. Some versions of the software allow
data entry on a Palmtop/Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA) which the manager can carry around with him
on the farm and synchronize later with the main
computer. As all these programs have an easy
Graphical User Interface (GUI) consisting of icons for
most routine activities, any person with basic
computer knowledge can start using the software with
a few hours of instruction.
3.4 Data security
As most software of this type needs the user to log in
with a username and password before he can start
accessing data, data security is absolute. Further,
various levels of access like User, Supervisor and
Manager can be created, with different rights for each,
so that lower-level operators cannot tamper with data.
e.g. ‘User’ cannot access previous day’s data, or
‘Supervisor’ cannot access Reports and Analysis
module etc. Such kind of data security is very difficult
to attain in traditional recording systems, where
almost all registers are accessible to all employees and
there is scope for manipulation, fraud or loss of data
integrity.
3.5 Generates information automatically
HMS automatically generates information based on
the data which has been fed in. The farm manager
need not waste his time calculating totals or counting
the number of days between two dates. E.g. entering
the daily milk yields will automatically generate
information like lactation milk yield, peak yield etc.
Entering date of calving and date of successful
insemination will generate service period.
3.6 Generates visual indicators
Software can generate visual indicators like graphs,
pie charts etc. which assist the farm manager in
comprehending the trends behind the numbers. E.g. a
lactation milk curve best indicates a cow’s milking
performance rather than 600 numbers representing the
morning and evening milk yields spread over a period
of ten months.