Ginette Gottswiller
The Source
My calving survival list just got easier with the Angus Black Book mobile app.
The first calf hit the ground yesterday. I know many people think we are crazy calving in mid-August, but it really helps to get 30 days’ worth of calves on the ground before it’s time to start the combine rolling. I need to get the tags, tag pens, taggers and all the other calving equipment found and restocked. More important will be the different calving books we used to do calf checks and my nightly job of putting everyone’s entries into each book.
This year I will be excited to test-drive the soon-to-be released Angus Black Book mobile app for commercial cattle producers. This app may be handier than soles on your boots. It works offline, and once you get back in service, you can upload your data. Plus, you can have everyone who uses a smartphone enter data out in the field. No more little slips of paper to lose or try to decipher from the washing machine. Another great feature of the app is it will handle multiple owners’ animals.
Getting started can happen one of two ways. One is a web portal designed to upload an Excel spreadsheet. The second option is use the app to enter each cow as she calves along with her calf. After calving is complete, every cow and calf will be entered. When you get ready to turn out bulls, add those to each breeding pasture.
I have tried uploading all of my cattle in other apps and found out the app did not function like I wanted. This way you can test-drive it one pasture at a time, if that is how you roll.
Pastures and cattle go together like a hand and glove, but it can be difficult to get our electronics to accurately track that relationship. Angus Black Book gives producers the option to enter as many pastures as they have on their operation. Cattle can be assigned to a pasture, and it allows producers the option to make subgroups within the pasture.
To begin, filter for all the calves in Pasture A and indicate they have been weaned today. Additionally, the app can document the group of calves moved to Pasture W, the steers castrated and given shots A, B and C. From the recently weaned calves, you might have a few get sick. The producer can make a subgroup of calves that have fallen out of a verified natural program. The app also gives you the option to document the health treatment given to the calf that fell out.
Breeding season can be another great time to get started using a new recordkeeping device. This app will let you choose from six different fixed-time artificial insemination (AI) protocols, and select the products to be used. The app will even give you reminders for the date and time to give shots and pull CIDRs.
It will let you add a clean-up bull to the breeding records and send you a reminder to schedule a pregnancy-check date. It will prefill for 283 days for that animal’s due date. Bulls can be added by registration number, tag number or radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. The breed of your bull or cows can be documented, and that includes crossbred animals. Up to three breed percentages can be entered.
Keeping track of vaccinations the animals have received can be a daunting task. That has been addressed in Angus Black Book. Producers can choose to designate a group of animals that have received a health treatment or pick out an individual animal. This history portion will give you the ability to see everything that has happened to that animal from birth to leaving your operation if it has been recorded.
The web portal will allow various reports to be created and printed. Producers can use this as a vehicle to keep important data and records at their fingertips and facilitate enrollment in value-added programs. It takes time and effort to make every cow herd and calf crop profitable in the marketplace today.
Editor's Note: Ginette Gottswiller is the director of commercial programs and AngusSource at the American Angus Association.