PDA and Sheep Flock Management
Information, information, information
Sheep flock management is becoming more complex. While information must be kept to comply with current NI regulation, the sheep farmer himself needs information on movements, drugs applied, breeding, tupping and scanning. The larger the flock and the number of locations, the greater the overheads and the greater the pressures on the sheep farmer’s time.
The technology
Farmers have used PDAs for the past two years to record event data while on the move. The information available on the PDA is later synchronised with the flock management software on his farm PC.
The software provides a full analysis of the flock performance, recording
The software provides a full analysis of the flock performance, recording
- Movements whenever sheep are purchased /sold or moved onto another holding
- Veterinary and medicine treatments
- Tupping information - service dates and ram used for each flock
- Information on scanning dates and expected lambing percentage for each flock
- Lambs born to each flock and actual lambing percentage
- Bloodline
This gives the sheep farmer the ability to record and later analyse information. The farmer can then make timely management decisions, "information is power".
As time passes, sheep flock management software will provide increased functionality to cope the changes in sheep farming. The power and functions on portable devices such as PDAs will improve and they may become more rugged at an economic price.
