Interested in monitoring birth weights or any other item at freshening on your software program, we can help. Items can be prompted for when entering a fresh event. Select, Alter, C, and then items prompted for the cow or calves. From there you can add or delete specific items. Have any questions regarding this tip feel free to call our software support team at (800)-827-3442.
~Thirsting for Knowledge Thursday Software Tip~
Did you know you can view Dairy Comp 305 and Scout reports in an excel file? Once in a report find the row of icons below the command line and select the second one from the right that resembles a spreadsheet. The report will open and will be titled “Report.csv”. Once in excel you can custom sort your items in any order you want by selecting the data tab, then sort. A pop-up will appear where you can select the levels of your sort. Hint: If you would like to open more than one at a time you must rename and save the first excel document. Dairy Comp 305 Software Tip
Have an event you want to record that is not one of your menu options? Under the Events2 tab click on Other Event Entry. The next screen will pop up for you to select a cow and the event from the 63 different events options. With this you can either click on the event or type in the event code, for example Ketosis is EC-35. Next, you will enter the date of the event and a remark. These events will appear on the individual Cowcards.There are unlimited possibilities to what you can record with Dairy Comp 305. Consider Monitor a report card for your herd. Monitor displays up to 46 items categorized into production, reproduction, inventory, and udder health for every test day. This report is located in the Prod drop down menu. In Dairy Comp monitor is editable so you can have a monthly report showing parameters that pertain to your specific needs. With this you can also set goals for your herd and visualize your progress each month. Monitor is available to all herds by requesting it from your field rep on test day.
Graphs in Dairy Comp and Scout are useful for finding patterns and outliers. Looking at the graph you may want to know more about a specific section or an individual cow. To zoom in on a section start by left clicking, then dragging a box around the area you would like to zoom in on and releasing the mouse. To undo this click on the blue box with a white arrow next to the ESC button on your screen. To learn more about an individual point on a graph simply click on the data point you are interested in and the animals Cow Card will pop up.
Dairy Comp answers many questions for you. Using “Guide”, you can locate pre-built graphs showing different items pertaining to your herd. Guide is located on the lookout bar on the right side of your Dairy Comp screen. Things you can track using Guide include: reproduction, transition, mastitis, production, parlor, replacements, and other miscellaneous. You may be wondering has the number of infected cows increased over time. Guide has a graph for that showing the percent infected (SCC>200) compared to the percent not (SCC<200) for my last 12 tests.
How many days after breeding do you pregnancy check? Recheck? This determines what day your cows appear on your vet list. Dairy Comp 305 allows you to define your vet list parameters so when you run vet list only the correct cows are selected. First, to change a value in Vet Parameters, go into Alter and select 5-Veterinary List. Next, select the value you would like to change. The popup screen is where you type the number of days; for example you could change “days bred to check to dry” from 180 to 150 for my recheck. Once you change a number you must make sure the enabled box is checked for your change to take effect. Your customized Vet list is available on sample day from your Field Rep. Let your Field Rep know what day your veterinarian is coming and a list will be given to you that correlates with that day.
How do Dairy Comp and Scout decide when cows should be on the list for cows due soon, to dry, and any other list? Herd Parameters allow you to decide how many days prior to these events that the animal will be put on your action lists. To get to this feature go to File at the top of your screen then Alter. Select 2 on the list which is Herd Parameters. Next, you will see a column of numbers along with a corresponding description. To change a parameter click on the current number and type in the desired amount of days.
A 15 digit ID on an ear tag is a lot of numbers to key accurately, but software makes it easy. With software you can either upload a file containing your TAG (ID) numbers or enter the batch of numbers in just a few keystrokes. To get to this feature, go to File at the top of your screen, Alter, then select letter F - EID Manager. Here is where you have the option to import a file by clicking “Import EID File” or to enter a group of ID numbers select “Enter EID Batch” and CAREFULLY type in the first number of the tag series. Below that type the number for how many tags you have and click add. Now the next time you have a cow freshen these ID numbers will be ON YOUR SCREEN and you won't have to key them.
This week’s tip will save keystrokes when entering a date into your software program. When recording an event that occurred within the past month you can simply type in the day of the month the event took place. For Example, if today is 7/2/15 and the Event was on 6/15/15 you can type in 15 and the program will enter 6/15/15. If the event was more than a month ago you need to type in the month and the date, but can use the period instead of the slash, ex. 5.12 for May 12th, 2015 .
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