What are the five main problems with individual animal data?

Without a doubt the primary thing we face in encouraging people to adopt a more data centric approach to their business is the underlying fear of what problems they will face. When technology works its amazing but when it doesn’t there is not limit to frustration and fury you have. This is especially true when just starting out in a yard full of cattle and five people on the clock. So in this post we want to run through the top five problems that people have when they commit to individual animal data.

1. Infrastructure

One of the first limitation to collecting individual animal data is assessing infrastructure. Some yards are just incomparable with collecting accurate individual animal data. As a bare minimum ever producer looking at collecting this data needs a set of yards with an appropriate race, crush and head bail. Problems with faulty infrastructure means cattle escaping before the data is captured, cattle going the wrong way and can be a serious safety concern for all involved.

2. Hardware

On top of the infrastructure the next investment is in hardware. This doesn’t just include the crushside device but includes in most cases the weigh scales and EID reader. This is where undoubtedly the most frustration occurs. There can be self inflicted problems like charging but even the best prepared stockman is likely to face the odd issue with syncing devices, pairing or taring the scales. Using these devices frequently as well as having the software up to date will help. Otherwise attempting to have customer service on speed dial is your only other bet.

3. Data entry

With the first two the biggest cost based challenges to overcome the next is the accurate data capture. As with all data based platforms “s—t in equals s—t out”. It’s important to have someone with an eye for detail on the data entry. Most dashboard problems happen when data is incorrectly entered crushside. This may be as simple as letting an animal go before hitting record or having two cattle on the weigh scales at once. These issues can hold up the flow of cattle and in the worse case mean the double handling of cattle.

4. Saving and storage of data

After a full day mustering there is not anything more demoralising than losing all the data you worked so hard to collect. With electronic records this is a little more fool proof than a paper record that may get wet, fly away or be used to light the branding furnace (yes we have heard it all). Electronic records need to be backed up, either up to the cloud or at the very least to a local USB, server or drive.

5. Extracting the right value

Individual animal data is not an insignificant choice or investment and therefore understanding what value you want out of it is paramount to ensuring you get value for money. Measuring hip height and fly lesions when these don’t drive your business forward make for problems on the ground and can cost the business.

We aim to be a trusted resource for those looking to take on more data in their business and part of that is transparently identifying the problems. If its still a path you want to go down then feel free to get in touch to learn more.