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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation: Basic Working Procedures > Managing the Breeding Calendar > The Breed Cycle Manager |
The Breed Cycle Manager (BCM) is a special section of the FarmWizard system that manages the breeding calendar for each cow in the herd. Your FarmWizard Cloud account contains all animals in your herd(s) - female, male, breeding and non-breeding, but only breeding females are added to the BCM. Normally, a cow is added to the BCM when she first enters the milking herd and is only removed when she stops breeding and leaves the milking herd.
Cows on the BCM move through a number of breed states as events are recorded:
Dry -> Pre Heat -> Served -> Pregnant
If a cow has a negative pregnancy scan, it will return to the Pre Heat state.
To add an animal to the BCM requires you to enter the freeze brand number (management tag) and set the breed stage (current lactation number).
When purchased cows are brought into the herd, you first add them to the main herd list and then add them to the BCM to start recording breeding events.
Only heifers that are 12 months of age or older can be added to the BCM in order to record first service events. FarmWizard makes it easy to add 12 month heifers to the BCM using the last four digits of the ear tag as a temporary brand number.
When a cow stops breeding, you can remove her from the BCM prior to any subsequent sale ("Off" movement). Removing a cow from the BCM will prevent her from being included in any of the breeding action lists and herd fertility reports.
This method is suitable if you want to update multiple animal records in one session
1.Use the filter criteria to define the list of animals you want to freeze brand; for example, age range: 14 to 24 months and sex: female. Click the Filter button
2.When the animals matching the filter have been highlighted, press the Click to Record Event button at the top right of the screen
3.On the following screen, click Batch Update Brand to display an editable list of the selected animal records. Enter the freeze brand and the current lactation number for each one.
4.When you have entered all the cow data, click Update Animals at the bottom of the screen to save the changes
This method enables you to add animals one at a time
1.Optionally click on a grid column heading to sort the animal records
2.Click on individual official ear tag number in the list. The animal’s details will display to the right
3.Enter the freeze brand (management tag) and select the breed stage (current lactation number)
4.Click Update & Add to Breeding Herd
1.This list will show all cows not currently on the BCM and also all heifers of 12 months age or older
2.Click on individual official ear tag number in the list. The animal’s details will display to the right
3.Enter the freeze brand (management tag) and select the breed stage (current lactation number)
4.Click Update & Add to Breeding Herd
Tip: if you want to add bulling heifers to the BCM with a temporary brand number (the last four digits of the official ear tag), click the button Add all heifers > 12 months with last 4 tag digits at the top of the screen to complete this task in one step.