Post written by... Jessica Beggs

Improved Livestock Activity Search

October 18, 2016 in Farmware Tip

To view a subset of your livestock activities, go to Livestock > Search Livestock Activities.

By default, this search page will retrieve the last 12 months worth of livestock activities, but you can alter the date range to any period you like. You can optionally enter text to search for - please note that this is a phrase search. For example, if you search for "black pigs" you will see entries containing the phrase "black pigs", but not "black cows" or "pink pigs".

With the recent Farmware release, there is now the option to search with Advanced Search Filters, which includes: mob, mob division, activity category/name, chemical, commodity, operator. You can select multiple items, and can select both current and historic mobs. You can export your search results (to open in Excel) by going to Options > Export to CSV.

New Livestock Activity Search1

Post written by... Jessica Beggs

Customising your Stocking Rate calculations

February 15, 2016 in Farmware Tip

The Stocking Rate report (Reports > Stocking Rate) is a powerful tool for managing grazing on your property. It calculates grazing density based on the paddock size and the animals located there, and the resulting figure can be used for comparison with other farms or be tracked over time.

Farmware uses average DSE (Dry Sheep Equivalent) figures to calculate grazing density, but to improve accuracy you can set your own DSE values to reflect the breeds you have on your farm. Go to Settings > Stocking Rate Setup to adjust the DSE values for all standard livestock types stored in Farmware (sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, horses, alpacas and deer).

[Note: this setting is device-specific, so make sure to make changes on all devices you will be running the Stocking Rate report on.]

 

DSE-customisation

Post written by... Jessica Beggs

Choosing a Combine Method

February 15, 2016 in Farmware Tip

Combining mobs together - there are a number of variations that can be achieved using the Farmware 'Combine' Activity:
* Combine mobs together
* Combine divisions of a single mob together
* Combine divisions of different mobs together
* Combine a division and a mob together (if they are the same mob, use Promote Division activity)

The flowchart explains the different options you can choose to achieve the desired result for your mob management scenario.

TIP: You must keep separate breeds in mob divisions of a mob.

TIP: This activity assumes that there has been a gate opened between paddocks, so if Mob 1 and Mob 2 were on different paddocks then the resulting mob at the end of this activity will be shown to exist on the sum of all paddocks that the original mobs or divisions were present on.
If this is going to create an inaccurate scenario then you should consider doing a Move activity either just before or just after the Combine activity.

... and don't worry if you forget this; it's all in your app in the Help screen 🙂

 

Combine

Post written by... Jessica Beggs

Searching Paddock Activities

February 15, 2016 in Farmware Tip

Did you know that there are multiple Advanced Search Filters available on the Search Paddock Activities page? You can select one or more values from these lists within your Farmware app:

  • Paddock name
  • Crop
  • Activity category/name
  • Chemical
  • Fertilizer
  • Commodity
  • Operator

(In addition to choosing a date range and general text search)

This means you can be very specific about the information you wish to see - for example, to only display Paddock Activities on the "back paddock" that "John Smith" was in charge of. Or maybe to display all "cultivation" activities involving "carrots".

Find this search page here: Paddocks > Search Paddock Activities

 

PaddockSearch

Post written by... Jessica Beggs

Do you ever get “farming deja vu”?

February 14, 2016 in Farmware Tip

Didn't I only JUST do that???

You can save time entering details of frequently performed activities in Farmware by creating a set of Planned Activities. For example: next time you create a Paddock Activity to apply fertilizer, scroll to the bottom and click on 'Future Activities'. You can create one or more Activities planned for future dates, and the details you entered today will be remembered for next time (and you can edit them later if required).

You can find Planned Activities on your Planner, or in the relevant module (for example, Paddocks > Planned Paddock Activity Summary). Once you have finished a Planned Activity, you simply edit and set the status to Complete.

FutureActivities