Are you getting a clear view of your herd’s fertility performance?

The costs of any fertility problem in the dairy herd can be significant, but because they are indirect costs they can be easily overlooked.  These costs come mainly through lost milk yield, disrupted calving pattern and higher AI and vet costs. Monitoring and improving herd fertility performance starts with good record keeping and Orchid Dairy Software gives you the tools to record and monitor both individual cows and the herd as a whole.

Which cows need serving today? – You need flexible Action Lists

Getting your cows back in calf at the earliest opportunity is vital to profitability. This requires accurate record keeping, especially with today’s larger herds.  The Orchid Dairy Software “Your Herd Today” screens give you flexible action lists for the week ahead, including cows that are:

• Due for Service
• Due for PD
• Due to Dry off
• Due to Calve

You can quickly drill into these lists to view and enter information for the individual animals.  Action lists can be printed off for farm staff or your veterinary surgeon.

Cow Fertility Analysis and Reporting

The benefit of accurate record keeping will be high quality management reports.  Progressive measurements like 100 day in-calf rate and 200 day not in-calf rates can be produced from the Orchid Dairy in just a few mouse clicks.  You can easily tune report parameters to suit your herd management regime; for example, the “voluntary waiting period” after calving can be adjusted to meet the needs of pedigree and commercial animals.

A full range of graphical fertility reports are available within the Orchid Fertility module, including Cusum and a graphical breeding chart similar to the “bray board”.

Milking Performance

Can you easily monitor cows with the highest cell counts?
Monitoring milk performance over the course of the lactation is another key area for management reporting.  Animals with consistently high cell counts need to be identified for possible culling.  Orchid Dairy Software has several reports which help you do all this quickly and easily.

Cell Count Analysis

• Set a cell count threshold to highlight all cow above this level
• View the number of times a cow has been over the set threshold, plus the average
• Spans over consecutive lactations
• Export data to CSV (spreadsheet) file

Cell Count Contributions Grid

• Analysis for the whole herd and for single cows using imported milk test results
• Examine the effect on the calculated bulk tank cells by excluding high cell count cow – keep the most milk in the tank while maintaining bulk tank below a threshold level

Legislative Recording Keeping

Adding animal purchase and sale records into Orchid Dairy Software will automatically update the movement book and the direct link to the CTS means means you only have to enter the information once, which saves time and improves accuracy.

Starter Package

The basic package includes the following functions:

• Flexible action lists – services, PDs, drying off and calvings
• Event reports – breeding events plus purchases, sales and deaths
• Cow overview – breeding and lactation historie
• Movement book and Herd Register
• On-farm animal tally and family tree
• Link to CTS for passport applications and movement notification

Milk Recording

• Highlights poor performing animals
• Mastitis cell count reports
• Cell count contribution calculation
• Due to dry off report – with cell counts
• Individual lactation graphs
• Lactation histories
• Links to NMR and CIS

Fertility

• Detailed fertility analysis including cusum, oestrus periods, etc
• Instant fertility snapshot for herd
• Flexible action reports
• Stock control for AI straws

Feed

• Records every foodstuff for individual animals with costs
• Easy to use feed dispensing
• Feeding print out
• Feed history

Vet & Med

• Veterinary history for every animal
• Medicine stock control
• Problem analysis

Herd Costings

• Can be used as a standalone program
• Detailed herd costings and reports
• Compares outputs per calving month

Milk Production Forecasting

• Can be used as a standalone program with the Costings module
• Based on individual cow breeding and yield data
• Standalone version can be set up and adjusted for complete flexibility

To get started with Orchid Dairy Software, can import my cattle data electronically?

Yes, you can import your data from several sources including:

• NMR datastream
• CIS datastream
• CTS “cattle on holding” file
• Your own spreadsheet data (wherever possible)

Does the Orchid Dairy Software link to the BCMS?

Yes, Orchid Dairy Software uses the electronic BCMS service called “CTS Web Services” to send passport applications and notify On and Off movements for your holding.

Can I export data to send to my vet and consultant?

Yes, you can export many data grids as a CSV file, which can be opened in any spreadsheet program or imported into other software. There are also ways to save reports in PDF format.

Do you have a telephone help desk?

Yes, we have a full-time help desk, which operates from 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.  We also use remote assistance software which, with your permission, allows us to connect to your PC to provide support and short “bitesize” training sessions.

Do I need a broadband Internet connection to use Orchid Dairy Software?

No, the software and your data is stored on your PC’s hard drive.  For linking to the CTS, a dial-up connection will work fine if you don’t currently have access to broadband.