HerdWatch

jfh

anyone using herdwatch here and want to give an opinion on it.
saw it at the ploughing and promised to look into it further but of course just forgot afterwards.
half tempted to get it, like the idea to be able to keep remedys uptodate on it.

blackdog1

Cousin has it and is happy enough with it. I use agri net myself because it has remedies, grass and accounts as well. If you want basic remedies you'll be happy with it I recon.

jfh

blackdog1 wrote: »

Cousin has it and is happy enough with it. I use agri net myself because it has remedies, grass and accounts as well. If you want basic remedies you'll be happy with it I recon.

Blackdog1,thanks for the reply. Mind sharing how much agrinet is, pm if you prefer, also is agrinet more for a dairy set up.

Pacoa

Herdwatch is 99 euro a year. I have it. It's handy as it can prepopulate stuff so saving you having to rewrite stuff like withdrawal dates and vpa numbers etc.
I'm happy with it.

blackdog1

jfh wrote: »

Blackdog1,thanks for the reply. Mind sharing how much agrinet is, pm if you prefer, also is agrinet more for a dairy set up.

Think its around 200 -220 a year. It does everything , cattle movement records, permit, calf reg etc . You also get accounts and more guys are great an you can ring them anytime if you've a problem. Thats why I went with them , their backup service is 2nd to none.

jamesroscommon

Hi, have any of you any more information on Herdwatch or any other farming apps??? kingswood or Agrinet. Im going into partnership at home and I think this is logical progression... I know herdwatch can enter the calf reg details online and record medicines but can the others do that??? Also is €99 expensive? I have nothing to base it on?

Sorry for all the questions but im a rookie on this end of things

6270red

Using herd watch here. I find it great it's all done on the phone with an app so no fooling around with the laptop. I can register calves in the calf shed, very handy. All breeding info can be entered into it and all medicine usage. It was very handy for the bord bia inspection as all I needed was the iPad and could show him all the relevant info on it.
After using it now I couldn't go back €99 I think is good value but you have to use it to its potential

jimini0

Well lads its about time for our place to get modernized.
Everything is on paper. Blue book and notepads. Signing up to agfood this week.
Is herdwatch of any benefit to me?? Small suckler herd 8 cows and 2 or 3 weanlings. I don't mind paying the €99 if its any help to get things organised.

The Cuban

jimini0 wrote: »

Well lads its about time for our place to get modernized.
Everything is on paper. Blue book and notepads. Signing up to agfood this week.
Is herdwatch of any benefit to me?? Small suckler herd 8 cows and 2 or 3 weanlings. I don't mind paying the €99 if its any help to get things organised.

Agfood website is good enough, make sure you select the option to record your movements/births on-line on Agfood then you can do away with the Events part of the Bluebook.
You don't need any other software.
You`ll still need to keep an animal remedies book though but the easiest way is to buy all treatments and remedies from the Vet who prescribes them. That way their will be a records on his system which you can get a printout off if you need to.

jimini0

The Cuban wrote: »

Agfood website is good enough, make sure you select the option to record your movements/births on-line on Agfood then you can do away with the Events part of the Bluebook.
You don't need any other software.
You`ll still need to keep an animal remedies book though but the easiest way is to buy all treatments and remedies from the Vet who prescribes them. That way their will be a records on his system which you can get a printout off if you need to.

Thanks the Cuban. I liked the look of herdwatch but if nearly everything thats needed can be done on agfood ill just get that set up.

trg

Anyone any feedback on Herdplus on ICBF? We're in Beef Genomic scheme & I see it on icbf.com.
Is it expensive? Will it do everything Herdwatch does?
I like the idea of app to register calves, events & medicine. In bord bia quality assurance as well so would be handy from that point of view.

farmer john8

The Cuban wrote: »

Agfood website is good enough, make sure you select the option to record your movements/births on-line on Agfood then you can do away with the Events part of the Bluebook.
You don't need any other software.
You`ll still need to keep an animal remedies book though but the easiest way is to buy all treatments and remedies from the Vet who prescribes them. That way their will be a records on his system which you can get a printout off if you need to.

i buy most of my medicine doses vaccines and anything not prescription only from buyrite and save way more than buying from vet.i would have the 99 euro spare for herdwatch

blue5000

I was looking at herdwatch at the ploughing, I'd have to upgrade the fone though:o Apart from that it seems good value, no guarantee how long it will stay at €99 though. They were giving 15 months instead of 12 as a carrot.

I still like having a few paper records. Agfood is really all I need, great for calf reg, am signed up to icbf as well. The big advantage of herdwatch is that all the bordbia stuff would be sorted fairly easily for 99 euros and a bit of discipline as things happen on the farm.

White Clover

I am using herdwatch, find it brilliant. Being a part time farmer, I found myself not updating the paperwork especially the medicine register whenever I dosed or treated an animal. Que, a big panic whenever I got nervous of an inspection. Trying to find prescriptions and remember dates etc months after was a right mess.
Now it's all done in seconds and I am ready for an inspection at any time and confident that all that side of things is 100%.
Also, being able to bring up an animals details out in the field to check previous weight or when dosed etc is very handy.
Apparently it is going to be updated for registering sprays etc shortly too.
For a cattle man, there isn't much that you can't do with it.

waalaa

99 euro a year is a little steep for what appears to be a fairly basic data entry app. We use access (libreoffice is a free alternative) for our record keeping, it's a bit of a pain setting up tables,queries, forms and reports at the start but once it's done, it's done and free there after.

It's infuriating to me that you can't input remedies usage into agfood. Potentially farmers could access the remedy history of stock they bought, plans for dealing with anthelmintic/antibiotic resistance could be aided at local and national levels by having up to date information at who is using what and where, increased farm incomes by not having to spend 99 euro a year....imagine the possibilities.

White Clover

waalaa wrote: »

99 euro a year is a little steep for what appears to be a fairly basic data entry app. We use access (libreoffice is a free alternative) for our record keeping, it's a bit of a pain setting up tables,queries, forms and reports at the start but once it's done, it's done and free there after.

It's infuriating to me that you can't input remedies usage into agfood. Potentially farmers could access the remedy history of stock they bought, plans for dealing with anthelmintic/antibiotic resistance could be aided at local and national levels by having up to date information at who is using what and where, increased farm incomes by not having to spend 99 euro a year....imagine the possibilities.

Not an IT buff. Can all the above be done on the phone and sync with department and icbf ?

Zr105

waalaa wrote: »

99 euro a year is a little steep for what appears to be a fairly basic data entry app. We use access (libreoffice is a free alternative) for our record keeping, it's a bit of a pain setting up tables,queries, forms and reports at the start but once it's done, it's done and free there after.

It's infuriating to me that you can't input remedies usage into agfood. Potentially farmers could access the remedy history of stock they bought, plans for dealing with anthelmintic/antibiotic resistance could be aided at local and national levels by having up to date information at who is using what and where, increased farm incomes by not having to spend 99 euro a year....imagine the possibilities.

I get where your coming from in that it can be set up relatively easy in access if you have it and know what your at, but it's not exactly cheap either and takes of work to set up if you don't know what your at, then there's the other side to it that the herdwatch can update from the dept and also is approved to register calves and keep remedies records for Bord bia

waalaa

Zr105 wrote: »

I get where your coming from in that it can be set up relatively easy in access if you have it and know what your at, but it's not exactly cheap either and takes of work to set up if you don't know what your at, then there's the other side to it that the herdwatch can update from the dept and also is approved to register calves and keep remedies records for icbf

Access is expensive but libreoffice is free. It can be daunting at first but there are lots of tutorials on youtube to do all you need. Herdwatch is a much more elegant solution but it costs 99 euro a year.

I have nothing against herdwatch, I just wish I could input my remedies purchases/usages on agfood. Would people still pay 99 euro a year for herdwatch if you could do the remedies on agfood?

jfh

well i eventually went off & got herdwatch, have it over a year now, very happy with it.
does it completley replace the need for the blue book,say i was to get a bord bia audit?
for instance, when my father sells an animal at the mart, he enters that in the blue book as an animal movement, as far as i can see, the animal movement in herdwatch is from farm to farm to create a cert for the movement.
so if i sell an animal in the mart, there's no record of this anywhere?

Wildsurfer

Even without herdwatch you will not need to maintain the old blue book once you're signed up to agfood.ie, the dept of Ag website. All marts are linked online with the dept so your herd register will update automatically when you buy or sell. Also you can do all farm to farm/feedlot movements online without the need for paper copies so long as person buying animals is IT savvy and can accept them online.

bullnuts

When entering treatments always put in who perscribed and who performed the task ! Something I over looked and was checked on

Sam Kade

bullnuts wrote: »

When entering treatments always put in who perscribed and who performed the task ! Something I over looked and was checked on

Is that for board Bia? They dream up new thing every day to catch farmers out on :mad:

Sam Kade

Zr105 wrote: »

I get where your coming from in that it can be set up relatively easy in access if you have it and know what your at, but it's not exactly cheap either and takes of work to set up if you don't know what your at, then there's the other side to it that the herdwatch can update from the dept and also is approved to register calves and keep remedies records for Bord bia

So if you have agrinet there's no need for writing records into the board Bia book?

orm0nd

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Even without herdwatch you will not need to maintain the old blue book once you're signed up to agfood.ie, the dept of Ag website. All marts are linked online with the dept so your herd register will update automatically when you buy or sell. Also you can do all farm to farm/feedlot movements online without the need for paper copies so long as person buying animals is IT savvy and can accept them online.

bullnuts wrote: »

When entering treatments always put in who perscribed and who performed the task ! Something I over looked and was checked on

and the dosage volume for each animal


Just a few important points.

1>Eventhough your're registred on Agfood you must also register for the online herd register before you can stop using the blue book

2>When you interact HW for use with Agfood all movements are automatically recorded when you update , all sold animals will show under off farm animals.

HW now covers all sheep remedy purchases and usage along with spray records to cover all cross compliance and bord bia audits