Farm IT Help - Introduction to keeping sheep records.

FarmIT 3000 is the ideal platform to record your sheep based on individual animal records. Although you may maintain a basic flock book there is very little worth in this over keeping a paper record. The real worth in keeping computerised sheep records is only apparent when looking at individual performance and improving your flock.

At first keeping individual records may seem daunting and it is true it does take time. However the use of electronic tags and electronic EID readers has changed game considerably making it both possible and realtively easy to collect data. Hopefully the FarmIT 3000 software can help with the recording, analysing and management. This is not just for pedigree breeders, commercial breeders have much more to gain from an improved sheep flock and identifying under performance. There is no diffence between pedigree recording and commercial recording with the FarmIT 3000 software, except that you may enter a pedigree name and society number against you sheep.

EID can be very confusing, especially with the wide array of EID readers available and the rather bad press it originally received. Do not be put off by this, but remember reading the EID is only the first step into data recording, what happens after you have read the tag is just as important. This is where the chioce of software and reader is important. FarmIT 3000 is designed to work with EID and supports a wide range of EID reader and mobile devices, from phones to tablets.

FarmIT 3000 does not have to be your movement book or Vet and Med book, but it can be and meets the required standard for both. However to be a movement book it does need you to enter the movements based on individual animal tag numbers especially if you are keeping lamb records. If you do not you will end up with rather more animals on your farm than you really have. VET and Med records may be recorded against individuals, groups or a flock, so you do not need to use the animals individual tag number all the time.