CattleController User Manual

Entering Records

Entering Historic Records

When you register and set up an account on CattleController, you need to enter the details of all the cattle on your farm. Once that is done, you can record their sale and the purchase of any other stock in the future. If you want to use CattleController’s Extensification Projector to forecast your Annual Stocking Density, you will also need to enter all the cattle that have been on your farm since January 1st.
The Historic Records page brings many different data entry jobs all together on one page to make your account set-up simpler and faster.
To use it, click on the Account Admin link on the menu bar and then click on “Enter Historic Records”.
The Historic Records page allows you to enter:

• the animal’s details (ear tag number, date of birth, parentage etc)
  
• it’s date of movement onto your farm (and from where)
  
• it’s date of movement off of the farm (if you have sold it already)
  
• any subsidy claims made on it so far.

Recording sales

When you sell cattle, you don’t have to type in any ear tag numbers. Just click on the “Sell Cattle” link on the menu bar and enter the Movement Date (the date that you’re selling them on) and choose the market where you’re selling them from your personal list. To add another location to your list, click the “Add” link.
Then select the cattle you’re selling from the list on the page by ticking the boxes. Any restrictions on the animals like medical withdrawal periods or subsidy retention periods will be shown on the list.
Then click on “Confirm and Record”.
Check the details of the cattle in the list and click on the “Go Back” link at the side of the page to make any changes.
You can send the Movement Details to the BCMS electronically once you have returned a signed copy of the Terms of Service to CattleController (click here for a copy) by clicking on “Record and Send”. If you would rather send the movement card in yourself, click on “Record without Sending”.
The sale will be recorded and you’ll be transferred to the main Summary page where you can see your updated stock summary and stocking density. Your Herd Register and Movement Book will be automatically updated.
If you chose to send the movement details to the BCMS electronically, we will forward their confirmation of receipt notice within 3 days.

Recording purchases

When you buy cattle, bring their passports to the computer. All you need to enter is on the front cover.
Click on the “Buy Cattle” link on the menu bar.
Select the market where you bought them from your personal list. Click on “Add” to add another location.
Enter the Movement Date for the Batch of cattle you bought. Remember you must enter cattle in the batches you bought them in – i.e. in groups bought from the same place on the same day.
Now enter the ear tag number and date of birth, select the breed, type and sex from the lists and tick the boxes if any premium claims have already been made.
Click “Add to Batch” and add the rest.
You can fix mistakes by selecting the animal you want to re-enter from the list and clicking on “Delete Line”. Then simply enter it again.
Once you have entered all the cattle in the batch, click on “Confirm and Record” to view a list with all the details that you have entered. Check your entries and fix any errors by clicking on the “Go Back” link.
You can send the Movement Details to the BCMS electronically once you have returned a signed copy of the Terms of Service to CattleController (click here for a copy) by clicking on “Record and Send”. If you would rather send the movement card in yourself, click on “Record without Sending”.
The purchase will be recorded and you’ll be transferred to the main Summary page where you can see your updated stock summary and stocking density. Your Herd Register and Movement Book will be automatically updated.
If you chose to send the movement details to the BCMS electronically, we will forward their confirmation of receipt notice within 3 days.

Recording Births

Click on “Record Births” on the menu bar. Like entering purchases, you enter births in a batch. If you’re only entering one, that’s fine. It’s just a batch of one animal.
Enter the ear tag number of the animal you are recording, its parents and date of birth. Select its type and breed from your personal lists (click “Add” to add a new entry to your list).
Click “Add to Batch” and add the rest.
You can fix mistakes by selecting the animal you want to re-enter from the list and clicking on “Delete Line”. Then simply enter it again.
Once you have entered all the cattle in the batch, click on “Confirm and Record” to view a list with all the details that you have entered. Check your entries and fix any errors by clicking on the “Go Back” link.
You can send a Passport Application to the BCMS electronically once you have returned a signed copy of the Terms of Service to CattleController (click here for a copy) by clicking on “Record and Send”. If you would rather send the application manually, click on “Record without Sending”.
The births will be recorded and you’ll be transferred to the main Summary page where you can see your updated stock summary and stocking density. Your Herd Register and Movement Book will be automatically updated.
If you chose to send the passport application to the BCMS electronically, we will forward their confirmation of receipt notice within 3 days.

Recording Deaths

Go to the animals Record Card either by using the Find Record link on the menu bar or by clicking on the ear tag number in one of the reports.
Click Record Death and enter the date that the animal died. This is the date that will be used in your Herd Register and Movement Book.

Recording Premium Claims

When you claim on the Beef Special Premium Scheme, use CattleController to print out a list to use in your claim form and to track retention periods on the animals you claim on.
Click on the “Claim Premium” link on the menu bar and chose the premium you wish to record a claim on.
CattleController will calculate which animals are eligible for that premium based on their age, previous claims, sex and type. Select which animals you wish to claim on by ticking the boxes on the onscreen list. Then click “Confirm and Record”.
Check the details of the cattle in the list and click on the “Go Back” link at the side of the page to make any changes.
Click the “Printer friendly list” button for a list to print and use in your claim form.
Enter the Lodgement Date that you will write on your claim form and click “Record Claim”. The claim will be recorded and a retention period noted for that animal (which you can see on the Sell Cattle list and WAP-phone). You’ll be transferred back to the Summary page.

Recording Medical Treatments

You can use CattleController to keep your Medicine Book too. If you chose to then you won’t have to keep writing down ear tag numbers because like recording sales, you simply select the cattle you treat by ticking boxes on an onscreen list. The system will keep track of withdrawal periods too and remind you of them when you’re picking cattle to sell on the computer or from your WAP phone.
Before you record treating a batch of cattle, you need to set up the treatment details. To do this, click on the “Account Admin” link on the menu bar and then click on “Set up treatments”.
Enter the details of the treatment on the page and click Save. Don’t worry if some details are going to change in the future (like the medicine’s batch number or where you bought it), you can easily change any details you want to whenever you treat a batch of cattle.
Once your treatments are set up, click on “Treat Cattle” on the menu bar. Select the treatment you have used from your personal list (click Add to add another entry) and tick the boxes in the list for the cattle you want to record the treatment for.
Click “Record and Confirm”.
Now make any changes you need to the treatment details and enter the start and end date of the treatment. Check the list of cattle shown below and click “Record” to save the treatment in your medicine book.

Reports
CattleController keeps all your record books up to date automatically. You can view them by clicking on the "Reports" link on the menu bar and then clicking on the report you wish to view.

Movement Book

Click on “Reports” on the menu bar and then click on Movement Book. Now enter the start and end dates of the period you wish to view and click on “Show Report”. Your movement book will appear on the page in the same layout as the standard paper book. You can print the report by pressing Control-P. You may find that you need to print it in Landscape format. To do this, click on the Properties button in the window you see after pressing Control-P and select Landscape.
You’ll see that each entries Ear Tag number is a link. If you click on one, you’ll see that animal’s own record sheet with all the information held about it – fixed details like date of birth and breed, movement history, premium claims and medical treatments. If there are errors in its record, you can change them on this page.

Herd Register

Click on “Reports” on the menu bar and then click on Herd Register. You’re herd register will appear on the screen in the same layout as the standard paper book.
The report is split up into pages of 10 records to cut down downloading times. Records are displayed in the order that you bought the cattle.
You can print the report by pressing Control-P. You may find that you need to print it in Landscape format. To do this, click on the Properties button in the window you see after pressing Control-P and select Landscape.
You’ll see that each entries Ear Tag number is a link. If you click on one, you’ll see that animal’s own record sheet with all the information held about it – fixed details like date of birth and breed, movement history, premium claims and medical treatments. If there are errors in its record, you can change them on this page.

Medicine Book

Click on “Reports” on the menu bar and then click on Medicine Book. Now enter the start and end dates of the period you wish to view and click on “Show Report”. Your movement book will appear on the page in the same layout as the standard paper book. You can print the report by pressing Control-P. You may find that you need to print it in Landscape format. To do this, click on the Properties button in the window you see after pressing Control-P and select Landscape.
You’ll see that each entries Ear Tag number is a link. If you click on one, you’ll see that animal’s own record sheet with all the information held about it – fixed details like date of birth and breed, movement history, premium claims and medical treatments. If there are errors in its record, you can change them on this page.

Extensification Reports
Keeping within your Extensification Scheme stocking density limits is a lot easier with a computer to calculate your stock ages for you. CattleController helps you by checking ages at each MAFF checkdate that has passed and calculating ages in the future so you can see at a glance if your stocking density is going to suddenly increase as animal's get older.
REMEMBER: any heifers that calve before they are 24 months old must be counted as a whole livestock unit. CattleController will not do this unless you enter the date that they first calved on the Cattle Record Page.

Extensification Declaration

This is a report in the same format as the Declaration you have to fill out every 2 months for MAFF if you are on the Standard scheme. It lists the number of cattle over 24 months old and the number of cattle 6-24 months old on each of the checkdates issued so far.

Extensification Projection

To help you plan your year, use this report to see how your stocking density will change through the year as your cattle get older. For each checkdate issued so far, CattleController will calculate the number of livestock units on your farm on that date. For the remainder of the year, it shows the number of livestock units that the cattle currently on your farm will amount to on dates 2 months apart.
You’ll be able see any sudden increased due to, for example, 30 calves reaching 6 months old all at once.
The report uses the Forage Area and number of sheep claimed that you entered when you registered. You can changes these details by click Edit Personal Details on the Account Admin page.

Account Administration
Use the Account Admin section to:

• change your personal picklists of markets, breeds etc
  
• set up age alerts
  
• change your personal details
  
• enter historical records
  

Location picklist

When you buy or sell cattle, you need to tell the system where you moved the cattle to and from. You need to make an entry in the list on this page for any location where you move cattle to or from (e.g. markets, abattoirs, other farms, personal consumption etc).
The page displays a list of locations already entered and you can delete entries or create new ones. You cannot change a location’s details once it is on the system. You must delete it and create a new one.
To add a new location, you must enter the establishment name, town and county. If you wish, you can include more address lines. The details you enter here will appear in your Movement Book and Herd Register.

Breed picklist

There are 192 official MAFF breed codes but you don’t have to remember them. In this page, you can build up a personal picklist of the codes that you use on your farm. Just select a breed from the list and click Add.

Type picklist

CattleController lets you categorise your cattle by type: beef, suckler, bull beef or dairy. These are mainly just for your convenience but are used in calculating which cattle are eligible for Beef Special Premium (only cattle of type Beef are eligible for BSPS 1st and 2nd payment and only Bull Beef are eligible for Bull premium).

Treatments picklist

See Recording Medical Treatments.

Age Alerts

To help you keep track of your cattle ages, CattleController can send you Age Alerts. Twice a week, the system automatically checks your herd records and if any of the cattle on your farm have reached any of the Critical Ages you have set up, it will send you an alert by email.
Typical Critical Ages for Beef cattle might included 7, 20 and 29 months.
To add a critical age, simply enter the age (in months) and select the cattle type that you want it to apply to. Click Add.

Personal details

This is where you can change address, phone, email and farm details (like forage area and holding number).
DANGER: Use this page only for fixing mistakes in your Holding Address. If your home holding (i.e. your farm) is actually changing (E.g. if you move), do not use this page to change the address because the system will replace your address in all Movement Book and Herd Register entries. If this is the case, contact Support who will make the change for you.
If you want CattleController to send movement details and passport applications to the BCMS, you must enter your holding number on this page.

Cattle record card

Each animal on the system has its own record card that displays all the information held about the animal in one place. It includes movement history, premium claim history and medical treatment details as well as all it’s fixed details (tag number, date of birth etc).
To view an animal’s record card you can click on the tag number in any of the reports or you can use the Find Record link in the menu bar.
Finding records is simple, just enter the full tag number and you’ll be taken directly to the record card. If the system cannot find the record, you can pick out the animal from a list of all the cattle that have ever been on your farm.

Fixing mistakes

Mistakes do happen so CattleController includes facilities to fix any slip-ups that happen. Take care when changing records in this way – many of the automatic checks have been removed to make sure you can make your records the way you want, even if it is unusual.
First go to animal’s Cattle Record Card. To change the fixed details, click the Change Details button, make any changes and then click Save Changes.
To change the Movement History of an animal, click Change Movements. The system will load the current movement history into the list box on the screen. You can only add new movements to the end of the list. To change earlier entries, you must clear the whole list by clicking on Clear Movements and then build that batch up from the beginning. Your changes will not be saved until you click Save Movements.
To change the Premium claim history, click Edit Premium Claims. Like the movements, you can only add to the list of claims, to change claims you must clear the history and add claims again.