User Manual

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.

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