HERD-LINK Demo Tutorial

The best way to learn about any new software product is to get right into it and use some of the programs features. We have created a simple Demo Tutorial which will introduce you to the most commonly used herd recording features of HERD-LINK for Windows and for DOS.  These features include:

1. Looking up Information about your Animals
2. Adding a new Animal to HERD-LINK
3. Entering new Calves, entering Weaning Weights and Calculating indexes
4. Generating production statistics

Lesson #1: Looking at the Animals

We will begin by displaying all the records for animals included in with this tutorial. We will use this information to explore the many features of HERD-LINK.

1. From the main menu, select Animals => All Animals

A Browse screen is displayed (light blue screen) showing a list of the animal records for the tutorial. Each Browse screen has a standard menu that allows you to perform additional tasks on the records displayed, such as ‘Editing’, ‘Sorting’ or ‘Filtering’ the records in some way. The following are descriptions of each menu option:

Edit:      

The items under the edit menu, include: edit, add new animal, change animal, delete animal, find animal and merge animals.

 

Info:      

The info menu, allows you to view all the additional information about a particular animal, including pedigree, progeny, carcass, EPDs, etc.

 

View:

Items under view allow you to change the type of information that is displayed on the screen., including Status, Identification, Pedigree, Birth Data and Growth/Performance information.

 

Filter:

Items under filter are used to display a specific subset of records, i.e. Sex - Steers, only steers in your herd are displayed.

 

Sort:       

Changes the order that the information is displayed. This can make the task of reviewing you records much easier, i.e. sorting records by sex.

 

Reports:

Allows you to access reports for the information displayed.

 

MainMenu:

This menu choice allows you to go back to the main HERD-LINK menu or you can press the <ESC> key.

Try displaying the pedigree for record for "1F" or looking up the progeny of "MEGA" by using the Info menu.

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Lesson #2: Adding a new Animal Record

This lesson introduces you to the process of adding new Animal records to HERD-LINK. The best place to start is by going to the All Animal Browse screen and adding the new record there using the sample information in the box below:

1. From the main menu select Animals => All Animals to display the animal browse.
2. From the menu select Edit => Add New Animal or press the [INS] key to add a new animal record. A blank Animal Information screen is displayed.
3. Let’s add a new Cow by entering the following information in the prompts on the "Basic Info" Screen:

4. Use the mouse to "Click" on the "Status Tab" on the Animal Information screen to display the status prompt fields.

5. Press the [F2] key or the <F2 to Save> button to save the new record. The Animal Browse will now contain the new cow record with ID 301B. You can use the Animal Information Screen to add new records or edit ANY animal record in HERD-LINK.

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Lesson #3: Entering New Calf Records

The most common activity each spring is to record the new calves born. HERD-LINK includes a special feature that allows for quick and easy entry of your new calf information. In this exercise we will add five new calves to the 1997 Spring season.

1. Select CalfEvents => Enter Calves
2. Click on 1997 Spring and press <Enter Calves>
3. The calf entry screen will be displayed
4. Enter five new calves in the Calf Entry screen using the sample information below:
5. Press the [F2] key or <F2 to Save> push button to save EACH new calf record. Notice that HERD-LINK clears the screen and allows you to continue entering new calves.
6. Once you are finished entering the all new calves press the [Esc] key or <Cancel> to leave the Calf Entry screen

You should have successfully entered five new calves for the calf season 1997, and those records would then be displayed in the Calf Entry Browse screen.

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Viewing a Birth Report

Once you have entered the five sample calves, you are now ready to view your first Birth Report.

1. From the Calf Entry menu select Reports => Birth Report.
2. Enter the name of the Calf Season if not filled in.
3. Select <View to Screen> to view the Birth report to your screen.

Lesson #4: Entering Weaning Weights

1. Select CalfEvents => Enter Weaning Weights.
2. In the Enter Weaning Weight screen, highlight Weigh-1997 and click on <Enter Weights>.
3. Enter the weaning weights in the following sequence using the information in the table below:  enter the Calf ID (i.e. 1G), enter the weaning weight and enter the Management group (default to 1)

4. Press the [F2] or <F2 to Save> button to save each new weaning weight.
5. Press the [Esc] key or
6. <Esc to Cancel> button to return to the Calf Weighing Browse screen.

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A weaning (or yearling) index, can be used as a selection tool that reflects the relative growth performance of one calf to another within the same "Management Group" and has a average value of 100. We will calculate the Weaning Indexes for the 5 new calves entered in the W-1997 weigh group.

1. While in the Calf Weighing Browse screen select Edit => Calculate Indexes from the menus.

A ‘purple’ dialog box will be displayed which indicates whether or not any errors were encountered during the calculation of the indexes. Click the <OK> button to return to the Calf Weighing browse screen and you should see the indexes for the 5 new calves entered.

Viewing a Performance Report

Once weaning weights have been entered and indexes calculated you can view the Weaning Performance Report.

1. From the main menu select Reports => Performance
2. Enter the name of the weigh group, i.e. W-1997.
3. Select <View to Screen> to view the Performance report to your screen.

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Lesson #5: Generating your "Production" Statistics

At the end of the production cycle, you can use HERD-LINK to generate summary statistics which can be used to compare to what happened last year. HERD-LINK can calculate summary statistics about your; Breeding, Calving, Weaning, Health, and Financial information.

We will compare the production performance of each season, thus provided in the demo, which would allow you to look at trends or the impact on management changes you may have made (i.e. the introduction of a new bull or the weather) from year to year.

To calculate the production statistics for a specific calving season, do the following:

1. From the main menu, select Production => Season Statistics. A browse screen with all the Calf Seasons is displayed along with the related production statistics.

In this example, the production averages for weaned calves are displayed. This allows you to compare the average weaning weight or age at weaning across various seasons.

2. Use the up/down arrow keys to locate the "1997 Spring" season.
3. Select Edit => Calculate Stats from the menu or press [F3] to calculate the production statistics for the calving season highlighted.

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What's Next ...

We have provided only a very small sample of the features in HERD-LINK, and encourage you to explore many of the features in the demo. Please note, not all features are available in the demo and adding records or printing reports has been limited.

Should you be interested in getting more information on the HERD-LINK for Windows v2.0 or want to the purchase the new software please contact us by phone, fax or e-mail.

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