DRMS Booth: Farm Credit Dairy Center 6532 A new feature for PCDART herd management software aims to improve management of herd check day.
The new feature, Vet Check Maxx, within the company’s existing Android app, PocketDairy, includes everything an owner, manager or veterinarian might need to know about an animal when examining her cow-side.The new functionality was given top honors from World Ag Expo.
“This is a huge time-saver for the producer,” says Erinn Evangelista, manager of outreach services for Dairy Records Management Systems (DRMS). “It allows them to have all of a cow’s health information available at their fingertips. Among other things, it has her last vet check, including whether she is open or pregnant; how many days since bred; and more. It’s basically vet check day data on steroids.”
Data displayed in the now-available Vet Check Maxx feature is not just read-only. Producers can enter data and make notes within the app. Evangelista says the display is optimized for a tablet with a screen at least 7 inches wide.
In her opinion, a 10-inch tablet is the most comfortable to use. Then when wifi access is available, the app syncs data modified on-the-go back to a producer’s desktop database over the Internet.
Development of the app’s new function began over a year ago after producers requested something to specifically help record data on vet check day. Beta users, with dairies ranging in size from 100 cows to 3,000 cows, have been test-driving the improved app for several months.
“It’s worked well for everybody. All of our feedback has been stellar,” Evangelista says. “If you’ve prepared for vet check day, you know you have to sit down at your computer with your herd management software and figure out what cows need to be checked and then write all the notes about them.
But with our app, you’ll now be able to tap on a button and pop up everything about a cow, as long as you’ve synced your vet check list to your tablet.”
The company developed the app’s new functions with producers specifically in mind, but Evangelista believes vets will come to find it useful too. One specific instance from testing the new app on a farm was evidence of this, she says.
“When our staff tested the app during a herd check, the vet would call out an index number and our staff would type it into the app,” Evangelista recalls. “The producer was still looking for the cow in his clipboard paper records or didn’t have the health information on hand that the vet had requested. So the vet got to the point where he just started asking our staff for information about the cow.”
Evangelista says the name of the app’s new function is meant to imply how much the new tool can maximize the efficiency of herd check day.
“We’re maximizing everyone’s time and the amount of information available,” Evangelista says. “The input component enables quick and easy recording of any action taken by the vet. So when it’s all said and done, the new feature allows a producer to leave his or her clipboard behind on vet check day.” PD
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Walt Cooley
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