When you're running 460 suckler cows through to fat, keeping track of every animal's breeding history, weights, treatments and movements is a job in itself.
At Creslow Manor Farm in Buckinghamshire, Steve Lear and his team have always been data-driven. The herd's pedigree genetics programme dates back to 1989, and stockman Andy R has been central to building it. But as animal numbers grew, so did the paperwork.
"Like all stockmen, I knew every animal," says Steve. "As the numbers increased, you just physically can't hold all that information."
Vaccination records were written in a book, then entered again on a computer. Breeding details meant flicking through two or three notebooks to find what you needed. Double entry was eating time the team didn't have.
Five years ago, the farm adopted the Breedr app — a precision livestock management tool that allows farmers to record weights, movements, medicines and breeding data in one place, accessible from a phone in the yard or a computer in the office.
The impact was immediate. Medicines can now be scanned in via QR code, cutting out batch number paperwork. Weight data is logged straight from the crush. And because the app runs on a cloud system, anything recorded by the team on farm is available in the office instantly — no re-entry needed.
For Steve, the biggest difference is speed of access. "I'm always looking back on information from previous years on the breeding details of the animals. I can find that straight away now — just click on my phone."
Breedr, which describes itself as a precision livestock tool used by thousands of farmers worldwide, says the app is designed to help producers improve genetics, simplify regulatory compliance and make better-informed management decisions.
But for Steve, it comes down to something more straightforward. "Breedr enables us to make much better use of that data. It's made my life a lot easier."
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