By Hannelet Jordaan (sponsored content)
These days livestock farmers cannot afford to farm with animals that don’t perform optimally. Thanks to BKB, farmers now have access to information to easily make decisions about their herds.
In the modern era where technology is becoming increasingly more relevant in specific the livestock industry, the big secret is still to use the data collected in a feedback cycle for decision making. If you don’t learn from the past, how do you change what you are currently doing?
In order to exploit the value of data collection to its fullest, BKB offers its data collection and processing service to farmers. DSS stands for Decision Support Service, and it creates the structure for producers to collect data and send it for analysis.
It is processed and the information provided to the farmer enables him to make the right decisions in his farming enterprise. This is also a reinforcement of the hand-and-eye classification – in other words a beautiful sheep with good production that’s profitable.
What DSS offers
The farmer has the choice between different types of DSS models. The information he collects is accommodated within the service.
In this way, BKB ensures that it can provide a data analysis service for any farming enterprise, from intensive to extensive.
DSS is a scientifically based management plan which, with the cooperation of SA Stud Book, can enable livestock farmers to make more money with their livestock.
DSS’s main goal is that each production unit, in other words ewe or cow, is optimally easy. The service provided is therefore specific to a farm and takes the farmer’s management style and environment into account in order to achieve his optimal production.
The average of a herd hides a lot. The passengers are protected and credit is not given to the achievers.
In this respect, DSS helps the farmer to look after individual animals.
Four models
DSS offers four models:
■ DSS Lite. It is intended for the measurement of replacement animals (weaning up to before mating). It can collect up to 13 data points per ewe, for example fleece weight and wool data, post-weaning weight and post-shearing weight.
■ DSS Lite+. This is for the measurement of two-teeth ewes’ lamb couplings.
■ DSS Mature Lite. With this, the ewe’s production repeatability is measured based on whether or not she is weaning a lamb.
■ DSS Full. Lamb and wool production are linked to the ewe.
Valuable information
All DSS results are calculated in rand and sent. Data shows, for example, that the top 20% of production average of R1 500 per animal differ from the bottom 20%, even though they receive the same inputs.
Thanks to this information, the farmer can see which animals perform optimally in his farming enterprise.
He can make decisions accordingly about mating, input and selection of replacement animals, so that his production system can function optimally.
DSS has entered into a partnership with SA Studbook which gives the farmer the choice to participate in genomics testing.
With so many obstacles in agriculture, you want to farm with animals that provide an income. In hard times you want animals that can produce with minimal inputs, and animals that thrive in good times. If you have data from a few seasons, you can determine what your production looks like in a dry year and budget accordingly.
DSS is the best tool at your disposal to do this.
The graph indicates the differences between singletons, twins and triplets per percentile group:
Hannelet Jordaan is an animal scientist and livestock data analyst at BKB.
Learn more about BKB:
ENQUIRIES: Web: www.bkb.co.za/decision-support-services, e-mail: dss@bkb.co.za
