Farm Relief Services (FRS) has just gone live with a new innovative Mobile Herd Manager that enables farmers to register calves straight from their smart phone, download their herd from the department directly into Herdwatch, and stay compliant by recording remedy purchases and usage.
According to FRS, It’s very easy to use. “If you can text, you can use Herdwatch,” it said and so far more than 1,000 calves have been registered through the system.
“This revolutionary system literally puts ‘your herd in your hand’ any time, anywhere,” it said.
According to the company, Herdwatch is a mobile herd manager for beef and dairy farmers, the result of two years of research and development by FRS Network.
“Herdwatch is the only cross-platform Mobile Service approved by the Department of Agriculture. This means farmers can register calves directly from Herdwatch on compatible smart phones, tablets, laptops and PCs in seconds, any time and any where. Pedigree names and sires will be sent to the department and on to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation.
“Farmers can also download their herd directly into Herdwatch from the department’s online register (Agfood), there’s no need to manually enter all animals,” it added.
Herdwatch will also assist herd keepers with remedy recording compliance, as remedy purchases and usage can be recorded directly in Herdwatch. The system holds a full list of bovine remedies approved by the Irish Medicines Board, so there’s no need to type them in. The company stressed that Herdwatch Remedy Records are not shared with the department or any other third party.
The application, also has a useful integrated ‘to-do list’ with a visual indicator of any overdue tasks – no more ‘back of the hand’ reminders!
According to Fabien Peyaud, IT Manager, FRS Herdwatch: “Herdwatch has gone through a successful beta testing phase with farmers and since showcasing it at the National Ploughing Championships we have been tweaking the system to deliver the first cross-platform mobile herd manager approved by the Department of Agriculture. Subscriptions are coming in steady and the word is clearly getting around about it.
“Already farmers have downloaded thousands of cattle from the department’s online register and hundreds of calves have been registered successfully. We advise interested farmers to review Herdwatch on our website and are confident that they will like what it can do for them.”
The cost of an annual subscription is €99 (incl. Vat). Special offer for February and March includes a month free. For more information, contact your local FRS office, full details are on www.herdwatch.ie.
The Herdwatch team: Fabien Peyaud, Eoin Moloney and Gearoid Fox