Reports

Profile Picture of Post's Author Erin Mosley | Posted November 7, 2022

There are a variety of feeding software that are commonly used on dairy farms. While each program has its own unique set up and design, they all do an excellent job collecting a range of data related to feed ingredients and feeding. What good is all that data if it isn’t being looked at on the farm? How can the data be accessed and summarized to provide useful information to the user? Fortunately, each program has a pre-made selection of reports available.

Let’s examine the report section. Every major program has some sort of section dedicated to data reports. Additionally, within this section they all provide a range of basic, standard, pre-made reports. Even in the more limited programs, options are available to focus the reports by date and pen and the data is presented in a table format. On occasion, report data is averaged across all pens included, however, most reports do separate data by pen by day. Generally, each program offers an option to present some data in a graph. Again, some programs are more limited in this option than others. Some programs may have the graphing option available for each report while others may only have a limited set of pre-made graphs available. Again, these can be customized by date and pen.

Most pre-made reports have descriptive titles that may help you identify useful reports. Don’t discount a pre-made report if it doesn’t exactly fit all your data needs. Sometimes you may need to run several pre-made reports to generate all the information that you are looking for. However, after sorting through the available pre-made reports you still may not find what you are looking for. Some programs allow you to create completely customized reports with your own specific data selections. However, even those with sections to create a new report may not be as flexible as you would like. Over the years, I have learned to compromise. I do this by identifying specific pre-made and custom reports in each program and exporting the data into a spreadsheet program. Working with the data in a spreadsheet allows me to create data graphs and tables that may not be available in the feeding program itself. This feature to export data is available in each of the major feeding programs.

Data reports may also be found outside the report section in different programs. Several programs offer data logs and more focused reports in the pen, ingredient, and ration sections of the programs. Many times, a print to PDF or export to a spreadsheet option is available.

As I have mentioned before, don’t be afraid to explore the different aspects of your feeding program. Sometimes a little help from a person familiar with your specific program is enough to point you in the right direction. Investigating the different levels of data storage and reporting options specific to your feeding program is the best way to identify the reports and program areas that will be most useful to your operation.

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