The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Livestock app is adapted for sheep sector
Afree livestock data recording app has been extended so it can be used by sheep farmers. The Breedr app, which was first launched for the beef sector, now features options for shepherds to record lambing details, weights and medicine usage directly into a smartphone or tablet.
Breedr said the app can also be used to produce performance reports and trade livestock directly with other farmers, based on lifetime animal data.
The company said it has also launched a Pro version of its app for mixed farmers, enabling them to keep their beef and sheep data in one place.
Pembrokeshire farmer Steve Prentice, who helped develop the sheep side of the app, said it was suitable for all types of sheep farmers – from pedigree breeders who wanted to record everything to commercial farmers who are less interested in individual genetics and more interested in overall lambing performance and weight gain.
“Breedr can look at both,” added Mr Prentice.
He uses the app to record new lamb data – including dam, sire, date of birth and weight – as well as medical records for vaccinations.
“Breedr replaces the Defra medicine book by recording medicines, batch numbers and treatment, for every animal,” said Mr Prentice.
“It also allows us to record the general performance of ewes.”
He added: “With limited land we need to decide which sheep to keep and which to sell based on performance and bloodlines – with the app those decisions are based on data.”
Cornwall farmer Peter Broad, who runs a commercial flock of 400 Mules, says the app will enable him to predict how many lambs to sell each week and when to book them in for slaughter, rather than keeping them longer than needed.
He also plans to use the app to aid his breeding decisions and said: “By linking the lambs back to their mothers and capturing all the lambing history we have a clean, easy to access set of records when it comes to replacing some of the older or underperforming ewes.”