Records in agricultural and livestock production systems

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(Edited)
Dear readers, in livestock production units, a fundamental activity within the planning is to keep records of all activities and events occurred on the farm, to determine the efficiency or not of the same, in the production units that have implemented records as a control mechanism in the production of their properties, it is possible to measure the results, compare farms, productive, reproductive and economic indexes, as well as to analyze the evolution in a positive or negative way over time.

Design by @amestyj with own image and public domain image taken from PIXABAY

From the above, it can be seen that the records include in detail each of the components that are part of the production system of the livestock farm, where animals play a fundamental role in obtaining items such as meat and milk. However, despite the importance of agricultural records, there is still a lack of knowledge about the advantages of having a series of data collected at the time of making decisions that are in favor of the development of the agricultural or livestock enterprise.

At present, some livestock production units in the southern zone of Lake Maracaibo keep production records, some do it manually in notebooks and others use livestock software where relevant information such as production management is detailed to help make decisions that guarantee the productivity of the system. On the other hand, it is necessary to clarify that the records must be adapted to the particular conditions of each production unit with clear and precise information.

Example of an agricultural registration form

Design by @amestyj

It should also be noted that there are some methods of registration in livestock systems that are related to animal ownership.one of the oldest and currently still applied is the use of hot iron that is placed on the upper part of the animal's back or thigh. When this iron is placed, it leaves a scar on the animal's skin, which allows keeping records since a number is assigned to each animal. It has also become fashionable to use earrings that are placed in the animal's ear, facilitating the identification of the animal to keep reproductive, productive and feeding records.

Design by @amestyj with his own images.

Among the records most commonly used by the production units are the following:

- Milk production records: in this section, the daily milk production can be recorded to follow up on the animals and determine if at any time there is a decrease in production. If there is a decrease, other records can be used, such as the feeding record, to determine the cause.

-Feeding records: this section reflects the type of feed that is being supplied in the animal's diet, from the economic point of view, the price of feed in case of using concentrated feed, with this we can determine the cost-benefit ratio in the feeding parameter, since, in any production unit, when carrying out an animal feeding program, it should focus on continuously improving the conditions of cattle, so that it can meet the nutritional requirements (in quantity and quality) and in turn allow a good performance.

-Health records: in this section, data related to the date of vaccination of cattle, deworming and other aspects related to animal health must be recorded.

-- Administrative records: it is essential to keep records related to the purchase of fuel and spare parts for machinery, purchase of agricultural implements, sale of livestock, purchase of medicines and food, payment of employee payroll, among other aspects related to the expenses generated in the production unit.

Final considerations
Dear readers, with the records it is possible to measure how much is produced on the farm, what is produced and at what cost it is produced, with which an efficient control is carried out from the managerial point of view, since data is taken from the different components of the agricultural system to make the livestock activity productive and competitive.

In short, the farm cannot be managed in an improvised manner, data collection is important to generate statistics in the different productive areas that make up the system and thus, production indicators according to the needs of the producer, because what is good for one farm may not be good for another, since each owner has his own goals.

Thank you for staying until the end.

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