Breeding for Cattle

Logging your breeding data in iLivestock is straightforward, you can do this as a group to save time and /or as individuals for that extra detail. First of all make sure you have all your cattle added to your account, including any on-farm sires.

Next, it's best to add your breeding cows or heifers into a single or several breeding groups, so you can update as a group or as individuals as you go along.

Each year a new breeding record should be created against your breeding cows and heifers, to track progress from the sire going in and up to logging calf births, then completing the breeding cycle and generating a yearly breeding report.

Step 1: Once you have your females in a group you can then start the Breeding record for the group.

To do this, find and open the group and then tap the 'Action' button at the bottom right of the screen (blue circle with arrow icons) to bring up the group actions.

Step 2: From the Group Actions list tap 'Breeding' to open the Breeding actions.

Step 3: From the Breeding actions, select 'Set Sire or AI' this will bring up a new page for you to select a sire and add the date the sire went in.

Step 4: If your sire is on your farm and included in your herd list, tap the 'From iLivestock' option to generate a list of active sires for you to select from

Step 5: From the list either search for a sire passport number (last 4-6 digits) or scroll down the list to find and select the relevant sire.

Note: You CAN add off-farm sires from this view - only animals that have been moved off as a 'Sale', 'Death' or specifically 'archived' can not be selected

Step 6: Once the sire is selected it will be confirmed by being added to the screen

Step 7: Now add in the date the sire went in with the female group to the 'Male In' field using the date picker wheel that will appear.

Step 8: An automatic 'Due from this date' will be generated and you can tap 'Save' in the top right hand corner. The Breeding record for this group has now been created.

Step 9: You will now be back in the group view and the next step will be to add the date the sire went out. When you are ready to add this info, tap the action button (bottom right) and then select 'Breeding' from the actions menu

Step 10: From the 'Breeding' menu select 'Set Male Out Date'

Step 11: This will then generate a new page for you to add the date using the date picker wheel and then tap 'Set Male Out Date' to save.

Step 12: From your group of breeding females - if you tap the chevron on any of them to open their Animal Summary page, you will now see they have a breeding record created under the Breeding heading and the 'Sire IN and Out dates' are showing on the record.

Now you have started a breeding cycle you can log your Ultra Sound Scan results as a group and individually.

Step 13: You'll note once the 'Sire In' and 'Sire Out' dates have been added the group icons will change to the 'Inseminated' icon as shown in picture 13.

Now we can add the scan results for the group. At this point, if we know most of the group only have scanned positive for 1 calf, you can tap and select all the animals in the group and de-select the ones you know have twins or triplets and come back to them in the next step.

Note: To select, tap the animal and the animal card will turn green - tap again to de-select.

Step 14: With the relevant females only expecting 1 calf selected (their card is green) next tap the Action button > from the actions menu select > Breeding and then from the breeding menu select > 'Set Scan Result'

Step 15: Now on the 'Scan Result' page select the number 1 (or the relevant number for the majority of the herd) and then tap 'Save' in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

You have now added the ultra scan result of 1 to the majority of the group.

Step 16: Once you have added the group scan results, the animal card icon will then update again to the 'Heart' icon to show the animal is pregnant. You can now de-select the animals in the group by tapping them and the green surround will go.

If some cattle have scan results for 2 or more calves, you may just want to update their records individually.

Step 17: To update the animals that have twins or triplets - you can either repeat steps 13, 14 and 15 if you have more than a few animals with twins or triplets or you can update scan results individually.

To update individually tap the chevron on the animal card, and then this will open the 'Animal Summary' page.

Step 18: You'll see the summary page is broken into headings, under 'Breeding' tap the pink band which is the 'Breeding Record'.

Step: 19: Now the Breeding Record is open, scroll down the page to 'Ultrasound Scan Result' where you can tap the relevant scan result number to update the scan info

You can also add a predicted birthing date at this point - tap into the 'Birth Date' for the calendar picker wheel to appear to select from. Lastly, press save in the top right-hand corner

Step 20: Once saved this will take you back to the animal summary page where you'll see your breeding summary has been updated accordingly.

Step 21: Go back to your group view to see all your animals are now updated with the 'Heart' icon and if you tap 'Visual' in the group view at the top of the page, it will re-order animals via their passport number (Visual ID)

Now you've added your sire details and scan results, its time to log the calf births.

Step 1. To log a calf birth, search for the DAM (using the last 4-6 passport numbers).

Tap the chevron on the DAM card to open the DAM summary page and then tap the 'Breeding record' (pink band under breeding - see step 20 above) to open the breeding record - (If you haven't yet created a breeding record - see the top of this guide for How to create a Breeding Record.

Next, scroll down the page to find the 'Offspring' section and then tap the blue text that says 'Tap here or EID scan tag to add'

Step 2: This will then bring up the 'Add Offspring' options:

Step 3: 'Add existing iLivestock animal' - this will bring up a list of calf-aged cattle from your herd for you to add to the DAM Breeding record - use this option if you've already created a list of calves and you want to attach to the relevant DAM.

Step 4: 'Add new animal' - this option will generate the 'Add Cattle' form for you to enter the details of the new calf and save.

Step 5: Add the calf passport number in the 'Official Animal ID field) - you'll know this from your herd sequence number. Enter the DOB from the calendar picker wheel in the Date of Birth field. You can also add and scan an EID tag at this stage if you want to - just have your stick reader connected and scan the new tag for it to be added in the EID field.

Note: If you add a Birthing date to the DAM Breeding record, the calf will automatically take this as the DOB.

Step 6: Select the calf gender, add a birth weight if you have one and then tap 'Record' at the bottom of the page to save the calf details.

Step 7: Once you've saved the calf details it will take you back to the Breeding record where you can tap the 'Add more information' button to add more calving detail.

Step 8: Complete the birthing difficulty, milk info and any related notes and then tap 'Confirm' in the top right-hand corner to save the information.

Step 1: Find the animal that is linked to the breeding record you need to delete

Step 2: Open the animal's summary by pressing the chevron on the animal card

Step 3: Scroll down to the 'Breeding' pink band and swipe the pink band left to reveal the 'Delete' button

Step 5: Press 'Delete'

Note: Deleting a breeding record is permanent and cannot be undone.

Once you have recorded your cattle births, you can then go ahead and process the birth registration with BCMS CTS or ScotEID ScotMoves. The process for both regulatory bodies is very similar, up until step 9 below. See full guidance on how to connect and register births, deaths and movement with these regulatory bodies here:

Step 1. Ensure the new calf has its Place of Birth data completed so it will automatically be logged as a New Birth for you to then complete the registration for.

This information should be entered when creating the birth, but to double-check this, find and open the calf to the Animal Summary page.

Next, tap the Action button at the bottom right of the screen.

Step 2. From the options shown, select Animal Details

Step 3. Find the Place of Birth data field and make sure this has the relevant holding info added. If you need to add or change this, tap the field, and a picker wheel of your holdings will appear to select from

Step 4. Now go to the BCMS-CTS (Cattle) Home Screen or the ScotEID (Cattle) Home screen. This is found by going to Admin > National Databases > BCMS-CTS (Cattle) or ScotEID (Cattle)

You'll see that your number of Births ready to be registered will be populated in the Births section under events.

Tap the Births section to see a list of the cattle births waiting to be registered

Next, tap the birth card to open it.

Step 5. Use the Selector at the top of the screen to make multiple births selectable.

Step 6. Tap Select All at the top right of the screen to select all of the births, or tap the circle on the left of each calf card to select individual calves from the list.

Step 7. If you are happy, all the information on the screen is correct, tap the Register Birth button at the bottom right of the screen.

Note: If you have already registered this birth directly with BCMS-CTS, you can select the Already Registered option. This will then update the animal accordingly and remove it from the birth section.

Step 8. A confirmation screen will now appear; if you are happy to move forward, tap Confirm

FOR BCMS CTS Users, there are further steps to confirm the pending registrations have been accepted.

Step 9. An Animal Births Sent for Review banner will appear at the bottom of the screen, confirming the registrations have been sent to BCMS-CTS for processing.

Step 10. At the top of the screen, you will now see a Check Pending Registrations option. Tap this to be taken to the registration receipt.

Step 11. Tap the receipt to open it.

Step 12. Tap Check Registrations to see if the birth has been accepted by BCMS-CTS or has returned any data issues as an error.

Step 13. A pop up banner will then appear at the bottom of the screen confirming that Animal births registration accepted if the registrations have been successful.

Step 14. Now go back to the BCMS-CTS Home Page by tapping Back at the top left of the screen, and you'll see the Births section has now been updated to show no pending birth registrations.

Step 15. Your successful birth registration will now be sitting in the Successful section. Next, tap the Successful section to open it.

Your birth registration will show as a Male or Female Calf icon and will show the birth registration date and an Accepted icon in green

Step 16. If you tap the successful animal card, the following screen will show you further approval information.

From here, you can also tap the animal card to be taken to the animal summary screen.

Step 12. Scroll to the bottom of the summary page to see a Green validated birth receipt

​

Step 7. If you register a birth and get an error, this will show on the Birth card and it will not be processed.

Step 8. Note: You'll know there is an issue when you hit the Register Birth button; this will show a Registration failed banner as shown in screen grab 8 above.

Step 9. Scroll to the bottom of the animal registration page to see the failure reason. A common issue with birth registrations is that a Dam that has already birthed can sometimes be selected in error.

Step 10. You will also note a Rejected receipt for ScotEID at the bottom of the animal summary page.

Step 11. Tap the receipt and this will give you more information on why the registration has been rejected.

Step 1. Find the calf and open the animal summary screen.

Next, tap the Action button at the bottom right of the screen

Step 2. From the menu option, select Animal Details

Step 3. On this screen, you can amend the calf details to fix the errors mentioned in the failed registration. Select the Dam field to be taken to a picker wheel of your Dams to choose from.

Or amend the Calf passport number as necessary.

See full guidance on Connecting and Registering Births, deaths and Movements via BCMS CTS here: BCMS CTS Cattle Import and Regulatory Compliance Reporting and for ScotEID here: ScotEID ScotMoves Regulatory Compliance Reporting

Note: See a list of errors and what they mean at the end of this guide.

Once your calf births are complete and all your calving data has been recorded correctly, you can close your breeding record for the year.

Step 1: Find and open the breeding group

Step 2: Tap the action button, to open the group actions

Step 3: From the Breeding options tap 'Close Breeding Cycle'

Note: You'll need to close your existing breeding cycle before you can open a new one. Please take extra care to ensure you have logged everything you need. Once a Breeding Record is closed it can not be opened again for adding or amending data

Online: Use the chat icon in Admin on the app or bottom right on the web dashboard