The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) is one of the cornerstones of UK government policy to help agriculture to become more productive – producing more whilst minimising environmental impact. The Countryside Productivity Scheme 2015 is part of the RDPE and 2015 grant funding … Continue reading →
The EID stick reader (also known as a “wand” reader) is the simplest type of device for reading electronic sheep tags. You might have seen them in use at livestock markets and smaller abattoirs. They’re pretty handy for recording lists … Continue reading →
As the computer world gets more mobile, you might be thinking of how you can put mobile computing to use for your livestock enterprise. A mobile device needs an operating system, in the same way that a desktop computer needs … Continue reading →
Whether it be dairy heifers, prime lambs or finishing cattle, there are still many farms that rely only on stockmanship skills and “guesstimates” when selecting fat lambs or finished cattle. Many dairy farmers also rely on visuals alone when rearing heifers to calve … Continue reading →
We’ve been through the era of desktop computing with a Windows PC. More and more, people want to use mobile devices to access personal and business data. The new era of mobile computing is firmly established. Just like old farm … Continue reading →
Even though “superfast” broadband is gradually being rolled out across the UK, it’ll be a while before it reaches many rural areas. So it’s still worth putting in a little effort to try and get close to the maximum possible … Continue reading →
Years ago when dairy farms tended to be smaller in size, farmers knew their cows more as individuals and could therefore adjust management to get the best from each animal. Over the years, herd sizes have increased resulting in more … Continue reading →
In the course of using farm software, you may have come across the “CSV” file type. CSV stands for “comma separated value”. It’s used to store data in a plain-text form, which means that the data can be easily viewed … Continue reading →
If you have larger batches of cattle coming onto your farm, you’ll need to record information like: Official ID number, date of birth, breed, sex “On” movement date (and report this to the BCMS Cattle Tracing System) That amounts to … Continue reading →
With the increasing popularity of Android devices in the form of smartphones and tablets, Orchid are pleased to announce the availability of a farm app add-on for the Orchid FarmWizard sheep recording system. The App, which uses a wireless Bluetooth … Continue reading →