Dairy Herd Monitor Overview

What is it?

Teagasc Dairy Herd Monitor (dhm) is a new web enabled interactive farm management programme that has been developed by Teagasc for use by clients. It is available as an additional service through the Teagasc Client Site.

Following registration for client site, users need to contact their local Teagasc dairy adviser to arrange access to dhm. They can then log on to the system to input data and run individual or group reports.

Currently there are 300 clients registered to use the system. The data is stored in a secure environment and can only be accessed by the user or their adviser. All users can be part of a group for farm comparison purposes. Within the group structure users are identified by a unique number on all reports.

What does it do?

This programme is similar to the old DairyMIS system that recorded animal movements and feed and fertiliser usage. However the Teagasc dhm has many additional features

The main feature is the ability now to enter information from any computer anywhere in the world with an internet connection and get a report back immediately.

There are also some new areas in the programme, for example analysis of grassland, labour, breeding and condition score details.

Who should use it?

All dairy farmers who want to get the most out of their resources and improve performance should use dhm. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can connect straight away. If a user does not have the IT skills or equipment they can arrange for someone with such resources to keep their figures up to date.

The focus of the programme is to allow users to record important farm production data and carry out a monthly comparison with past performance as well as to other farmers in their group. Users can also set out a production plan at the start of the year and monitor their performance in comparison to the plan.

Teagasc dhm is an ideal tool for discussion groups as it provides a consistent framework for recording and monitoring production data across farms.

In summary

Teagasc dhm is a new web based programme that is an essential tool for a Teagasc dairy client in the 21st century.

You can access it from anywhere in the world via a computer with an internet connection.

It gives you a framework to plan and monitor your farm production performance on a month by month basis and see how you are going in comparison to your own plans and past performance.

It also allows you to compare your performance to other farmers.