A Monitoring system for herd health management

Abstract

The success of a dairy enterprise depends on, among other things, how efficiently the data gathered is processed to generate output that informs management decisions. Unfortunately, all known large dairy farms in Uganda use manual record keeping systems, which by their nature are far from efficient. It was noted that manual data processing leads to delays in generation of vital information, a problem this research project attempts to solve with respect to herd health management. Information systems and particularly herd health information systems were investigated prior to studying the existing system at the case study farm. The knowledge gained enabled the researcher to design and implement a computer based herd health monitoring system. The monitoring system facilitates capture and analysis of animal reproduction and health data and produces relevant management reports. It was learnt during the course of the project that a Computer Based Information System should as closely as possible emulate the manual system it seeks to improve. The developed system enables timely generation of information and hence addresses the identified problem. It further fills the gap of analysis of AI technicians’ performance. Although developed basing on a particular farm’s herd health program, the monitoring system can be used on any other dairy farm that has similar data entry and analysis requirements.