Frequently Asked Question
Confusion when reading the Offspring Percentages report.
Last Updated 8 years ago
Q. Confusion when reading the Offspring Percentages report.
A. Theoretically and in practice you can bring a mob of females into the yards to "mark" their offspring several times in a given season.
Taking this to an extreme :
Once a farmer told me that he artificially mated 10% of his cows every week over a 10 week period. Then at calving 10% of his cows are expected to calve each week. So in PAM he wanted to enter the offspring from each 10% group of cows at the end of each week and then have the report tell him the overall percentage.
So in PAM we enable you to enter the number of mothers that are involved in a "Birth" record.
eg. There may be 450 ewes in a mob and you know that you found 90 ewes still pregnant when you brought them in the yards.
You marked 300 lambs. So in PAM you could enter 300 lambs from 360 ewes. The next time you bring the mob in you mark 94 lambs… so in PAM you would enter 94 lambs from 90 ewes.
Then when you run the Offspring Percentages and Numbers Report you see two lines in the report for this Mother's Mob - Paddock combination:
Mothers counts : 360 + 90 = 450
Births : 300 + 94 = 394
In the Mother's Count Column of the report, it simply tells you what you entered when you entered your Birth records.
If you record more than one Birth record for a mob of females, you must ensure you don't "double up" on the number of mothers.
A. Theoretically and in practice you can bring a mob of females into the yards to "mark" their offspring several times in a given season.
Taking this to an extreme :
Once a farmer told me that he artificially mated 10% of his cows every week over a 10 week period. Then at calving 10% of his cows are expected to calve each week. So in PAM he wanted to enter the offspring from each 10% group of cows at the end of each week and then have the report tell him the overall percentage.
So in PAM we enable you to enter the number of mothers that are involved in a "Birth" record.
eg. There may be 450 ewes in a mob and you know that you found 90 ewes still pregnant when you brought them in the yards.
You marked 300 lambs. So in PAM you could enter 300 lambs from 360 ewes. The next time you bring the mob in you mark 94 lambs… so in PAM you would enter 94 lambs from 90 ewes.
Then when you run the Offspring Percentages and Numbers Report you see two lines in the report for this Mother's Mob - Paddock combination:
Mothers counts : 360 + 90 = 450
Births : 300 + 94 = 394
In the Mother's Count Column of the report, it simply tells you what you entered when you entered your Birth records.
If you record more than one Birth record for a mob of females, you must ensure you don't "double up" on the number of mothers.