Aloha! In this mini-episode we will be discussing grazing management software tools for recording keeping. We also have some brief updates for CTAHR and stay tuned to hear who will be our featured guest for this months full podcast!
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Aloha! In this mini-episode we will be discussing grazing management software tools for recording keeping. We also have some brief updates for CTAHR and stay tuned to hear who will be our featured guest for this months full podcast!
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Aloha. Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the livestock extension group.
Melelani Oshiro:Aloha welcome everyone to the livestock Walaau podcast e aim to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts, millio, Cheryl
Unknown:and Shannon sand.
Melelani Oshiro:And today we're going to discuss different grazing management software options. And I'm going to start to talk a little bit about that. But before that, Shannon, did we have any updates? For you? Ah,
Shannon Sand:yeah, so currently, at this point in time when we are filming this, I'm not gonna say when this comes out, because things can change, as we all know, very rapidly. So currently, when this is being filmed, there are no new updates to CTAHR. But all of the stuff from the previous few months is still in effect. So you want to make sure you please call ahead to find out how you can visit the campus or the research center or the extension Senator if you need to be there for more than 15 minutes. Because generally, that means you have to fill out paperwork or sign in to Lumi site or something along those lines. So just make sure you call ahead. That's gonna be your best bet. Yeah,
Melelani Oshiro:yeah. always best to call ahead. And to make sure those folks whoever you want to meet with is there. Also that Thanks, Shannon. Yeah, so we just thought we'd take this mini episode, since we're talking about record keeping, yeah. That I would share about a couple of different grazing management software programs or applications that are out there. And you know, just like your financial records, you need to have a way to record you can use software or whatnot. Same with your grazing management for your herds. Yeah, you can do there's a few different programs out there. That will just help, you know, manage your grazing, you know, things like stocking rate, your carrying capacity, tracking your cattles movement, different grazing periods and rest days, it helps you to better evaluate the performance of your pastures. As well as the performance of your animals, you know, how many animal days you're getting per acre, how many, you know, average daily gain, how many pounds you're getting per day, all those kinds of things are very important and very reflective off of your grazing management strategies and whatnot that you apply and how much you know different things, stocking rate and whatnot. So very important to keep track of those different strategies that you're moving your animals in and whatnot. So two of the different ones, I think that I've, you know, I've asked around and talk to different people and that I've seen at different meetings or conferences that we've been to, one that comes to mind that I have played with the program a little bit just in they both both of these programs do have trials, but the first one is called pasture map. So they're all do of course, have a fee for them. And you can either subscribe annually, or BI monthly, typically annually, you'll get a little bit cheaper rate. And there are free trials, you can try them out as well. The nice thing, so passionate map is kind of a it's a software program application, you don't have to download put onto your desktop or on your phone, there's an app, so it's nice because you literally literally can go out there, look at a map of your place and map out all your different paddocks and then you can use that and incorporate it into your grazing strategy because you can go ahead and say okay, X amount of animals came out of paddock A on this day, and then it just reflects to these all these different colors. It's color coded, I
Shannon Sand:love colors, gonna say so can you use the app to map it? Well, yeah, when you're out there on your phone, then use like your desktop, I'm assuming you have to.
Melelani Oshiro:I don't know if you have to take measurements or already have an idea or probably best I would say to set these pastures up on your desktop, I don't know that you can actually on the phone, I would say your phone and or iPad or whatever other you know, handheld device you're using is probably going to be a better bet for you to go out there. And you can say oh, I'm in this paddock. So one example that they use is you can go out into the paddock after you move these animals take an image of this paddock it tracks it into that specific paddock. And then you can go back and review okay, I know I overgraze these guys a little bit too long. They stayed in here a little bit too long, just based on your pictures and then you can just date that picture back and so you insert like these certain artifacts into these different pastures so it kind of becomes a history then of that paddock and it just creates that history for that paddock. So it's good. It's a good way for you to track that, you know, movements and whatnot and it's a good learn An opportunity to if you have newer Stockman or whatnot that are not very familiar with the impacts and the rates of, you know, stocking rates and densities or carrying capacities and all those kinds of things, you can use it as a learning tool for them as well. But I would probably suggest setting up your, your pasture is on the desktop for sure. Because it's just, it's probably easy way easier for sure. But so many little features. I don't think I can go through them all. But it's a great, I think it's a really good one. That pasture map application. Like I said, they all have a fee, and I believe, you know, their fees for pasture map, I want to say for the year for like a large enterprise or like over I think it's about 10 people you can have, oh, it's about 500 per year. And so that's 10 team members, he knows when you break it down, you know, it's not it's not that much. And it'll just it's you can it's to me, it's a little more seamless when you have these kind of software, because if somebody else adds something that updates into everybody's application, because they have some lower tier options for people with like smaller operations. Yeah, if you just have one person, I believe it's about seven, it's about 200 a year. And then you can do it monthly as well. If you wanted to. Yeah. So I mean, or for like, yeah, you have to trial, you like trial, but you want to continue on? And then yeah, yeah, so you can do a trial with these as well. So that's probably the best option. You know, and I've heard comments back from people that have, you know, a couple of 1000 of animals compared to even folks that only have like 100, that they still find it useful, because everything's in one spot. And they can just track things a little bit better. And the amount of time it saves them from having to go and physically write it down and what not just be able to enter it into the phone, I don't know, if you, I'm a I'm a technological person, I guess to say that I like to have the availability of it in my hand. So
Shannon Sand:Mellie is techie techie as I like to help people who are really into that, but
Melelani Oshiro:so I like those applications that you can go from your phone, put something in, and then you pop it into you pop onto the computer into that same software, and it's there, you know, so that's, I think what I really like and my agrees in is the other one that was mentioned to me. And so I did a little bit of research looked into it. And they also do have a trial. And it's you know, it's similar, you can map out your your pastures, and be able to track those things, look at stocking day carrying capacities and figure out your average days you're gonna have for grazing, which is nice. Because otherwise you got to either know it or calculate it out yourself. So these things go ahead and say, okay, and you know, one thing I didn't mention it, patch them up, they're color coded, as I mentioned. So the paddocks are color coded to tell you Okay, green is good, they're ready to go in there. Or if you're even, it even tells you if you have gone further past a rest period. So that's also important, because that changes the quality of the forage that is in there. So just because you go oh, and it makes it vulnerable to like invasive pests and stuff. Yeah.
Unknown:Right. And
Melelani Oshiro:yeah, you know, so graze you have lower digestibility is in forages that are older, right, there's more lignin in there, there's, it's less digestible for the animal. So you might think I'm gonna give it 60 days, because you're gonna have more growth and more forage, yes, but the forage quality then starts to deplete. So the pasture map has, you know, it reflects that in there as well. So it also tells you if you've been in there too long, or, you know, not enough rest days, and also if you've had more than what your intended rest days are. So that's, I thought it was a really neat feature of that. So my grazie now is also a nother software application that you can use for managing your grazing. However, this one's different because it's a cloud based application. So essentially, everything's on the on the cloud, right? So it's, it's good in the sense that Yeah, you don't like and the clouds but yeah, yeah. So you don't need to worry about software crashing, because and losing all your stuff since everything's in the cloud. So that's one nice thing, it still has very similar features to the pasture map in the sense that you can do the things of calculating stocking rates, looking at carrying capacity, looking at your average days that you gain, grazed and doing all those calculations and doing predictions based on what your past grazing or management strategies were, and try to predict different things so you can make those decisions management decisions, you know, if you need to, you know, preparing for things like the drought or anything like that, right? Or if you get an invasive pest in there and have to change you know, things up so it's a little different. It isn't Australian based company, so the fees when I looked at it was in Australian dollars, but it actually it comes out to roughly on a monthly basis, if you were to get the basic plan, I think it's about $100 a month. So it just depends. Yeah, so some of them can be quite pricey, but when you look at the amount of information that you can get out of using these software apps, and if you don't have a large, you know, team behind you to be there helping you in all this kinds of stuff, you know, the initial setup might take you a while, but in the long run, it probably will save you a lot of time, because you're just, you know, inputting numbers. And in May, you know, it may be the I don't, I believe most of them can be a month a month, so you're not going to be tied into something for a year that you have to do you know, or you feel like you're gonna waste your money now, because you can't use it or whatever. So yeah, and they have great services on the line, if you want to, you know, have a consult or, you know, get a quote, if you have a bigger company. So, I know that there's and there's actually people here already in Hawaii, some of the producers that are already using both pasture map and my grazing, you know, so, yeah, that I think those are the two that I would probably mention that as far as software applications that are available. But you know, there's also the thing of a little book and a pen, paper, pencil or pen and all that, I'll also do it and then using just simple other software, like Excel, you know, you can create spreadsheets on there, to calculate grazing days average daily gains, all those kinds of stuff. So, you know, like I said, setup usually does take a little bit of time and investment. But once it's there, it's pretty simple. And you probably could access your spreadsheets out in the field, as well. I mean, with today's iPhones and everything, I can access Google Sheets, or docs, or any of those things out in the field as well. And then, you know, get saved, you can put it into a cloud drive or something like that. So it's easily accessed. Even when you're outside. So, yeah, yeah, it's gonna
Shannon Sand:say my dad is like in a seven days, so he's always used the Red Book to keep track of a lot of stuff like, yeah, in terms of things like that. Oh, yeah. So that's just what he uses. And then my mom puts it into like software. Oh, yeah. And
Melelani Oshiro:that is fine. Right. Like, no, I think that's still a great one. I know a lot of people they still do it that way. Because it's easier. It's easier one pocket? Yeah, you don't need to worry about pulling out your phone and dropping it in a pile of poop, or in a trough? Because I've done that before. You know, it goes tumbling out of your hand. You don't need these phones are expensive nowadays, you know, so Oh, my God. Yeah. You know, and it's, it's just, it's just having a record, you know, and then going back into the office and putting it into a programmer, whatever. Yeah, I like applications. I think, you know, let's leave the hard work of developing all that up to the developers. And, you know, yeah, you do pay a fee. But yeah, like I said, you can always develop things in Excel. And Shannon and I are both very familiar with creating those types of spreadsheets. Yeah. So if that's something you know, that you're interested or want more information about, you know, feel free to reach out to us, you know, I
Shannon Sand:will happily help. Yeah, get, you know, get on the phone or set up somehow. And if it's something a large group wants to do, or something, yeah, we can. We can potentially seek funding to get to help with some of that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Maybe? Yeah. Yeah. Do a series.
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah. And we're hoping. Yeah, we're hoping we'll soon be able to have more in person meetings and whatnot. But, you know, even between that time where we're always still here to
Shannon Sand:call email. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah. And I mean, shoot us an email if you guys have other great grazing management software that you use, and you find out, yeah, well,
Shannon Sand:because it's always nice to like, if we can compile lists of like, and then like, the differences. I don't know. I like stuff like that.
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. So yeah, so that was some of the grazing management software that we wanted to share or that I wanted to share with you. And the other thing we have coming up this month, is our full episode is with Dr. Shah, who is our professor of Animal Nutrition at u h Manoa CTAHR. And he will be talking with us about poultry nutrition, lots of good information. He does a lot of research with gut health.
Shannon Sand:And yeah, that's very interesting, which transfers or translates, I think across multiple species. Hmm, that's just really we had a really good talk with him. Really. We got some really exciting people, you know? Yes. Yeah. Next couple months, so, yeah, but yeah,
Melelani Oshiro:a sneak preview of that on our livestock extension group, Facebook page, so you'll get a quick bite of what that episode will have.
Shannon Sand:Yeah. So it's really fun though. But and then in November, we have some really great National Livestock slash food related deniers. I think I think we all know the big one at the end of the month. But yeah, start off at the beginning. So November 3 is National Sandwich Day.
Melelani Oshiro:So so go to your favorite little restaurant, local restaurant and get your favorite sandwich. Waimea fishing hog has some awesome sandwich.
Shannon Sand:Yeah, like my favorite. Yeah,
Melelani Oshiro:there's even Daniel Donner's, which is right next to our office. Yes, they have some really great sandwiches as well using some local beef.
Shannon Sand:I'm gonna have to make a trip over. So November 6, is National bison day. Very healthy red meat. Yes. Very good. Yeah. So and then November 6, this also national nachos day. I was very excited about that one. I love Nachos. Nachos, right. I know.
Melelani Oshiro:My kids love nachos.
Shannon Sand:That's the way I get my kids to eat meat. They like nachos or tacos or anything like that. So yeah, so like meat and cheese is like the all the good proteins. So Right. But yeah, and then last but not least November 25. is Thanksgiving Day. Yes. So yeah.
Melelani Oshiro:So give thanks for everyone around us.
Shannon Sand:Thank you all for listening to us. Yes. They were very, very. Yeah, I think we can say we've been like very surprised and pleased with how many of y'all have been tuning in regularly. We really appreciate it. So yeah, so thank
Melelani Oshiro:you all. And that's what we got for our mini little lifecycle update, and sharing about our grazing management software for record keeping.
Unknown:Thank you mele for doing that. Make sure to join our Facebook page, the livestock extension group if you haven't already, and be sure to visit the U H. CTAHR. Extension website and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes. Yes. For additional information about this and other topics or comments, send us an email at Wala'au at hawaii.edu. Thanks for listening to the livestock fallout.
Shannon Sand:Yes, and before we go show some love for your favorite podcast. That's us by the way, by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts or anywhere you're listening to this podcast and then stay tuned for next month's podcast.
Melelani Oshiro:And thanks again to our sponsors the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, and the livestock extension group and CTAHR. All we hope until next time. Thanksgiving, everyone.
Shannon Sand:Yes, happy Thanksgiving.