ADS #002: Angus Data Services – Animal Sets, Custom Animal Report, Customized Breeding Sheets, Odds and Ends, Workspace

Chris Stallo • June 28, 2023

ADS#002 - Angus Data Services - Animal Sets, Custom Animal Report, Customized Breeding Sheets, Odds and Ends, Workspace

Animal Sets
How many times do you get a list of cattle with a request, can you pull this information? When I get those types of requests, I am usually given a list of Tags or Tattoos.  

99% of the time I’m using the Custom Animal Report to pull the data. I used to try and narrow down the animals by using the criteria on Custom Animal Report for the birth date range or sex options. I’ve since found a quicker and easier way using a combination of Animal Sets and Custom Animal Report.

My Herd > Animal Groups > Animal Sets - There is an option on the animal set criteria when creating it to create an empty set. This is where my requests to pull information starts at. Name the set something meaningful so you can refer to it later. 

 It will seem strange at first, but all you need to do is name the set, click the box that is labeled ‘Click here to create an empty set.’, scroll down and click the Find Animals Button.  Now what to do with the empty set?  

Now that the animal set is empty, I use the option Add Animals. There are quite a few options on the add animals screen to find animals to add  to your set. I use the  option near the bottom, Include Animals With.
Depending on if I am given a list of Tattoos or Tags I will change the drop down to that specific one if I know it. If I don’t, I will leave it both Tattoo(s)/Tag(s).

In the example below, I go through and unselect a few older dams that haven’t been cleaned up from the herd. I will do these in small batches of 10 – 12 animals at a time. I’ve found it’s easier to work through them to create my animal set than trying to type all of them at one time and finding them in the list. 


My process is to put a checkmark beside the ones that do come up and a question mark by the ones that don’t. After I have made the initial pass through I will circle back and look into why the ones with a question mark didn’t come up.


Once you’ve got them all checked for that batch, click the Save button. You will now be taken back to the newly created set and it will have the animals in it that you selected.  Repeat the Add Animals process as many times as needed. Trust me, you will get much quicker at it once you start doing a couple this way. 

Once I have all of the animals in the animal set (that started off as an empty set) I will use Reports > Interactive > Create Custom Animal Report and use the Animal Set criteria to get the data I’m looking for. 

For this project I was creating customized breeding sheets that displayed certain EPDs and the genomics associated with those for replacement heifers. Along with Animal Sets, Custom Animal Report and Excel the following report was able to be created for the producer to use for breeding decisions. 

Custom Animal Report is such a powerful tool. I plan on dedicating a newsletter to it in the future. Here are a few projects that I have used this approach to extract data and to make entering data easier.

  • Customized breeding sheets
  • Sale Day Supplement Sheets
  • Creating Footnotes
  • Pulling files for Sale Catalog
  • Creating Active Dam lists to clean up for inventory reporting
  • Replacement Heifer lists
  • Split Dams by Ranch location for easier calving entry options
Odds & Ends
  • Reminder – Inventory Reporting Enrollment is now open and will close on July 15th. See my previous article for more information. 
  • When you sell bulls, do you retain interest and get tired of them showing up in your inventory lists? Take a look at My Herd > Animal Lists > Show/Hide Registered Angus Bulls. You can mark ones to take off your list but not cancel them.
  • Enrolled in inventory reporting and have some unregistered heifers that went to the sale barn or feedlot? Use the My Herd > Animal Lists > Cancel Unregistered Calf List to remove them. Doing this as they get culled makes life easier come enrollment time.  
Workspace
How long do you sit at your desk when you are working on your computer? Next time you are there for a few hours, take inventory of what would make it a little easier for you.  

I’ve moved to a 32 inch curved monitor and did this reluctantly. It was one of the best decisions with my workspace. It makes it so much easier to have multiple applications like AAA Login, Email, and Excel open at the same time. Later this fall, I plan on selling mine and upgrading to an even larger one.

Have you made the move to a wireless keyboard / mouse combination? It takes cords off your desk and allows for a cleaner, more organized work area.

Work off a laptop? Next time you upgrade to a new laptop consider getting a 9 key on the right side. It’s amazing how much time you will save versus hunting across the top when entering registration numbers, weights, tattoos, etc.
Until Next Time
Hopefully this topic sparked some ideas of how you can use Animal Sets and Custom Animal Report to help make it easier to get to data and to submit data as well. If you have questions specific to your operation on using Animal Sets, feel free to reach out.   

Would you like to see something specific covered in a future newsletter? Shoot me an email and I will add it to the list of ones I'm considering.