Overview

This tutorial will provide supplementary guidance for performing a self recording.   The key to a successful milk recording is preparation.  If you have kept your records up-to-date within the program, the milk recording process will be straightforward.   Data entry should closely follow events for each cow, i.e. Calving - Bulling/Service - PD - Drying Off.  If you have purchased or sold any cows in-milk, make sure you have entered this data.  Please refer to the other tutorials in this series for help on completing these data entry tasks.   

Important Points to Remember for Milk Recording

• Make sure your cow records up-to-date within the program.  This is important for a self recording because the program creates the list of cows from those marked as "In Milk" within the data
• Back up all computers (parlour, office) before starting a recording
• Destroy the previous recording sheet and pot labels in the event of having to restart a recording.  This is done because the cow brand numbers could be in a different order when restarting, and consequently the sequence number would be different to that shown on the previous recording sheet

Factored Milk Recording

If you wish to perform a factored milk recording go into Setup > Milk Recording and click the 1-Stop tab.   The check box for “Factored” needs to be ticked. 

The Milk Recording Process

The order of the individual tasks given in the 1-Stop Milk Recording window is controlled by the software and cannot be altered by the user; when each task is completed, it will move from the To Do to the Done list in the window.

First, open the Perform Milk Recording window from the 1-Stop Milk Recording screen.  This contains the list of recording tasks.  Each task has a button next to it.

1. Click the first button to check recent events have been entered.  This opens a window that will allow you to check that your herd records are up-to-date.   If not, enter the data into the program.  If you are confident your records are correct, click OK.  Notice how this task now moves to the Done list
2. The second task is Create Milk Recording records.  This means that the list of cows for the recording is extracted from the program data, hence the need for up-to-date cow records
3. The third task is to Print the recording sheet, which contains the sequence numbers and brand numbers for the cows.  Make sure your printer is ready.
4. The fourth task is to Print the sample pot labels

At this point in the procedure, it is time to do the milking

5. The milkings are now finished.  The fifth task again is Enter the recording results.  Transfer the yields for each milking to the Milk Recording Data window (see below).  Any cow that was absent should be marked as such.  To do this, click in the Absence Reason drop-down box for each cow, and select an absence reason from the list; notice how the cow's record changes to the green "Absent" colour.  Enter the Bulk Tank Total(s) and Times.
   Note that you do not have to enter all the yields at one time; if you need to, you can close the window down and return to the task later.  When all the date has been entered, click OK to proceed to the next step.
   
   (Note for Factored recordings:
   Enter the bulk tank total(s) and then the milking Times.  For morning collections, the interval between the milkings must be between 720 and 870 minutes.  For afternoon collections, the interval between the milkings must be between 570 and 720 minutes.  When the data entry is complete, click the OK button.  The program will ask if the sampling time is PM.  If this is the first Factored recording, the program will next prompt for the previous sampling time (either an AM or PM time according to your previous response).  The program will prompt whether the bulk tank was empty prior to commencing the recording.  Finally the user will be prompted to confirm whether the cow yields are 24 hours yields or not.  A window will then display showing that the data has been validated, ready to Finalise the recording (transmit the data to the HUK/CIS database via the Internet).

6. The final stage is to Finalise the Milk Recording.  This is where you connect and transfer your recording to Holstein UK. The final stage is to Finalise the Milk Recording.  This is where you connect and transfer your recording to the Holstein UK central computer.   You are first prompted to input your milk recording prices, as shown below:

Once you have done this and clicked OK, the Login Details window will display.   Confirm your Herd Prefix and enter your PIN.  Click OK.  Your computer will now dial up your internet service provider and connect with the Holstein UK server.   The login and data transfer process may take several minutes.  When data has been transferred, the program show a message confirming that the operation was successfully completed.

You can view the recording details by clicking the Data Entry | Milking | Amend Recordings menu at the top of the main program screen.  The Milk Recordings window displays.  You will see the date of the recording at the top left corner of the window.  The yields have been added, but the quality results are absent of course.  The quality results are returned to Holstein UK from the testing lab.   When you click the Update Quality Results button (from the 1-Stop Milk Recording window), your computer will dial up again and retrieve these results.
 
The diagram below shows the flow of data that will eventually allow you to retrieve your milk quality data from Holstein UK.  During the recording process, a Milk Recording Batch Number is allocated, which accompanies both the samples and the yield data.  In this way, the yield and quality data will be correctly linked together; this is another illustration of why you should discard the original recording sheet when you restart a recording, i.e. the Batch Number is printed on the recording sheet.