BacHus FARM

STUD SYSTEM

Screen Overview and User Documentation

INTRODUCTION

The Bachus Farm Stud System has been built after a request from a pony breeder for a system to assist with the paperwork that comes from breeding ponies. Bachus Farm already had a product on the market dealing with the pedigree reporting of deer studs, so it formed a great base for pony breeders product.

Thank you for using the Bachus Farm Stud System. We trust that you will find it a useful tool for recording your stud details. Please ensure that you if have any comments – good (or bad) – that you direct them to us at info@bachus.co.nz

MAIN SCREEN

This is the start up point of the Bachus Farm Stud application. From here all other parts of the system are available.

As we move through this document, further screen shots will be shown, and areas of the system will be discussed.

The main enquiry area that we expect you will work in most of the time is the Animals button right at the top – this takes you to a ‘browse’ screen showing all the animals entered into your database, and some summary information about them. There are a variety of ways that you can sort and select animals from this list.

All the data entry and data edit facilities are located under the Data Entry button. Go here if you need to add new details or modify existing information.

Enquiries – at present there are limited options here – please advise if there is something that you would like to see under this button.

Exports – this is not an area for animals that are leaving New Zealand!!! It is an area that allows you to take your data out of the database and make a copy of it in Excel.

Reports – all your reporting options are here – both for viewing on screen and printing to your printer.

Maintenance – this button is for all the ‘lookup’ tables that you will not need to modify too often. Of the most interest here is the maintenance of Breeders/Owners, and the Initial Setup Options.

ANIMAL BROWSE SCREEN

This screen is the main animal enquiry screen within the system. We expect you will spend a lot of time working within this area looking at the different animals that are loaded into your system.

The key features of this screen are that you can sort by a number of different options (see bottom left of the screen), and you can select by another group of options (see bottom right of the screen).

Using the sort and select options you will be easily able to group together animals that you are interested in looking at.

If you want details on a particular animal, simply find it in the list, click on the animal to highlight it, then press the View Animal button – it will take you to the series of Animal Detail screens described below.

ANIMAL DETAIL SCREENS

This screen and those in the following set show different aspects of the Animal information that is kept within the system.

These screens are the ‘enquiry’ screens rather than the data entry screens. The Data entry screens are much more streamlined, and a large amount of work is being undertaken to ensure the data entry is as quick and easy as possible.

You will see that the Animal Detail Screen is ‘Tabbed’ – like a filofax. There is a different tab for all the different type of information about the animal you are looking at. To move from one ‘tab’ to another, simply click on the tab that you want to view the information for.

Depending on the sex of the animal, different ‘Tabs’ will be available in the animal detail screens.

A mare will have “Stallions Served By” and “Offspring Mothered” while a male animal (both Gelding or Stallion) will have “Mares Served” and “Offspring Sired” tabs.

The Gelding will have the same tabs as a stallion as he may have served or sired prior to being gelded.

PEDIGREE

Bachus Farm System stores the pedigree of your animals, and is able to represent this on screen or in reports. Because the pedigrees are recorded, it allows data extraction (to Excel) and subsequent analysis by bloodline.

DATA ENTRY

The data entry menu provides access to the screens that have been provided to add and modify your data.

ADDING A NEW ANIMAL

There are a few key things to be aware of when you are entering animal data.

· Use the big button at the top when you want to add details about a new animal.

· Press the Rebuild Pedigree’s button if you have entered any new animals, or changed any of the sire or dam information for an existing animal.

· When you are entering details for an animal – it is best to enter its oldest forebears first. I.e. work from the the back – enter the great great greatest sire and dam details first – then there information will be available in the sire and dam drop down boxes when you enter the younger animals.

· Use “Unknown Stallion” and “Unknown Mare” if you don’t know the parentage.

If you have a picture of your animal and would like to be able to click onto a link to see the picture while you look at the animal details, you will need to enter details into the field “Image Location” (in the center of the form) of where the picture is stored and what it is called. You will need the full file name – e.g. c:\bachusStud\Pictures\pony1.jpg

ADDING OR EDITING DETAILS FOR AN EXISTING ANIMAL

There is a drop down box in the middle of the data entry menu that will allow you to select the animal that you want to add or edit information for. Select the animal you are interested in, then click on the button for the type of data you are wanting to work with.

Edit Height allows you to keep track of any height measures that are taken of your animal.

Edit Weight allows you to keep track of any weight measures that are taken of your animal.

Rank and Grade allows you to rank and grade your animals if you wish to.

Edit Registrations is where you keep track of all the societies or associations that your animal may be registered with. These will later print out in a full animal report.

Edit Performance is where you keep track of all the results that your animal has achieved from competition. These will later print out in a full animal report.

Edit Service Record is where you keep track of all the breeding services a stallion has made. You need to enter this from the Stallion perspective – i.e. select the stallion in the drop down box – not the mare.

REPORTS

The next two screen shots give a representation of the reports that are available within the current version of the system.

In the upper left of the screen is a toggle that will allow you to view the report on the screen or print the report to the printer. The default setting is to show the report on the screen. If you want it printer, click onto the “Print Report” option prior to clicking the button for the report that you are interested in.

MAINTENANCE

The Maintenance options are all the ‘lookup’ tables that you will not need to modify too often. Of the most interest here is the maintenance of Breeders/Owners, and the Initial Setup Options.

The Breeders/Owners that you deal with, or that are involved in your pedigrees all need to be setup. If you are able, set them up at the outset, then add as new breeders become involved in your stud.

It is important that you set yourself up as a Breeder Owner. Then you need to select the Initial Setup option and set yourself as the default person – this will ensure that wherever a name is required for the current person, that your one is entered.

GENERAL KEYBOARD INSTRUCTIONS

TAB key – will move you to the next field in a form.

SHIFT-TAB – will take you to the previous field in a form.

INSERT key (or CTRL key and the apostrophe (‘) key) will repeat the content of this field from the record above. Handy when you are doing performance records.

In the drop down boxes, if you empty the content and then start typing the name of the animal (or item) you want it will display in the box and refine as you get closer to the animal (or item) you want. Once it says what you want, just use the TAB key to get to the next box.