Options in dairy data management.

A great deal of progress has been made in the development of dairy herd management software in the last few years. At the same time, the speed, capacity, and portability of computer hardware have increased, while costs have decreased, thus encouraging use by veterinarians,dairy herd managers, and other industry support groups. A review of the literature indicates that an increasing number of producers, veterinarians, and other dairy industry service personnel are using computers and dairy herd management software in the delivery of their services (1-3,5,9-11,26-30,38,39). Wider adoption will occur if information generated through the use of these systems is directed towards the improvement of the profitability of dairy production. The quality of a decision is only as good as the information used to make it. In the past, the limited availability of reliable herd data has restricted our understanding of factors that influence herd performance. In essence, we must define what is normal before we can determine what is abnormal. More importantly, we must define what management practices are profitable and to what extent they increase revenue (3 1,32). Improved record keeping will benefit the dairy industry by allowing producers and dairy consultants to make profitable decisions based on more accurate and complete information. The ability to merge biological, management,and economic data may prove valuable in the evaluation of intervention at the herd and individual animal level. The impact of interventions is often as much a function of the unique combination of management factors on a dairy, as the biological effect that can be evaluated in a clinical trial. For example, the use of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone therapy at the time of service has been shown to be more successful in herds with better than average conception rates than in herds with poor conception rates. This difference in efficacy may be due to nutritional and other herd level management factors. Sophisticated dairy information management systems provide valuable herd specific management information, which allows more comprehensive understanding of the complex interaction of pharmaceutical,biological, and management factors that ultimately determine the profitability of veterinary intervention strategies. The use of electronic transfer of data will become essential in order to increase efficiency of use of information through data sharing. This will decrease transfer time and cost of information exchange between dairy herd managers and support industries.