At the end of the financial year, it is important to get not just your financial information right but your herd numbers too. Achieving this means ensuring that the number of animals you have on hand on June 30 matches what is recorded in HerdFlow. This is essential for accurate herd performance reporting, which is the exciting part!
The key task before June 30 is to ensure your paddock book is up to date, so you have a record of what is on hand to reconcile against the HerdFlow numbers. This may be a good time to review the difference between paddock level records and business level records.
After June 30, refer to the end of period checklist for HerdFlow. The most challenging part of this process is performing the reclassification. This must be done after all transactions are entered for the year. Based on opening numbers, all entered transactions and assumed deaths, HerdFlow calculates the closing number of animals in each group at the end of the year.
Performing the reclassification requires you to enter the actual closing number of animals on hand based on your records and account for any differences between your actual closing number and the HerdFlow calculated closing number. The most common differences occur in deaths and where an incorrect AgeYear is entered (in mixed age sales, for example). These can be reconciled by adjusting deaths or reclassifying age years to ensure the HerdFlow and actual numbers match. If you have a breeding herd, make sure you also review the updated reproductive rate calculations.
Once the checklist is complete, you can accurately and confidently see your herd performance for the year. Here are a few suggestions;
- Go to the annual performance report and check how many kilograms of beef you produced for the year
- While in the annual performance report, check the number of animal equivalents (AE) you ran for the year, and click on the number to get a monthly breakdown
- You can also review your gross profit, in total and per AE
- Go to the sale analysis report and compare your sales against the market indicators over time. Choose a custom time frame to look over multiple years.
If you need any assistance, don’t forget to use the AI chatbot assistant or email HerdFlow support [email protected].
